Agenda item

The Chief Executive, Director of Transformation and Associate Director, Place Regulation gave the Committee a comprehensive presentation on the Our Futures transformation programme of the Council.

The programme had begun 18 months ago and the vision for the Council was to be a world class organisation; strong local leader with partners; and to deliver high quality and effective outcomes.  A new operating model had been developed and the principles were outlined.  The key transformation areas included self-service and digitisation; locality based delivery; better customer service; and achieving savings through efficiency.

Progress to date included an improved Member casework process, plans for new locality hubs, roll out of Office 365, new website and the redesign of the senior leadership team.  It was noted that Phase 1 of the staffing restructure had been completed and the consultation on Phase 2 for the rest of the staffing structure had recently finished.  The ‘new organisation’ was due to be relaunched on 1^st April 2021 and implementation and new ways of working for some elements would continue in the months that followed.

The Committee asked a number of questions about the restructure including the financial savings and the likely scale of redundancies.  The senior management restructure in Phase 1 would save £1m per annum with a further £3m expected from Phase 2, possibly rising to the stretch target of £4.2m.  The number of redundancies was not yet known as the process wasn’t complete and measures were in place to minimise redundancies by providing opportunities for staff ‘at risk’ to apply for other posts in the new structure.  It was also noted that one of the objectives of the programme was to reduce the number of posts filled by agency staff and that the savings were also being achieved through improved ways of working.  The Committee discussed the longer term impacts of the fact that 85% of staff were currently working from home as the Covid-19 pandemic had been a catalyst to implement agile working and new technology.  Some staff would also be located in the hubs and alongside working from home there would be opportunities to review the office space required in the future and potentially generate income through renting out some space in Council assets.  Staff engagement was raised and Officers recognised the restructure was a difficult and uncertain time for those most directly affected.  A significant programme of engagement and support had been put in place.  There had been 200 responses to the consultation which had resulted in a number of changes to the final structure.

Progress on the localities strategy was summarised including the current position and timeline for the various hubs proposed across the borough.  Members noted the outline of new locality centre design which included a range of SBC services such as neighbourhood teams, housing, welfare & debt prevention and customer services.  There was provision for partners depending on the local need as well as library and community space.  Self-service terminals were available in all sites and Members emphasised the importance of support being available to people to access digital services.  Questions were asked about the opening hours, varying provision between hubs and the location of the contact centre.  In response it was noted that each hub would be different but the core services should ensure that residents wouldn’t have to travel to hubs further away to access a service.  However, residents were not restricted to their nearest hub as it may be that they would find it more convenient to visit another location.  The opening hours were not yet fixed and it was noted many more services were now available 24/7 through digitisation and new ways of working.  A Member asked about car parking provision at hubs and it was responded that there was considered to be adequate provision for expected use although the sites and model had been selected to encourage residents to be able to walk, cycle or be accessible by public transport.

At the conclusion of the discussion the Chair thanked the Chief Executive, Executive Director and Associate Director for the presentation and the Committee noted the update.

Resolved –  That the update on the Our Futures Transformation Programme be noted.