Transformation Strategy 2022 - 2027

Purpose of Transformation Strategy

The main aim of the Transformation Strategy is to provide a strategic framework to underpin a programme of significant organisational change that will support the Council in achieving its wider aims and objectives as set out within its Corporate Strategy.

The Transformation Strategy will set out goals and objectives to help achieve a specific vision.

The Strategy will aim to outline how the organisation intends to improve its capabilities and the way that it uses its resources to provide more value and benefits to its customers and residents.

It will aim to further accelerate the process of modernisation across the Council, and allow us to continue to deliver high quality, cost-effective services within the context of a challenging external environment.

The Strategy will aim to encourage an inclusive and integrated approach to transformation that makes best use of its people, systems, and processes. It will aim to provide a business case to further invest in our staff, buildings, and technology and to encourage the adoption of modern working practices and speed up processes. It will also aim to develop the skills, culture and behaviours required to make change possible.

It will aim to set out the approach that will underpin the implementation of a Transformation Programme, which will include a greater focus on ‘delivery’ and generating pace and energy to deliver the type of change that is required.

Transformation should be regarded as an on-going process, and therefore this will be a dynamic Strategy which will require review and updating on an annual basis.

Corporate Strategy

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Transformation Programme

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Transformation Strategy

Transformation – Our journey to date

The Council’s TIC Programme has been the one of the main vehicles for supporting change and transformation across the organisation during the last 10 years The main aim of the programme has been to support the delivery of a sustainable approach to transforming the organisation; an approach that would allow the Council to meet its financial savings targets, whilst also protecting the standards and quality of front-line services.

The Programme has successfully delivered on these objectives and has helped in the development of more modern and resilient working practices.

The Council’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic – unplanned transformation

In March 2020, Carmarthenshire County Council was about to enter one of the most challenging periods ever faced by local government.  The impact of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic presented a unique set of challenges for the whole country, and there was an acceptance that Councils would need to be at the heart of the local response to the crisis.

The emergence of the Covid crisis meant that services had to adapt quickly to put in place alternative delivery arrangements for users and staff to ensure continuity of provision. 

The Council was keen therefore to capture the learning from its response to the pandemic – to understand what worked well and didn’t work so well, and how this could potentially change ‘what we do’ and ‘how we do’, it in the future.

Context

One of the most significant areas of new legislation to emerge in the last 10 years that will have a major bearing on the delivery of the Council’s Transformation Programme, is the Well-Being of Future Generations Act, introduced by the Welsh Government in 2015. This is a statutory duty for every Council in Wales and requires a significant change in Council processes and behaviours. The Act is designed to improve the economic, social, environmental, and cultural well-being of Wales, in accordance with sustainable development principles. The law states that: 

‘... the public body must act in a manner which seeks to ensure that the needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’

This provides a significant opportunity to align the aims and objectives of the WBFG Act with those of the wider transformation agenda and ensure that the ‘5 Ways of Working’ are fully considered and integrated into the design, delivery, and evaluation of the Transformation Programme.

There is also a need to consider the implications of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021, and how the Transformation Programme can support the Council in meeting some of the key requirements of the Act. For example, Part 6 of the Act provides for an enhanced improvement regime for Councils and seeks to 'establish a more regularised performance and governance system that puts the onus on the Council to take ownership of its own improvement.'

Challenges

The longer-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to be far reaching and will present a number of challenges for the organisation moving forward, but also some opportunities. 

Pre pandemic, local government was already experiencing an increasing demand for many of its services, within the context of shrinking budgetary resources. It is likely that the pandemic could make these challenges far more acute, although the full impact on the organisation in the medium to long term is still unknown. 

The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a vast financial outlay by the UK Government, and the need to tackle the historic levels of national debt may result in a future tightening of public spending in the short to medium turn, which in turn could result in another extremely challenging financial environment for the public sector, including local councils. The significant increase in energy and food prices in the first 6 months of 2022 is already presenting financial challenges for the Council.

The effectiveness of the Council’s response to the Covid pandemic may have also increased the expectations of our customers, especially in the way that they access and receive services. This may result in the Council having to review the way that it delivers these services and consider a move to a 24hr/7-day approach to service delivery.

The recruitment and retention of a well-trained, flexible workforce is a key aspiration of many organisations, but the current labour market represents a significant challenge for many in the public sector. The Council is now operating in a far more competitive environment in respect of opportunities and wages, and number of services are experiencing significant difficulty in recruiting suitable, qualified staff.

Further advances in the use of technology brought about by the pandemic now presents a significant opportunity for the Council in terms of widening access to services and the automation of back-office processes.

Climate change represents one of the biggest challenges that currently confronts this organisation.  At a meeting of Full Council in February 2019, the Council declared a ‘climate change emergency’ and unanimously agreed to become a Net Zero Carbon authority by 2030. Although the Council has agreed to adopt a phased and pragmatic approach to this work, it is recognised that transformational change will be required in some areas if these ambitious targets are to be achieved. There is now an opportunity to align the aims of the decarbonisation agenda with those of the wider transformation programme.

Transformation – Our Vision

‘To deliver substantial and rapid internal change over a 5-year period which will allow the Council to successfully deliver its aims and objectives as set out within its Corporate Strategy.’

The Programme will aim to drive significant change and innovation throughout the Council and help us provide the very best outcomes with the resources available.

It will aim to allow the Council to:

• Be a modern, innovative, and dynamic organisation.
• Achieve a sustainable financial future.
• Develop a skilled and flexible workforce and become an ‘Employer of Choice’.
• Deliver more purposeful, high-quality services to meet customer needs at reduced cost to the Council.

Key Objectives

• To support in the development of a financially sustainable Council, which can deliver high quality, value for money services.
• To identify and help deliver financial savings through efficiencies or cost reductions.
• To develop a more commercial approach to the delivery of Council services with the aim of increasing income generation opportunities.
• To implement a service improvement programme that ensures that the Council can deliver high performing services with the highest standards of customer care. 
• To support on the remodelling of services to deliver modern, flexible, and dynamic services designed around the needs of the customer/end user.
• To become a more creative and innovative organisation.
• To work in collaboration with stakeholders and end users to identify the most appropriate way of delivering services.
• To continue to develop an agile, well trained, flexible and empowered workforce, committed to delivering high quality services with the highest standards of customer care.
• To make further use of technology in support of the Council becoming a more modern, dynamic organisation. 
• To act as an intelligent Council by making effective use of data to manage and improve performance, and to effectively manage demands through prevention and early intervention.
• To provide an opportunity to share and recognise good practice across the organisation.
• To identify where additional capacity and/ or resources may be required to support the process of change and transformation.
• To make effective  use of communications, staff engagement and Learning and Development programmes to help create the necessary culture and behavioural change. 

