Well this is my final blog of 2009. I would just like to wish every body a happy Christmas and peaceful 2010, and thank you all for the tremendous effort and success that you have all delivered for the council over the past year. I appreciate it greatly.
Talk again in 2010...
Carlton
Friday, 18 December 2009
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Thursday 10 December 2009
This week Cabinet and CLT met for a full day together. We spent time revisiting the members' vision and their priorities for the next three years. We looked at the external constraints that we all face, the recession and the impact on public sector spending and considered how we factor these into our plans for the political term of the council. More importantly we explored how we will work together, in terms of the time that we need to spend together and also the key leadership issues around setting the right culture, communication, trust and us being clear about our values. It was good to spend some quality time together and we committed to repeating this regularly.
Today John Noeken, Resources Portfolio Holder and I are welcoming Cornwall Council to Trowbridge. Key Cabinet and Scrutiny members, including their leader are visiting us to understand and see how we have delivered Shared Services and SAP coupled with the cost reductions that we have achieved. It's always good to meet other councils and show case what we have achieved - much as we did a few years ago when we visited others who had already delivered their change programmes. The reason they are visiting us is down to all of you and the incredible change that you have all delivered this year.
We have been working this week on preparing a balanced budget for members. We are almost balanced, and in the next few weeks, we should be complete for 20010-11. The Chancellor's Pre-Budget Statement (PBS) yesterday echoed many of the actions that Finance have been predicting in the Medium Term Financial Strategy, so there were no real surprises for us in terms of the impact on our finances. The news of rises in National Insurance and the cap on public sector pay was expected but will hit individuals hard!
Thanks for reading and talk again next week.
Carlton
Today John Noeken, Resources Portfolio Holder and I are welcoming Cornwall Council to Trowbridge. Key Cabinet and Scrutiny members, including their leader are visiting us to understand and see how we have delivered Shared Services and SAP coupled with the cost reductions that we have achieved. It's always good to meet other councils and show case what we have achieved - much as we did a few years ago when we visited others who had already delivered their change programmes. The reason they are visiting us is down to all of you and the incredible change that you have all delivered this year.
We have been working this week on preparing a balanced budget for members. We are almost balanced, and in the next few weeks, we should be complete for 20010-11. The Chancellor's Pre-Budget Statement (PBS) yesterday echoed many of the actions that Finance have been predicting in the Medium Term Financial Strategy, so there were no real surprises for us in terms of the impact on our finances. The news of rises in National Insurance and the cap on public sector pay was expected but will hit individuals hard!
Thanks for reading and talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 4 December 2009
Friday 4 December 2009
It's getting very close to Christmas now so I thought I'd better take Monday off with Tracy and do some shopping. We managed to get most of it done in Bath which was completely empty versus its normal heaving self. In the pub by 1pm was a result from my perspective!
The Corporate Leadership Team met with Andrew Kerr, our new Chief Executive on Wednesday evening for dinner. It was a good opportunity to get to know him informally out side of the work environment. He starts with us in the second week of February. On Thursday I met him again for our first one-to-one where we discussed the major issues facing Resources at present; harmonisation of pay and conditions, the budget and efficiency, service performance and how we will develop quickly the community and customer agenda. It was a good discussion. My overarching impression of him so far was the need for pace - faster delivery of our vision and what we want to improve, as well as a shift in focus from internal improvement to external delivery. These both fit well with where I think we need to be moving.
Moving on from the strategic to the tactical, here is some news that I've been asked to include relating to our new contract for office stationery. We have a new supplier "Lyreco" for all stationery orders now live. The Lyreco stationery catalogue is now accessible via Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) on SAP. There will be a number of road shows on this week moving around hubs, to explain the new setup and explain how to order. The road shows are aimed at requisitioners but others are most welcome - book via Employee Self Service on SAP. The key driver for this change is improved value for money, quality and service.
Have a great weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
The Corporate Leadership Team met with Andrew Kerr, our new Chief Executive on Wednesday evening for dinner. It was a good opportunity to get to know him informally out side of the work environment. He starts with us in the second week of February. On Thursday I met him again for our first one-to-one where we discussed the major issues facing Resources at present; harmonisation of pay and conditions, the budget and efficiency, service performance and how we will develop quickly the community and customer agenda. It was a good discussion. My overarching impression of him so far was the need for pace - faster delivery of our vision and what we want to improve, as well as a shift in focus from internal improvement to external delivery. These both fit well with where I think we need to be moving.
Moving on from the strategic to the tactical, here is some news that I've been asked to include relating to our new contract for office stationery. We have a new supplier "Lyreco" for all stationery orders now live. The Lyreco stationery catalogue is now accessible via Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) on SAP. There will be a number of road shows on this week moving around hubs, to explain the new setup and explain how to order. The road shows are aimed at requisitioners but others are most welcome - book via Employee Self Service on SAP. The key driver for this change is improved value for money, quality and service.
Have a great weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Thursday 26 November 2009
Throughout the team last Friday, we held a host of events to raise money for Children in Need. I'm delighted to say that we raised a whopping £2,362.86p for the charity. This is a brilliant performance by the whole team and especially those that gave up their time and much effort to bake cakes, staff the stalls and generally get involved with all the doing. Well done to all.
I spent yesterday afternoon at Monkton Park with the Building Control team. It was a good opportunity for me to find out what they do and generally learn a lot more about their role. We also spent some time talking about the forthcoming harmonisation programme - the work to harmonise the pay and terms and conditions of all our staff. There are lots of rumours about this subject and what it may mean for individuals. I was able to stress that no decisions have been made yet, but that Cabinet this week have agreed the work plan to negotiate a collective agreement with the trade unions. More on this subject as the plans are developed.
This week has seen more staff engagement presentations for the Workplace Transformation Programme - this week in Trowbridge for about 300 plus staff. These sessions are going well and we are identifying many issues and worries that staff are expressing that we can then build into the programme.
I am in London tomorrow to meet with five other Corporate Directors from unitaries across the country. We will be sharing our collective learning and experiences on subjects such as harmonisation, inspection, culture change, programme management and leadership. These sessions really get me thinking and are always a source of new ideas to bring to our organisation.
Speak again next week. Have a great weekend.
Carlton
I spent yesterday afternoon at Monkton Park with the Building Control team. It was a good opportunity for me to find out what they do and generally learn a lot more about their role. We also spent some time talking about the forthcoming harmonisation programme - the work to harmonise the pay and terms and conditions of all our staff. There are lots of rumours about this subject and what it may mean for individuals. I was able to stress that no decisions have been made yet, but that Cabinet this week have agreed the work plan to negotiate a collective agreement with the trade unions. More on this subject as the plans are developed.
This week has seen more staff engagement presentations for the Workplace Transformation Programme - this week in Trowbridge for about 300 plus staff. These sessions are going well and we are identifying many issues and worries that staff are expressing that we can then build into the programme.
I am in London tomorrow to meet with five other Corporate Directors from unitaries across the country. We will be sharing our collective learning and experiences on subjects such as harmonisation, inspection, culture change, programme management and leadership. These sessions really get me thinking and are always a source of new ideas to bring to our organisation.
Speak again next week. Have a great weekend.
Carlton
Friday, 20 November 2009
Friday 20 November 2009
A very short blog today. Today is Children in Need day and across the whole of Resources in all of the hubs we are holding a huge number of events for our team to be involved with raising money for this exceptional cause - supporting children and young people in our local communities and our wider communities in other countries.
Many many people throughout the team have been involved in preparing for today but I must say thank you to Jacqui White for suggesting we all do something to support the cause. And also to Shirley Thompson Evans. Shirley works in the Shared Service Team Domiciliary Care Finance Team. She has approached numerous department stores, organisations and businesses for raffle prizes (including Harrods who donated a huge teddy). And we have a signed photo of Simon Cowell, who ever he is!
So please visit the numerous cake stalls and have your fill. Buy lots of raffle tickets to win some super prizes. Take part in the competitions on offer and finally if you want a real laugh, go and pay to watch Ian Winterbottom having his legs waxed for the charity!
Take care and have a good weekend.
Carlton
Many many people throughout the team have been involved in preparing for today but I must say thank you to Jacqui White for suggesting we all do something to support the cause. And also to Shirley Thompson Evans. Shirley works in the Shared Service Team Domiciliary Care Finance Team. She has approached numerous department stores, organisations and businesses for raffle prizes (including Harrods who donated a huge teddy). And we have a signed photo of Simon Cowell, who ever he is!
So please visit the numerous cake stalls and have your fill. Buy lots of raffle tickets to win some super prizes. Take part in the competitions on offer and finally if you want a real laugh, go and pay to watch Ian Winterbottom having his legs waxed for the charity!
Take care and have a good weekend.
Carlton
Friday, 13 November 2009
Friday 13 November 2009
I visited the Browfort hub on Monday to lead the Team Wire discussion. We talked about the "wicked" issues that are important to everybody at the moment, including pay harmonisation - what's happening and when?, the new chief executive - what's he like?, the budget - what's the current situation?, plans for work place transformation, culture - the values and behaviours in the organisation, ICT - what's working and what's not?, and the management restructure - why now? We had a good conversation for 90 minutes on these issues and I encourage all staff to do the same at their team meetings. These things are important and we must continually address them - to explain to all what's happening and why?
