Agenda item

To receive a presentation providing a progress update in respect of the Transformation Programme.

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:

• Good progress had been made with service reviews.
• There had been successful public engagement held particularly for the Leisure and Library reviews.
• The proposals from the plan phase had been approved by the Executive.
• The 2017/18 budget reflected the work that had been done on the reviews, with the funds having been taken out of the budget.
• Time was being taken to review services and investigate different ways and approaches to deliver services to inform budget reductions.
• Both the Adult and Children’s Services programmes were re-focussed and the direction of travel reviewed.
• The Adult Social Care programme was in the delivery phase, a Gateway Review had been held earlier in the year.
• The Children, Young People and Learning programmes were currently on pause due to the Ofsted inspection.
• The Citizen and Customer Contact Project along with the ICT Strategy were enabling projects which would underpin the savings from the other transformation programmes.
• The biggest challenge was internal capacity across the Council to both maintain day to day services and deliver the transformation programme.
• IESE and Activist advice had been invaluable and they would continue to be used throughout year two of the programme.
• 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.
• A four week consultation had been held for library staff, with eight staff directly affected.
• The Executive decision had been made on 9 May to endorse the new blueprint for customer experience.
• The FACE resource allocation system (RAS) for Adult Social Care had been launched on time without any major issues in April.
• The preferred provider had been agreed for the digital marketplace product review.
• The Director of Children, Young People and Learning had been reviewing and repackaging the Service Level Agreements.
• The findings from the Ofsted inspection would be used to move the Children, Young People and Learning’s transformation programmes forward.
• The design for the new council chamber in Time Square had been agreed.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.