Proposed outcomes from the Transformation Programme:

• Improvements in service quality and value for money
• More cost-efficient services
• Purposeful, responsive, customer focussed services
• A highly trained, flexible workforce
• A more engaged, motivated workforce
• Further development of a learning and ‘can do’ culture
• The best standards of customer care
• Delivery of financial savings
• Environmental savings and benefits
• Increases in the level of income generated
• Modern and efficient work processes

Our Transformation Priorities

It is proposed that the Programme will focus on supporting the delivery of the following thematic priorities:

Efficiencies and Value for Money

1.    Overall aim

To continue to deliver financial savings through efficiencies, cost reductions and smarter ways of working.

2.    What do we need to transform and why?

One of the key priorities of the TIC Programme since the outset has been to support in the identification and/or delivery of financial savings, through efficiencies or cost reductions to allow the Council to try and protect, or invest in, front line service budgets. Although the Council’s financial settlements have generally been more favourable in recent years compared to those experienced during the preceding decade, the outlook beyond the current year remains very uncertain, with an expectation that the need to deal with legacy of Covid related debt at a national level could place a further squeeze on public finances. The need to deliver financial savings to some degree is likely to remain the norm for many years to come.

The current workstream has prioritised the review of areas of ‘routine/repetitive’ Council expenditure, such as travel, mail, and printing etc, as costs reductions in these areas of spend could limit the need to make any budget reductions in front line service areas as part of the Councils on-going budget setting process. A 5% reduction in repetitive related expenditure could deliver an annual saving of over £1m million.  

The Council has achieved ongoing reductions in travel and print related expenditure for a number of years, and over £2m of staff travel related savings (cumulative) have been achieved since 2012. The Covid pandemic and the move to more use of remote working, now presents opportunities for further savings in these areas, and the workstream identified that a further £300k should be saved from travel and print during the next 3 years, which will also deliver associated environmental benefits.

This workstream has also prioritised a review of the Council’s staffing related expenditure with a view to developing more sustainable staffing models moving forward. The Council currently spends over £5m per year on the use of agency staff and overtime payments and there may be opportunities to review core staffing levels within certain services which could deliver net financial savings and provide wider benefits in terms of ensuring enhanced service resilience. An action plan is already in place to start investigating these opportunities and this will probably remain a priority as part of the next phase of transformation. 

An independent divisional budget analysis exercise was undertaken in the Autumn of 2021 to support services in identifying future budget savings. The Efficiency and Value for Money Workstream will aim to identify any corporate themes to emerge from the reports which could then be further explored as potential savings opportunities, whilst also seeking to work with individual service areas to offer support and assistance in further exploring and progress opportunities at a service level.  

The Workstream will also want to continue its current role in strategically overseeing the Council’s procurement activity, and this will include evaluating the potential to make further use of the category management approach to deliver financial savings and seeking to strengthen the Council’s contract management procedures. 

The implementation of Category Management has been monitored and the changing economic landscape, particularly post Covid, as well as changes in national policy and Council priorities regarding investing in our local economy has inevitably led to changes in how this is approached strategically. A key focus was to develop a new suite of KPIs to reflect these changes and to ensure that our procurement solutions are creative, are based on identified need that has been challenged, mitigate against increases in costs and supports our ‘Spend Local’ plans whilst remaining within legislative requirements. 

A high-level review of the Council’s Contract Management procedures has been undertaken as this is recognised as a key element of the procurement cycle, with both pockets of strength and weakness in evidence across the Authority. It is essential to ensuring compliance with our financial and procurement regulations as well as optimising contractual performance and securing value for money. 

3.   What will be our key objectives?

• Continue to monitor and investigate areas of routine/repetitive spend with a view to making further reductions in expenditure in these areas, where appropriate.
• Support the identification and delivery of PBB efficiency savings at both a corporate and service level. 
• Identify other opportunities for efficiency savings through cost reductions and / or smarter ways of working.
• Ensure that the Council can make best use of internal and external ‘Invest to Save’ opportunities to generate financial and/or productivity savings.
• Ensure the Authority has robust processes in place for commissioning and contract management that are clear for staff at all levels of the organisation and adhered to across all our diverse services.
• Encourage staff to think more innovatively in relation to commissioning and procurement activities and challenge existing ways of working through category management.

4.    What will be our priorities for the coming year and beyond?

• Review the independent Divisional Budget Analysis reports to identify the potential for further financial savings at both a corporate and service level – by June 2023.
• Review progress in delivering existing planned efficiency savings at a service level and provide support and assistance, where appropriate – Nov and then quarterly from thereon.
• Identify non statutory services which could be ceased or statutory and non-statutory functions which could be subject to reductions in delivery standards in order to allow the Council to continue to deliver priority services and achieve a balanced budget by October 2023.
• Oversee the delivery of the Staffing Costs Delivery Plan including:
  • Working with priority services to look at options to reduce agency costs/overtime through the implementation of more sustainable staffing structures by April 2023.
  • Undertaking a further review of standby arrangements by September 2023.
• Further develop the Routine Spend Dashboard and associated reports to help monitor and control areas of high spend/identify opportunities for potential savings at a cost level – to be reviewed on a quarterly basis.
• Review the Authority’s approach to ‘Invest to Save initiatives’ including the identification of the potential external sources of funding and the awareness/accessibility of the authority’s internal Development Fund initiative by June 2023.
• Review the outcomes from the authority’s Procurement programme which will include the development and use of key PI’ by April 2023.
• Review progress in implementing the current action plan designed to strengthen the Authority’s current contract management practices and identify areas where further improvement may be required by April 2023.

5.    How will we measure the impact of this work?

• Delivery of cashable efficiency savings
• Productivity savings
• Costs avoided

Income and Commercialisation

1.    Overall aim

To develop a more commercial approach to the delivery of Council services with a view to increasing the level of income generated.

2.    What do we need to transform and why?

One of the key priorities of the TIC programme has been to seek ways of generating more income from fees and charges, and to increase the levels of debt that the Council is able to recover. 

Most of the Council’s annual income comes from Welsh Government funding, Council Tax and Business Rates, with the remaining income generated from fees and charges levied by the Council. Many of these charges are set annually as part of the Council’s budget setting process, and some are set nationally or by statute. Charges can be an important source of income and can help improve or sustain services. In many cases, charges are not based on the cost of providing the service and services can therefore be subsidised to varying degrees. Improved information on the relationship between costs and charges would help identify where current subsidies are disproportionate to the level of positive outcomes delivered for individuals or communities. 

