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
Friday, 30 October 2009
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
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