UPDATE TO JOINT PARTNERSHIP BOARD

16 th May 2012

Bev Herring

Introduction

• First meeting of the New Joint Partnership Board • Re-affirm principles of Statement of Partnership Intent • Round up of achievements to date (summary) • High level view of savings to date • Discussion – transformation – changing the way we work • Future items for JPB attention and regular update reporting.

Statement of Partnership Intent Expected benefits / key outcomes

Sharing resources to deliver District Council services in East Suffolk more effectively and efficiently • Financial savings (value for money) • Efficiency gains • Increased capacity & resilience • Sharing skills and best practice • Whilst protecting priority front line services

For our identified stakeholder groups

Shared Services Partnership Programme

Service reviews include BPR activity (internally provided by BIT), moving customer access to front line etc.

Programme Progress – May 2012

Ongoing Customer Access Review – moving service to front line, method of delivery, locations of service etc.

Ongoing Flexible Working Review – using technology to improve service delivery, including home working Nov 2010 + 6 months (April 2011) + 12 months (October 2011) Accommodation Review + 18 months (April 2012) + 24 months (October 2012) Back office services – Perf, HR, Procurement, ICT, Property info etc.

Licensing, Legal & Democratic Service / Finance Service - review and merge Revenues & Benefits - Merge, Restructure, Systems etc.

Planning, DC & BC - Merge, Restructure, Systems etc; then Planning Policy Environmental - Merge, Restructure, Systems etc.

Review Management Structure

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Housing - Merge, Restructure, Systems etc.

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Regen areas (including Tourism & Sport) Merge, Restructure, Systems etc.

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Continued reviews of business processes, systems and setup - all front line services Alignment SCS & W-Norse – linked to ongoing work within internal services ICT joint infrastructure in progress and continuing

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60% complete

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ICT - Review now that infrastructure implemented

Various team restructures to support changed ways of working, emerging situations, external influences etc.

Back office support required to support programme work from : ICT, HR, Finance, Legal, Performance Improvement Team – heavy involvement for until +18 months and then expected to taper off. Situation to be reviewed on an ongoing basis.

BAH : V5 : 15/05/2012

Shared Services Programme – ongoing governance; delivery models; benefits realisation; best practice sharing; corporate projects; information & communication

Progress to date – support services

• Joint management structure & PA support and management structure reviewed twice since Oct ‘10 • Back office services : teams joined and working across Councils • Back office services : most policies, processes and procedures reviewed and aligned • Licensing service : joint team, now reviewing processes • Democratic service : joint team, now reviewing processes • Finance service : joint team, now reviewing processes • Legal service : no change – discussions across Suffolk • Q4 performance : level of staff sickness below comparators; staff survey undertaken and work in progress to address matters arising.

Progress to date – revenues & benefits

• Joint management team in place • Processes and procedures reviewed • Alignment of DIP & workflow completed • On line forms implementation (faster service) • Procurement of joint ICT application agreed via Anglia Revenues Partnership • Implementation of joint ICT application in progress • Further work ongoing to align bulk mailing and printing processes (across multiple authorities) • Q4 performance reports : SCDC below target for new claims, WDC coming back into target for new claims

Progress to date – planning service

• Joint Coastal Protection team in place (& reviewed) • Ongoing programme of activity – benefits to localities • Joint management team for development management & building control in place • Development management and building control restructured to 3 area teams • Procurement of joint ICT application in progress • Processes and policies being reviewed / aligned • Joint management for Planning Policy in place • Further activity to be undertaken to streamline activities – in planning stages • Q4 performance – no issues emerging

Progress to date – environmental service

• Joint management team in place across whole service • Joint coverage on H&S matters (with Gt Yarmouth BC) and policies & procedures aligned • Environmental Protection and Food Safety Teams working closely together (full restructure in progress) • Premises inspections (food) aligned • Processes being reviewed and aligned • Incoming calls for Environmental Protection taken at Lowestoft call centre • Work in progress for electronic document processing • Q4 performance – no emerging issues

