Corporate plan: 7 Develop NRW into an excellent organisation, delivering first-class customer service

Where are we now?

Since 2013, we have established our standalone capability, developing our own systems appropriate for Wales.

We are on track to make £150 million savings over 10 years, as set out in the business case to establish NRW. Although we have managed to accommodate reductions in funding, this will become much more challenging in future years.

We are poised to reorganise our structure to deliver our local, area-based approach, following on from work over several years leading up to this point.

Where do we want to be long term?

We will be leading the way to a better future for Wales by managing the environment and natural resources of Wales sustainably. And we will know we are working in the best way we can because our staff and customers will have told us so. We strive for excellence and are continuously improving how we work – this is an integral part of our culture and our behaviours.

We care for our staff: NRW will be considered a great place to work where staff are, and recognise that they are, valued for their professionalism and expertise, listened to and their diversity celebrated. Well-being and health and safety are paramount. We have strong leadership and everyone in NRW has the skills to do their job and is empowered to do so. Staff continue to learn and innovate throughout their careers, and we provide good opportunities for career and professional development.

We care for our customers: customers will be at the heart of the way we work. The public, private and voluntary sectors, local communities and individuals will be keen to work with us and see us as a valuable partner because we are customer focused, we listen, respond and are keen to work collaboratively. We will be widely trusted and respected and seen as a firm but fair regulator using enforcement to drive positive change. We make clear, evidence-based decisions, and we are open and transparent in our work, communicating this effectively.

We care for the natural environment: that is why we are here. It is usually why people work for NRW.

Making the most of our resources, as an organisation we will be realistic in our ambition and have built in flexibility to meet changing needs. We will have the skills, innovation, commercial know-how and good governance to adapt to change, generating more income where we can and providing good value for money for the people of Wales.

What will NRW do up to 2022 to help make this happen?

Lead by example

• Inspire, motivate and empower our staff to live our values, and be our ambassadors
• Run regular staff surveys and ensure we listen to staff, engage with them to understand their views and work to improve NRW as a place to work to meet their expectations
• Improve our leadership, ensuring all our staff understand the direction we are moving in, developing a supportive leadership culture focused on well-being
• Deliver our equality, diversity and inclusion commitments for staff and those who use our services, engaging with other organisations to learn and share best practice
• Plan for continued financial pressures, deliver value for money and increase our income from enterprise activities
• Implement our organisation design project and ways of working by 2019, to ensure we deliver our purpose more effectively at both a local and national level
• Achieve accreditation for excellent customer service through the delivery of our customer focus programme, measured by independent customer satisfaction surveys
• Retain independent forest certification demonstrating our timber is sustainably managed for customers and other stakeholders to the UKWAS (UK Woodland Assurance Standard)
• Reduce our own environmental impact and carbon footprint through our carbon positive project, showing leadership in decarbonisation in the public sector
• Pilot an approach to procurement for the public services in Wales which focuses on supply chains and optimises our contribution to the delivery of all our own WBOs. Roll this out across NRW and share across the public sector
• Enable our customers to make their preferred choice for doing business with us online-because it's the simplest, cheapest and quickest way to do so 

Working with our partners

• Run external and internal customer surveys to provide the baseline from which to assess our performance improvements over coming years
• Continue to be an integral part of all PSBs working in collaboration to implement the first set of Well-being Plans and emerging Area Statements
• Support wider sharing and efficient use of our assets such as offices and fleet, to help move towards an efficient and integrated public service for Wales
• Pilot new approaches to our grant-giving work, learning and improving along the way
• Roll out our pilot approach to procurement across the public sector
• Move towards a more enabling organisation, where we help partners to work with us to help deliver joint outcomes

How will we know if anything has changed?

• Quality of service we provide – NRW Customer Focus programme

• Staff perceptions of NRW – NRW People and Teams strategy and ongoing surveys