This is one example where the Council could adopt more of commercial approach to generate more income. However, commercialisation is more than just reviewing fees and charges, but involves looking at the business as a whole and identifying new opportunities to generate income. A number of local authorities are now recognising that an increasing level of commercialisation, and the associated increase in revenue, can provide for a more sustainable approach to dealing with the on-going challenges of shrinking budgets and increasing demands. The Audit Wales study on ‘Commercialisation in Local Government’ (October 2020) identified that ‘local councils are looking at different ways of making savings, safeguarding services, and generating income. Commercialisation is consequently becoming more important for Councils’.

Some Councils have consequently created Commercial Manager roles to provide the capacity and expertise to drive this agenda forward in their respective organisations, recognising the significant return on investment that this role could provide. 

The TIC Income workstream has been undertaking work to identify the opportunities to implement a more commercial approach across the organisation and the type of skills and capacity available or will be required to support this. Workshops have been held with key services which will be used to develop a Business Case for the Council to adopt a more commercial approach. Initial work undertaken to date has already identified that there are clear benefits of investing in additional capacity and expertise in this area, as evidenced by the success achieved by the Council’s Leisure Services Division, which has significantly increased its income generation activities over the last 5 years, which in turn has reduced the level of Council subsidy required to deliver these services.  

3.    Key Objectives

• To promote the development of a more commercial culture and approach across the organisation in order to increase the level of income generated by the Council.
• To ensure that the Council has sufficient skills and capacity to support this approach.
• To ensure that service fees and charges reflect the costs of delivering that service unless a business case dictates otherwise.
• To identify potential to generate more income through increasing take-up of services.
• To provide clarity on the approach to the application of concessions and subsidies.
• To review the Council’s income collection policies to ensure that income is collected by the most efficient means.
• To review opportunities to increase income from advertising and sponsorship.
• To identify further income generation opportunities through the selling of Council services to other public bodies/private sector whilst ensuring compliance with the relevant legislative framework.
• To further strengthen debt recovery processes and ensure that there is sufficient capacity to maximise the levels of debt recovered. 

4.    What will be our priorities for the coming year and beyond?

• Develop a business case report that identifies the Council’s ambitions and further opportunities for commercialisation and the type of capacity and skills required to deliver this agenda by June 2023.
• Develop a Commercial Strategy for the organisation by September 2023.
• Develop a framework to support the implementation of a cost-recovery approach to the setting of Council fees and charges by April 2023.
• Implement a rolling programme of cost-recovery reviews to inform the future setting of fees and charges by April 2024.
• Implement a programme which supports the roll out of advertising on Council roundabouts pilot to be completed by March 23 with full roll out by end of 23/24.
• Identify other opportunities for increasing income from advertising and sponsorship and ensure that a more coordinated approach is adopted in order to maximise the level of income generated by September 2023.
• Develop a framework/guidance to support services in identifying income generation opportunities through the provision/sale of services to other public/private sector by September 2023.
• Further strengthen case management arrangements to support the increased recovery of Council debt by April 2023.
• Develop key measures to evaluate the outcomes of the Invest to Save Business initiative which allocated additional resources to the debt recovery function by April 2023.

5.    How will we measure the impact of the changes?

• Increases in income generated.
• Increases in amount of debt recovered.

Workplace

1.    Overall aim

To exploit the opportunities presented by a move to hybrid working to further rationalise the Council’s accommodation portfolio and to modernise and improve the working environment within the remaining core buildings.

2.    What do we need to transform and why?

The Council’s property portfolio encompasses a range of buildings including office buildings, operational depots, schools, community, and leisure facilities. One of the aims of the Agile Working project which was rolled out across the authority between 2017-18, was to adapt designated Council building, to create a work environment that supported the transition to a more agile way of working. This involved changes to the internal design and layout of some buildings to create more suitable, open plan office environments, together with the use of designated hot-desking facilities.  

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has further accelerated the use of hybrid working, which now provides further opportunities for the Council to rationalise its building stock. 

The move away from full time office working naturally means that we will probably need less buildings in the future, and that we may need to re-purpose those we decide to retain. It will be important to develop an evidence base on accommodation need versus demand to ensure that the hybrid model is meeting the needs of services and to determine future strategy.  

Office working requirements will be met through the establishment of central hubs in the key towns, which will then allow other buildings to be released for sale or rent. This will provide an opportunity to deliver financial savings, but also for the Council to consider how it can modernise its remaining building assets (including operational depots), to ensure that it can support the needs of a modern workforce and increase footfall in town centre locations. 

3.    Key Objectives

• Strengthen the Authority’s approach to asset management to support financial, economic, social, cultural, and environmental objectives. 
• Clarify the Authority’s vision for future accommodation and improve the performance management of assets. Apply and embed sustainable development principles in the way we plan, deliver, and monitor the management of assets.
• Oversee the delivery of a property rationalisation plan to reduce the portfolio by up to 50%, lowering building maintenance and utility costs: with an increased emphasis on asset transfer and energy efficiency. 
• Work in partnership with managers, staff and trade unions to create inclusive workspaces that support staff wellbeing and better service delivery. Workspaces will be consistent, well equipped, and fit for purpose. Support a shift to more people working remotely, helping them to build on progress made during the pandemic and better understand the benefits of remote working.
• Strengthen ongoing management and maintenance of buildings to ensure that facilities are delivered in the cost efficient and sustainable way whilst meeting the needs of building users.
• Ensure the development of strategies and plans to support sustainable development and contribute to Net Zero Carbon targets. Encourage and empower staff to be innovative when commuting to the workplace and when travelling as part of their day-to-day work.
• Work in partnership with the wider public sector, through the PSB, to make best use of resources across organisations in Carmarthenshire.
• Present staff with increased choice and opportunity to live and work in their local communities promoting a good work/life balance and wellbeing. Ensure that accommodation, systems, and technologies are available to staff to support this hybrid model of working.