Progress to date – housing

• Joint management team in place for Private Sector Housing • Processes and procedures being aligned • Restructure in progress across teams (Private Sector Housing / Homelessness) • Shared experience and expertise where possible • Mindful of potential future issues with introduction of Universal Credit • Q4 performance – no emerging issues

Progress to date – community & economic (CES)

• A complex area with impacts to / from many other council services and externally • Priorities for future service provision agreed • Restructure of CES management team in planning stage • Total restructure of CES for completion by end 2012 • Joint holiday guide produced for 2012 • Teams working together of various initiatives / projects • Team members covering for each other at various meetings / seminars • Enterprise Zone activity in progress; recruitment for AAP posts complete

Progress to date – joint ICT infrastructure

• Initial estimates for completion of infrastructure work revised as work has progressed • Work to join & improve infrastructures now 60% complete • Large amount of activity in progress • Team structure bedding in – transfer of responsibilities underway • Improvement of “customer focus” in progress • Emerging technologies – pilots – tests – case studies

Progress to date – the financial benefits

• Cost & benefit apportionment models in place • Update to benefits picture recently completed • “Savings” for 2012/13 now £1.5m (was £900k) • “Savings” overall now total £6.4m (was £4.2m) • This is a benefits model which includes “cashable and non cashable” elements • Amounts roughly 50:50 split

Progress to date – the reality

• We have taken vast steps forward on our shared journey • It has been fraught at times, but rewards are clearly demonstrated • There are issues to be resolved in some areas • There have been constant “take over” concerns • We have learned lessons every step of the way • We have applied those lessons to the next steps we take • We are already developing stage two • Reminder – not impacting priority front line services • And – apart from PPM role, all within existing resources

Stage Two

• Continuation of ongoing work • Consolidation of changes (but not standing still) • Ongoing business process re-engineering (whatever we call it) • Working with other partners • Review the delivery & governance models in place • From change to transformation .........

Transformation

MONEY TECHNICAL PROGRESS EXPECTATIONS

Transformation

• Money: • We need to be using technology to help us save • The targets we need to achieve over the next 2 to 3 years are considerable.

• Technical solutions will also help our customers (save, do business better etc.) • We can take advantage of scale (cheaper, more resilient via partnership) • Expectations: • Customer expectations are constantly changing • Central government expects more from us (and for us to follow their lead – DVLA for example) • Other (commercial) organisations deliver technical solutions that we’re measured against • We can help to change expectations – deliver faster, cheaper, make things easier • We, individually, can be helping to change expectations and getting our customers and teams to think more about technical solutions

Transformation

Technical progress • Is increasingly rapid – a very high percentage of adults now have a mobile phone and could use these to access service • Approach to delivery is different – incremental, improves in stages rather than wait until all complete • Emerging areas such as social media – need to use it to advantage rather than can’t being driven by it • Suffolk Coastal and Waveney seen as leading the field of shared service - why we be leading the technical field too?

Transformation – projects underway

• Accommodation projects • Single public sector estate • Document management (and use) • Printing (distributed / central / equipment / reduction) • Intranet (one of) • Internets (two of) • Mindful of security, confidentiality etc. • Flexible workforce supported by the right service based technology & tools • Cultural change too

INFORMATION / COMMUNICATION / ADMINISTRATION / TRANSACTIONS / CONSULTATION

Internets (2 of, but 1 engine) Intranet (1 of) Phones / SMS / Social Media Apps And ........

Coastline / In Touch Tourism Payments / Book it / Report it / Press releases External

Always two way (at least) : IN and OUT TO and FROM PUSH and PULL

Intranet survey Promote more use Information repository Document access Useful directory Daily / Weekly / Monthly Performance Reporting & management Payroll / Expenses / etc IDEAS (re-vamped) Staff Members All of the staff stuff plus Ward information Information

On Line

Outward performance reporting?

Discuss other applications Other Organisations Partners Information to enable transactions on our behalf (and vice versa) Information to enable communications (right person, right time , right place) Strategy / Policy : Security; ICT; Communications; Customer Access; Accommodation; others ......

Finally

• Future topics for discussion?

• Regular reporting requirements?