It’s been a while since my last blog as I have been away on holiday for a couple of weeks. It was great to get away and spend some timing swimming, cycling and eating with Tracy and the boys. Back on my diet now though! To those of you returning from holiday I hope you had a great time too. To those of you about to go, have fun.
Next Tuesday full Council will meet to debate, amend and approve the new business plan for Wiltshire Council 2013-17. This document sets out what we seek to achieve over the next four years and importantly how we will go about delivering it. I’m looking forward to hearing the debate from all sides of the chamber. When drafting the plan, we have strived to incorporate members priorities and policies, especially those which emerged from the election in May as well as feedback from citizens, clients, customers, businesses and visitors to Wiltshire. It’s always tricky to balance these.
I have summarised the key policy aspects of the plan here. Subject to
Council next week, these will be our 12 priority areas for action in the
county.
1. Invest additional money between 2014-17 to reduce the historic backlog in highways maintenance
2. Stimulate economic growth, including tourism, and create additional jobs in partnership with the LEP
3. Further enhance the role of area boards, developing innovative
community-led approaches to designing and delivering services
4. Provide opportunities for every child and young person to improve
their attainment and skills so they can achieve their full potential
5. Continue to improve our safeguarding services to protect the most vulnerable in our communities
6. Invest to refurbish council housing and encourage the development
of new affordable homes, including supported living in rural areas
7. Build on the work of the Military Civilian Integration Partnership and maximise the benefits of the Army Rebasing Plan
8. Delegate cost neutral packages of land, services and assets to town and parish councils
9. Create a campus opportunity in each community area
10. Integrate public health at the heart of all public services
11. Working innovatively to deliver at least £120m budget cost reductions over the next four years
12. Develop the knowledge, skills, behaviours & leadership of our workforce, managers and councillors
For me , the how we go about delivering the above is just as important.
Next week I’ll share some thinking about how we go about delivering what
is an exciting agenda during some tough financial times in the public
sector.
For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to
connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at
http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Carlton
Friday, 30 August 2013
Friday, 2 August 2013
Friday 2 August 2013
Not a good day yesterday in the third ashes test (unless you are Australian of course). Fingers crossed for a better day today for our bowlers.
I thought I would update you on the thinking behind last week’s announcement of a strategic partnership between Wiltshire Police and Wiltshire Council. I know there are numerous views, rumours and assumptions being made about this so perhaps I can give my views and thinking.
When I speak with residents, customers, businesses and communities across Wiltshire they tell me that joining up public sector services is a priority. They describe being “handed off” between different agencies, services, having to visit multiple buildings to secure services for themselves and their families. They describe this as bureaucratic and wasteful – both in terms of their time and their taxes which fund it.
The partnership with the Police is a first step to join up some of these services and facilities around our shared customers and service users. The overarching vision from the elected leaders of both organisations, Jane Scott and Angus Macpherson is to improve services whilst reducing costs. It is not a merger of the organisations, a takeover or indeed anything else. The Chief Constable, Pat Geenty and I are clear that we will only share services where there are clear data and evidence from our systems thinking reviews to demonstrate that sharing will deliver improved performance and reduced cost. The shared Police/Council facility at Monkton Park is working very well, and is evidence of what can be achieved when we think differently and take some careful risks.
I think this partnership is very exciting. For both organisations to continue to deliver great service during a time when our funding is being cut dramatically requires different thinking and greater innovation. And that’s what this is all about. I’m sure it will work well if we approach it with creativity and disciplined thinking but I’m also sure that we will make the odd mistake. This happens when you try new things. But we will learn quickly and develop the right approach for Wiltshire’s residents, businesses and communities.
For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Thanks for reading and talk again in a few days. Only a week to go until my holiday...
Carlton
I thought I would update you on the thinking behind last week’s announcement of a strategic partnership between Wiltshire Police and Wiltshire Council. I know there are numerous views, rumours and assumptions being made about this so perhaps I can give my views and thinking.
When I speak with residents, customers, businesses and communities across Wiltshire they tell me that joining up public sector services is a priority. They describe being “handed off” between different agencies, services, having to visit multiple buildings to secure services for themselves and their families. They describe this as bureaucratic and wasteful – both in terms of their time and their taxes which fund it.
The partnership with the Police is a first step to join up some of these services and facilities around our shared customers and service users. The overarching vision from the elected leaders of both organisations, Jane Scott and Angus Macpherson is to improve services whilst reducing costs. It is not a merger of the organisations, a takeover or indeed anything else. The Chief Constable, Pat Geenty and I are clear that we will only share services where there are clear data and evidence from our systems thinking reviews to demonstrate that sharing will deliver improved performance and reduced cost. The shared Police/Council facility at Monkton Park is working very well, and is evidence of what can be achieved when we think differently and take some careful risks.
