Posted By: Keith Swift
Date Posted: 13/02/2008

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Townships and Corporate Management Portfolio.

PERFORMANCE AND DEVELOPMENT

The Council showed its commitment to developing the skills of its workforce by signing up to the Get On North West award AND the Skills Pledge in December. The Get On North West award is about developing support for skills for life (basic skills) in the workforce. The Skills Pledge is a commitment to support all employees towards a full Level 2 qualification (equivalent to 5 good GCSEs) and further qualifications. P&D Service is working with Learners and Young People, Regeneration, People Management and other services to develop our plans to put these in place. A pilot project is being set up in Environmental Management. The level of skills in the borough is really low, and the Council is making a strong commitment to tackling that by supporting its own staff to raise their skills.

P&D Service has been at the centre of new initiatives to make sure our decision-making is based on sound evidence. A new data quality strategy has been rolled out across the Council to help ensure the information we collect is robust. We have also put in place a new performance management software system which will help us to monitor our key performance indicators.

PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

Implementation of Trent HR System

New HR system will involve:-

• Significant change to operational HR Services within People Management
• Improved systems for Managers and employees
• Improvements to processes and systems both within and external to HR
• Expectation of greater manager responsibility for operational HR matters, particularly absence, by use of self service facility.

Absence Management

The absence figure for the 3rd quarter to 31st December was 3.3 days, giving a cummulative figure of 8 days which is 1 days above the 3rd quarter cummulative target of approximately 7 days. The projected outturn for 2007/8 is therefore likely to be in the region of last year's figures despite the efforts of individual services and the Attendance Management Group to reduce this.

Performance Board are monitoring the position closely with each Head of Service, all of whom have action plans in place to reduce absence where they are failing to meet targets. In addition a series of workshops are planned by the Attendance Management Group to provide support, an attendance adviser has been appointed to assist Adult Care and Child Care.

Success stories of Services who have shown significant reductions in absence levels include Child Care and Revenues and Benefits.

Strategic Housing have also made significant improvements, should come in close to target with a reduction of over 7 days on last year.
I project the total figure to be 11.07

Delivery of Pay & Grading Review

Massive challenge for the Authority involves:-

• Implementation of new grading structure for approximately 6000 employees
• Revision and modernisation allowances and benefits
• Introduction of new arrangements for pay protection
• Responding to current and future legal risks from employees and unions
• Responsibility to potential industrial relations challenge

• Ensuring that senior managers are equipped to respond to the demands within their service.
• Delivering a pay and reward modernisation agenda
• Assessing the Authority’s future best interest both within and possibly outside of existing national pay bargaining machinery
• Developing new and more realistic relationships with trade unions
• Developing a strong employer platform as a basis for effective future arrangements as development of the Council’s workforce.
• Communication with Members

Joint Working With Performance & Development Service re: Stepping Up

Working jointly with Performance & Development on the “Maximising the Potential of Our People” work stream to:
• Design and deliver the Succession Planning programme for up to 75 staff over 3 years
• Help Services achieve a target of 2 appointable internal candidates for key vacancies
• Assist Services to integrate workforce and succession planning into service planning processes

INFORMATION AND LIBRARIES

• The second stage of the refurbishment of Rochdale Customer Service Centre has been successfully completed
• RBH repair calls successfully went live in the Corporate Contact Centre in January
• Uniforms have been agreed and suppliers identified for the roll out of staff uniforms within Customer Service Centres and Town Hall and Municipal Offices Reception. This will contribute to the Councils Corporate brand.

PEOPLE’S CHAMPION TEAM

Summary of progress

The full team has been in post since 26th November 2007.  Extensive research of complaints policies within other authorities has been undertaken, and the existing complaints procedure has been reviewed.  A new draft Complaints Policy has been developed, informed by examples of good practice from other authorities and based on the Local Government Ombudsman’s Guidance on Good Practice.  The new Policy consists of a structured three stage process for handling complaints, and introduces the People’s Champion Team as an independent point of appeal for customers who are dissatisfied with the outcome of their complaint.  Consultation on the Policy has been undertaken with Heads of Service and Service Managers, and it is currently going through the approval process.

