Agenda item
Realigning Corporate and Business Support Project
This report sets out the details of the two strands of the project, the first relating to administrative or business support functions and the second relating to specialist or professional support functions.
Minutes:
Frank Dick (Project Manager – Realignment of Corporate and Business Support) introduced the report and advised that the project was close to being fully implemented. The project was needed to obtain necessary savings, however it was recognised that there were savings elements in other projects too and there would be implications at a later stage as a result of the implementation of Project Athena. The other main driver was the requirement to make staff structural changes due to the move to the Civic Centre, with the intention of drawing business and administrative support services together. The project would enable services to be rationalised and improved and provide a single business support model and £1m savings for 2014/15 would be made, with part year savings in 2013/14. The new model had been devised following a look at how other London boroughs and local authorities delivered their business and administrative support functions. The committee heard that the number of business and administrative support managers had been reduced, however the changes also offered a more defined career structure for those working in these areas. This would help raise the professionalism of the service and this was reflected by the fact that non-managerial business support posts were graded from SO6 and upwards. Frank Dick advised that there may be up to 34 redundancies as a result of the changes, with around two thirds of these being from voluntary redundancies, however this was still subject to the final redeployment process.
Frank Dick advised that the business support structure would be fully staffed from around the middle of April 2013. The changes made would provide tangible benefits to front line staff and service delivery and an Improvement Plan would be set in place. For some services, a paper light approach would be appropriate, although it was acknowledged that other services would still require a larger element of paperwork. However, there was greater potential to make use of more technology in order to accommodate the reduction in staff. Turning to specialist support functions covering areas such as IT, legal and HR, Frank Dick advised that a further £1m savings would be made for 2013/14. Some posts were being removed, however these were largely vacant posts and all staff were expected to be in post by March 2013.
Members then raised some issues on this item and it was asked what the redundancy costs would amount to. It was queried whether the 34 overall reduction in posts all equated to redundancies and would new posts be created or realigned. It was also asked whether pension costs had been factored in and had voluntary redundancy been offered. Furthermore, an explanation as to why any external recruitment would be undertaken was sought as it was suggested that internal staff could be redeployed to prevent the risk of losing talented officers. A member asked if internal staff that had been retained were appropriately skilled and were the savings figures and level of services comparable with other local authorities. Another member commented that decentralising services could actually be beneficial as it would help the council remain more in touch with the community and clarification was sought with regard to whether staff would be re-assigned where there was extra demand. Further information was also requested in respect of staffing in Children’s Centres and if staff were absent at a particular locality, would staff from another locality be redeployed to it. The committee sought confirmation as to whether business support would function as paper light or paper free as it was felt that it would not be possible to operate with a total absence of paper. The total number of staff moving to the Civic Centre and who would monitor the effectiveness of the new structure was also queried.
In response, Frank Dick advised that the reduction in posts involved a number of managerial positions, although this was also being undertaken across all grades. The percentage of savings for other local authorities averaged around 20-25%, whilst the council’s was around 16-17%, although it was felt that this was a prudent level of savings and there were likely to be further changes once the service had bedded in within the Civic Centre. The committee noted that post reductions did not necessarily equate to the same number of redundancies, which were offered where deemed appropriate. Frank Dick explained that the job descriptions of Business and Corporate Support posts had changed as well as the basis of the grading, whilst a new post of Executive Business Manager located in the Chief Executive’s office had also been created. A number of the posts were now significantly different to their previous roles and required greater flexibility and all staff had undertaken a rigorous selection process to obtain their current posts. However, these services were still largely staffed by those who had been appointed internally and it was confirmed that voluntary redundancies had been made available for application. Frank Dick stated that some support staff would remain at Children’s Centres and the level of support would be determined by locality following discussions on arrangements. He acknowledged that paperwork was unlikely to ever be eliminated entirely and Business and Corporate Support staff continued to take a number of telephone calls and undertake signposting activities. The committee noted that the changes to support services would be regularly reviewed and a report was likely to be put to this committee around March/April 2014.
Peter Stachniewski advised that redundancy costs from the exercise had yet to be confirmed, however there had been provision for this in the business case which had taken into account redundancy and pension payments. In addition, it was noted that redundancies represented a one-off cost. However, the savings would be recurring and so offer longer term financial benefits and it had been acknowledged that the council needed to downsize in view of the fiscal pressures it faced.
Joanna Swinton-Bland (Head of Integrated Business Support) emphasised that a key objective was to upskill existing staff and to keep them within the organisation and provide them with all the opportunities they needed. Standards were also being raised and a number of training resources were available, such online training, IT skills and statement writing skills. The assessments determined whether staff had the appropriate skills and staff had commented that this was a fair and equitable assessment during feedback. Joanna Swinton-Bland explained that where there was excessive demand, it was likely that staff from the Civic Centre would be deployed to the locality concerned. She advised that the emphasis was to operate a paper light, as opposed to a paper free, service and opportunities to avoid using paper where possible were being looked at.
Supporting documents: