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Agenda item
Update on the council's organisational transformation
(Spoken Report)
Minutes:
The Director of Corporate Services and Governance and the Accommodation and Transformation Manager gave a presentation on the council’s ongoing organisational transformation programme.
The Director of Corporate Services and Governance explained that the vision for the council was to create a modern, flexible, learning organisation that is empowering, agile, enabling, customer focussed and works as one team by 2018. It was intended that the working practices introduced during this period would support the council in continuous improvement beyond the transformation programme.
The transformation programme included work packages to review and improve the council’s culture and systems, policies, technology and provide opportunities for staff development. The work packages would also draw on examples of good practice from other authorities. The programme was intended to help the council address the significant ongoing reductions in its funding and create capacity within the organisation to deliver the ambitious objectives set out in the corporate plan.
The Accommodation and Transformation Manager gave an overview of the digital by design work package. He explained that by providing transactional services online, the council deliver services more efficiently into the future; there was also scope to gather data on service users to support further improvement. Staff from the relevant service departments had been involved in process mapping the workflow of common enquiries and designing the new online processes. A test phase of My Hastings online had been launched, which enabled service users to carry out a range of common transactional enquiries online. It was important to gain as much feedback as possible from customers during the testing phase of My Hastings online to drive further improvements to the service.
Discussion took place about how issues around digital exclusion, particularly amongst BME and disability groups, could be addressed as an increasing number of services were provided online. The Director of Corporate Services and Governance commented that the council would continue to provide face to face and telephone interactions and that online services were intended to improve the flexibility of the council’s offer. Indeed, carrying out transactional services online will create additional staff capacity to deal with more complex enquiries. At their annual meeting in June, Overview and Scrutiny members had agreed to carry out a review of digital inclusion, which would complement work already underway elsewhere in the organisation.
Consideration was given to the mechanisms for staff engagement throughout the transformation process. The Accommodation and Transformation Manager noted that the refurbishment of Aquila House had begun to create an improved working environment for staff and better facilities for flexible working. The Director of Corporate Services and Governance highlighted that the transformation programme provided a range of opportunities for staff development, particularly around sharing expertise between colleagues and teams to support the one council ethos. This would also assist the council with succession planning, by ensuring knowledge was retained within the organisation. However, the additional workload created by the transformation programme may reduce staff capacity in the short term, and members were asked to be mindful of this when dealing with enquiries.
The committee welcomed the update and acknowledged that the transformation programme remained a very significant area of work for the organisation over the coming months.
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