Tuesday was full council. The key business included approval of changes to member allowances, approval of the Core Strategy for the south (this identifies where the housing and business development will happen over the next 20 years), ratification of the appointment of the new Chief Executive, and a decision to include sprinklers into all new build schools. You can see from this the diversity of decisions that elected members take which affect our customers, communities and our organisation.
Today I am with the Department of Children and Education all day. We are looking at the budget situation over the next 4-5 years and will be developing outline commissioning plans for key services to improve service performance for our clients and customers whilst reducing cost at the same day. It will be a challenging, but fun day.
Thanks for reading and talk again next week. The Steam Museum was excellent by the way. My eight year old is a budding loco. driver which makes me so proud!
Carlton
Tuesday was full council. The key business included approval of changes to member allowances, approval of the Core Strategy for the south (this identifies where the housing and business development will happen over the next 20 years), ratification of the appointment of the new Chief Executive, and a decision to include sprinklers into all new build schools. You can see from this the diversity of decisions that elected members take which affect our customers, communities and our organisation.
Today I am with the Department of Children and Education all day. We are looking at the budget situation over the next 4-5 years and will be developing outline commissioning plans for key services to improve service performance for our clients and customers whilst reducing cost at the same day. It will be a challenging, but fun day.
Thanks for reading and talk again next week. The Steam Museum was excellent by the way. My eight year old is a budding loco. driver which makes me so proud!
Carlton
Friday, 6 November 2009
Friday 6 November 2009
Councillors this week have selected the next chief executive - Andrew Kerr who is currently the CEO at North Tyneside Council. This is subject to approval at full council next week. With the other corporate directors, I had the pleasure of talking with Andrew as part of the selection process. He is very inspirational and showed a real depth of knowledge about the issues we face in Wiltshire and the challenges that a new unitary organisation faces. North Tyneside is a unitary and has gone from strength to strength over the last few years. Andrew will be joining us in around three months time.
We held an afternoon at Monkton Park on Monday to brief around 100 staff about the Work Place Transformation Programme. It was a lively session with some great questions about how the change will affect staff generally and lots of questions specifically about ICT, car parking, hot desking, etc. Do please visit the web site for a full summary of the FAQs and other events that are coming up with respect to this important programme.
I was in London yesterday to attend the first Public Service Leadership conference. Attendees were from all elements of the public sector; the armed forces, civil service, local government, the NHS, higher education, police, probation and many others. We were addressed by Peter Housden, Permanent Secretary to the department of Communities & Local Government (CLG). He outlined some of the challenges ahead (including not surprisingly reducing expenditure) but also went on to talk about Total Place and the drive to join up currently separate public services into what he called a whole system approach for consumers. We are well placed in Wiltshire for this agenda. Our systems thinking approach to service redesign, which has delivered so well in adult care, highways as well as revenues and benefits and many others is all about a whole systems approach. We can expand this with our partners to tackle some of the difficult cross-cutting service issues that we jointly face.
Today I shall be with the service directors for a day to plan out the next five years for the department. We won't finish this in a day but we want to start to identify the direction that many of our services need to take to meet our customers' requirements, the councils corporate plan, our medium term financial plan and the forthcoming changes in central government policy and funding. It will be very interesting and I'll share this with you when we have it developed sufficiently.
Thanks for reading and catch up again next week. Have a great weekend - I'm off to the Swindon Steam Museum, somewhere I've been meaning to go for nearly three years since arriving in Wiltshire!
Carlton
We held an afternoon at Monkton Park on Monday to brief around 100 staff about the Work Place Transformation Programme. It was a lively session with some great questions about how the change will affect staff generally and lots of questions specifically about ICT, car parking, hot desking, etc. Do please visit the web site for a full summary of the FAQs and other events that are coming up with respect to this important programme.
I was in London yesterday to attend the first Public Service Leadership conference. Attendees were from all elements of the public sector; the armed forces, civil service, local government, the NHS, higher education, police, probation and many others. We were addressed by Peter Housden, Permanent Secretary to the department of Communities & Local Government (CLG). He outlined some of the challenges ahead (including not surprisingly reducing expenditure) but also went on to talk about Total Place and the drive to join up currently separate public services into what he called a whole system approach for consumers. We are well placed in Wiltshire for this agenda. Our systems thinking approach to service redesign, which has delivered so well in adult care, highways as well as revenues and benefits and many others is all about a whole systems approach. We can expand this with our partners to tackle some of the difficult cross-cutting service issues that we jointly face.
Today I shall be with the service directors for a day to plan out the next five years for the department. We won't finish this in a day but we want to start to identify the direction that many of our services need to take to meet our customers' requirements, the councils corporate plan, our medium term financial plan and the forthcoming changes in central government policy and funding. It will be very interesting and I'll share this with you when we have it developed sufficiently.
Thanks for reading and catch up again next week. Have a great weekend - I'm off to the Swindon Steam Museum, somewhere I've been meaning to go for nearly three years since arriving in Wiltshire!
Carlton
Friday, 30 October 2009
Friday 30 October 2009
And the weeks keep steaming by. As my 8 year old son keeps reminding me, it's nearly Christmas! We wrote his Christmas letter last night, his enthusiasm for which may have something to do with the fact that Playstation are about to release F1 2009 with Jenson in it for the PSP. He's a massive fan! Actually I have a copy too... it's very relaxing I find.
This week started with John Noeken, Cabinet member for Resources and I leaving my house at 4.45 in the morning for a quick blat down to Truro in Cornwall. We had to be there by 9 where we met their Cabinet and Chief Executive to discuss their plans for potentially adopting SAP or a similar Enterprise Resource Planning product to join up their finance, HR, procurement and payroll systems. It was a good day, and good to exchange ideas and views about the way forward in local government with respect to efficiency and cost reduction, especially as Cornwall went unitary at the same time as we did. They face many of the same challenges as we do. They will be visiting our shared service team to see how it all works.
I chaired the ICT Steering group yesterday. This group brings together all of the departmental customers and ICT itself. We review the current programme of work being delivered across the organisation (20+ projects at the moment including migrating 5 separate email systems onto a single system - due to complete in mid-November). We make any associated decisions required to ensure these programmes are delivered successfully. We also look at cross cutting issues emerging, such as asset management (who has all the kit, where it is and any changes we might need to make to this), security, developments required by the services to comply with government direction on service delivery. This latter point is particularly important in the services for children and your people at present, with the various organisational safeguarding reports released by Ofsted over the last 6 months requiring a tightening of security around key work processes. The team have delivered an incredible amount of work over the past few months and progress is going very well. Thank you to all those involved in this.
And another thank you to the payroll and shared service teams. They successfully went live last week with the payroll on SAP for Police, Fire and Probation services. This required a tremendous effort and was exceptionally well handled.
Thanks for reading. Talk again next week, and enjoy your Christmas shopping!
Carlton
This week started with John Noeken, Cabinet member for Resources and I leaving my house at 4.45 in the morning for a quick blat down to Truro in Cornwall. We had to be there by 9 where we met their Cabinet and Chief Executive to discuss their plans for potentially adopting SAP or a similar Enterprise Resource Planning product to join up their finance, HR, procurement and payroll systems. It was a good day, and good to exchange ideas and views about the way forward in local government with respect to efficiency and cost reduction, especially as Cornwall went unitary at the same time as we did. They face many of the same challenges as we do. They will be visiting our shared service team to see how it all works.
I chaired the ICT Steering group yesterday. This group brings together all of the departmental customers and ICT itself. We review the current programme of work being delivered across the organisation (20+ projects at the moment including migrating 5 separate email systems onto a single system - due to complete in mid-November). We make any associated decisions required to ensure these programmes are delivered successfully. We also look at cross cutting issues emerging, such as asset management (who has all the kit, where it is and any changes we might need to make to this), security, developments required by the services to comply with government direction on service delivery. This latter point is particularly important in the services for children and your people at present, with the various organisational safeguarding reports released by Ofsted over the last 6 months requiring a tightening of security around key work processes. The team have delivered an incredible amount of work over the past few months and progress is going very well. Thank you to all those involved in this.
And another thank you to the payroll and shared service teams. They successfully went live last week with the payroll on SAP for Police, Fire and Probation services. This required a tremendous effort and was exceptionally well handled.
Thanks for reading. Talk again next week, and enjoy your Christmas shopping!
Carlton
Friday, 23 October 2009
Friday 23 October 2009
It's been an important week this week with key decisions approved by Cabinet affecting the Resources Team.
The Work Place Transformation Programme received Cabinet approval, so we now start a 3.5 year programme to migrate staff and services from over 90 buildings down to less than 10 centred on our 4 hub model. This will save the authority over £85m during the next 25 years, and over £3m per year after the initial 2 year investment phase. Importantly it will provide our customers and staff with a modern environment within which to deliver excellent services.
Some of you may have seen Keith’s blog yesterday where he refers to the review of the senior management structure. As part of our drive to improve services and reduce costs we are undertaking this review, which was also considered by Cabinet this week.
The Corporate Plan for the next 4 years will focus on my Family, my Place, my Community and my Council rather than focus on individual services.
The launch of the area boards and the issues raised there has highlighted the need to work differently so that services can respond to the issues. This will mean stronger working across existing services or possible service amalgamations.
