Agenda item

To receive the report on the vision and strategy for the council wide Transformation Programme with a number of considerations for the committee to discuss as detailed within the recommendations.

The committee agree the recommendations as detailed within the report published within the agenda. They also commented on the governance of the process and role of Scrutiny, along with the wider council Members and that there they should receive regular member briefings. It was also noted that there would be an impact on staff left in the organisation and for the Public to understand the services being cut and those that will be continued.

It was also agreed that in discussion with the Chairs and Vice-Chairs of the other Scrutiny committees, a joint programme of meetings and working groups be set up to assist with the scrutiny of this programme.

Alyn Jones, Sara Cretney, Dawn Bettridge and Sara Skirton attended the committee to explain the Transformation programme. Councillor Butt-Philip introduced the report explaining that this was a Council-wide programme and there was a need to establish the role of scrutiny, which would include input on the vision and strategy, role in the programme, strategic goals and risks that may be encountered.

It was confirmed that the Transformation programme would redesign the whole council, based on Values and Workforce, with a transformation and improvement plan.

The workforce programme will reshape the workforce, there was a need to reduce the pay bill by £40m, with a number of actions; these being Voluntary Redundancies with the decision on those to be made by the end of April, control on recruitment, reduce the use of agency staff and consultants, Annual Leave purchase, voluntary reduction of hours, expenses and replacement of vacant posts or remove from the structure where non-essential.

It was noted that the structure needed to be agreed by the end of 2024.

There were other work streams being undertaken including data analytics, restructure works for Teams and impact on staff, staff pay and rewards scheme, Job Evaluation changes and impact on staff through MTFP.

Alongside those areas, it was also proposed to look at Partnerships and focus on voluntary sector, Parish and Town Councils, Devolution, LCN and to establish the clarity of objectives and activities.

Members commented as follows:

·       Need to try to keep hold of quality of staff to provide services in a professional way

·       Risk of capacity issues

·       LCNs need a complete rewrite, suggest working groups better and whole LCN meetings as more gets done

·       Performance figures will be impacted

·       Feel transformation programme going too fast – staff stressed, disillusioned and leaving the authority

·       Disappointed that Scrutiny had not been involved earlier in the process

·       Will staff be transferred to parish/town councils through TUPE?

In response to the concerns raised, Officers sought to reassure the members commenting:

VR programme was business -led and had taken into account previous schemes undertaken by District Councils, VR Panels set up to consider each application and there were a number of roles exempt from applying due to difficulty in recruiting those posts

Need to actively manage impacts, not just chasing savings! Looking at whole organisation from different angles not just top to bottom, assistance being received from Local Government Association and process has been risk assessed.

It was noted that the Scrutiny Committees will look at different parts of the programme but there will be a need to create a plan and a meeting to be agreed with the chair and Vice-chairs of each committee to plan way forward as important that Scrutiny is involved.

Resolved:

The committee agree the recommendations as detailed within the report published within the agenda. They also commented on the governance of the process and role of Scrutiny, along with the wider council Members and that there they should receive regular member briefings. It was also noted that there would be an impact on staff left in the organisation and for the Public to understand the services being cut and those that will be continued.

It was also agreed that in discussion with the Chairs and Vice-Chairs of the other Scrutiny committees, a joint programme of meetings and working groups be set up to assist with the scrutiny of this programme.