I think this partnership is very exciting. For both organisations to continue to deliver great service during a time when our funding is being cut dramatically requires different thinking and greater innovation. And that’s what this is all about. I’m sure it will work well if we approach it with creativity and disciplined thinking but I’m also sure that we will make the odd mistake. This happens when you try new things. But we will learn quickly and develop the right approach for Wiltshire’s residents, businesses and communities.
For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Thanks for reading and talk again in a few days. Only a week to go until my holiday...
Carlton
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
July 23 2013
“It is not easy being a manager in the midst of continuous change that may ultimately lead to handing over control, Wiltshire Council corporate director Carlton Brand tells David Allaby
Leadership in public services today is increasingly about being prepared to take a leap of faith, and the way Carlton Brand talks about Wiltshire Council there can be little doubt of this authority's belief in transforming the look of local government, making savings and redirecting funding to frontline services.
Since the move to unitary status four years ago the council has 600 fewer staff and 92 fewer buildings. A serious systems approach to service and management redesign challenged everyone's role. It led to more than 200 managers taking voluntary redundancy and, 18 months ago, the removal of the council chief executive's job.
“An awful lot of activity and cost had no impact on the customer," he says. "With a 28 per cent reduction in revenue you start to see the huge opportunity to take out costs that are not benefiting the people, to take out what doesn't add value."
But it is revealing that Brand also says Wiltshire does not obsess about budget cuts: "If you want to find the answer to big problems, worrying about the money will not help you find the right solution."
The model of three corporate directors and no chief executive would, it was believed, deliver maximum savings while enabling the council to embed a less service-based perspective.
"At this level any leadership model can work or fail," he says, "and there is evidence for successes and failures with any model in the private, public and voluntary sectors. Leadership success is a function of the quality of relationships that exists between the key players, their knowledge, expertise, understanding and integrity as a single team with a common purpose and goals. With these ingredients, Wiltshire's model works very well."
Brand, with a doctorate in engineering, brought his management expertise to local government nine years ago after 20 years in the car industry working in the US, Japan and Europe. He describes Wiltshire's ambitious reform as "a massive journey, and after six or seven years I don't see the journey as anywhere near halfway.
"The more we see on the way, the more the raft of possibilities opens up. We have people asking when all this change is going to stop, but it's about continuous change, and it is difficult to be a manager in this type of environment. It is the big challenge for the public sector as we are on this journey for the next 10 or more years."
Fundamental to that journey is shifting control from the centre. Leadership that has grasped the benefits of shared responsibility at the top in county hall can only look to disperse similar principles and build social capital outside.
"Do we really let communities run things themselves?" he questions. "Local politicians may currently control a £1bn council, but in the future that large single body may be replaced by a series of offerings run by a completely different mix of people.
"We are starting to work with the RSA on possible governance models – a big factor in the future of local government. Clinging on to control is less tenable in the long term, and the council's executive and senior members have moved on this."
Wiltshire is developing community campuses providing integrated services. "The 18 communities across our county have a proliferation of buildings, centres and purposes," says Brand. "We are pulling all that together into a single site per community with a new building and services being run by a single team."
Seven of the new campuses are under way. "It's an ambitious joining up of services and behaviour change, underpinned by technology and budget pressures," he says. "They are the building blocks of transformation, leisure, libraries – we are one of the few authorities opening libraries at the moment – spaces for vulnerable people, nursing and GP services, and essentially anything that the community wants to be included will come together.
"Community areas have been up and running for four years, but when the new campuses are built we have no preconception of how they will operate. We could run them all ourselves – we probably couldn't afford that in the long run – or we could say to the community you do everything to make these services work to your needs, or there's something in the middle. We are tapping into the RSA's innovative policy side to work with communities."
Council staff who were spread across 95 offices are now based in just three. There are 1,200 people working from county hall, from just 600 desks. It forces people into the community and a fundamentally different way of working – we are going to the people, says Brand.
Wiltshire continues to break through traditional boundaries. It has recently moved its police and social teams in together. "It's simpler, more reactive and there are savings on buildings and communications, but you don't start from that perspective," he says. "It's a big challenge to local government thinking. The pressures are considerable and it's easy to do the wrong thing. But you need that leap of faith."
Thanks and regards,
Carlton
Leadership in public services today is increasingly about being prepared to take a leap of faith, and the way Carlton Brand talks about Wiltshire Council there can be little doubt of this authority's belief in transforming the look of local government, making savings and redirecting funding to frontline services.
