Update to be provided by the Director of Technical Services.

At the request of the Chair, Cabinet minutes and reports related to the Strategic Change Programme, from meetings held on 14 January and 22 July 2010, are attached for Members’ consideration.

Further to minute 43 (21/9/10) the Director of Technical Services provided an update on the Strategic Change Programme. The report outlined progress made to date including the establishment of the Strategic Change Programme Office (SCPO) under the Director of Technical Services and also of a Strategic Change Programme Board (SCPB).

A corporate project management system (ProjectVision, Cora Systems) had been procured and configured against the delivery arrangements established by SCPB. Training on the use of the system had begun and was due to conclude on 16 November 2010, for key project managers. Additional training for members and Chief Officers would take place as required.

The Director described the “decision gate” approach to programme delivery which had been developed. This approach established a number of decision gates projects had to pass through during the project life cycle. If a project failed to satisfy specific criteria, SCPB would not approve progression to the next stage. An assurance framework had been agreed and would be delivered by the Director of Finance, providing independent assurance of the programme to SCPB.

The Strategic Change Programme Board had provisionally agreed three delivery channels in which the projects would be categorised:

·  Strategic Change Projects – These projects will be managed using the delivery arrangements and assurance framework agreed by SCPB. The progress of these projects will be monitored by SCPB.

·  Business as Usual Projects – those projects which will be primarily managed through normal governance processes i.e. Cabinet decides, Executive Team implements, scrutiny monitors. However, some projects will be significant in terms of the efficiencies to be delivered or the risk to the organisation that SCPB will require some oversight.

·  DASS Programme - These projects have clear dependencies and linkages to each other and should be managed as a single programme.

The existing programme agreed by Cabinet on 14 January 2010, had been reviewed to establish if projects were still relevant to the Council’s objectives, had the ability to be delivered or could be enhanced or stretched to provide additional outcomes. Any new or emerging ideas had also been assessed by SCPB for inclusion.

All projects were awaiting SCPB approval. In some cases this approval was the continuance of an existing project, whilst in other cases it would be approval to start project delivery. There had been a further proposal to group these projects by themes, which might assist in the future development of the programme. These themes were draft at this stage and would be more fully developed following the consultation exercise and refresh of the Council’s Corporate Plan. The processes established in restating the change programme and monitoring its delivery allowed for the expansion of the programme, enabling emerging ideas to be developed into new projects under the “project conception” stage. These ideas were received from several quarters including the staff suggestion scheme, response from staff to the Leader’s emails, the recent MBA projects and members of the public. This process would also be applied to ideas and recommendations resulting from the recent consultation exercise.

Councillor P Davies expressed concern that the savings target had now gone up to £33m for the next year, although the Strategic Change Programme would not be identifying any savings until November.

The Director responded that it would be foolhardy to try and put figures on savings when all the work had not yet been completed but that he would be happy to provide these figures when they were available.

With the permission of the Chair, the Deputy Leader of the Council addressed the Committee and spoke of the need to make efficiencies across departmental boundaries as these had not been pursued in the past. The previous process had stalled because it was too overcomplicated but there was now more information available and greater transparency to the process.

With the permission of the Chair, the Leader of the Council addressed the Committee and expressed his thanks to the Director for all his work on the Change Programme in making it deliverable. A strategy was now in place which would deliver savings and the Director of Finance was signing off every project.

The Director stated that the new processes for the Change Programme which were now in place followed tried and tested industry management techniques which were far more robust than previous methods of managing change. A lot of savings would be made through reduced staffing costs and arrangements were in place to make sure these weren’t double counted with the current EVR offer.

The Chair referred to the Cabinet resolution of 22 July, 2010 which had given delegated authority to the Chief Executive to take all decisions relating to the Strategic Change Programme in consultation with the Programme Board and of the need for the Committee to be kept ‘in the loop’.

The Leader of the Council responded that he would be happy to explore a reporting model to keep Council and the appropriate Overview and Scrutiny Committees informed of decisions taken.

It was moved by the Chair and seconded by Councillor Hale,

“(1) That the officers be thanked for their updated report.

(2) That Committee recognises the adoption and development of robust and rigorous processes now being put forward.

(3) That Committee recognises and welcomes the reported involvement of staff in the process.

(4) That Committee does not accept the categorisation of the Strategic Change Programme as suggested in the Director’s report and Committee expects reports back on progress and involvement at key stages in the process.”

The Committee voted upon each part of the motion in turn as follows:

The first part was put and carried (10:0).

The second part was put and carried (5:4) (Councillors P Davies, Kenny, McArdle and Stapleton voting against)

The third part was put and carried (6:4) (Councillors P Davies, Kenny, McArdle and Stapleton voting against)

The fourth part was put and carried (10:0).

It was moved as an addition to the motion by Councillor P Davies and seconded by Councillor Stapleton –

“That proper discussions take place with the Trades Unions around the Strategic Change Programme.”

This motion was put and carried (10:0).

It was further moved by the Chair and seconded by Councillor Hale that –

“This Committee appreciates the opportunity to look at those issues in the Change Programme, which fall within its remit, at future meetings.”

As an amendment to this further motion it was moved by Councillor P Davies, seconded by Councillor Kenny, that –

“This Committee believes that all projects under the Strategic Change Programme should go through the Council’s normal governance processes. To that end, the Council’s Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee is keen to support the change programme by scrutinising all projects referred to in this report and asks the Director to produce a progress report to the next meeting of this Committee.”

The amendment was put and lost (4:6)

The further motion was put and carried (6:4) (Councillors P Davies, Kenny, McArdle and Stapleton voting against)

Resolved –

(1) That the officers be thanked for their updated report.

(2) (5:4) (Councillors P Davies, Kenny, McArdle and Stapleton voting against) That Committee recognises the adoption and development of robust and rigorous processes now being put forward.

(3) (6:4) (Councillors P Davies, Kenny, McArdle and Stapleton voting against) That Committee recognises and welcomes the reported involvement of staff in the process.

(4) That Committee does not accept the categorisation of the Strategic Change Programme as suggested in the Director’s report and Committee expects reports back on progress and involvement at key stages in the process.

(5) That proper discussions take place with the Trades Unions around the Strategic Change Programme.

(6) (6:4) (Councillors P Davies, Kenny, McArdle and Stapleton voting against) That Committee appreciates the opportunity to look at those issues in the Change Programme, which fall within its remit, at future meetings.