Agenda item

The Committee received a presentation from the Head of Transformation which gave an overview of the Council’s Transformation Programme (for copy see file of Minutes).

The presentation highlighted the following:

·        Transformation outcomes

·        Building programme – investment into employees and the way in which we deliver services

·        Transformation programme 2019

·        Inspiring People

o   Business services

o   Smarter working staff sessions

o   HR progress

·        Inspiring Places

o   Headquarters – issues in relation to Common Land being addressed

o   Site progress

o   Social value

o   Strategic sites

o   Workplace design

·        Inspiring Change

o   Business process reviews

o   SEND and inclusion

o   Business intelligence programme

o   Office 365

o   Digital customer

In conclusion, the Head of Transformation informed the committee of the following:

·        Integrated programme of change underway

·        Renewed focus on Organisational Development being implemented through cultural change and learning and development

·        Investment in new digital systems, with an increasing number of services available on-line

·        Renewed business processes and programme of reviews in the pipeline

·        Smarter Working through revised working practice, HQ and premises modernisation

·        More efficient and effective Council

Mr Robinson asked how value for money could be demonstrated as there was a lot of ongoing activity but no mention of how much was being spent.  The Head of Transformation responded that each project has a spending review and £3 million was identified as an efficiency saving within the Medium Term Financial Plan, £1 million for unitising strategic sites and £5 million target against commercial activity, making a total of £9 million savings so far.  £220,000 had been saved by moving staff into the refurbished building at Crook and £250,000 savings had been made from printing paper and cartridges.

Councillor Shuttleworth asked what would happen if the Common Land issue was not rectified and was advised that the land had been used as a car park for the last 20 years and would not affect progress on the building.

With reference to the staff sessions, Mr Rudd pointed out that these seemed to be driven from the top down and asked if staff were playing a part in any activities.  He was advised that the smarter working sessions had been top down instructions as prepping people for the move was important.  It was recognised that each team would do this in their own way and action plans were being developed with them.

Moving on, Councillor Temple asked how the move onto the Liquid Logic system was working for Residential Care Homes and he was informed that all contract arrangements would work within the new system.  Business processes would be looked at and the payment system would be used primarily.  Councillor Temple was concerned that some problems could occur and the Head of Transformation gave assurance that mesh testing with the system does occur before the systems were configured.  Discussions around system capability were also taking place.  The Chief Internal Auditor and Corporate Fraud Manager assured the committee that his team was involved and were overseeing the process of the move to Liquid Logic and Azeus.

The Chair asked how the Council would continue to keep corporate when staff and services would be based in separate locations.  The Head of Transformation said that this was a challenge as the organisation was large but the move away from being departmentalised over the last 10 years had ensured we had a ‘One Council’ ethos.  The headquarters would have a democratic core and civic presence and fixed services where staff did not need to leave the building as often.  Each service grouping would have a presence in all buildings and the technology tools we had would enable staff to easily communicate with each other e.g. via Skype.

Resolved:

That the information given be noted.