The Commission received a presentation updating them on the
progress of the Transformation Programme.
The first year of the Transformation Programme had been
completed and the Programme was now two months into year
two.
The key headlines from the presentation were:
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Good progress had been made with service
reviews.
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There had been successful public engagement held
particularly for the Leisure and Library reviews.
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The proposals from the plan phase had been approved
by the Executive.
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The 2017/18 budget reflected the work that had been
done on the reviews, with the funds having been taken out of the
budget.
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Time was being taken to review services and
investigate different ways and approaches to deliver services to
inform budget reductions.
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Both the Adult and Children’s Services
programmes were re-focussed and the direction of travel
reviewed.
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The Adult Social Care programme was in the delivery
phase, a Gateway Review had been held earlier in the
year.
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The Children, Young People and Learning programmes
were currently on pause due to the Ofsted inspection.
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The Citizen and Customer Contact Project along with
the ICT Strategy were enabling projects which would underpin the
savings from the other transformation programmes.
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The biggest challenge was internal capacity across
the Council to both maintain day to day services and deliver the
transformation programme.
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IESE and Activist advice had been invaluable and
they would continue to be used throughout year two of the
programme.
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Mike Allen who was previously CEO at Age UK, had
been appointed as the new volunteer co-ordinator. Twenty eight
people had already come forward offering to volunteer before the
communications campaign had started. Members would be asked to
help, support and promote the volunteer communications
campaign.
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A four week consultation had been held for library
staff, with eight staff directly affected.
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The Executive decision had been made on 9 May to
endorse the new blueprint for customer experience.
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The FACE resource allocation system (RAS) for Adult
Social Care had been launched on time without any major issues in
April.
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The preferred provider had been agreed for the
digital marketplace product review.
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The Director of Children, Young People and Learning
had been reviewing and repackaging the Service Level
Agreements.
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The findings from the Ofsted inspection would be
used to move the Children, Young People and Learning’s
transformation programmes forward.
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The design for the new council chamber in Time
Square had been agreed.
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With all staff moving to the Time Square office,
staff would need to adjust to a new culture change with there being
a 5:3 ratio of staff to desks which would allow for more agile
working.
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The core Communications and Marketing team were now
focussing on four areas; transformation, behavioural change
programme, major political priorities and emergencies, with routine
PR working being devolved to departments.
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In year 2 there would be three new reviews;
children’s services, planning and building control, and parks
and countryside. With the analyse phase Gateway review for the
parks and countryside review taking place in July and the
children’s services and planning and building control review
analyse Gateway reviews taking place in September.
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The Adults and Children’s services
transformation programmes would be the main focus for year
two.
In response to the
Members’ questions, the following points were
made:
- The scale
of the Frimley Health and Care Sustainability and Transformation
Plan (STP) was currently unknown and it was too early to know the
impact this could cause. The Director Adult Social Care, Health and
Housing had a good working relationship and was working closely
with Frimley Health and Care.
- There were
mixed feelings amongst staff in regards to culture change. Some
staff were thriving on the thought of change whilst others were
more resistant. Staff morale in support services was particularly
low with the long consultation period impacting morale. There was
an emotional nature around change which could often be negative,
when staff’s future was known they would tend to be more
positive to the idea of change.
- Services
had been affected but not directly through staff morale. Posts had
been kept vacant prior to staff redeployment with temporary staff
used to fill these positions, this was particularly the case within
Accounts Payable, Receivable and Payroll and had affected
performance.
- The Adult
Social Care Transformation Project was graded at Amber due to
complex external factors, the number of partners involved and the
Frimley Health and Care STP issue.
- The
procurement process for the new library technology would take place
in the Autumn with installation happening over December, January
and February ready for the new financial year.
- There would
be a programme of training in place for library volunteers for
areas such as health and safety and customer services. There would
also be training provided on how to use the new technology prior to
implementation.
- The
Commission would be advised on the potential number of redundancies
from the restructure of the library stock management and back
office team.
- The Council
Wide Support Service structure was the same as the Target Operating
Model which had previously been shared with members.
- The labour
market in the South East was very competitive and it had been
difficult to recruit quality staff for professional
roles.
- There had
been a lot of interest in the job roles at Coral Reef.
- The Council
had a strong process in place for redeployment and it was important
to retain staff with good skill sets.
- New market
premia payments had not yet had to be paid to any
staff.
- More
communications and marketing was required with library staff and
the public.
- The best
approach for installing the new technology was being discussed.
Libraries could be closed either in two short phases or one longer
phase. There were pros and cons of both approach and the
difficulties of installing were not yet known. The dates for the
closures had not been confirmed but Members and libraries would be
given plenty of advanced notice.
- The leisure
sites would not be divided up as the interested outsourcing parties
had confirmed that they would be interested in all four
sites.
- Councillor
McCracken had attended a Bidders Day on 5 May 2017. The feedback
and comments from the potential bidders were very positive and they
were extremely impressed with the four sites, especially Coral
Reef.
- As
Bracknell Leisure Centre was an older site the building and
maintenance responsibilities would be included in the contract
negotiations.
- The
technology for Bracknell Library was being planned for the existing
site.
- An Officer
Board had been set up to look at the future of Easthampstead House,
Library, Police Station and Magistrates Court Sites.
The Chairman thanked Abby
Thomas for the interesting and detailed Transformation update but
expressed concern at the mixed message being delivered to library
staff and public as well as the morale of the support service
staff.
Abby Thomas informed the
Commission that Member Transformation update sessions would run
throughout the year with the first being held in July.