Minutes:
Committee considered a presentation by the Strategic Director – People, which provided an update regarding the Council’s Transformation Plan and submissions to the Transformation Governance Group.
The Strategic Director – People, provided some background information on what led to the necessity of the Transformation Plan for the Council.
The Government’s austerity measures had meant cuts in Revenue Support Grant which they provided to local authorities to operate their services. The Government wanted local authorities to be more self-sufficient and create locally generated funding to stimulate growth in their areas. Partner agencies were also subject to austerity cuts and this had further impacted on the Council.
The overarching vision of the Council’s Transformation Plan was to deliver a self-sustaining Council; delivering excellent services to the community, when and how they wanted them. The three key areas focused on were - Income generation, Cost reduction and Service redesign.
Council staff were encouraged and empowered to be involved from the outset and a ‘one team’ approach was inspired via staff briefings, posters and team meetings etc. Over a two month period, 500 ideas were submitted by staff and Members across the organisation to make savings and to work in more efficient ways. Although, some ideas submitted were similar, this showed that staff and Members had bought into the programme.
So far, since 2018/19, £119,000 in annual savings had been secured against the £1m transformation target and the presentation provided a breakdown of the areas where this had been achieved.
The presentation also outlined further transformation plans which the Council hoped to achieve by 2021/22 which would increase savings to £760k.
To build on the idea of sustainable transformation and the skills needed to put into teams to encourage growth and development, the Change Makers Programme was created. This was a leadership programme aimed at staff who wanted to achieve more and try other areas of the business of the Council. The Programme focused on the right behaviours of staff from a leadership point of view and also embedded a coaching and training programme that reflected what was needed i.e., the right skills. The Programme was more aligned to commerciality and business improvement and would equip teams with knowledge and skills necessary to achieve sustainable transformation.
In response to Members’ queries, the Strategic Director – People noted the following; the Council held Employee Awards and also through the Strategic Alliance Management Team, awarded certificates to acknowledge good suggestions from staff. Departmental Service Reviews were currently being looked at and ideas would also come out of those reviews. With regard to being a paper light organisation, the Council would be rolling out Mod.Gov, which was a committee management software package, within the next few months further to staff and Member training sessions being held in the very near future.
A Member queried if the £1m transformation target was achievable. The Strategic Director – People felt this would be achieved prior to 2021/22.
Members thanked the Strategic Director – People for his presentation.
The Strategic Director – People and Councillors McGregor, Peake, Dooley and Moesby left the meeting.