4.    What are our priorities for the coming year and beyond?

• Develop a strategic Office Accommodation plan 2023 – 2028 to deliver rationalisation of the estate. This plan to be agreed and signed off corporately by January 2023.
• Deliver accommodation plan:
  • Carmarthen:
    • Confirm Carmarthen town workplace requirements for all services by November 2022.
    • Review County Hall and 3 Spilman Street considering, mechanical and electrical constraints and office layouts to increase capacity by January 2023.
    • Update the fire management plans for 3 Spilman Street and County Hall by January 2023.
    • Relocation plan for different services by December 2022.
    • Produce a phased plan for moves by December 2022.
  • Ammanford:
    • Deliver report on condition and refurbishment costs of Ammanford Town Hall. Complete.
    • Work with Housing to develop a plan for Old Library and the Cennen Centre by February 2023.
    • Develop a plan to optimise use of Ty Parc-yr-hun by February 2023.
  • Llanelli: 
    • Implement new layouts for 1st and 2nd Floor Ty Elwyn to support hybrid working and increased workplace capacity by November 2022.
    • Relocate Housing staff from East Gate to Ty Elwyn by November 2022.
    • Review occupation proposals for the remainder Ty Elwyn with a view to consolidating staff from Eastgate and Town Hall into Ty Elwyn by February 2023.
    • Create a sub-letting plan for Eastgate by February 2023.
• Review delivery of multi-agency hubs in the 10 towns by March 23.
• Deploy the ‘Occupeye’ Resource Management and booking system by January 2023.
• Develop an integrated travel and parking plan for retained buildings by January 2023.
  • With parking rationale for County Hall and Spilman.
• Set up 6 corporate hybrid meeting spaces across the county, available to all through a booking system. Complete. 
• Develop a set of performance and outcome measures for assets and monitor at a corporate level by January 2023.
• Collect and review the data gathered by the Occupeye system by March 2023.
• Review the role of the ‘Premises Responsible Person’ (PRP). Develop options and suggestions on a way forward to deal with the responsibilities of the role in a hybrid environment by June 2023.

5.    How will we measure the impact of this work?

• Supporting workforce/service efficiency & wellbeing
• Revenue & capital savings
• Environmental benefits
• Building utilisation
• Numbers of staff working remotely on a regular basis
  • (Occupeye?)
  • ICT logon data from ICT systems
  • Chubb door entry system

Workforce

1.    Overall aim

To oversee the development of a Workforce Strategy and delivery of key workforce priorities to enable the Council to become a more modern and responsive organisation and an ‘Employer of Choice’.

2.    What do we need to transform and why?

Employees are the organisation’s most important asset and account for approximately 60% of total expenditure. The future recruitment, retention, development, and well-being of our workforce will be key to the delivery of a successful Transformation Programme and to the Council’s wider strategic objectives. 

A number of managers have observed that the ability to create a flexible, more dynamic workforce which can respond to fluctuations in service demands, would be the biggest contributory factor in allowing them to transform their services. Workforce recruitment is one of the biggest challenges currently facing the organisation and there will be need to think differently about how we respond to these challenges.

Workforce Planning will be critical to forecasting and identifying current and future organisational needs. Age profile analysis indicates that a low proportion of the workforce is under 25, and as the workforce ages (over 50% of our workforce are over 45 years of age), there is a need to ensure that service delivery is sustained into the future.

The implementation of a new Staff Recruitment system will support with the adoption of modern working practices that also meets the needs of managers and applicants.

There will be a need to review current HR policies to ensure that they are fit for purpose and help the Council in meeting its ambitions of becoming a more modern and flexible organisation. This will need to dovetail with and complement change in other areas of the Council, such as office rationalisation and the move to hybrid and digital working.

There will also be a need to ensure that our workforce is equipped with the required skills and behaviours to support the type of change and transformation required across the organisation. 

In order to measure our investment in staff, we have signed up to the Investors in People (IiP) standard which provides external benchmarking against and international standard.  The current review is taking place in October 2022, which will provide objective feedback for us to use improve.

3.    Key Objectives

• Further develop and strengthen the Authority’s strategic workforce management framework to support the Council in becoming an ‘Employer of Choice’.
• Further develop the Councils approach to Workforce Planning to provide the capacity and resilience to deliver its strategic objectives and anticipate and meet future needs.
• Ensure that the Council is able to make effective use of data to strengthen the performance and strategic management of its workforce.
• Make effective use of technology to help modernise key workforce processes and procedures.
• Strengthen the Council’s approach to the recruitment, retention, and flexibility of its workforce.
• Ensure that the Council staff are equipped with the necessary skills and behaviours to support the effective implementation of the modernisation and transformation agenda to enable the Council to deliver on its wider aims and objectives.
• Continue to strive to improve the health and wellbeing of our workforce.

4.    What will be our priorities for the coming year and beyond?

• Develop a new Workforce Strategy for the organisation which will set out the ‘people’ related aims and delivery priorities by December 2022.
• Develop a comprehensive Workforce Data Framework and ongoing monitoring and review mechanisms at a corporate level by June 2023.
• Work with the LGA to implement a pilot Workforce Planning pilot project within Social Care/Children’s Services and then roll out a similar approach across other services – by June 2023.
• Complete the implementation of new Staff Recruitment process and system by September 2023.
• To develop a Strategy and initiatives to attract, recruit and retain talent in the context of a contracting workforce by June 2023.
• Investigate opportunities to reduce agency and other staffing costs (corporate & schools) including the potential to establish an in-house agency/supply function and /or staffing hub by September 2023.
• Fully implement the new Learning Management System to support the provision of targeted Learning & Development interventions that support the strategic aims of the organisation while streamlining processes by September 2023.
• Further develop the Council’s Leadership and Management framework to support the workforce to transform and deliver by March 2023. 
• Implement Future Workforce Programme to encompass graduate, apprenticeship and work experience opportunities which are aligned to workforce planning priorities by January 2023.
• Undertake a review of relevant HR policies to support the development of a more flexible and dynamic workforce by June 2023.
• Develop a business case to support the adoption of a more commercial opportunities in respect of the Council’s Occupational Services by January 2023.
• Increase staff engagement initiatives across the organisation by June 2023.

5.    How will we measure the impact of this work?

• Reduction in sickness levels
• Reduction in staff turnover rates
• Exit Surveys – findings/themes
• Increase in levels of staff engagement 
• Applicant to interview ratio (are we attracting the right staff) for internal and external applicants
• Job acceptance rate
• Win/lose ratio (where are we attracting candidates from/where are we losing candidates to)

Service Design & Improvement

1.    Overall aim

To provide for a more sustainable and creative approach to the review, remodelling, and improvement of Council services.

2.    What need do we need to transform and why?

As a Council, we are proud of the quality of the services that we are able to provide. We have worked hard to increase efficiency in individual services and maintain or improve frontline services in the context of reducing resources. However, to get the best out of the resources available, we need to think differently about how we deliver our services.