A staff training plan is being developed in preparation for delivering training to all Council staff following approval of the Policy.  This will include staff briefings on complaint handling and resolution with specific training for Complaints Coordinators and Investigating Officers.

A new electronic recording system is being developed by Impact to enable efficient, accurate recording and reporting of data.  This is due to ‘go live’ from 1st April 2008 to coincide with the launch of the new Policy and procedures.  As well as improving the Customer Complaints Service and as a result of lessons learned from investigations the People’s Champion will assist services in ensuring methods of service delivery improve.

BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS

Facilities Management

From 1 September 2008 all Primary School Lunches will have to be analysed to ensure they meet the Government’s nutritional standards.  This means that all primary menus will have to be specified and checked to make sure they comply.

The Service will continue to educate children and parents on the merits of eating a school meal, which is balanced and nutritional.  The Service will work closely with Schools and colleagues from the Schools Service to encourage more children and young people to have school meals and to eat healthily. 

A project being undertaken jointly with Financial Services will continue to analyse the existing methods of charging for FM services with a view to addressing the historical financial pressures, particularly associated with School Catering.

Work will also be undertaken in conjunction with the Impact Partnership and colleagues from the Corporate Procurement Team to develop the Council’s approach to Energy Management.

The management of public buildings, particularly a building like the Town Hall is an important role of the Service.  The work to develop a Conservation Plan for the Town Hall in order to attract funding for restoration work will continue. 

 

Corporate Procurement

This part of the Service has a significant part to play in ensuring the Council is spending its money in the best way possible and achieving value for money.  There will be an increased emphasis on efficiency and work to achieve the procurement targets set by the Council.  This will mean working closely with Council Services and Partners to realise savings.

The Chief Executive continues to lead the work on collaborative services within the AGMA region.  The Service will work closely on the specific procurement initiative and seek to further develop the Council’s approach to achieving efficiencies.

The dedicated project team which is working to develop procurement initiatives which in addition to creating savings, will also modernise the way we procure our goods and services.

Client Services

The performance of our key partners remains a priority for the Service.  The relationship with Impact, Link4Life and our PFI Partners will continue to develop.  The client team will continue to work with partners to improve service delivery and ensure value for money is achieved.  

The Service is heavily involved in the proposed development of the new Municipal Buildings in the Town Centre.  Once approvals have been given to the Scheme, the Service will have a key role to play in acting on behalf of the Council to ensure the development of the new buildings, the relocation and transformation of Council staff and Partners is delivered.  This will provide a catalyst to the wider Town Centre transformation.
  
Whole Service

The Pay and Grading Review will have significant pressures on the Service.  These include the logistics of consultation and communication and the impact of potential changes to grades on the Service.  

The Service is committed to a number of efficiencies as detailed in the budget proposals.  These will be challenging but we intend to work collaboratively with other Council Services and Partners to achieve them.

LEGAL SERVICES

Legal Services has been, and continues to be, very closely involved in a number of high profile projects across the Council. These include:

• Building Schools for the Future;
• Rochdale Town Centre Redevelopment;
• Kingsway Business Park;
• Street lighting PFI. 

Legal Services also supports the maintenance and promotion of high standards of conduct and good corporate governance throughout the Authority. At the December 2007 meeting of the Standards Committee, the Committee received and commented upon its draft first Annual Report. An Annual Report from the Standards Committee may become mandatory under the Government’s “Going Local” Agenda but in any event is regarded as good practice. As such, the Committee has accepted the Monitoring Officer’s advice to voluntarily institute this new reporting process.