Since the move to unitary status four years ago the council has 600 fewer staff and 92 fewer buildings. A serious systems approach to service and management redesign challenged everyone's role. It led to more than 200 managers taking voluntary redundancy and, 18 months ago, the removal of the council chief executive's job.
“An awful lot of activity and cost had no impact on the customer," he says. "With a 28 per cent reduction in revenue you start to see the huge opportunity to take out costs that are not benefiting the people, to take out what doesn't add value."
But it is revealing that Brand also says Wiltshire does not obsess about budget cuts: "If you want to find the answer to big problems, worrying about the money will not help you find the right solution."
The model of three corporate directors and no chief executive would, it was believed, deliver maximum savings while enabling the council to embed a less service-based perspective.
"At this level any leadership model can work or fail," he says, "and there is evidence for successes and failures with any model in the private, public and voluntary sectors. Leadership success is a function of the quality of relationships that exists between the key players, their knowledge, expertise, understanding and integrity as a single team with a common purpose and goals. With these ingredients, Wiltshire's model works very well."
Brand, with a doctorate in engineering, brought his management expertise to local government nine years ago after 20 years in the car industry working in the US, Japan and Europe. He describes Wiltshire's ambitious reform as "a massive journey, and after six or seven years I don't see the journey as anywhere near halfway.
"The more we see on the way, the more the raft of possibilities opens up. We have people asking when all this change is going to stop, but it's about continuous change, and it is difficult to be a manager in this type of environment. It is the big challenge for the public sector as we are on this journey for the next 10 or more years."
Fundamental to that journey is shifting control from the centre. Leadership that has grasped the benefits of shared responsibility at the top in county hall can only look to disperse similar principles and build social capital outside.
"Do we really let communities run things themselves?" he questions. "Local politicians may currently control a £1bn council, but in the future that large single body may be replaced by a series of offerings run by a completely different mix of people.
"We are starting to work with the RSA on possible governance models – a big factor in the future of local government. Clinging on to control is less tenable in the long term, and the council's executive and senior members have moved on this."
Wiltshire is developing community campuses providing integrated services. "The 18 communities across our county have a proliferation of buildings, centres and purposes," says Brand. "We are pulling all that together into a single site per community with a new building and services being run by a single team."
Seven of the new campuses are under way. "It's an ambitious joining up of services and behaviour change, underpinned by technology and budget pressures," he says. "They are the building blocks of transformation, leisure, libraries – we are one of the few authorities opening libraries at the moment – spaces for vulnerable people, nursing and GP services, and essentially anything that the community wants to be included will come together.
"Community areas have been up and running for four years, but when the new campuses are built we have no preconception of how they will operate. We could run them all ourselves – we probably couldn't afford that in the long run – or we could say to the community you do everything to make these services work to your needs, or there's something in the middle. We are tapping into the RSA's innovative policy side to work with communities."
Council staff who were spread across 95 offices are now based in just three. There are 1,200 people working from county hall, from just 600 desks. It forces people into the community and a fundamentally different way of working – we are going to the people, says Brand.
Wiltshire continues to break through traditional boundaries. It has recently moved its police and social teams in together. "It's simpler, more reactive and there are savings on buildings and communications, but you don't start from that perspective," he says. "It's a big challenge to local government thinking. The pressures are considerable and it's easy to do the wrong thing. But you need that leap of faith."
Thanks and regards,
Carlton
Friday, 5 July 2013
Friday 5 July 2013
It’s been a couple of weeks since I last blogged so my apologies for that. The diet and guitar lessons are going well so I’m looking forward to the heat wave we have predicted over the next week or so. I’ve even built a new BBQ...
Last week saw the chancellor publish his spending review for government, including the reductions agreed for local government. In a nut shell we will have 10% less funding each year over the next four years of the business plan period. This is in line with our predictions and modelling so no real surprises which is good. It gives us a challenge though – to identify and save around £30m per year in each of the next four years (£120m in total).
The part of the chancellors statement that intrigued me was his insistence that public sector workers should be paid placed on performance related pay (PRP schemes). This happens in some private and public sector organisations. As somebody who was on a pay for performance scheme in the private sector, and who’s researched the case for and against widely I have concluded that they just don’t work.
Some people and organisations site the evidence, but there isn’t any. The number of organisations using PRP does not constitute evidence that it actually works, but this is a lazy argumment. PRP is based on an assumption that people need to be bribed to perform to their best. Well I’ve never come across people in either the private or public sectors that this applies to. Staff genuinely want to do a good job. The systems they work in then contrive to stop this. As does poor management. These are the problem that need addressing and you can’t solve either with PRP. Alfie Kohn in his book, Punished by Reward makes the case beautifully, and with real evidence that they don’t work. The clincher for me was discovering that the evidence for PRB was based on experiments with rats conducted in the 1950s and 1960s. I don’t accept that experiments on rats 60 years ago should form the basis for work based people policy for the 21st century. But maybe that’s just me.