This workstream will aim to provide for a more evidence based and sustainable approach to the improvement and remodelling of Council services. Previously, there has been concerns that the Council was not making best use of TIC capacity and that the team’s work was not sufficiently aligned to support the Council’s priorities in respect of service improvement.  

There were also concerns over the pace and delivery of TIC reviews and follow-up improvement plans, and that often the change and improvement generated by these interventions were short-lived and seemed to diminish significantly when TIC resources and governance was withdrawn. 

There will be greater use of data and information to inform the review programme, and it is likely that CMT quarterly performance monitoring reports will be the main source of review requests. Suggestions for reviews may also come directly for Directors or Heads of Service or via elected members.

The current TIC review methodology and any follow-on re-design of processes, will continue to be based on the requirement to identify and best meet the needs of our customers, ensure effective use of data and have evidence-based decision making and to seek all opportunities to eliminate waste and bureaucracy. However, the principles of providing good customer care and having robust and effective performance and workforce management practices have also been integrated into the approach.

Understanding the needs and priorities of service users has been central to the approach adopted as part of previous TIC reviews. There is now an opportunity to take this further and actively involve service users in the review process, especially when looking at options for redesigning processes or the remodelling of service delivery. This emphasis on a ‘co-production’ approach has clear benefits in helping users shape the future of the service around their specific needs.

One of the key lessons learned from undertaking previous TIC reviews has been the need to develop mechanisms to ensure that any changes brought about by the review, result in long term, sustainable change, and improvement. The commitment of leaders within the service to ensure that changes arising from reviews are fully implemented will be key to this, but there will also be a need to develop mechanisms to provide on-going monitoring at a corporate level. The Transformation Team’s project signing off processes will be strengthened and will require services to identify a suite of measures which can then be used to support the on-going monitoring and oversight of performance at a service and corporate level.

3.    Key Objectives

• The key objectives for the workstream are to:
• Develop a strategic, evidence-based, and inclusive approach to the identification of transformation reviews and projects with a view to ensuring that the review programme is focussed on supporting key Council objectives and priorities.
• Develop a 3-year rolling programme of reviews.
• Support the development and adoption of an innovative and inclusive approach to the undertaking of reviews, where all relevant stakeholders are effectively engaged in the process.
• Monitor the delivery programme to ensure that reviews are completed in a timely manner and deliver on required outcomes.
• Ensure that robust governance arrangements are in place at the outset of each review to ensure that projects have strong leadership and capacity to undertake the review.
• Oversee the development of robust delivery plans and ensure that these plans maximise  the opportunities to deliver transformational change and improvement.
• Oversee the closure, sign off and post evaluation stages of reviews and identify opportunities to share learning and good practice with the rest of the organisation.
• Make effective use of performance data and other information to ensure sustainability of outcomes from reviews post closure and sign off.
• Develop an internal ‘customer evaluation framework to enable the Transformation Team to continuously review and improve our own project practices.
• Develop and implement a model to support a ‘self-help’ approach to the review of service processes.

4.    What will be our priorities for the coming year and beyond?

• Review the position of previous TIC reviews currently still within the delivery/implementation stage and apply the appropriate sign off processes including the production of data to support on-going monitoring at a corporate level by April 2023.
  • Housing Repairs
  • Property Design
  • Planning Enforcement
  • Pensions
  • Risk Management
• Undertake a service review of the Transport Maintenance Unit by June 2023.
• Develop clear and transparent process to support the identification of future service reviews to be undertaken as part of the Transformation Programme by March 2023.
• Undertake a programme of strategic reviews of key cross-cutting priorities to ensure the effective use of resources and better outcomes for end users. On-going.
• Develop a consistent methodology to support the undertaking of reviews and re-modelling within services by March 2023.
• Develop a self-approach to the review of services by March 2023.

5.    How will we measure the impact of this work?

• Establishing baseline performance measures for each review undertaken and use existing (or temporary) measures to review impact of service improvements.
• Tangible measures of improvement could include:
  • Increased customer satisfaction results.
  • Improvements in performance measures.
  • Reduction in complaints.
  • Delivery of cashable savings.
  • Productivity increases.
  • An increase in demand and or income.
• Establishing baseline performance measures for each review undertaken.

Customers & Digital Transformation

1.    Overall aim

To continue to make better use of technology to deliver smarter, efficient service processes, to deliver a better experience for customers and allow for transactions to be completed wherever possible.

2.    What need do we need to transform and why?

The Programme’s digital priorities have been re-focussed during the last 12 months to take account of the learning from the Covid-19 pandemic, both in terms of addressing the barriers which impacted on the ability of some staff to work remotely, and also due to the need to act on the opportunities to capitalise on the smarter, better ways of working which had been adopted during this time. 

One of the findings from the Strategic Review of the Council’s response to Covid-19 was that the Council was still heavily reliant on a range of paper-based processes (e.g., incoming, and outgoing mail, invoices, timesheets and signing of documents and forms requiring wet signatures) which had required some staff to attend office bases during the period of the pandemic. The Council had already been working towards rationalising and automating a number of these processes during the pre-pandemic period, but the experience of the last two years has further highlighted the need to press ahead with these changes, and to achieve some of the associated financial and environmental benefits that these changes will also deliver. A programme of process automation work is already underway, and a business case has been approved to support the implementation of an ‘E-Signatures’ platform and a ‘Hybrid Mail’ solution is also being piloted in a number of services. 

The majority of what were previously categorised as office-based staff, now have the equipment to work remotely, but there is a need to ensure that we achieve the real benefits from genuine mobile working by maximising the number of work tasks that can be undertaken remotely without having to need to attend a fixed base, such as an office or depot.

Technology has acted as a key enabler to allow services accessed and delivered in alternative ways during the pandemic. The way that staff and customers have adapted to these changes has also increased expectations about the use of technology moving forward. New technologies can play a key role in modernising services by allowing them to be delivered in a way that provides better outcomes for customers, with fewer resources and reduced costs, although this often requires an initial financial investment. In addition, increasing numbers of people are seeking faster and more flexible ways to access services and information. 

Therefore, digital transformation is expected to play a central role in the future design and delivery of services. Data collected from a range of LA’s by SOCITM shows that web contact is 5% of the cost of a phone contact, which in turn is less than a third of the cost of a phone contact. In addition to being significantly cheaper, fully integrated web services also offer other additional benefits, as they are available 24hrs per day, are often faster, can reduce workload and suit the preference of the individual service user. They offer an opportunity to make significant savings and deliver better, more accessible services. 