Structure reviews are already underway in the Department of Children and Education, Department of Community Services and have been completed in the Department of Resources on the lead in to One Council in April this year. The review, considered by Cabinet, looks at the Transport, Environment and Leisure (TEL) and Economic Development, Planning and Housing (EDPH) departments.
Another factor in reviewing our structure is the current economic downturn and the impact on income and the council's financial prospects make it more important than ever that we scrutinise costs. The review directly impacts on senior management and reducing the number of Corporate and Service Directors. It does not impact on front line service staff.
The appointment of a new Chief Executive will be key to implementing and delivering our vision and the senior management structure review will be shared and discussed with the successful candidate as soon as they are appointed.
Thanks for reading and talk again next week.
Carlton
The Work Place Transformation Programme received Cabinet approval, so we now start a 3.5 year programme to migrate staff and services from over 90 buildings down to less than 10 centred on our 4 hub model. This will save the authority over £85m during the next 25 years, and over £3m per year after the initial 2 year investment phase. Importantly it will provide our customers and staff with a modern environment within which to deliver excellent services.
Some of you may have seen Keith’s blog yesterday where he refers to the review of the senior management structure. As part of our drive to improve services and reduce costs we are undertaking this review, which was also considered by Cabinet this week.
The Corporate Plan for the next 4 years will focus on my Family, my Place, my Community and my Council rather than focus on individual services.
The launch of the area boards and the issues raised there has highlighted the need to work differently so that services can respond to the issues. This will mean stronger working across existing services or possible service amalgamations.
Structure reviews are already underway in the Department of Children and Education, Department of Community Services and have been completed in the Department of Resources on the lead in to One Council in April this year. The review, considered by Cabinet, looks at the Transport, Environment and Leisure (TEL) and Economic Development, Planning and Housing (EDPH) departments.
Another factor in reviewing our structure is the current economic downturn and the impact on income and the council's financial prospects make it more important than ever that we scrutinise costs. The review directly impacts on senior management and reducing the number of Corporate and Service Directors. It does not impact on front line service staff.
The appointment of a new Chief Executive will be key to implementing and delivering our vision and the senior management structure review will be shared and discussed with the successful candidate as soon as they are appointed.
Thanks for reading and talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 16 October 2009
Friday 16 October 2009
Today I had the pleasure of selecting the two winners of the competition that we ran at the recent Team Days. I can confirm that this was conducted "blind", fair, legal and all above board. The winners were:
Gemma Davies, DCS Central Finance Services - from the morning session
Ruth Long, Customer Care - from the afternoon session
Gemma and Ruth both correctly identified all of the words. Both came rushing in to collect their prizes today so I was able to congratulate them both personally. Well done to both of you.
At the recent DOR managers meeting, we identified that not all managers are currently recording staff absence in SAP Manager Self Service (MSS). It is vital that managers monitor and react to patterns of absence, and also that the organisation records staff absence in the system. If I could just remind us all to do this please. If anybody is unsure how to do this - and this is okay - then please contact the Shared Services Team who will be able to help.
On Wednesday, the service directors and I held a planning day where we considered a number of issues relating the wider Resources team and the organisation in general. We looked at the corporate priorities and objectives to be delivered over the next 4 years, the likely impact of the financial situation in the country and how this may impact us and our objectives. We discussed organisational culture and how this may affect our ability to deliver the ambitions of elected members. We also identified ways where we could potentially exploit the current challenges to the benefit of our customers. It was a very lively session with lots of great ideas for moving forward. We will develop these over the next few weeks and share them with you during the autumn.
Thanks for reading. Have a good weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
Gemma Davies, DCS Central Finance Services - from the morning session
Ruth Long, Customer Care - from the afternoon session
Gemma and Ruth both correctly identified all of the words. Both came rushing in to collect their prizes today so I was able to congratulate them both personally. Well done to both of you.
At the recent DOR managers meeting, we identified that not all managers are currently recording staff absence in SAP Manager Self Service (MSS). It is vital that managers monitor and react to patterns of absence, and also that the organisation records staff absence in the system. If I could just remind us all to do this please. If anybody is unsure how to do this - and this is okay - then please contact the Shared Services Team who will be able to help.
On Wednesday, the service directors and I held a planning day where we considered a number of issues relating the wider Resources team and the organisation in general. We looked at the corporate priorities and objectives to be delivered over the next 4 years, the likely impact of the financial situation in the country and how this may impact us and our objectives. We discussed organisational culture and how this may affect our ability to deliver the ambitions of elected members. We also identified ways where we could potentially exploit the current challenges to the benefit of our customers. It was a very lively session with lots of great ideas for moving forward. We will develop these over the next few weeks and share them with you during the autumn.
Thanks for reading. Have a good weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 9 October 2009
Friday 9 October 2009
First of all my apologies for not writing last week. I was out of the office for a couple of days at the end of the week and so didn't have the chance to write.
The Resources team day on September 29 went very well - thank you to all those who worked so hard preparing for the event. Six hundred plus members of the team attended and we hade some lively questions and answers, mainly around the important subjects of the medium to long term plans for the team, harmonisation of terms and conditions, SAP, the budget prospects moving forward as well as some more light hearted moments too. It was great to see so many people. For those who couldn't attend, because they were keeping the services running, the event was filmed and this will be available on the web shortly.
I chaired the Procurement & Commissioning Board earlier this week. We are making steady progress towards our procurement savings this year - £2.5m has been confirmed to date, mainly from Transport, Environment & Leisure (TEL) which will help tremendously in balancing next years budget. Work continues in all other areas.
We held the initial Resources budget challenge meeting yesterday to outline next years budget. We are seeking to reduce our overall expenditure by 3% next year versus this year. This appears to be achievable in all services areas except ICT where investment may be required to meet our service commitments. A lot of work has gone into achieving this initial position so thanks to everybody involved.
Just a reminder that next week we have the hub management meetings taking place. Details are on the intranet. It would be great to see managers at those sessions to meet with the corporate leadership team to exchange views on what needs to be improved to ensure the smooth running of our business.
Thanks for reading. Talk again next week.
Carlton
The Resources team day on September 29 went very well - thank you to all those who worked so hard preparing for the event. Six hundred plus members of the team attended and we hade some lively questions and answers, mainly around the important subjects of the medium to long term plans for the team, harmonisation of terms and conditions, SAP, the budget prospects moving forward as well as some more light hearted moments too. It was great to see so many people. For those who couldn't attend, because they were keeping the services running, the event was filmed and this will be available on the web shortly.
I chaired the Procurement & Commissioning Board earlier this week. We are making steady progress towards our procurement savings this year - £2.5m has been confirmed to date, mainly from Transport, Environment & Leisure (TEL) which will help tremendously in balancing next years budget. Work continues in all other areas.
We held the initial Resources budget challenge meeting yesterday to outline next years budget. We are seeking to reduce our overall expenditure by 3% next year versus this year. This appears to be achievable in all services areas except ICT where investment may be required to meet our service commitments. A lot of work has gone into achieving this initial position so thanks to everybody involved.
Just a reminder that next week we have the hub management meetings taking place. Details are on the intranet. It would be great to see managers at those sessions to meet with the corporate leadership team to exchange views on what needs to be improved to ensure the smooth running of our business.
Thanks for reading. Talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 25 September 2009
Friday 25 September 2009
I spent a great morning with the Highways team at Chippenham last Friday - with Graeme, Steve and Nigel. They have been using systems thinking, or lean as it's sometimes called, to understand and redesign their pot hole repair service. This is a major priority for our customers and elected members alike. They showed me their current performance measures where they are now more than 100% more effective than before. They also told me about the positive effect on team morale because of the elimination of the large back log in work that they had - a back log that sometimes stretched right through the summer after a hard winter. It was very impressive stuff and a real reminder of how effective this approach is in driving up performance whilst reducing cost...
Scrutiny met this week to start to develop their forward work programme for Resources. As I have said before it is important to engage in high quality scrutiny to help the executive develop policy with us and to improve our implementation plans for that policy. Key areas for scrutiny over the next year or so will focus on customer access, HR and ICT amongst several others.
We held some meetings with partners from NHS Wiltshire and the Police this week to explore the budget situation over the next few years. We set out to start to identify areas where we can work more closely together to reduce cost whilst improving services and quality. It was surprising how close we were with our assumptions in terms of public spending contraction in the County moving forward, and also in terms of where the opportunities might be to collaborate on future work. This will be an important piece of work with some big rewards if together we can pull them off.
Have a great weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
Scrutiny met this week to start to develop their forward work programme for Resources. As I have said before it is important to engage in high quality scrutiny to help the executive develop policy with us and to improve our implementation plans for that policy. Key areas for scrutiny over the next year or so will focus on customer access, HR and ICT amongst several others.
We held some meetings with partners from NHS Wiltshire and the Police this week to explore the budget situation over the next few years. We set out to start to identify areas where we can work more closely together to reduce cost whilst improving services and quality. It was surprising how close we were with our assumptions in terms of public spending contraction in the County moving forward, and also in terms of where the opportunities might be to collaborate on future work. This will be an important piece of work with some big rewards if together we can pull them off.
Have a great weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 18 September 2009
Friday 18 September 2009
Friday at last - the weeks seem to be flying by at the moment, and still England can't beat the Australians in the one day game. Last try on Sunday...
