Report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer and the City Solicitor attached

This report provides a summary of the development of ‘Our Transformation’, a wider business transformation programme for the organisation, building on the corporate core transformation work already in progress

The Committee considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer and the City Solicitor, which provided  a summary of the development of ‘Our Transformation’, a wider business transformation programme for the organisation, building on the corporate core transformation work already in progress.  The report was also supplemented by a more detailed presentation.

The main points and themes within the report and presentation included:-

·                The creation of ‘Our Transformation’ followed work to review and evolve the Corporate Core Transformation Programme to ensure that the programme was designed to deliver more radical change and be considered as a whole organisation approach;

·                The work also took into account the feedback from last year’s Beheard survey and follow up work where the message had consistently been that as an organisation, the Council had become too bureaucratic;

·                The work was a key driver in supporting the Council to achieve its goal of being a ‘well managed Council’, one of the seven key priorities set out in its Corporate Plan;

·                Details on a number of key priority pieces of work which were underway;

·                Proposals to scale up the work which had initially focused on the corporate core, provide governance and assurance and communicate and engage with the whole Council on the work

·                The Our Transformation Programme had an approved £500k savings target for 2019/20 and would be expected to deliver further savings going forward as part of the next Medium Term Financial Plan;

·                Internal engagement to date on the programme of work had been positive with a session at Senior Leaders Group dedicated to seeking feedback and encouraging involvement in the work from across the organisation;

·                Following the session a ‘call to action’ had led to a large number of individuals in a cross section of roles to come forward to be involved in the work; and

·                The Leadership Summit scheduled for 14 October would also be used to engage with the Council’s wider leadership, including in particular on the Accountability Framework.

The Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources commented that this was the start of a large fundamental piece of work that had the potential to change how the Council operated and requested Committee to bear this in mind in its scrutiny of item

Some of the key points that arose from the Committees discussion were:-

·                Members would have benefitted from examples of what was encompassed within the report to illustrate what the potential difference this piece of work could achieve;

·                The objectives of this piece of work appeared to be very inward facing and there was concern that there was no reference to actual outcomes that this piece of work aimed to achieve and how these would improve service delivery to Manchester residents;

·                There was a risk that part of the proposals around enhancing the digital experience could be interpreted that the only way residents could engage with the Council in the future was via the internet which would not be seen as empowering but rather limiting;

·                Members did not have a sense as to how the Our Manchester approach was integrating with Manchester residents;

·                It was felt that the terminology being used within these proposals was not Plain English and as a result unclear to residents as to what the Council was trying to achieve;

·                Given the reduction to the Council’s workforce, there was concern that staff had the capacity within their own duties to volunteer 1-2 working days of their time to contribute to the key priority pieces of work;

·                Was there any incentive for staff to volunteer to work on these priority areas;

·                It was still not clear to Members what was meant by the term Our Ways of Working and how this linked to the Our Manchester approach;

·                What value was the Our Manchester approach adding to Council services for residents

·                Clarification was sought in relation to reference to the creation of a bite size constitution;

·                It was felt that the decision making process was currently too lengthy and bureaucratic and there was a silo mentality across departments in terms of communicating decisions;

·                It was suggested that Members would benefit from being provided with two flow charts, one detailing how decisions were currently made and the other detailing how this process would be improved as a result of this work;

·                It was felt that in terms of the Accountability Framework, a number of the desired outcomes around Managers delivering their roles to the best of their abilities should already be in place;

·                Was the Council’s HR function engaged with this piece of work;

·                What was the role of the Chief Executive within these proposals; and

·                What would success look like.

The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer noted the concerns raised in relation to the focus of the report and lack of reference to actual outcomes that this piece of work aimed to achieve.  She explained that a lot of the focus of this work would be around how the Council ensured it was a ‘well managed and well run’ Council so that it could deliver services more effectively.  It was suggested that a future report could come to the Committee centred around some of the key priority pieces of work with a focus on outcomes and engagement. It was commented that if the Council did not focus on some of its internal processes, it would not be possible to enable managers and front line serves to work as effectively as possible.

The Committee was advised that an update to a previous recommendation made by the Committee in regards to the Our Manchester approach (minute RGSC/19/20 refers) would be provided to the Committee at its meeting in November.  It was also suggested that the Committee received an update at a future meeting on the progress that was being made with how the Our Manchester approach was integrating with Manchester residents and the value it was adding to Council services.

The Committee was advised that the request for volunteers to take part in the key priority pieces of work had been sent to Heads of Service and it was for them to identify capacity with their teams to take part.   There was no financial incentives to staff volunteering to take part in these pieces of work, however, these were being offered as personal development opportunities.  It was also an opportunity for individuals to tailor and amend areas of work that were causing difficulties in their roles.

The City Solicitor provided the rationale for the creation of a bite sized constitution and gave examples of how this could be used by staff.  She also acknowledged the point around the current decision making process being too lengthy and bureaucratic.  As part of this work, the Council’s Senior Management Team was working closely to address any issues connected to a silo mentality and this was part of the reason of evolving the transformation programme across the whole organisation rather than restricting it to just the Corporate Core.

The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer advised that in the past when the Council had been required to make substantial savings there had been a genuine need for the Council to have tight control around its decision making.  There was now an opportunity to take a step back and review how resources were being used and what was most appropriate. 

It was conformed that HR were fully engaged with this piece of work and in relation to the role of the Chief Executive in this process, she had overall responsibility for the delivery of the Council’s Corporate Plan, with one of the priorities within the plan being the delivering a ‘well managed council’.  he Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer proposed that the Committee received a further report in around six months’ time with more detail on progress, including practical examples of the difference being made.

Decision

The Committee:-

(1)       Notes the report; and

(2)       Agrees to receive a progress report at a future meeting, which will include practical examples of the difference being made as part of this piece of work