Meeting documents

The Head of Commercial Investment and Change (CIC) presented an update on the Transformation Project.

The Head of CIC confirmed the recruitment of the new Chief Executive, James Hassett, who would be joining the Council in January 2019.  As the former Chief Executive was the Transformation Sponsor, the Head of CIC was due to take on the role in the New Year.

The new Transformation Sponsor would report to the Board more frequently over the next few months to keep the members updated on all the changes.  Over the next couple of months, it was anticipated that the majority of officers would be entering their recruitment phase, which would lead to changes in service delivery.

During the presentation, details were given on the new website and the new computer system, Firmstep, which highlighted the new ways of working and would encourage customers to self-serve.  Both of those would be introduced on the 1 April 2019 with the creation of the New Council, Somerset West and Taunton Council.

Certain aspects of the project were highlighted:-

·         Accommodation Project – which included the introduction of hot desking and an open plan office within the Deane House.

·         People and Change – which included the recruitment process, the new ways of working with the removal of department silos and supporting officers in their new roles.

·         Process Redesign – which explained how the Council would function with fewer officers, the promotion of customer self-serve for both internal and external customers and work on the 248 main processes.

·         Linking the benefits to the Business Case.

There were several projects being undertaken on the new technology required to enable officers in the New Council, which included:-

          -          New Intranet.

          -          Self – the creation of customer accounts to self-serve.

          -          One Finance System.

          -          Process Redesign.

          -          Tech for the Job.

          -          Information Management – sharepoint and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

          -          ‘Applying for It’ Processes.

          -          Service – submission of requests via all access channels.

          -          Payments.

          -          New Website – that was one of the key processes for the New Council.

          -          ‘Report It’ Processes.

          -          System Consolidation.

During the discussion, the following points were raised:-

·         Members queried whether the Head of CIC’s role had changed.

Yes, he was formerly the Director for Housing and was now a Head of one of the new functional areas in the new structure.  Further details of the structure were given.

·         Members queried how would customer’s contact the Council if the website went down.

Officers needed to ensure that there was resilience within the procedures and that the system was robust. 

·         Concern was raised on whether the Council had a business continuity plan and Members requested reassurance.

The new infrastructure would boost resilience within the business continuity plan.

·         Concern was raised on data protection and with more processes being online, that could increase the risk of a data breach.

There were processes in place that protected sensitive data and the new GDPR ensured that there were procedures in place that mitigated the risk of a data breach.

·         Members acknowledged that there had been a lot of work carried out on the Transformation Project and that they would like to have some feedback once officers had settled into their new job roles.

The new People Managers would support officers in their new roles and would be able to gain feedback that could be reported back to the Board.  Many officers appeared to be excited to start their new ways of working.

Resolved that the Board noted the update report.