My report to Council

Posted By: Liz Thirsk
Date Posted: 19/10/2009

Thank you Mister 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

As the Council’s lead service in facilitating improvement across the Council and challenging performance, accountability and customer outcomes; there are a number of successes to report to Council.

• The Information Team has been successful in attracting a £2.25 million award from the Department of Health as a CAF (Common Assessment Framework) Demonstrator site. This project will pull together records for all adults from health, social care, supporting people and voluntary organisations to allow sharing of information to help deliver improved services for adults in the borough.

• The team has also supported Early Break to become the first voluntary organisation in the country to be an accredited Contact Point user.

• The team has been successful in securing £100k for a 360 project to look at developing an information hub for sharing information as a ‘proof of concept’ project.

• The Policy and Research team is leading the council’s and LSP’s work on the recession, and reporting regularly to cabinet on progress, and our good practice was recognised in a recent Audit Commission report.

• The Government recently confirmed that the borough of Rochdale would receive £156,550 for 2009/10 and indicative funding of £161,247 for 2010/11 from the Migration Impacts Fund. The fund is financed by migrants themselves through a charge on work and student visas and so is mainly focused on legal migration. The fund will be used to provide further and more targeted English for Speakers of Other Languages classes, for the training of interpreters and translators and to support organisations and groups that provide advice. There are also several other projects under way to improve community cohesion in the borough including a linkage between schools programme and an integration of communities through sports project. The community cohesion action plan also continues to be developed in consultation with partners.

• The joint Health Unit continues to support the work of the Health and Well Being Partnership, including drafting an improvement plan to tackle health inequalities in the borough, attracting external funding and carrying out research such as the impact of swimming and exercise on the health and well being of older people.



• The service has led a self-evaluation of the local Strategic Partnership which will be published in the next few weeks, and has been a crucial part of demonstrating the borough’s successes to the Audit Commission for Comprehensive Area Assessment.

Townships

• Township Management is currently working with services and partner agencies to develop action plans to deliver Township Plan priorities in 2010/11. The action plans will be integrated with the Council’s service planning and budget setting processes for 2010/2011.

• The increase in Township Funds means that each Township will continue to deliver more projects to meet Township Plan priorities. This includes contributions from Middleton and Rochdale Townships towards mobile youth facilities. Local residents and young people in Pennines raised issues of safety in Milnrow Memorial Park. Pennines Township was able to secure additional lighting to tackle anti social behaviour. Townships continue to respond positively to customers; Heywood Township listened to requests from Heywood British Legion to recognise Heywood servicemen who lost their lives in service since the Second World War The success is a new memorial, believed to be the first of its kind, which will be unveiled next month.

• Each Township is looking at the different structures in place to engage with local people and agree how funds are spent locally and I will be able to report progress at our next Council meeting.

PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

Recruitment

The Council has introduced a vacancy management policy which will restrict recruitment to those jobs essential to service delivery and support the achievement of savings required by the Efficiency Programme. This operating effectively.

The Service is working closely with other AGMA authorities on a joint collaborative recruitment and advertising project.

Implementation of Trent HR System

Progress continues with the implementation of the new computerised HR system and the second phase of the project as part of the People Management Transformation Programme. Progress continues to be affected by the impact of the pay and grading review on workloads and resource availability within People Management and other Services being diverted to support the review and ongoing work associated with Equal Pay claims. Resources from Impact and other partners had to be diverted to other projects temporarily to compensate.

A revised Project Plan has been developed and is currently on track to implement the modules by end December 2009. The pilot of employee and manager self service in Finance and People Management Services is currently being evaluated prior to the planned roll out to other services. The self service function will provide service managers with ‘real time’ employee information and enable staff to view and update

some details held in the HR system. Several e-forms to further streamline processes are being developed and the first of these (an e-leavers form is being piloted with Facilities Management services and has been well received).

Work is ongoing to identify further out of scope efficiency savings.