The Council has already embarked on a programme of work which is looking to improve the way that it manages and responds to customer contacts. This will aim to ensure that contacts are managed in a timely manner and are dealt with at ‘first point of contact’, where possible.

The use of technology, and especially the integration of IT systems, will be key to supporting this approach and ensure that the most efficient ‘end to end’ process is adopted. The Council will only be able to fully maximise the benefits of greater take-up of online provision if it is able to ensure that the associated back-office processes are as efficient as possible, so that the move to digital options does not result in the automation of waste and inefficiency into the electronic version of the process.

Increasing the number of services provided online does not mean that traditional ways of accessing the Council should be deliberately downgraded or removed, and ensuring the sustainability of face to face and telephone options will still need to be a priority for the Council. The Council’s Contact Centre and Hwb facilities will support those digitally excluded customers. We will aim to ensure that the customers have a choice to utilise the channel that best meets their needs. 

As more services look to the use of technology, and commission specific IT systems to support the automation of service processes, there will be more of a reliance on the effective integration with existing core IT systems.

The Council has established a dedicated fund to provide investment of £200k per year to support digital transformation projects across the organisation; there may be a need to increase this funding to keep pace with future service expectations and technological advances. The Council is already making use of AI technology for undertaking some back-office tasks, and the next phase of the Digital Transformation programme will look to extend the roll out of this approach across other relevant functions. The use of Chat Bot and Live Chat in our customer contact services, together with further promotion of a self-help approach, will continue to expand the ways that customers choose to access our services. However, there will be a need to ensure that the pace of digital related developments also matches the needs and capabilities of staff and service users.

3.    Key Objectives 

• To support the delivery of priorities within the Council’s Digital Transformation Strategy for the organisation. 
• To lead a significant programme of change and transformation which will seek to rationalise and/ or automate transactional processes which can lead to improvements in cost and quality of services. 
• To consider investment proposals relating to digital technology solutions and make recommendations to CMT for the allocation of revenue/capital expenditure.
• To help the authority move towards the objective of being a paperless organisation.
• Reduce the number of enquiries/requests received by Contact Centre by encouraging customers to access services online and seek to reduce the overall number of enquiries which could be classed as failure demand.
• Increase the number of requests dealt with at a first point of contact within the Contact Centre through providing enhanced access to information and systems.
• Seek to increase take-up of self-service facilities through further development of the Council’s website and ensure that this provides for ‘end to end’ automation of processes.
• Improve the customer experience by seeking to rationalise and centralise web portal access points to transactional services. 
• Promote the use of user engagement activities as part of the review and development of IT systems.
• Increase the levels of levels of digital accessibility and skills amongst service users.
• Identify other services currently provided by the Contact Centre where a Hwb type model could be adopted.
• Identify invest to save opportunities to support the implementation of digital related solutions.

4.    What will be our priorities for the coming year and beyond?

• Complete the roll out E-Signatures project to 5 priority areas and undertake a post evaluation before further roll out to other potential areas by December 2022.
• Complete pilots of Hybrid mail pilot projects and identify programme of further roll out in other areas by December with a view to full implementation where appropriate by June 2023.
• Complete the automation of invoices relating to utility services and develop a plan to automate other high-volume invoices by March 23.
• Undertake post evaluation exercise in respect of the recent time-sheet automation projects in Social Care and Building Cleaning by January 2023 and identify the potential to roll-out to other services in Environment and take account potential system development requirements by March 2023.
• Implement a soft-launch of eBilling and Account Management of Council Tax / Revenues Services by April 2023 with a wider roll-out and promotion of eBilling to our customer throughout 2023.
• Complete a position statement on mobile working/telephony across the authority with a view to identifying further opportunities to extend this to other services or to identify/address barriers which may be preventing optimum use by March 2023.
• Following on from above, identify the cost/benefits of digitising of information to support remote/mobile working by June 2023.
• Implement a Chat Bot pilot in Waste Services as part of the roll out of the new Waste Strategy – pilot to completed for green waste services by January 23 with full out to be completed by April 2024.
• Work with specific priority services (Housing and Waste Services in first instance) to identify opportunities to increase the number of enquires/requests dealt with at first point of contact through extension of the Hwb facility and / or further development of online options - Waste Services by June 2023 and Housing Services by December 2023.
• Identify customer contacts being received directly by departments and whether these could potentially be dealt with in a Contact Centre to the benefit of the customer/end user by March 2023.
• Ensure there is sufficient IT capacity to continue to support the financial system developments to further deliver efficiency/productivity savings with greater integration and automation into our Corporate Financial Management System (Agresso). Priorities agreed via the Governance Board - Ongoing.
• Investigate opportunities to rationalise customer access points to web services – June 2023.
• Build the Corporate Power BI environment to fully enable the council and service departments to better understand and analyse their data to help improve business intelligence and decision making by March 2023.
• Identify a priority list of services/functions where the introduction of RPA (Robotics Process Automation) & (AI) Artificial Intelligence that could potentially result in smarter, more efficient processes and deliver cash savings by June 2023.
• Continue to facilitate the migration of legacy on-premises systems to vendor cloud hosted managed services: 
  • Web Recruitment by December 2022
  • Social Care (3 year project by April 2024)
  • Housing Repairs by April 2024           
  • Housing (2 year project completed by April 2024)
  • Revenues & Benefits by April 2024
• Deploy an “Internet of Things” innovation network across key areas of the County as part of the All-Wales network. An open innovation network for the council and our partners, businesses, and citizens to trial various IoT use cases and service transformations by April 2023.
• Develop a business case to support the implementation of “Internet of Things” facility across Council services/functions. Use cases and trials across selected public services by March 2023.

5.    How will we measure the impact of these changes?

• Productivity/transactional improvements
• Rationalised processes
• Financial savings
• Customer engagement
• Improved Business Continuity and Service Resilience​

Schools

1.    What do we need to transform and why?

To assist schools in identifying cost reductions and better ways of working and support the development of sustainable school budgets and help protect front line academic provision.

2.    What do we need to transform and why?

The TIC Schools’ Programme was established in 2017 to support our schools as education budgets come under increasing pressure whilst schools strive to maintain high quality outcomes for children and young people. The programme aims to apply the core TIC principles of collaborative working and challenging existing practices by engaging with schools to support head teachers and governing bodies in taking advantage of cost saving opportunities across a wide range of activities.

