Report of the Head of Communications and Community Engagement. 

The Principal Economic Officer presented a report by the Head of Communications and Community Engagement which updated the Committee on the Council’s Public Service Transformation initiative. Members were asked to comment on the latest developments and proposed activity as the project work streams moved into implementation from April 2014.

The report informed of the Council’s role in the Public Service Transformation (PST) Network.  The Committee noted that Public Service Transformation aimed to build on the opportunities created by Community Budgets around the country, leading to more joint working and shared services and a new way for local public service providers to work together to meet local needs. The Community Budgets Pilots, initially launched in 2011, aimed to encourage public service partners to share budgets, improving outcomes for local people and reducing duplication and waste in order to:

·  make better use of their resources by establishing joint budgets and sharing local knowledge, community assets and voluntary effort;

·  flex central rules and regulations so local partners could provide better services that suit their area;

·  give people greater control over their local public services; and

·  establish local partnership and governance arrangements to create a unified approach.

The Committee was informed that during 2012, four areas in England (Cheshire West, Essex, Greater Manchester, and in London the Tri-borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster) had begun piloting Community Budgets as a mechanism for tackling some of their biggest local challenges, from domestic violence to skills and employment. In each of those four localities, public services, business and the voluntary sector had been working together to develop new joint responses to those challenges.

The Committee was also informed that building on this approach, in July 2013, the Government had announced that Wirral was one of the nine new areas that had been selected to be part of the Public Services Transformation Network as set out below:

·  Bath and North East Somerset

·  Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset

·  Hampshire

·  Lewisham, Lambeth and Southwark

·  Sheffield

·  Surrey

·  Swindon

·  the West London Alliance (Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon and

Hounslow)

·  Wirral

Members noted that the Council’s broad approach to the Public Sector Transformation initiative was set out within the Joint Statement of Intent (JSI), attached to the report as Appendix 1.  Members also noted that Wirral’s Public Service Board (PSB) was providing the overarching direction for Public Sector Transformation activity, and partners had now developed a number of work streams as part of this.

A key point to note was that the PST initiative was one strand within a number of wider transformational initiatives for Wirral.  Members noted that the work stream projects outlined in the report would have a very specific focus on one strand of activity, but clearly there was also a range of related projects and delivery taking place across all public service agencies.

The Committee noted that Wirral’s JSI set out a focus on a number of priority themes, each with a specific work stream focus.  Each work stream had a project lead and a detailed project plan, currently being developed, which would set out the specific activity that would take place in the coming months.

Detailed business cases and project plans for each work stream were currently being developed.  It was noted that from April 2014, the work stream projects moved into detailed delivery and implementation. Ongoing updates would be brought to PSB meetings in order to monitor delivery, and to further refine the focus of the projects.

Members asked the Principal Economic Officer a number of questions relating to the report which she answered as appropriate.  Issues covered included:

·  Driving economic growth.

·  Measuring the success of a project – project proposals and cost benefit analysis.

·  How much could be saved and effectively delivered by putting projects together.

·  The use of the phrase ‘Benefit Ghettos’ which was actually used in a national report that the Principal Economic Officer agreed to circulate to Members for their information.

The Committee noted that a key principle running through all of the PST Network aimed to share local knowledge, community assets and voluntary effort, and to inspire communities to come together to find the right solutions to address local need.

RESOLVED:

That the proposed direction and focus of the PST Network work streams be noted.