Agenda item
Structure & Staffing Review Implementation
On 13 October 2009 the Budget Panel received a presentation on Brent Council’s Improvement and Efficiency Strategy. The projects outlined in the strategy were designed to reconfigure the way the Council provides services to the public, at the same time as achieving substantial efficiencies. As part of its Budget Scrutiny role the Budget Panel asked for information on the progress of the Structure and Staffing review to be brought before them.
Minutes:
Graham Ellis (Director of Business Transformation) presented the report and answered questions from members on the implementation of the Structure and Staffing Review, a gold project in the Council’s Improvement and Efficiency Strategy action plan. Graham Ellis informed the Panel that this was one of the most important projects, with several purposes. For example, it would set the shape of the future Council alongside design principles, with the Chief Executive as the project sponsor. A minimum staffing reduction of 10% would be needed over the next four years. Discussions were taking place with staff, who were aware of the economic situation. An example of how the Council needed to modernise was the issue of spans of control. These were currently at too low a ratio with, for example, too many cases of one manager managing one or two members of staff. An industry-standard average of one to six had been cited by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). PwC had also drawn attention to the number of layers in the organisation, and in-depth reviews were taking place to address this.
Asked about staff morale, Graham Ellis told the Panel that what concerned staff was not knowing what was happening. It was the job of managers to talk to them, to minimise the impact of change and to keep looking to improve services. Managing change and engaging staff was not easy, but engagement was vital, and tools were available to monitor whether the necessary messages were being communicated.
Graham Ellis reported that the Council was looking at end-to-end services, and that the Chief Executive had talked about dealing with the economic pressures in a rational, intelligent way. Everyone understood that the future would not be the same as the past, and this was an opportunity to address issues and improve services. The more that could be done to plan, the more the Council would be in control of its own destiny. The review was still at the design stage, and Deloitte were helping with the programme management. The scope of the review might well change on advice from Deloitte.
Asked how quickly the projected savings of £8.5m could be quantified, Graham Ellis reported that this would be clearer after the feedback from Deloitte, in all likelihood before Christmas.
Addressing the issue of what could go wrong, Graham Ellis informed the Panel that most local authorities did not have experience of managing big change, and this was one of the reasons why the Council needed consultants such as Deloitte. Specific expertise was needed, and the scale of the project meant that it could not be done as part of managers’ day jobs. The challenging financial climate continued to be a risk, with some projects requiring investment, at the same time as aiming to make big savings. The Council had no illusions about the scale of the task.
Responding to specific questions about waiting times in the One Stop Service and delay in the assessment of a disabled person, Graham Ellis agreed to investigate issues brought to his attention.
Asked about the PwC view that the proportion of frontline staff was low, Graham Ellis told the Panel that the Council was aiming for a 50-50 split, but that it was important to rationalise customer access points and avoid duplication of the work of frontline staff. He recognised that there were sensitive services that could not be reduced, but took the view that elements of even those could be streamlined and rationalised. Services needed to be based around residents and customers. Services around children should have a family focus, for example. The aim was to give residents a better service at one access point.
The Chair thanked Graham Ellis, commending the review as a bold and necessary project.
RESOLVED:
that the report be noted.
Supporting documents:
- Structure & Staffing Review - cover report, item 6. PDF 65 KB
- Structure & Staffing Review Implementation - appendix, item 6. PDF 60 KB