I am spending the bulk of today at the Chippenham depot with Graeme Hay and the team meeting staff and learning about the lean systems work that Highways have been undertaking during the last few months. They have completely redesigned the "pot hole" filling element of their work to make it faster in terms of filling holes that have appeared in our road system as well as filling more of them, increasing our capacity. This is very important for people in Wiltshire, indeed if you ask residents and members what their top issue is at present they often say the quality of our road surfaces. I'll let you know what I find next week.
My service directors and I spent half a day on Wednesday with the Scrutiny Management Committee - the group of members responsible for scrutinising the work we do in Resources and who will help us shape and develop policy moving forward. It was great to get to know some of the new members better and take them through our huge list of responsibilities, achievements and areas where we need to improve performance. They were very supportive of the efforts and results achieved to date by all staff within our team. I take scrutiny very seriously as I believe is adds tremendously to the robustness of our policies and actions plans and I encourage everybody in Resources to engage fully with this process. Councillors will be identifying their programme of scrutiny work next week and we'll share this with you in the coming weeks.
Thanks for reading and have a good weekend. Speak again next week.
Carlton
I am spending the bulk of today at the Chippenham depot with Graeme Hay and the team meeting staff and learning about the lean systems work that Highways have been undertaking during the last few months. They have completely redesigned the "pot hole" filling element of their work to make it faster in terms of filling holes that have appeared in our road system as well as filling more of them, increasing our capacity. This is very important for people in Wiltshire, indeed if you ask residents and members what their top issue is at present they often say the quality of our road surfaces. I'll let you know what I find next week.
My service directors and I spent half a day on Wednesday with the Scrutiny Management Committee - the group of members responsible for scrutinising the work we do in Resources and who will help us shape and develop policy moving forward. It was great to get to know some of the new members better and take them through our huge list of responsibilities, achievements and areas where we need to improve performance. They were very supportive of the efforts and results achieved to date by all staff within our team. I take scrutiny very seriously as I believe is adds tremendously to the robustness of our policies and actions plans and I encourage everybody in Resources to engage fully with this process. Councillors will be identifying their programme of scrutiny work next week and we'll share this with you in the coming weeks.
Thanks for reading and have a good weekend. Speak again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 11 September 2009
Friday 11 September 2009
This week saw the start of the Work Place Transformation Programme communications events - we held two sessions in Salisbury City Hall for all staff in the area who will be coming together in the new Bourne Hill facility next year. It was a good opportunity to explain where we are with the building project (topped out last week and ready to be handed over to us in March with staff moving in late next year), and the flexible working patterns that we will have to adopt to ensure we utilise that building to it's maximum capacity. There were many questions asked and answered and these will be posted on the internet shortly so that all staff can see them. Those questions that we couldn't answer yet will be subject to further work by the programme team to develop answers. I'd like to thank all those staff who attended both events. Further events are planned in Devizes, Chippenham and Trowbridge throughout the autumn. These sessions will focus on Phase 2 of the programme that addresses those three hub areas.
CLT met with the senior management team from NHS Wiltshire earlier in the week. You'll remember that we share a Joint Director for Public Health - Maggie Rae - between both organisations. The purpose was to explore how we could work together more closely in some service areas to improve performance in a joined up way and to reduce our costs. This is a key part of the councillors' vision - particularly the goal around working together with partners to support Wiltshire's communities. This is exciting and also supports the government's initiative on Total Place - where they want to see organisations such as councils, NHS, police, probation and the voluntary sector working much closer together to achieve better results for people and communities at lower costs. Wiltshire is at the front of some of this work, particularly in the areas of Children and Adults.
Have a great weekend, the weather should be good. I shall be watching England beat Australia in the cricket - in my dreams!
Talk again next week.
Carlton
CLT met with the senior management team from NHS Wiltshire earlier in the week. You'll remember that we share a Joint Director for Public Health - Maggie Rae - between both organisations. The purpose was to explore how we could work together more closely in some service areas to improve performance in a joined up way and to reduce our costs. This is a key part of the councillors' vision - particularly the goal around working together with partners to support Wiltshire's communities. This is exciting and also supports the government's initiative on Total Place - where they want to see organisations such as councils, NHS, police, probation and the voluntary sector working much closer together to achieve better results for people and communities at lower costs. Wiltshire is at the front of some of this work, particularly in the areas of Children and Adults.
Have a great weekend, the weather should be good. I shall be watching England beat Australia in the cricket - in my dreams!
Talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 4 September 2009
Friday 4 September 2009
This week has had the feel of a new term about it. The holidays are over and most people are back at work for Christmas term!
I'm feeling a little jaded this morning as some of us were working at the Southwick By-election last night. Caroline Rudland and the elections team did a great job (as always). My thanks go to all those who worked so hard last night. We received the ballot boxes by 10.30pm and had them verified and counted by around 11.40pm. As deputy returning officer I was then able to announce the results. Francis Moreland, an Independent candidate won, so congratulations to him. I always love working on elections as there is a real buzz of excitement. And of course the democratic process is so important to us working for a council. The next big election task will be the general election - with smart money currently on a May 6 date - so do please volunteer to get involved.
I chaired the board for the Work Place Transformation Programme this week. We reviewed where we are with the Bourne Hill build in Salisbury (on time and slightly under budget - a great performance by the property team) and also the follow-on phases for Trowbridge, Devizes and Chippenham. There are several communications events planned over the next couple of months so do please try and get along to whichever session covers your hub area. The Salisbury events are next week, Monday 7th and Wednesday 9th.
I met with the SAP shared services team this week to review where we are with the implementation, including budget monitoring, bank reconciliation, VAT, accounts receivable and the procurement issues; purchase order and invoice payment back log in some services. We're developing work plans to address these issues quickly and will communicate progress regularly. It's worth reflecting that almost all of the major programmes of this nature that I have experience of have these sort of issues after launch and the task for us as a team now is to get these understood and resolved quickly for our customers.
Talk again next week.
Carlton
I'm feeling a little jaded this morning as some of us were working at the Southwick By-election last night. Caroline Rudland and the elections team did a great job (as always). My thanks go to all those who worked so hard last night. We received the ballot boxes by 10.30pm and had them verified and counted by around 11.40pm. As deputy returning officer I was then able to announce the results. Francis Moreland, an Independent candidate won, so congratulations to him. I always love working on elections as there is a real buzz of excitement. And of course the democratic process is so important to us working for a council. The next big election task will be the general election - with smart money currently on a May 6 date - so do please volunteer to get involved.
I chaired the board for the Work Place Transformation Programme this week. We reviewed where we are with the Bourne Hill build in Salisbury (on time and slightly under budget - a great performance by the property team) and also the follow-on phases for Trowbridge, Devizes and Chippenham. There are several communications events planned over the next couple of months so do please try and get along to whichever session covers your hub area. The Salisbury events are next week, Monday 7th and Wednesday 9th.
I met with the SAP shared services team this week to review where we are with the implementation, including budget monitoring, bank reconciliation, VAT, accounts receivable and the procurement issues; purchase order and invoice payment back log in some services. We're developing work plans to address these issues quickly and will communicate progress regularly. It's worth reflecting that almost all of the major programmes of this nature that I have experience of have these sort of issues after launch and the task for us as a team now is to get these understood and resolved quickly for our customers.
Talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 28 August 2009
Friday 28 August 2009
Well the holidays are almost over for most of us and next week we return to something like normality in the council. I must admit that I have relished the last couple of weeks in terms on the amount of time that I've had to think about and plan the future direction of the Resources team. I find that quite difficult under normal circumstances with the pace of day-to-day work and the number of meetings that I have to attend.
So what about the future then? Well as the Leader has said it's all about delivery over the next four years. We've been on a journey to establish One Council, our community area boards and key enablers such as BMP. Now it's all about delivering the vision: resilient communities, customer focus, high quality low cost services and working together with our communities and partners (unitary plus).
So what does that mean for the resources team? In the short term, the next 4-6 months it means completing the appointments process, ironing out the residual issues with SAP and ICT generally, and commencing the pay harmonisation process. Over the next 12 months we will be leading major work programmes to meet key elements of the vision above. These include expanding our lean or systems thinking service transformation work (delivering customer focus and high quality low cost), work place transformation (delivering customer focus and low cost), procurement reform (delivering low cost), ICT investment (delivering customer focus, high quality and lower cost). More of this when we all meet on September 29 for the Resources team day, and more about work place transformation at the staff events starting in September - Salisbury is first up on September 7, so please come along if your are based in or around the city.
I chaired the corporate procurement board yesterday. This board of a cross functional team of directors and heads of service involved in procurement, commissioning and purchasing. It is charged with delivering procurement reform, encompassing; cost reduction - £9m targeted this year alone, development of our SAP procure-to-pay processes including category management, and developing our policies and procedures with regard to procurement generally. This group has a key role in the organisation as we spend over £325m per year on purchased goods and services. We were briefed by Tony Brett about the Buy Wiltshire website, www.buywiltshire.co.uk, an initiative aimed at businesses in Wiltshire to be able to advertise their services to us and each other and also for us to publish details of our current and potentially new contracts coming up. It is important to remind ourselves that when we purchase anything, we should be looking at buywiltshire.co.uk first to see which local suppliers can meet our needs. If you could all please do this.