The Project targets will be challenging to achieve during 2009/10 and the situation is being closely monitored through regular reporting to the PMS Transformation Programme Board. The Service has achieved the 2008/9 target financial efficiency savings set out in the business case and has identified how it will achieve the 2009/10 savings.

Some of the key future benefits will include better access for managers to information about absence management, staffing levels, and overtime, as well as making life easier for staff and managers by letting people check pay slips, check and change personal details at any time, book leave, request training and much more.

Pay and Grading Review
Members are currently considering the main conclusions and issues arising from the formal trade union/workforce consultation. Final decision making is currently underway.

Appeals are currently progressing in accordance with the joint procedure agreed with trade unions and it is anticipated that these will be concluded by December 2009.

Preparations are being made to issue voluntary acceptance/notice of dismissal and re-engagement letters. This will enable the Council to legally change contracts of employment, which is necessary to implement the Pay and Grading Review.

Managing Attendance
Continue to work closely with Heads of Service to further improve the levels of attendance and reduce sickness absence across the Council. Assist with the development of Trent and manager self service to assist in the managing of attendance.

Efficiencies Programme
The People Management Service is currently working closely with all services to support the delivery of the Efficiency Programme. The service is undertaking a major role in responding to the staffing implications of the programme and in particular in relation to the efficiency savings which have recently been approved for consultation across the organisation.

Arrangements are being put in place to provide support to employees who are at risk of redundancy as a result of this process. Other measures such as proposed changes to the Council’s early retirement scheme and the operation of a vacancy management procedure are being progressed to provide additional support to the organisations requirements at this time.

Modernisation of HR Policies
Continually reviewing and updating personnel policies and procedures in line with changes in employment legislation and modernisation requirements to meet the changing needs of the organisation.




EQUALITIES AND DIVERSITY

The new Equality Framework

The Council has now migrated to the new Equality Framework and a Capacity Building Training Programme has been developed for our Service Equality Contacts to equip them with the knowledge and skills to take forward the work on the new Framework within their service areas. The first training session was held on 8 September 2009.

New Executive Director Lead for Equality and Diversity

Terry Piggott, our current Executive Director Lead for Equality and Diversity is sadly leaving us this month. He had planned to retire in 2010 but is looking forward to taking up a one-year secondment as Strategic Director for Children’s Services with the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) prior to his retirement. I would like to thank him for the significant contribution he has made to the Authority’s work on Equality and Diversity and to wish him every success in his new role.

The Council’s new Executive Director Lead for Equality and Diversity will be Andy Zuntz. I would like to take the opportunity to welcome him to this role and I look forward to working with him.

LEGAL AND DEMOCRATIC SERVICES

Members will note that since 1st September 2009, all public reports for Committees are being published on the Council website. This is an interim arrangement pending the introduction of a Committee Management system in December whereby all reports will be published on the website with links to each Committee and to each individual committee Member’s details. The new system will have an interactive element, whereby Members will be notified when the agenda for and minutes of a particular meeting has been published and will advise of the deadline for call-in where applicable. Staff are currently working on a communication strategy whereby you will be advised of all of the functions of the system and how you can access the information. A further spin-off from the system will be the development of a corporate Members’ Meetings database.”

CUSTOMERS AND COMMUNICATIONS

From April to August 2009 we have answered 167,357 calls with 80% answered within 20 seconds.

A new piece of software originally purchased to carry out Customer Satisfaction Surveys also has the functionality to send “Ad hoc” text messages. We now use this to
contact customers to make them aware that their Council Tax DD has been returned by their bank as unpaid (we also call customers where a mobile number is not available). 276 text messages have been sent since beginning of August. Customers would not have previously been informed of this either by the bank or by us until a reminder was sent.

Outbound calling for council tax arrears, this is something we have been doing for a approx 18 months we have made in excess if 800 calls and have collected around £85k of outstanding council tax




The Contact Centre has also been announced as Finalist in 2 categories for the

• CallNorthWest Awards

• Best Contact Centre over 50 seats (Public Sector)

• Best Avoidable Contact Programme.