A key focus of the programme to date has been to work with schools to identify alternative procurement arrangements for a range of support services, and this work helped deliver over cost reductions of over £1million to date. These have included printing and copying, telephone services, stationery and educational resources and waste and recycling, among others. Moving forward, it will be necessary to continue to raise awareness of these opportunities and encourage schools to maintain a focus on achieving Best Value and consider the most efficient deployment of resources in their spending plans, particularly when there are changes in leadership. This can be achieved through regular newsletters and formal engagement sessions with school governors which have taken place in the past.

The programme has also sought to improve the quality and value for money of a range of operational services provided to schools including building cleaning, property maintenance and grounds maintenance. These reviews have generated a number of positive outcomes including the introduction of the Property ‘Handyvan’ Service for schools which has the potential to deliver significant change and improvement in the quality of the service received by schools. Early feedback from primary head teachers on the service suggests that it is having a positive impact and it is hoped that, following the current pilot phase, schools will be willing to fund the service direct from school budgets in the future.

Another key activity promoted by the programme is the sharing of good practice in planning for efficient budget setting and making savings in all areas of school operation by using locally derived benchmarking data to enable schools to compare their spending with others. Enabling schools to compare themselves with others in the county across a range of curriculum, staffing and operational areas rather than operating in isolation has enabled open dialogue and good practice to be shared between schools in terms of operating more efficiently. For example, a number of schools have reviewed their staffing profiles in light of information in the benchmarking documents and revised their TLR structures leading to savings and leaner structures. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the efficacy of schools’ financial data which has meant that the benchmarking activity has been curtailed over the past two years, but it is planned to re-energise this work in the coming months and into the next academic year.

The use of financial efficiency templates to provide schools with a financial ‘health-check’ has also been trialled with a number of individual schools and it is hoped that it will be possible to develop this in the future alongside the benchmarking work to support schools in developing sustainable budgets. These reports can also be used to contribute to the evidence base in considering business plans and decision making in the context of the MEP review.

Over the past two years, the programme has become more embedded more firmly in the work of the Access to Education division within the Education and Children Department, in particular through contributing to the MEP review which is considering the future sustainability of the school footprint across the Authority. This has included ongoing work to develop a new programme of School Suitability assessments and supporting with school capacity calculations, all of which contribute to the strategic MEP review.

3.    Key Objectives

• To support schools in identifying ways of developing sustainable financial budgets in the short, medium and long term and ensure that this work is aligned with the Council’ Sustainable Learning Communities Programme.
• To engage Governing Bodies in discussions in relation to potential efficiencies and costs savings within school budgets.
• To develop a framework to share and disseminate good practice across schools.
• To work closely with key Council services to identify data and information which can be used to inform discussions with schools in relation to potential savings opportunities e.g. staffing structures, business support, class sizes.
• To further develop and enhance the role of strategic procurement within schools and to support the use of appropriate frameworks to ensure value for money from school expenditure.
• To support a re-modelling of the relationship between schools and key Council services in relation to areas of delegated spend e.g. property and grounds maintenance. 
• To develop mechanisms to support data benchmarking across the county’s schools in relation to key areas of expenditure.
• To work with the Council’s HR Unit and Headteachers with a view to reducing expenditure relating to sickness absence, and recruitment and selection, including the use of supply teachers.

4.    What will be our priorities for the coming year and beyond?

• Carry out Expenditure / Routine Spend Benchmarking activities and share data with secondary schools to stimulate discussion and facilitate sharing of good practice in sustainable budget setting by November 2022.
• Develop and extend the use of Financial Efficiency templates with identified schools to support and challenge those in financial difficulty. Initial priority schools by March 2023.
• Review the impact of Schools’ Property ‘Handyvan’ Service initiative to ensure cost effectiveness for schools and the LA and inform sustainable future development. Initial report and evaluation complete, ongoing monitoring with final evaluation by February 2023.
• Continue and embed recommendations from the review of Grounds Maintenance to support schools with a more efficient and cost-effective service by March 2023.
• Investigate high expenditure areas in school budgets, e.g use of agency/supply  and establish links with the wider corporate agenda. Align with corporate work in this area by June 2023.
• Investigate cluster/shared approaches to back-office functions in schools to utilise economies of scale and more efficient working, especially in smaller primary schools by July 2023.
• Implement findings of Review of SLAs across departments and with schools. Review recommendations by March 2023.
• Continue to identify savings opportunities for schools from corporate procurement contracts and communicate these to schools to ensure Best Value approaches to services and key expenditure areas. Ongoing. 
• Utilise the regular School Operations Briefings and ECS Newsletters to communicate and share good practice in all financial matters. Ongoing. 
• Continue with the rolling programme of School Suitability Surveys as part of the wider review and implementation of the Sustainable Communities for Learning (MEP) programme. Ongoing, secondary schools to be completed by December 2022.
• Lead on the Rising 4s project to identify a more efficient and cost-effective nursery provision in schools by March 2023.
• Undertake review of Catchment areas in line with the Sustainable Communities for Learning (MEP) programme. To be confirmed as aligned with SCL review.
• Support the ALN department in developing more cost effective funding models for mainstream and specialist ALN provision in schools and specialist unit by March 2023.

5.    How will we measure the impact of this work ?

• Financial efficiencies for schools
• Overall impact on school budgets
• Service improvement
• Contribution to system change

Decarbonisation and Biodiversity

1.    Overall aim

To support the Council in delivering transformational change in support of key NZC objectives and targets.

2.    What need do we need to transform and why?

At a meeting of Full Council in February 2019, the Council declared a ‘climate change emergency’ and unanimously agreed to become a Net Zero Carbon authority by 2030. Achieving NZC by 2030 will require the delivery of a range of ambitious actions and targets as set out within a Carbon Reduction Plan which in turn will require the involvement and commitment of services across the Council.

The Council has now furthered its commitment in both and declaring a Nature Emergency and in establishing a cross-party Advisory Panel to provide advice to Cabinet on the development and implementation of policies and programmes to deliver the transition to net zero by 2030 and address the nature emergency.

To date the Council has adopted a phased and pragmatic approach in providing an early priority focus on reducing its own emissions and decarbonising its own estate. That work has resulted in a reduction of 14% overall carbon emissions to 2021, but it is recognised that transformational change will be required across the authority if we are to deliver net zero by 2030. Key areas will include further demand reduction and decarbonisation of our energy use, decarbonisation of our procurement, supply chain and built infrastructure, coupled with focussed approach to land use management and offsetting, if key objectives are to be achieved. 

This will need to work in parallel with work of projects undertaken as part of the current TIC programme which have sought to reduce the carbon cost of staff travel through the promotion of more sustainable meeting and travel options together with initiatives to rationalise printing and paper processes. 