Thanks for reading and talk again next week.
Carlton
So what about the future then? Well as the Leader has said it's all about delivery over the next four years. We've been on a journey to establish One Council, our community area boards and key enablers such as BMP. Now it's all about delivering the vision: resilient communities, customer focus, high quality low cost services and working together with our communities and partners (unitary plus).
So what does that mean for the resources team? In the short term, the next 4-6 months it means completing the appointments process, ironing out the residual issues with SAP and ICT generally, and commencing the pay harmonisation process. Over the next 12 months we will be leading major work programmes to meet key elements of the vision above. These include expanding our lean or systems thinking service transformation work (delivering customer focus and high quality low cost), work place transformation (delivering customer focus and low cost), procurement reform (delivering low cost), ICT investment (delivering customer focus, high quality and lower cost). More of this when we all meet on September 29 for the Resources team day, and more about work place transformation at the staff events starting in September - Salisbury is first up on September 7, so please come along if your are based in or around the city.
I chaired the corporate procurement board yesterday. This board of a cross functional team of directors and heads of service involved in procurement, commissioning and purchasing. It is charged with delivering procurement reform, encompassing; cost reduction - £9m targeted this year alone, development of our SAP procure-to-pay processes including category management, and developing our policies and procedures with regard to procurement generally. This group has a key role in the organisation as we spend over £325m per year on purchased goods and services. We were briefed by Tony Brett about the Buy Wiltshire website, www.buywiltshire.co.uk, an initiative aimed at businesses in Wiltshire to be able to advertise their services to us and each other and also for us to publish details of our current and potentially new contracts coming up. It is important to remind ourselves that when we purchase anything, we should be looking at buywiltshire.co.uk first to see which local suppliers can meet our needs. If you could all please do this.
Thanks for reading and talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 21 August 2009
Friday 21 August 2009
Back to work this week after a great week in Dorset. The weather was brilliant and we all had a good break together - I'm still trying to get the sand from Weymouth beach out of my shoes!
I visited Monkton Park on Wednesday to spend the afternoon with the customer team. I sat with Amy and Sue and listened to a number of calls related to pest control and numerous other requests that our customers make. It's always good to meet staff and to understand some of the pressures they face. A big learning point for me was just how important a fully up to date web-based staff contact directory is. Ours is mixed in terms of quality, so I must encourage you all to check your entry and update it as appropriate. The customer team rely on this information when seeking to identify who should take a call to answer a specific customer query.
I met with HR this week to review progress with the appointments process. We now have around 104 people in the redeployment pool having already redeployed 96 people from that pool. We will continue to make every effort to place people over the coming weeks. Up to 40 of the people in the pool are from ICT and we have put our up-to-date structure chart on the Wire under Corporate ICT - then Business Transformation, ICT & information management staff structures. This is a big step forward and we now have nearly all the jobs JEQed and all the information together in one place for everyone to see the opportunities available to them. Please do take some time to study this in the days ahead.
Talk again next week.
Carlton
I visited Monkton Park on Wednesday to spend the afternoon with the customer team. I sat with Amy and Sue and listened to a number of calls related to pest control and numerous other requests that our customers make. It's always good to meet staff and to understand some of the pressures they face. A big learning point for me was just how important a fully up to date web-based staff contact directory is. Ours is mixed in terms of quality, so I must encourage you all to check your entry and update it as appropriate. The customer team rely on this information when seeking to identify who should take a call to answer a specific customer query.
I met with HR this week to review progress with the appointments process. We now have around 104 people in the redeployment pool having already redeployed 96 people from that pool. We will continue to make every effort to place people over the coming weeks. Up to 40 of the people in the pool are from ICT and we have put our up-to-date structure chart on the Wire under Corporate ICT - then Business Transformation, ICT & information management staff structures. This is a big step forward and we now have nearly all the jobs JEQed and all the information together in one place for everyone to see the opportunities available to them. Please do take some time to study this in the days ahead.
Talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday 21 August 2009
Back to work this week after a great week in Dorset. The weather was brilliant and we all had a good break together - I'm still trying to get the sand from Weymouth beach out of my shoes!
I visited Monkton Park on Wednesday to spend the afternoon with the customer team. I sat with Amy and Sue and listened to a number of calls related to pest control and numerous other requests that our customers make. It's always good to meet staff and to understand some of the pressures they face. A big learning point for me was just how important a fully up to date web-based staff contact directory is. Ours is mixed in terms of quality, so I must encourage you all to check your entry and update it as appropriate. The customer team rely on this information when seeking to identify who should take a call to answer a specific customer query.
I met with HR this week to review progress with the appointments process. We now have around 104 people in the redeployment pool having already redeployed 96 people from that pool. We will continue to make every effort to place people over the coming weeks. Up to 40 of the people in the pool are from ICT and we have put our up-to-date structure chart on the Wire under Corporate ICT - then Business Transformation, ICT & IM Staff Structures. This is a big step forward and we now have nearly all the jobs JEQed and all the information together in one place for everyone to see the opportunities available to them. Please do take some time to study this in the days ahead.
Talk again next week.
Carlton
I visited Monkton Park on Wednesday to spend the afternoon with the customer team. I sat with Amy and Sue and listened to a number of calls related to pest control and numerous other requests that our customers make. It's always good to meet staff and to understand some of the pressures they face. A big learning point for me was just how important a fully up to date web-based staff contact directory is. Ours is mixed in terms of quality, so I must encourage you all to check your entry and update it as appropriate. The customer team rely on this information when seeking to identify who should take a call to answer a specific customer query.
I met with HR this week to review progress with the appointments process. We now have around 104 people in the redeployment pool having already redeployed 96 people from that pool. We will continue to make every effort to place people over the coming weeks. Up to 40 of the people in the pool are from ICT and we have put our up-to-date structure chart on the Wire under Corporate ICT - then Business Transformation, ICT & IM Staff Structures. This is a big step forward and we now have nearly all the jobs JEQed and all the information together in one place for everyone to see the opportunities available to them. Please do take some time to study this in the days ahead.
Talk again next week.
Carlton
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Thursday 6 August 2009
Last Friday I spent a full day with the Wiltshire Employment Support Team (WEST) - part of the Department of Community Services. This service enables people with learning difficulties amongst others to seek, obtain and maintain real paid work - a real demonstration that we are involved with lives not just services. Samantha Buchanan and Graham Logan took me round to meet some of their service users and some of the employers that offer real paid work to people.
So what did I learn? Well I was really buzzing when I got home - it was inspiring to be with people with such passion, pride and expertise in their work and a real privilege to meet some of our service users all of whom share the same passion. I learned that the team make a huge impact on peoples lives - both our service users and on the lives of the people who care for them. Of course finding work is difficult in any circumstances, but in a recession it is doubly hard so it was fascinating to understand some of the techniques our staff use to address this. I was embarrassed by the fact that we as an an employer do not offer many roles like this too. So I shall be working with colleagues in the Corporate Leadership Team to identify and develop some real opportunities in this area over the next few months.
This morning we had our regular ICT Steering Team Meeting. This is where we meet at a senior level with both service staff and ICT staff to review what we are doing, how we are performing and where we need to direct more effort. It was interesting to see that since April 1, demand in terms of the number of calls being made to the ICT help desk has risen by over 40%. This is because we have 2,000 more staff and PC's on the network as well as the patch work of infrastructure, networks', domains and kit inherited from the five previous organisations. This year is one of transition for ICT as we work hard to sort out all of this to be able to deliver a single integrated high performing service. It's going to be a challenging journey!
I shall be away from the office next week on holiday so we'll talk again in a couple of weeks.
Thanks,
Carlton
So what did I learn? Well I was really buzzing when I got home - it was inspiring to be with people with such passion, pride and expertise in their work and a real privilege to meet some of our service users all of whom share the same passion. I learned that the team make a huge impact on peoples lives - both our service users and on the lives of the people who care for them. Of course finding work is difficult in any circumstances, but in a recession it is doubly hard so it was fascinating to understand some of the techniques our staff use to address this. I was embarrassed by the fact that we as an an employer do not offer many roles like this too. So I shall be working with colleagues in the Corporate Leadership Team to identify and develop some real opportunities in this area over the next few months.
This morning we had our regular ICT Steering Team Meeting. This is where we meet at a senior level with both service staff and ICT staff to review what we are doing, how we are performing and where we need to direct more effort. It was interesting to see that since April 1, demand in terms of the number of calls being made to the ICT help desk has risen by over 40%. This is because we have 2,000 more staff and PC's on the network as well as the patch work of infrastructure, networks', domains and kit inherited from the five previous organisations. This year is one of transition for ICT as we work hard to sort out all of this to be able to deliver a single integrated high performing service. It's going to be a challenging journey!
I shall be away from the office next week on holiday so we'll talk again in a couple of weeks.
Thanks,
Carlton
Friday, 31 July 2009
Friday 31 July 2009
My theme for this blog is connecting with our customers, citizens and communities. This is vital for any organisation, be it in the public or private sector. Organisations which don't connect become irrelevant. Irrelevant organisation fail.
This week started with a full meeting of the Extended Leadership Team (ELT) - the corporate and service directors. We had a morning focusing on the new Corporate Plan which we will be drafting and developing with elected members over the autumn. This plan will describe our priorities for the next four years and what we will be working on to turn the our vision and goals into tangible outcomes for the people and communities in Wiltshire.
