About Central Bedfordshire Council
Central Bedfordshire is an ambitious authority, determined to be an exemplary one.
We provide excellent quality reliable services, have robust financial management and our residents love where they live – 9 out of 10 residents tell us so.
We have worked hard over the years to achieve a sustainable financial position, having delivered significant savings since we came into existence in 2009 and with a robust plan to maintain our financial stability in the years to come.
We also invest in our communities longer term with a significant capital programme to deliver some key infrastructure projects including roads, schools, leisure centres, care homes, independent living schemes, integrated health and care hubs, housing and much more.
We have a reputation for getting things done.
If you want to work somewhere that is growing, with ambitious and exciting plans – then find your greatness working at Central Bedfordshire Council.
Vision 2050
Central Bedfordshire is a great place to live and work, now and in 2050.
As we move toward 2050, we know that some things will change, and others will stay the same. The Vision seeks to build on the core strengths that Central Bedfordshire as a place has, what makes it attractive, what can be done to enhance it further.
Vision 2050 is a vision shared by partners and has four themes.
See our dedicated Central Bedfordshire 2050 website for more information.
Strategic Plan
The new Strategic Plan will set the direction of the Council; influencing decisions, how Council resources are allocated and the Council’s attitude to public finances. It will be monitored through regular reports to the Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
Our core aims
We will:
- Get the right homes in the right places and ensure housing growth and infrastructure are carefully considered.
- Be ambitious in our plans towards improving and maintaining the roads and travel network.
- Ensure that environmental, sustainability and climate resilience impact will be at the heart of all Council decision-making.
- Create opportunities for all children and young people to reach their full potential.
- Enable people to live active, healthy, and independent lives.
- Enable the right care, at the right time, in the right place for those in need of support.
- Provide the environment for economic prosperity in which existing businesses can grow and new ones will move to the area.
Read more about our strategic plan.
Our Values
The organisation’s values governed how it was created and they still hold true today. These values are:
- Respect and empowerment – we treat people as individuals who matter to us
- Stewardship and efficiency – we make the best use of the resources available to us
- Results focused – we focus on delivering outcomes that make a tangible difference to people’s lives
- Collaborative – we work closely with colleagues, partners and customers to deliver these outcomes
2024 successes
Geoplace Awards: Our Asset Intelligence Team has won another annual Platinum Award for its maintenance and improvement of street data. The integrity of street data is essential to utility companies, Emergency Services, and the Local Authority.
One of our social workers has received national recognition of her outstanding contribution to the social work profession. Rebekah Pocock, who is newly qualified and in her first year with us, has been recognised in the Amazing Social Workers campaign, championing the exceptional work happening across the UK social work profession. It is run by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), the UK’s largest professional body for social work.
Staff from our children’s centres have won an award at the Youth Sport Trust awards. The children’s centres won the award for their work to deliver the Healthy Movers programme, which aims to increase physical activity among children, across Central Bedfordshire. They were the winner in the Outstanding Early Years Physical Literacy Practice category at the awards held in Telford at the end of March.
2023 successes
Central Bedfordshire Council is a finalist in the Planning Authority of the Year category of the RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence 2023. The RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence national winners’ ceremony is a high point of the planning profession’s calendar, with the awards taking place on 21 November 2023.
The Council’s Planning Academy (now known as The Place Academy) has won Best innovation in smart working in the LGC Workforce Awards.
The Council’s Planning Academy (now known as The Place Academy) won the MJ category for Workforce Optimisation. The Planning Academy was created in 2018 to overcome recruitment difficulties and reliance on temporary staffing. There was a need for an innovative approach to optimise the workforce and grow its own talent. Since 2018, 29 trainees have been employed via the academy's training programme covering planning, building control, flood risk, natural environment, highways and conservation.
Our Strategic Growth Team won the Planning Authority of the Year category at the Royal Town Planning Institute’s (RTPI) East of England Planning Excellence Awards ceremony. The team was recognised for showing great resilience and adapting to unexpected challenges, adopting the Local Plan after a difficult Examination and committing to a challenging work programme. The judges also highlighted our commitment to equality, diversity, inclusivity and tackling inequalities, which was evident in the implementation of Equalities Impact Assessments for all planning policy documents.
Our Adult Social Care team’s ground-breaking use of technology to improve patient safety and care to deliver better outcomes for vulnerable people was Highly Commended at the LGC Awards and a finalist in the Digital Transformation category at the MJ awards. The technology is in use in our step-up, step-down reablement units and three care homes for people across Central Bedfordshire.
Central Bedfordshire Council received Bronze Award Status from the Carbon Literacy Trust recognising the Council’s commitment to increasing the knowledge and understanding of the challenges of climate change through training. Over 130 Council employees and Members have so far taken the training.
2022 successes
Comms2.0 shortlisted the marketing team at the Council for Best Small Team in 2022.
Double winner at Social Worker of the Year awards 2022: On Friday 4 November 2022, Kirstie Baughan, who works for Central Bedfordshire Council’s Children’s Services team was crowned a winner not once, but twice at a national awards ceremony. Kirstie won the Social Justice Advocate Gold Award and Overall Social Worker of the Year 2022.
LGC Awards shortlisted our Breaking the Stigma media campaign tackling misconceptions of homelessness and encourage residents worried about homelessness or experiencing homelessness to seek help as early as possible to prevent homelessness and avoid crisis intervention.
Central Bedfordshire Council, Bedford Borough Council, Luton Council and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) won the ‘Partnership of the year’ award at the Modeshift convention for ensuring safe, sustainable journeys to school.
At the Social Worker awards, our Young Carers Service won the National Children and Young People Award. The Early Help Service were highly commended in the Safeguarding of Children Award and a further four people were shortlisted for awards.