3.    Key Objectives 

• To support the delivery of the Authority’s response to climate change and a nature emergency.
• Support the identification and delivery of carbon savings and nature enhancement at both a corporate and service level.
• To act as champions for decarbonisation and the enhancement of biodiversity within plans programmes, projects and other interventions designed in service areas.
• Identify opportunities for carbon savings through service design, development and delivery.
• To identify barriers to meeting the net zero target and in enhancing biodiversity within the authority at a strategic and project/ programme level.
• Review ‘carbon cost’ within service areas.
• Develop and monitor an approach to Carbon budgeting within service areas.
  • Encourage staff to think more innovatively in relation to commissioning and procurement activities and challenge existing ways of working. 
  • To recommend the actions that will decarbonise the Authority’s estate.
  • To work with and influence partners, including regional organisations and government to deliver actions that decarbonise the public sector. 
  • To align activity on asset management, decarbonising and land use across the Authority.
• To identify opportunities within the Authority’s remit to reduce our carbon footprint and address the nature emergency.
• Develop opportunities to engage with staff, other public sector partners and the public which demonstrate our commitment and encourage modal shift.

4.    What will be our priorities for the coming year and beyond?

• Develop a Carbon literacy programme for members by December 2023.
• Develop and roll out a Procurement Toolkit by March 2023.
• Develop a Land Use Plan for decarbonisation/ nature emergency by March 2023.
• Develop “carbon trajectories” by December 2022.
• Develop a methodology for carbon budgets by February 2023. 
• Report to WG on progress against public net zero commitment by March 2023.
• Pilot Carbon budgeting by June 2023.
• Roll out Carbon budgeting by September 2023.
• Develop External Communications plan by December 2023.

5.    How will we measure the impact of this work?

• Total carbon savings for each service area over time.
• Annual reporting on the “State of nature” report.
• Annual reporting on energy generation.

Governance and Approach

Governance 

One of the perceived strengths of the current TIC approach has been the governance arrangements for overseeing the management and delivery of the programme. A key objective of the TIC Programme Board has been to provide for ‘robust and inclusive governance arrangements that will aim to encourage and promote creativity, flexibility and learning across the organisation in support of sustainable change and transformation. but will also be underpinned by a comprehensive project and performance management approach to ensure effective implementation and delivery of required outcomes.’

The TIC ‘Taking Stock’ Review undertaken in 2019, identified the positive culture and environment created within the TIC Programme Board, which has engendered an honest and transparent approach to the Programme’s improvement work. The Board has also sought to strengthen its role in monitoring and overseeing progress and delivery of outcomes from the work programme. There is now an opportunity to further review the approach in this area and to bring for an even greater focus to the delivery aspects of the programme.    

It is proposed that the TIC Programme Board will be renamed the ‘Transformation Board’ and will now meet on a quarterly basis. These meetings will place greater emphasis on the progress and outcomes achieved in respect of the transformation priorities identified within the Transformation Strategy and annual Delivery Programme and to help identify solutions to problems or barriers that may be impacting on progress. 

It is also recommended that the membership of the Transformation Board is now be widened to include all Directors, and that it should also reflect some of the new priorities that are now to be incorporated within the Programme e.g., Workforce, Net Zero Carbon and the Accommodation/buildings priorities.

Delivery

Small, focussed Delivery Groups will also be established to support the implementation of each of the transformation priorities and these will be led by a Director/Head of Service.

Each Delivery group will produce an end of year summary and then agree a new delivery plan for the following year taking into account the priorities, as agreed at Transformation Board.

Quarterly progress meetings will be held with the Cabinet Member with responsibility for Transformation and 6 monthly updates will be reported to Cabinet.

Resources

The successful outcomes generated by the TIC Programme during the last 10 years, also demonstrates the importance of having dedicated resources to provide the necessary capacity to help deliver an effective organisational change and transformation programme. 

This capacity allows the programme to be developed and delivered in a structured and timely way and to drive actions, oversee progress and to support an effective monitoring and reporting framework.

The current TIC team will undertake this role but will now be renamed the ‘Transformation Team’.

Resources within the team may need to be reviewed to ensure that it has the capacity and skills to support the priorities outlined within the programme.

People, Skills and Culture

Staff engagement and communication

People will need to be at the heart of the process of delivering change and transformation across the Council.  Changing the culture of the organisation and pace of change will be imperative to ensure the delivery of an ambitious programme that will improve services, as well as making better use of resources.

We want to empower our workforce to be innovative and creative and to bring new ideas to improve services. It is not just ‘what’ we achieve, it is also about ‘how’ we do it. We want to foster a one Council culture that embodies positivity, personal responsibility, openness, and transparency. People will need to be empowered to be advocates of change and adopt our values and behaviours. These behaviours can create a shared culture that celebrates a fresh and unique approach to public service, and how we expect our workforce to behave. By demonstrating more outcomes and people focussed values and behaviours, we can help provide the best possible service to our communities and create a great place to work. 

Staff will have a range of opportunities to become involved within the Transformation Programme: 

• Staff Intranet
• Suggestions and ideas
• Participation in projects and reviews
• Passing on customer views and feedback
• Staff Surveys 
• Transformation Newsletter

Learning and Development

The Council’s learning and development function will also have a key role to play in any organisational transformation programme, by ensuring that staff are able to develop the necessary skills, knowledge and behaviours required to support the type of change required.

The Transformation Programme itself can also have a role to play in supporting the development of these skills and behaviours, by actively engaging staff in the work of the programme. 

One of the key themes to emerge from the review of the Councils response to the Covid-19 was that staff felt more empowered and were encouraged to think creatively when looking to develop new solutions to the challenges posed by the pandemic. The Programme should continually seek opportunities for staff to be actively engaged and participate in the projects and reviews that will underpin the delivery of the programme. The principles of collaboration and partnership working has been very much at the heart of the TIC approach and the new phase of transformation should look to further build on this approach.

The programme should also seek to develop the skills and knowledge required to support a sustainable approach to the transformation journey which will enable teams to resource their own change and improvement work on an on-going basis.

A Future Leaders Programme has been established to help the Council identify and develop its senior leaders and it has been agreed that the Future Leaders programme will be closely aligned with the Transformation Programme to provide participants with skills and experience in leading on transformation projects.

Learning and development activity will be aligned to supporting the delivery of the Transformation Programme through the following:

• Leadership – Directors& Heads of Service Development/Future Leaders Programme
• Management development Programmes
• Specific skills e.g. digital skills, continuous improvement