Agenda item

Report of Assistant Director for Business Transformation.

Cabinet lead member:  Councillor Troy Tester.

Delivery of phase one of the programme noted and decisions made by the programme board as detailed in the report endorsed.

7.1 Cabinet considered the report of the assistant director for business transformation.  In May 2016 the cabinets of Eastbourne and Lewes councils had approved the joint transformation programme (JTP) to deliver the majority of council services via shared teams adopting new ways of working.  Last October, cabinets approved the 3 phase delivery of the programme, with phase one lasting from September 2016 to March 2017.

7.2 Phase one involved the design of and recruitment to new roles and teams in strategy, planning and regeneration and democratic services, and new leadership and management roles in service delivery.  The final phase one structure consisted of 63 posts.  The internal recruitment process ran from March to early May and 50 appointments were made.  A small number of posts remained vacant and would be filled through external recruitment.   The savings target for phase one was £1.05m across the two councils.  Although the exact savings figure would not be established until the final vacant roles were recruited, the expectation was that the savings target would be slightly exceeded.

7.3 At the start of the programme, there were significant differences between the two councils’ respective computer systems.  The programme consisted of a number of projects to move the councils to a common set of technologies, including a single IT network, telephone system and upgraded mobile phone system to meet modern security standards.

7.4 Since October the programme board had made a number of key decisions:

Branding.  The councils would maintain separate corporate brands based around their current logos for all separate and distinct services and communications.  Shared public services would be delivered under a joint brand based on a revised version of the Customer First brand already known in Eastbourne, adapted to incorporate elements of Lewes visual identity.

Websites.  Both councils would move over to a new joint domain, lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk, which was an essential foundation for the shared network.  All staff would get a new lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk email address.  Councillors would continue to use the email address that matches the specific council they represent.  A condition of the Cabinet Office granting permission for the use of the lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk domain was that the councils replaced their two separate websites by a new, joint website. The Cabinet Office also imposed a tight deadline of summer 2017 for delivery of this site, meaning that design decisions would need to be taken quickly, and it had been agreed that the board will sign off the new website design.

Joint committees.  Following a review of shared services governance at other councils by Improvement and Efficiency Social Enterprise (iESE), the board authorised the development of terms of reference for two new joint committees.  A joint committee for employment matters delegated from full council and a joint advisory committee concentrating on external facing regional development and growth.  The creation of these new committees will be subject of a report to meetings of both full councils.

7.5 The next update to cabinet would be in autumn 2017 after the completion of the phase two design but before recruitment had been done.  Between now and then it was planned to:

·         Complete the transition process for the phase one teams.

·         Complete the initial design of the service delivery teams that form the focus of phase two, namely customer contact and neighbourhood services; case, account and specialist services; and Homes First.

·         Carry out a full consultation exercise with staff and Unison and publish a final set of proposals.

·         Launch the new website, noting that completion of website features would not be achieved until early 2018.

·         Complete the migration of all staff to the new network.

·         Roll out new technology to councillors to support them to carry out their council work efficiently using their council email addresses.

·         Deliver the revised joint Customer First brand.

7.6 The cabinet expressed their thanks to staff for the savings secured and for their response and engagement with the joint transformation programme.

7.7 Resolved (key decision):  That cabinet notes the delivery of phase one of the programme and endorses the decisions made by the programme board as detailed in the report and summarised above.