We are seeking to move away from the traditional service based approach to this work - that is each service coming up with hundreds of priorities and initiatives. This traditional complexity causes many problems - not least that we end up working on hundreds of separate initiatives rather than focusing on doing a few things very well. We are seeking to structure the plans not around services but around themes that relate to the people we are here to serve. These themes might be; Myself, My family, My community, My place. If we start thinking about delivering outcomes within these themes we stand a much better chance of connecting with our customers, citizens and communities moving forward. More on this to come.
I met with some elected members from the Warminster area board plus Ian Brown, Head of Service Amenity & Countryside and Heather Abernethy the town clerk to discuss and agree a way forward on some priority areas for the town. This was exciting as it demonstrated to me the potential power of the area boards to get things done quickly by connecting us with our communities to make a difference.
I'm spending all day today out on the road with the Wiltshire Employment Support Team - Samantha Buchanan and Graham Logan, part of the Department of Community Services. This service enables people with learning difficulties amongst others to seek, obtain and maintain work - a real demonstration that we are involved with lives not just services. I'll tell you all about what I learn next week.
Have a good weekend and talk again soon.
Carlton
This week started with a full meeting of the Extended Leadership Team (ELT) - the corporate and service directors. We had a morning focusing on the new Corporate Plan which we will be drafting and developing with elected members over the autumn. This plan will describe our priorities for the next four years and what we will be working on to turn the our vision and goals into tangible outcomes for the people and communities in Wiltshire.
We are seeking to move away from the traditional service based approach to this work - that is each service coming up with hundreds of priorities and initiatives. This traditional complexity causes many problems - not least that we end up working on hundreds of separate initiatives rather than focusing on doing a few things very well. We are seeking to structure the plans not around services but around themes that relate to the people we are here to serve. These themes might be; Myself, My family, My community, My place. If we start thinking about delivering outcomes within these themes we stand a much better chance of connecting with our customers, citizens and communities moving forward. More on this to come.
I met with some elected members from the Warminster area board plus Ian Brown, Head of Service Amenity & Countryside and Heather Abernethy the town clerk to discuss and agree a way forward on some priority areas for the town. This was exciting as it demonstrated to me the potential power of the area boards to get things done quickly by connecting us with our communities to make a difference.
I'm spending all day today out on the road with the Wiltshire Employment Support Team - Samantha Buchanan and Graham Logan, part of the Department of Community Services. This service enables people with learning difficulties amongst others to seek, obtain and maintain work - a real demonstration that we are involved with lives not just services. I'll tell you all about what I learn next week.
Have a good weekend and talk again soon.
Carlton
Friday, 24 July 2009
Friday 24 July 2009
Well two weeks on holiday certainly flies by. Back yesterday and thankfully not too many emails thanks to Jane and my service directors who had everything under control. I had a great holiday at home and spent the whole time watching test matches, playing cricket with my two young sons, fishing, and building amazing structures out of Lego, interspersed with several trips to various toy shops! The perfect antidote to a hectic six months in local government and no airports!
I'm spending all day today with Sue Redmond, Corporate Director for Department of Community Services (DCS) and our teams examining our method for business transformation. We are looking at the work she has led in DCS adult social care - the FOCUS programme with our partners Charteris - and also the work we have led in house with Deborah Farrow's team - particularly in highways, revenues & benefits and numerous other services.
We will be comparing and contrasting the method of change to explore the two similar approaches to identify how we learn and improve our work in this critical area. This will be vitally important as we move forward as an organisation because as local government funding becomes constrained we will be under pressure to do more for less. That is to maintain and indeed develop better more customer focused services at reduced cost. This sounds impossible but it's not.
In all of our lean or systems thinking interventions, we have improved performance (by more than 100% in adult care) whilst reducing our costs. This is achieved by designing the service around the customer and their requirements from us. This is a fundamental change of thinking for local government that tends to (but not always) design its services around the professional delivering those services. This always results in higher costs as customers requiring a service have to navigate their way through complex procedures and policies before getting the support they need. We will need to take this approach on every one of our services over the next three years.
If you don't believe any of this here's a challenge for you. Spend a couple of hours in the Customer Contact Centre as I do on a regular basis. Listen to the customer calls coming in and find our how many you think might be avoidable - that is the customer is calling us for a second (or more) time, or calling because they don't understand a letter we have written to them, or that we've missed a bin collection for them. You discover that we have levels of avoidable contact of 30-90% in all of our services. Think of the improvement in customer satisfaction if we could eliminate this. Think of the cost we could save too. We should all spend more time listening to customers... there's the challenge for all of us.
Thanks for reading. It's great to be back!
Carlton
I'm spending all day today with Sue Redmond, Corporate Director for Department of Community Services (DCS) and our teams examining our method for business transformation. We are looking at the work she has led in DCS adult social care - the FOCUS programme with our partners Charteris - and also the work we have led in house with Deborah Farrow's team - particularly in highways, revenues & benefits and numerous other services.
We will be comparing and contrasting the method of change to explore the two similar approaches to identify how we learn and improve our work in this critical area. This will be vitally important as we move forward as an organisation because as local government funding becomes constrained we will be under pressure to do more for less. That is to maintain and indeed develop better more customer focused services at reduced cost. This sounds impossible but it's not.
In all of our lean or systems thinking interventions, we have improved performance (by more than 100% in adult care) whilst reducing our costs. This is achieved by designing the service around the customer and their requirements from us. This is a fundamental change of thinking for local government that tends to (but not always) design its services around the professional delivering those services. This always results in higher costs as customers requiring a service have to navigate their way through complex procedures and policies before getting the support they need. We will need to take this approach on every one of our services over the next three years.
If you don't believe any of this here's a challenge for you. Spend a couple of hours in the Customer Contact Centre as I do on a regular basis. Listen to the customer calls coming in and find our how many you think might be avoidable - that is the customer is calling us for a second (or more) time, or calling because they don't understand a letter we have written to them, or that we've missed a bin collection for them. You discover that we have levels of avoidable contact of 30-90% in all of our services. Think of the improvement in customer satisfaction if we could eliminate this. Think of the cost we could save too. We should all spend more time listening to customers... there's the challenge for all of us.
Thanks for reading. It's great to be back!
Carlton
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
Wednesday 8 July 2009
Another early blog this week as today is my last day in the office for a couple of weeks. Although I shall only be at home, I'm really looking forward to spending some time with family, friends and just doing those things that I'm too tired to do after a days work. I particularly want to catch some large carp with my eldest son...
So it's been a week of getting things in order. I have completed three out of my six appraisals which are due at this time of year. I take these very seriously as all staff need to have regular feedback on their performance and I certainly need feedback from my team on my performance. It's always a good way to learn together - although we tend to do this throughout the year rather than just in the formal appraisal process. I encourage all managers to complete this process over the next few weeks, and if you haven't had an appraisal then do please ask for one - you are allowed to!
We are in the middle of the new Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) interviews this week. These will happen on an annual basis to allow the Audit Commission to assess how effective we are in leading our communities and delivering improved service performance coupled with better value for money. I had my interview with Bridget Downton from the Audit Commission on Monday. She was exploring areas of performance management, how we handle major change and transformation programmes and actions around areas such as our People Strategy and benefits realisation for our transformation work. It will be interesting to understand how we are perceived by our external inspectors having just been through such radical change over the past 6 months.
Thanks for reading and we'll talk again in a couple of weeks.
Carlton
So it's been a week of getting things in order. I have completed three out of my six appraisals which are due at this time of year. I take these very seriously as all staff need to have regular feedback on their performance and I certainly need feedback from my team on my performance. It's always a good way to learn together - although we tend to do this throughout the year rather than just in the formal appraisal process. I encourage all managers to complete this process over the next few weeks, and if you haven't had an appraisal then do please ask for one - you are allowed to!
We are in the middle of the new Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) interviews this week. These will happen on an annual basis to allow the Audit Commission to assess how effective we are in leading our communities and delivering improved service performance coupled with better value for money. I had my interview with Bridget Downton from the Audit Commission on Monday. She was exploring areas of performance management, how we handle major change and transformation programmes and actions around areas such as our People Strategy and benefits realisation for our transformation work. It will be interesting to understand how we are perceived by our external inspectors having just been through such radical change over the past 6 months.
Thanks for reading and we'll talk again in a couple of weeks.
Carlton
Friday, 3 July 2009
Thursday 2 July 2009
Another early blog this week as I will be in Taunton tomorrow meeting with colleagues from across the South West at the Regional Improvement & Efficiency Programme meeting (RIEP). There are RIEP's in each region of the country and they are responsible for delivery of the efficiency and improvement agenda across the country. They have substantial funds available for local authorities to use to develop new innovative solutions to the challenges that we face. I represent Wiltshire on the Executive Board.
It is the first formal meeting of the Warminster Area Board tonight which I shall be attending. This is the new local forum whereby communities and individuals can discuss issues that they face and take decisions around how service delivery can be improved in their area to better address the issues they have. They also have funding to allocate to priority projects that their communities wish to see delivered. I'm looking forward to this as it represents the way in which we can get closer to the people we serve and also presents an opportunity for us to innovate in the way we deliver local services.