THE PEOPLE’S CHAMPION

Even the best organisations occasionally get things wrong. The real measure of our customer service is how we react to being told things have gone wrong – and what we do about it.

Since the People’s Champion Team was introduced in 2007, they have been responsible for some significant improvements in the way the Council operates and deals with customers; for example, they have:

□ established a new corporate complaints procedure

□ dealt with over 750 comments and complaints

□ provided training on complaints handling and investigation to staff across the Council.

□ been a point of escalation for customers who are dissatisfied with the outcome of their complaint.

□ conducted independent reviews of complaints and how they’ve been handled.

□ worked with services across the Council to ensure that lessons learned drive service improvements.

As part of our commitment to transform the Customer experience under “Stepping Up”, we now need to build on these achievements.

We will relaunch the People’s Champion as a Peoples Advocate - someone who would speak up for customers who may experience problems with Council services, and then intervene on their behalf.

For example they will:

□ help customers and Members find their way through Council structures to reach the people they need to help resolve their problem

□ review systems and remove barriers to effective service delivery

□ challenge Services to make them more accessible to customers.





As part of the efficiency programme there is also an opportunity to bring together the People’s Champion and Customer Relations Team (who deal with social care complaints) as they both deal with customer related complaints and comments; whilst recognising the need to keep social care complaints as a separate legal entity.

Finally, I propose that we transfer these two functions into the Performance and Development Service, to bring them clearly within the Council’s scrutiny function

BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS

Corporate Procurement

Procurement’s plans for improvement continue to gather momentum and the team are currently reporting a projection of over 75% achievement for the efficiency target with two quarters remaining. In addition, the focus on improving opportunities with local businesses to access Council contracts has continued. Over 100 suppliers attended the last event in July, and 100% of those providing feedback stated the information provided at the event was good to excellent. Corporate Procurement is now tracking those companies that have attended the Think Local events to ensure that local suppliers are able to tender for business and, in conjunction with Regeneration, are providing further support to businesses to build their capabilities for the future.

Facilities Management

Client Services

TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME

Development of the New Municipal Offices

• Consultation with Members, Public and Staff in September on the concept design was attended by over 800 members of the public and 400 staff who provided feedback and comments. The majority of these were positive and created lots of good ideas.
• Recently shortlisted six highly respected Contractors which we will now evaluate to choose one Contractor who will build the new building
• Planning Application set to be submitted in December

Efficiency Programme – Strategic Cross Cutting Reviews

• The Council has now agreed to conduct strategic cross cutting reviews for all Services of the Council
• Set to start in October
• Objectives of the reviews include the need to reduce duplication and overlap, reduce management costs, cease providing some activities and increased use of alternative delivery methods
• These reviews will also respond to the needs of our customers, ensure everything we do is value for money and contribute to the financial challenges.





PORTFOLIO HOLDER’S FINAL WORD


This has been a very interesting and sometimes tiring second quarter, but I now feel that I have got to grips with the role.

I would recommend that all members take the time out to visit the call centre on Buckley Road. I guarantee you will come away impressed with the quality of the service they provide.

Also, you will notice that I have listened to all of you who had doubts about the peoples champion and I hope you all now give the “advocate” a chance to prove what an invaluable service she can provide

I have streamlined that service and I feel given it a more proactive role. It will no longer be the service that gets involved at an escalated stage. Instead it will be a service that all can turn to whenever there is any confusion or delay in getting answers. I see the role as an ideal starting place for the businesses that want to introduce their services and goods to the council. Under the Advocate they should always be able to cut through the seemingly red tape and reach a decision maker with ease.

As a relatively new cabinet member I am still aware of the difficulty of the back benchers when it comes to identifying the right officer or indeed department to resolve a problem. They do not have the regular access to the senior officers that we do. I know the Advocate will prove to be invaluable to them.


Thank you.
Councillor Liz Thirsk