Agenda item

To consider report DCE/06 of the Deputy Chief Executive.

Commission Members considered report DCE/06 of the Deputy Chief Executive. The Commission has within its function to review the council’s transformation programme, measures, and performance information (including budgetary information) together with service reviews.

Transformation consisted of time-limited projects to drive strategic change in order to meet corporate objectives. These are projects that generally lie outside of any single service and require impetus and additional resource/focus in order to deliver and embed that change. The aim is to create change and for that change to then to become business as usual. This means that the Council’s Transformation Plan will need to be regularly reviewed over time as changes are successfully implemented. 

Much progress had been made and the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic had accelerated the Transformation Plan, in particular in terms of new ways of working, values and behaviours and digital transformation (whereby the council’s IT infrastructure and programme rolled out what was necessary in 3 days in order to keep council services running).

Review of Transformation Plan –

·       New Town Hall – the building was taking shape, with the 8^th floor nearing completion.

·       Digital Transformation - this was now more about how IT can transform other services. The telephony system would be changing so phone calls would in the future be taken through council laptops for officers ensuring they become completely agile. 

·       New Ways of Working – there had been a lot of support for staff and managers in terms of managing organisations in a virtual context.

·       Values and Behaviours – the culture was the biggest challenge. However the adaptation by officers over the last 6 months had been remarkable. Staff hold each other accountable for the behaviours that they themselves developed.  There was still work to embed the values and behaviours further within the People Strategy and recruitment.

·       Service Re-design – whilst there had been some successes, this had been revised due to the pandemic.

·       Commercialisation – this had been affected by the pandemic and as a result the financial challenges.

·       Reducing Bureaucracy – this involved identifying mandatory functions and processes that could be streamlined or completed more efficiently.

The Revised Transformation Plan 2020-2022 included:

·       Channel Shift – reflected the massive shift to online work, which included how residents wished to interact with the council. There were huge advantages to the council in terms of efficiencies.

·       New Ways of Working – there was still work to complete to embed agile working.  There was a new intranet and website.  The new intranet would be a personal landing page, operating as a virtual workspace.

·       People Strategy – the focus on wellbeing and people needs to continue, together with embedding the success of the values and behaviours into all areas of the HR including management, recruitment and performance.

·       Service Re-design – this and commercialisation would fit with the budget strategy and how the council would aim to meet the financial challenges of Covid, better support its communities and perform better as an organisation.

·       Assets – it would be important to think how the council uses its current estate. For example, the patch teams ideally should be based within their patch, rather than travelling to and from the depot on a regular basis. There was a need to think in a futuristic way and how the assets were used.

Members then raised a number of queries.  The issues raised and the key responses included:

·       Confirmation that in terms of assets, it was important to look at these on an opportunity basis and evaluate accordingly. The focus currently would be on generating revenue.

·       The commercial agents for the new town hall had advised that the business case was still valid and that the grade A office space was well placed regionally.

·       Acknowledgement that the Review of the Out of Hours Working was to understand the data and any historic patterns to ensure consistency across the workforce.

·       Confirmation that the corporate debt recovery policy, process and procedure was currently underway.

·       Acknowledgement that new services tended to be set up for online transactions and consequently ‘nudging customers’ behaviour away from cash and cheque payments was automatic for new services. Cheques were expensive to process and cash would be taken for those that had no other option. However, throughout the pandemic, cash had been taken by appointment but those numbers had decreased.

·       Acknowledgement that it was hoped the ‘new norm’ would not be taken too far, caution was advised and a balance needed to be sought.

·       In terms of meetings it was noted that there were advantages and disadvantages and a hybrid approach would be a potential option in terms of attendance, costs, creativity and dynamics.  In terms of residents, if more services could be conducted online that benefit residents it would result in working with more customers that had the greatest need.

·       Confirmation that the Housing Management system was on time for completion. It encompassed assets, residents’ database and repairs. It will provide a unified view of managing the property and assets in other areas.

·       Recognition that the failure demand that was noted in the contact centre was determined as ‘efficiencies to be improved’.  The contact centre operates as a front of house service and consequently there may never be a 100% ‘right first time’. 

·       Confirmation that the council was reliant on various streams of income, and the town has been fortunate in the past.  There were ideas in place to stimulate and support the economy and there was interest from businesses wanting to be in the town. It was key that everyone involved in commercialisation should be open to any opportunity. The Funding Officer post had not yet been appointed due to the pandemic.

·       Officers were thanked for a great deal of work throughout the council during a difficult time over the last 8 months.

RESOLVED

That the Commission notes the report, with the views expressed being acknowledged and documented by the officers.