The Planning or Development Control (DC) team finished the first part of their lean review this week. We had an excellent presentation by the team outlining the current DC system, what works well and what currently isn't working well for customers. The redesign experiment starts immediately with huge opportunities to not only stream line the way we do business but to also drive up performance for our customers - a real win-win. This should reduce costs too as doing the right thing for customers first time always saves money.
We started the first round of Member meetings this week; a Corporate Leadership Team (CLT) presentation on the Challenges Ahead - part of the new member induction programme, the first Audit Committee and first Overview & Scrutiny meeting. It was good to start engaging with members on the agenda to which they have just been elected and interesting to see many new ideas and opinions about how we should be improving what we do. More of that anon.
Thanks for reading and talk again next week.
Carlton
It is the first formal meeting of the Warminster Area Board tonight which I shall be attending. This is the new local forum whereby communities and individuals can discuss issues that they face and take decisions around how service delivery can be improved in their area to better address the issues they have. They also have funding to allocate to priority projects that their communities wish to see delivered. I'm looking forward to this as it represents the way in which we can get closer to the people we serve and also presents an opportunity for us to innovate in the way we deliver local services.
The Planning or Development Control (DC) team finished the first part of their lean review this week. We had an excellent presentation by the team outlining the current DC system, what works well and what currently isn't working well for customers. The redesign experiment starts immediately with huge opportunities to not only stream line the way we do business but to also drive up performance for our customers - a real win-win. This should reduce costs too as doing the right thing for customers first time always saves money.
We started the first round of Member meetings this week; a Corporate Leadership Team (CLT) presentation on the Challenges Ahead - part of the new member induction programme, the first Audit Committee and first Overview & Scrutiny meeting. It was good to start engaging with members on the agenda to which they have just been elected and interesting to see many new ideas and opinions about how we should be improving what we do. More of that anon.
Thanks for reading and talk again next week.
Carlton
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Thursday 25 June 2009
I wanted to reflect on our customers this week. The first Cabinet of the new council was held on Tuesday. There was a presentation by the Chief Executive outlining the challenges ahead over the next four years. As well as the well documented public sector funding reductions, these include the need for us to change the culture of our organisation - essentially to deliver the contents of the "What will we be Like" documents that we developed on the run up to unitary. This is exciting work as it clearly places the customer at the centre of everything we do. Linked to this is our area working agenda using the new area boards. These will be vital for us as we seek to get closer to the people we serve.
I spent an afternoon in Salisbury this week with the Customer Care team. I sat with Debbie and Nicky listening to calls. I was surprised at how different the demand was from recent visits to Devizes and Trowbridge. Thanks to Liz and the whole team for hosting me and answering all my questions.
It was the Annual Adult Social Care awards event last night, and I just wanted to let you know that not only were individuals and teams within DCS Finance nominated for awards, we actually won 2 (out of 4) of the team awards.
The Financial Assessment & Benefit (FAB) team was nominated for and won the Customer Service award, and the Court of Protection Team was nominated for and won the Keeping People Safe award. In addition, the Data Migration team, which has been instrumental in implementing SAP and getting all the records from FRED (our access data base of care spending) onto Carefirst and SAP, were nominated in the Use of Resources award. Finally, Pete Little was nominated in one of the individual awards for his expert knowledge in a specialist area and the way he always quickly, helpfully and with a sense of humour, responds to requests from the ASC teams. Now that's customer focus - well done Pete!
The awards are judged by an independent panel, which makes this all the more pleasing and I am obviously thrilled that the really good work of the teams has been publicly recognised.
Talk again next week.
Carlton
I spent an afternoon in Salisbury this week with the Customer Care team. I sat with Debbie and Nicky listening to calls. I was surprised at how different the demand was from recent visits to Devizes and Trowbridge. Thanks to Liz and the whole team for hosting me and answering all my questions.
It was the Annual Adult Social Care awards event last night, and I just wanted to let you know that not only were individuals and teams within DCS Finance nominated for awards, we actually won 2 (out of 4) of the team awards.
The Financial Assessment & Benefit (FAB) team was nominated for and won the Customer Service award, and the Court of Protection Team was nominated for and won the Keeping People Safe award. In addition, the Data Migration team, which has been instrumental in implementing SAP and getting all the records from FRED (our access data base of care spending) onto Carefirst and SAP, were nominated in the Use of Resources award. Finally, Pete Little was nominated in one of the individual awards for his expert knowledge in a specialist area and the way he always quickly, helpfully and with a sense of humour, responds to requests from the ASC teams. Now that's customer focus - well done Pete!
The awards are judged by an independent panel, which makes this all the more pleasing and I am obviously thrilled that the really good work of the teams has been publicly recognised.
Talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 19 June 2009
Friday 19 June 2009
My blog is a little late today as I've spent the morning and lunch time in Devizes - firstly at Braeside attending the member induction session on scrutiny and then visiting some of the Resources teams located at Browfort.
The scrutiny induction was excellent. This is a very important aspect of the governance of the new council and works with the executive (the cabinet) to ensure our plans, objectives and delivery of services is working well. I am keen to use scrutiny this year to conduct more policy work ahead of formal decision making by the cabinet. We have many potential areas in Resources where we can make this a reality and I'll share these with the wider team over the next few weeks. The scrutiny work in support of BMP and shared services paid dividends with go-live in April where we were able to avoid many of the pitfalls that other organisations had experienced.
I then met up with the registration team. It was good to catch up with what's happening in the service (marriages and civil partnerships are on the up this year despite the recession - a good sign) as well as being a good opportunity to talk about how the team are affected by the recent major changes in terms of One Council, SAP and shared services.
I then spent some time meeting with the customer services team and spent an hour with Fiona listening to calls coming into the contact centre. I always enjoy this as our customer teams are so passionate and expert at what they do. Today was no exception. I would encourage any staff who haven't experienced this to do so - it's a real eye-opener. I find this important to do on a regular basis as it always identifies areas for improvement in our services. Today I learned that our contact directory and it's accuracy really slows down the team when trying to put calls through to the right services. I shall follow this up with the team next week.
Have a great weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
The scrutiny induction was excellent. This is a very important aspect of the governance of the new council and works with the executive (the cabinet) to ensure our plans, objectives and delivery of services is working well. I am keen to use scrutiny this year to conduct more policy work ahead of formal decision making by the cabinet. We have many potential areas in Resources where we can make this a reality and I'll share these with the wider team over the next few weeks. The scrutiny work in support of BMP and shared services paid dividends with go-live in April where we were able to avoid many of the pitfalls that other organisations had experienced.
I then met up with the registration team. It was good to catch up with what's happening in the service (marriages and civil partnerships are on the up this year despite the recession - a good sign) as well as being a good opportunity to talk about how the team are affected by the recent major changes in terms of One Council, SAP and shared services.
I then spent some time meeting with the customer services team and spent an hour with Fiona listening to calls coming into the contact centre. I always enjoy this as our customer teams are so passionate and expert at what they do. Today was no exception. I would encourage any staff who haven't experienced this to do so - it's a real eye-opener. I find this important to do on a regular basis as it always identifies areas for improvement in our services. Today I learned that our contact directory and it's accuracy really slows down the team when trying to put calls through to the right services. I shall follow this up with the team next week.
Have a great weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 12 June 2009
Friday 12 June 2009
The election is over and we have 98 new members forming Wiltshire Council. Political groups are forming and at next week's Council meeting a new Leader of the council will be confirmed. He or she will then confirm their Cabinet appointments. So by Tuesday we will know which Portfolio holders we will be working with in Resources, together with the members of Scrutiny with whom we will be working to develop new policy and review existing service performance.
The Members induction process is in full swing and we held a market-place event on Wednesday evening to show case all of the services that we provide. It was an impressive sight, with a huge amount of effort having been applied to the design and production of the various stalls. Many thanks to all who worked so hard to achieve this and for staying so late in the evening.
Development of SAP continues apace. HR, payroll and finance are running well with minor bugs to be improved. Procurement using Procure to Pay (P2P) including Accounts Payable (AP) is more mixed. It's working well in some teams and less well in others. We recognise this and are taking the following actions to improve the situation:
- one-to-one sessions for staff who need extra support
- workshops and drop in sessions for staff and managers on employee and manager self service (ESS/MSS)
- a Corporate Procurement Unit (CPU) advice line
- updating and improving user guides which can be found on The Wire
- additional vendors are being added when identified
To arrange for this type of support please call either the CPU help desk (Sarah Fullen - 01225 713219 or James Benjamin 01225 718229).
The BMP Programme Board are monitoring weekly the actions that need to be put in place to improve the P2P process to ensure its success and ability to support the whole business.
Speak again next week.
Carlton
Thursday, 4 June 2009
Thursday 4 June 2009
This week's blog will be short and sweet as well as early! As a Deputy Returning Officer for the Trowbridge area, the week is completely dominated by the election today. The week started on Saturday when members of the election team spent all day assembling the nearly one hundred ballot boxes and the myriad of supporting information that the Presiding Officers and Poll Clerks within each polling station need on the day. Thank you and well done Caroline and Lin. We then held six separate training sessions at Bradley Road for polling station staff to ensure the almost one hundred staff involved fully understand the process, what's required, etc.