In addition, I would also report that preparations are underway for implementation of the new “Going Local” Agenda. As Members will recall, this initiative will see the Council’s Standards Committee and Monitoring Officer/Deputy Monitoring Officer having a more significant and direct role in alleged breaches of the Members’ Code of Conduct. It is expected that the new Going Local regime will be required to be implemented from Spring 2008 although no date has yet been fixed by the Government.  Progress is being made but preparations are being hampered by the fact that at the time of writing of this Report, the Regulations have not been published by the Government and final guidance has yet to be issued by the Standards Board for England and is not expected for some time.

As I have previously reported to Council, the Service is engaged in a comprehensive programme of service improvement following a fundamental strategic review. The key elements of this include:

• Placing the budget on a stretched but realistic and sustainable footing and delegating budgets to the lowest appropriate level. Work on this is progressing satisfactorily although the Service continues to face significant financial pressures in a number of areas. The single largest challenge in this regard continues to be the continuing and significant reduction in income from Land Charge Searches. Despite trying a number of different approaches to attempt to minimise this decline the reduction in income is largely outside the control of the Council, but is in line with the experience of other local authorities nationally.

• As I reported to Council in October 2007, Legal Services are participating in a pilot of AGMA Authorities to trial a new collaborative approach to the delivery of Legal Services. The pilot is developing and testing a robust process for the sharing of a limited number of work areas across what was originally five, but is now four, councils. If the pilot is successful and extended, we would expect a number of  identifiable benefits, including: increased flexibility for the Service; greater resilience; reduced expenditure on private sector lawyers and reduced expenditure on agency staff for the Council (enabling the Service further to demonstrate Value for Money); in the longer term, potential opportunities for income generation are also expected. 

• The Service continues to exceed corporate sickness absence level targets although the actuals are forecast to rise slightly this year. The Service is confident that this figure will not rise significantly as it continues to adopt a rigorous and pro-active approach to the management of sickness absence.

• Finally, the Service is making good progress in conducting VFM self-assessments of all its Teams and fully expects to meet the corporate deadline of 31st March 2008 in this regard.

 

 

TOWNSHIPS

I am pleased to report continued progress on the key initiative to secure increasing Devolution to Townships. Since my last report in October significant progress has been made on the initiative.

The budget setting process for 08/09 has been able to reflect the needs of the Townships following the development of  Township Plans.

The Cabinet has during the year doubled the value of the Township Funds held by each Township. This will now allow each Township to have the means to respond to local needs in a way which has not been possible before.

The Cabinet has also, via the Investment Fund supported additional initiatives within each Township and supported a multi township initiatives re the Handy person scheme and a borough wide gully emptying exercise.

Each of the Townships are now focussing on the future of devolution based on the experiences to date. The Township Chairs and Portfolio Holders along with Heads of Service are meeting on the 29th January to reflect on what has happened to date and how we can improve and develop things further.
The Portfolio holders are meeting on the 31 January to focus on some of the practical issues we need to deal with. The Chief Executive will be meeting with his Service Heads to focus on the future on the 4 February.

The continued focus on the future of this initiative is to ensure  we are seeking from it  a lasting and sustained programme of change as we enable the further devolution of services.

This is not to diminish the challenge the initiative will create for the organisation as we begin to wrestle with redirecting resources from lower priority services to higher priority ones. Resources will always be limited but ambitions are high and it is inevitable that the transition will pose difficult challenges.

The Police initiative on PACTs (Policy and Community Together) has been successfully integrated where possible within the Township Structure, and where not, alternative arrangements have been made.

The work to enhance the process by which devolution will proceed in each Townships has been completed. These changes will create change in the way things are done and decisions made in future with close working between Services and Townships. Supporting these new and demanding arrangements is now being worked on and will have staffing implications which are now being addressed.

Within the Township offices, I am pleased to report that the commitment to maintain full staffing in each of the 4 offices remains with one post of Township Manager now being opened up to a job sharing arrangements on a trial basis. We welcome David Astley to the post he now shares with Sue Thornton at Pennines Township.

Councillor Keith Swift