And this leads me to conclude that much social and political policy right now is poorly thought out and based on ideology rather than sound evidence. This is what I mean when I observe that the biggest problem we face now as a country and the public sector is not budget reductions – savings £30m per year is not that difficult – but it is around thinking and behaving differently. The shoddy thinking that promotes PRP will also stop us innovating and exploring new and more effective ways of delivering the public services which communities need. Thinking differently is the biggest challenge that we now face.
For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Thanks for reading and talk again in a few days.
Carlton
Last week saw the chancellor publish his spending review for government, including the reductions agreed for local government. In a nut shell we will have 10% less funding each year over the next four years of the business plan period. This is in line with our predictions and modelling so no real surprises which is good. It gives us a challenge though – to identify and save around £30m per year in each of the next four years (£120m in total).
The part of the chancellors statement that intrigued me was his insistence that public sector workers should be paid placed on performance related pay (PRP schemes). This happens in some private and public sector organisations. As somebody who was on a pay for performance scheme in the private sector, and who’s researched the case for and against widely I have concluded that they just don’t work.
Some people and organisations site the evidence, but there isn’t any. The number of organisations using PRP does not constitute evidence that it actually works, but this is a lazy argumment. PRP is based on an assumption that people need to be bribed to perform to their best. Well I’ve never come across people in either the private or public sectors that this applies to. Staff genuinely want to do a good job. The systems they work in then contrive to stop this. As does poor management. These are the problem that need addressing and you can’t solve either with PRP. Alfie Kohn in his book, Punished by Reward makes the case beautifully, and with real evidence that they don’t work. The clincher for me was discovering that the evidence for PRB was based on experiments with rats conducted in the 1950s and 1960s. I don’t accept that experiments on rats 60 years ago should form the basis for work based people policy for the 21st century. But maybe that’s just me.
And this leads me to conclude that much social and political policy right now is poorly thought out and based on ideology rather than sound evidence. This is what I mean when I observe that the biggest problem we face now as a country and the public sector is not budget reductions – savings £30m per year is not that difficult – but it is around thinking and behaving differently. The shoddy thinking that promotes PRP will also stop us innovating and exploring new and more effective ways of delivering the public services which communities need. Thinking differently is the biggest challenge that we now face.
For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Thanks for reading and talk again in a few days.
Carlton
Friday, 14 June 2013
14 June 2013
A busy week; I’m within a couple of pounds of 4 stone lost and now have 8 chords to my name on the guitar. Progress on all fronts...
Yesterday Carolyn, Maggie and I spent a full day together developing our strategic plans and thinking around the big challenges which we face over the next four years. The new council draft Business Plan will be published early next week to go to scrutiny later in the month and then on to Cabinet next month. This plan reflects the political priorities of our elected members and the findings from our strategic needs assessment – the underlying data and evidence about Wiltshire, it’s communities, residents and businesses and where we need to focus to deliver our vision of more resilient communities.
The other major element of the plan is that it highlights the size of the financial challenge ahead. We think that we will have to identify and deliver cost savings of £120m over the next four years – around £30m per year. This should be set within the context of our projected spend over the same period of £3.6 billion. Challenging but achievable in my opinion.
A prime area of focus over the next few months will be to realign our transformation programme to deliver the above. Key issues for me are how we ensure that every member of staff and every service is involved and also how we align our cultural and behaviour change to this. This is the biggest challenge I think we face – not financial, but thinking and behaving differently. More on this anon.
For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Thanks for reading and talk again in a few days.
Carlton
Yesterday Carolyn, Maggie and I spent a full day together developing our strategic plans and thinking around the big challenges which we face over the next four years. The new council draft Business Plan will be published early next week to go to scrutiny later in the month and then on to Cabinet next month. This plan reflects the political priorities of our elected members and the findings from our strategic needs assessment – the underlying data and evidence about Wiltshire, it’s communities, residents and businesses and where we need to focus to deliver our vision of more resilient communities.
The other major element of the plan is that it highlights the size of the financial challenge ahead. We think that we will have to identify and deliver cost savings of £120m over the next four years – around £30m per year. This should be set within the context of our projected spend over the same period of £3.6 billion. Challenging but achievable in my opinion.
A prime area of focus over the next few months will be to realign our transformation programme to deliver the above. Key issues for me are how we ensure that every member of staff and every service is involved and also how we align our cultural and behaviour change to this. This is the biggest challenge I think we face – not financial, but thinking and behaving differently. More on this anon.
For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Thanks for reading and talk again in a few days.
Carlton
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