Within the Trowbridge area, we will be conducting the election and count for 28 divisions out of the 98 within the new authority. Whilst the election is today, the main focus will be Friday where we will be verifying the ballot boxes all morning and then holding the actual count of the ballots cast for candidates in the afternoon. I should be announcing results from about 2-3 pm on Friday right through to late afternoon. These will be posted on the website as soon as they're announced, so keep an eye out to see how things are shaping up politically for the new council.
Thanks and have a good weekend. Speak again next week.
Carlton
Within the Trowbridge area, we will be conducting the election and count for 28 divisions out of the 98 within the new authority. Whilst the election is today, the main focus will be Friday where we will be verifying the ballot boxes all morning and then holding the actual count of the ballots cast for candidates in the afternoon. I should be announcing results from about 2-3 pm on Friday right through to late afternoon. These will be posted on the website as soon as they're announced, so keep an eye out to see how things are shaping up politically for the new council.
Thanks and have a good weekend. Speak again next week.
Carlton
Thursday, 28 May 2009
Thursday 28 May 2009
I chaired the BMP Programme Board this morning which includes the Change Champions and Project Managers from each department. We're working our way through the issues log which addresses the numerous open items from across the business. We are planning departmental surgery sessions, including some one-to-ones for individual staff having trouble with the new procurement processes over the next few weeks so please watch out for these and contact your Change Champion to arrange attendance. These sessions will also cover elements of ESS and MSS (Employee / Manager Self Service). In addition to this we are installing a BMP icon onto every computer desk top that will take you straight to the "how do I do..." type questions and answers on the intranet. This should make getting help much quicker.
Last week the council tax team were preparing their year end performance figures regarding council tax collection rates which compare the net debit, after discounts and reliefs with the income collected during the year. Of the £229 million due in 2008/9, 98.2% was collected within the year. This figure does not include the collection of a further £3.9 million during 2008/9 in respect of arrears. Whilst there is always some room for improvement, this collection rate is all the more impressive when we consider not only the economic climate but the additional work undertaken by the revenues team in preparation for one council.
The Revenues & Benefits Manager is always keen to remind me that good collection levels are a reflection on the performance of the whole council and by providing excellent services to our customers it makes the often difficult job of collecting council tax considerably easier. Thank you and well done to the whole team.
Only one week to go now to the unitary election on June 4. I am acting as the Deputy Returning Officer for the Trowbridge area which will return 28 members to the council. So together with around 250 other staff we are busy preparing for the elections and running through all the last minute issues that crop up at this time. Watch out for the election results on the website during the afternoon and evening of June 5 to see the new political shape of the council.
Have a good weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
Last week the council tax team were preparing their year end performance figures regarding council tax collection rates which compare the net debit, after discounts and reliefs with the income collected during the year. Of the £229 million due in 2008/9, 98.2% was collected within the year. This figure does not include the collection of a further £3.9 million during 2008/9 in respect of arrears. Whilst there is always some room for improvement, this collection rate is all the more impressive when we consider not only the economic climate but the additional work undertaken by the revenues team in preparation for one council.
The Revenues & Benefits Manager is always keen to remind me that good collection levels are a reflection on the performance of the whole council and by providing excellent services to our customers it makes the often difficult job of collecting council tax considerably easier. Thank you and well done to the whole team.
Only one week to go now to the unitary election on June 4. I am acting as the Deputy Returning Officer for the Trowbridge area which will return 28 members to the council. So together with around 250 other staff we are busy preparing for the elections and running through all the last minute issues that crop up at this time. Watch out for the election results on the website during the afternoon and evening of June 5 to see the new political shape of the council.
Have a good weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 22 May 2009
Friday 22 May 2009
On Monday, as the CLT lead and Corporate Sponsor, I chaired the first meeting of the Workplace Transformation Programme Board. I am really excited about this following the approval at the IE on Wednesday of last week for this programme. As you will all be aware, 2008/09 was one of transition for all staff and services and we have always highlighted that the coming year would represent the beginning of transformation of our services as we develop to deliver improved customer outcomes and adapt to ensure we maximise the opportunities of the area working agenda and join our delivery up locally. Personally, I have already witnessed and heard from many of you about your desire to move forward with this.
A large part of the Workplace Transformation Programme will be focused on ensuring that we build on the exciting plans many services are already considering, such as the FOCUS Programme in adult social care and the development of enhanced approaches to Ways of Working to maximise the benefits and opportunities of flexible and mobile working. Now that members have confirmed that we should move forward based on a four hub model, which will ensure we are able to deliver high quality cost effective office accommodation that meets our future needs whilst delivering cashable savings for the council, I recognise the considerable engagement and involvement that will be required of staff across the council as this programme of activity will affect us all. As part of this, I and the other Corporate Directors have already identified a lead senior manager to represent our departments within the Programme. The Programme will run for five or more years with the initial phase, which is focused on Bourne Hill and the Salisbury area due to be fully competed by September 2010 and the Trowbridge hub by early 2014.
Now that members have approved the approach and we can be confident that funding is available I am keen that we launch the programme properly and this will include some large scale 'events' for staff over the next two or three months, starting with one for staff in Salisbury area that I hope will be held towards the end of June. This will be additional to the usual communication channels such as a regular series of briefing notes, DLT discussions and staff workshops. I am sure that as the programme develops we will not only improve the working environment and opportunities for all our staff, but will also be better placed to deliver in the ways that best meet the needs of our customers and allow us to respond positively to opportunities and challenges over the coming years.
Have a great bank holiday weekend and speak again next week.
Carlton
A large part of the Workplace Transformation Programme will be focused on ensuring that we build on the exciting plans many services are already considering, such as the FOCUS Programme in adult social care and the development of enhanced approaches to Ways of Working to maximise the benefits and opportunities of flexible and mobile working. Now that members have confirmed that we should move forward based on a four hub model, which will ensure we are able to deliver high quality cost effective office accommodation that meets our future needs whilst delivering cashable savings for the council, I recognise the considerable engagement and involvement that will be required of staff across the council as this programme of activity will affect us all. As part of this, I and the other Corporate Directors have already identified a lead senior manager to represent our departments within the Programme. The Programme will run for five or more years with the initial phase, which is focused on Bourne Hill and the Salisbury area due to be fully competed by September 2010 and the Trowbridge hub by early 2014.
Now that members have approved the approach and we can be confident that funding is available I am keen that we launch the programme properly and this will include some large scale 'events' for staff over the next two or three months, starting with one for staff in Salisbury area that I hope will be held towards the end of June. This will be additional to the usual communication channels such as a regular series of briefing notes, DLT discussions and staff workshops. I am sure that as the programme develops we will not only improve the working environment and opportunities for all our staff, but will also be better placed to deliver in the ways that best meet the needs of our customers and allow us to respond positively to opportunities and challenges over the coming years.
Have a great bank holiday weekend and speak again next week.
Carlton
Thursday, 14 May 2009
Thursday 14 May 2009
I'm writing this on Thursday this week as I'm due to be in London tomorrow at a meeting with fellow Directors from across the country. This is a good opportunity to showcase what we're achieving in Wiltshire as well as understanding what others are doing to meet the challenges that we all face. I must say that these challenges all appear to be finance-related over the next 3 years or so. More of this anon...
I chaired the weekly BMP/SAP Programme Board this morning with representatives from the change network in all departments. We have a consolidated list of issues with SAP that the programme team and departmental Change Champions are working through. SAP procurement is still the biggest issue, with the key concerns being: requisitioners that don't have the required SAP training, vendors missing from the system and managers not approving shopping carts quickly enough. The team are working to address these with the business. Interestingly, when I'm out in the departments there are many examples of the system and teams working very well with the new processes, but you always get these variations in major change programmes like this.
This weeks results from the appointments process were presented to the Implementation Executive yesterday. Another 30 or so people moved into new positions during the last week, so momentum is continuing. We will keep up the pressure on this.
I have had two visits from Directors from two unitaries - Central Bedfordshire and Enfield - this week. Both are interested to learn about how we have achieved LGR, SAP, Shared Services and our continued work on Systems Thinking / Lean. It's good to reflect that our national profile is raising steadily and Wiltshire is becoming known for cutting edge change and innovation. This can only improve the service we provide to our citizens and customers.
Thanks and talk again next week.
Have a good weekend.
Carlton
I chaired the weekly BMP/SAP Programme Board this morning with representatives from the change network in all departments. We have a consolidated list of issues with SAP that the programme team and departmental Change Champions are working through. SAP procurement is still the biggest issue, with the key concerns being: requisitioners that don't have the required SAP training, vendors missing from the system and managers not approving shopping carts quickly enough. The team are working to address these with the business. Interestingly, when I'm out in the departments there are many examples of the system and teams working very well with the new processes, but you always get these variations in major change programmes like this.
This weeks results from the appointments process were presented to the Implementation Executive yesterday. Another 30 or so people moved into new positions during the last week, so momentum is continuing. We will keep up the pressure on this.
I have had two visits from Directors from two unitaries - Central Bedfordshire and Enfield - this week. Both are interested to learn about how we have achieved LGR, SAP, Shared Services and our continued work on Systems Thinking / Lean. It's good to reflect that our national profile is raising steadily and Wiltshire is becoming known for cutting edge change and innovation. This can only improve the service we provide to our citizens and customers.
Thanks and talk again next week.
Have a good weekend.
Carlton
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