Agenda item

To receive the report on the progress made on the Improvement and Transformation Programme over the past month (September to October) including the Monthly Programme Report Dashboard which provides an overview of programme and workstream status, product delivery, activity and risk.

The Improvement & Transformation Lead, Louise Routley, gave a report on the on the progress of the Improvement & Transformation Programme. The report stated that since and update was last provided to the Committee in July 2024, the following had been achieved:

• LGA Transformation Peer Review - The LGA Transformation Peer Review was undertaken in July over 2 days.  The observations and considerations for next steps were provided at the end of the 2 days and we subsequently converted these observations and next steps into an action plan to enable improvements for the whole council transformation approach to be developed and implemented. 
• Submission of the Improvement and Transformation Plan to the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government on 27 August.
• Target Operating Model adopted by Executive on 2 September.
• Rescoping of the Partnership, Localities and Devolution Programme.
• Layer 2 – 3 recruitment and selection completed with the new structure due to be live on 1 November.

The Committee was taken through the risk programme and it was noted that 4 new high risks had been added in the September/October period, all relating to Devolution. Also, two Workforce programme risks had increased as a result of the Council restructure. The current risk programme overview was highlighted as being as follows:

• Programme Level/Cross Cutting             1 Red, 4 Amber
• Workforce                                             1 Red, 2 Amber, 2 Green
• Innovation & Change                             1 Red
• Partnerships, Devolution & Localities      1 Red

Members of the Committee discussed the presentation and comments made included the following:

• A common theme in the red risks involved staff redundancies and motivation. In response, Members were advised that there are significant recruitment and retention issues across some areas. It will continue to be an uncertain time for staff for some time. Meanwhile there are agency staff covering the vacancies.
• Could some staff facing compulsory redundancy be retrained and redeployed to areas where we are struggling to recruit? In response, Members were advised that the Council was not focusing on retraining due to the scale and pace at which it was having to act to reduce the paybill. However, once the consultation period finishes in the New Year, there will be some changes made to structures and those staff still at risk would have first priority to vacant posts or those held by agency staff.
• As the capitalisation is only agreed in principle, is there confidence that the redundancies can be afforded? In response, Members were advised that confirmation from the MHCLG was still awaited but it is being relied on to cover the costs of redundancies.
• Has the risk relating to unmotivated workforce resulted in an increase in absence due to sickness and has a survey been done to assess wellbeing of staff? In response, Members were advised that a survey was carried out 3 months earlier and will be done again next year. Sickness absence is being closely monitored and although there has been a rise in long term sickness, no change in the pattern of sick leave for this time of year has been noted.
• It is disappointing that a skills audit of staff could not have been carried out before the compulsory redundancies are made. Concerned that Somerset residents will have lost confidence in the Council that it can deliver the services it should be. Some of the skills that will be lost could have been avoided if a skills audit had been completed.

At the conclusion of the discussion the Chair summed up and requested that in future, the risk scores are as close to real time as possible with the most up to date mitigations. Members noted the report.