Community and Customer Services

Business Plan

2012- 2015

Community and Customer Services

Business Plan 2012-2015

1Executive Summary

1.1How we contribute to our Council’s Priorities and Commitments

We will work with other Council services, a range of community planning partners and our communities towards achieving our Council’s priorities and commitments.

Priority 1 - We will provide a good start in life for all our children– through our community services, we contribute to early intervention programmes and we work with Education and other partners in implementing the Curriculum for Excellence and the GIRFEC (Getting it right for every child) plan. We will also support the commitment to increase physical education in primary and secondary schools.

Priority 2 - We will prepare our young people for adulthood and employment we provide opportunities for young people to achieve personal development goals and nationally recognised accredited awards. We will provide modern apprenticeships and graduate placements within our services. We will also support and contribute to the development of Dumfries as a learning town.

Priority 3 - We care for our older and vulnerable people - through our community services, we provide learning opportunities and experiences that enable the ageing population of Dumfries and Galloway (D&G) to remain active and become involved and engaged within their own community. We aim to ensure equitable leisure and sport provision. We will work with partners on providing universal services as part of self directed (personalisation) support packages and on delivering innovative, modern services such as telecare and telehealth as part of the ‘Putting You First’ programme. We will commission and directly deliver services to people facing the implications of Welfare Reform.

Priority 4 - We will support and stimulate our local economy by supportinglocal people to have the basic skills to function adequately in their individual, working and community lives. We will enable our Council to sponsor festivals, community arts and events through managing funding programmes and providing support to community groups. We will lead on maximising the tourism potential, economic benefit and legacy from 2014 (Commonwealth Games, Ryder Cup and Homecoming).

Priority 5 - We will maintain the safety and security of our region by commissioning the deployment of flexible community safety teams to meet the needs of local communities and by supporting CCTV systems throughout D&G.

Priority 6 - We will protect and sustain our environment by leading our Council’s ‘Service Needs and Property Issues’ (SNAPi) programme to reduce the number of Council properties in our smaller communities, optimising their use and improving their energy efficiency. We will reduce the CCS carbon footprint and we will manage the operation of our Council’s Civic Pride Fund.

CCS also contributes to relevant national priorities and to the delivery of the Single Outcome Agreement (SOA) 2011/14 – ‘Together is Better’.

1.2Department Aims and Objectives

Our aim is to deliver high quality, universal and targeted community and customer services for the people and communities of D&G.

Our Department Objectives are set out below:-

  • We will improve and modernise the way in which the Council provides its customer interface
  • We will contribute alongside partner agencies to promote and deliver personal development and community empowerment
  • We will contribute alongside partner agencies to promote and improve physical and mental health and well-being
  • We will lead on the promotion and delivery of partnership working, decision- making and accountability at a local level
  • We will lead on Community Safety and work with partners to maintain the safety and security of our region
  • We will improve the life chances of our people by providing opportunities, information, advice and support

1.3Department Challenges

Key internal challenges include:-

  • meeting our financial challenges including how we deliver our services differently;
  • managing our human resources effectively to ensure a balance between generic management and the need for specialist service knowledge; and
  • maximising the potential of our property and other assets.

Key external challenges include:-

  • the changing demographic profile and needs of D&G;
  • the current economic downturn and its impact locally;
  • the changing expectations of customers (e.g.availability of web based services); and
  • national policy changesand the challenges set by national governing bodies.

2Where we are now

2.1 Purpose and Aims

Community and Customer Services (CCS) is responsible for a wide range ofservices:-

  • Leisure and Sport
  • Arts and Museums
  • Commissioning of Community Safety Activities
  • Youth work
  • Adult learning
  • Family Learning
  • Community capacity building
  • Libraries, Information and Archives
  • Customer Service Centres
  • Registration Services
  • Revenues and Benefits
  • DG Direct (Call Centre)
  • External Funding Support
  • Area Framework and Partnership Support

All of these services have traditionally been seen, and operationally managed, as independent services. One of our key aims is to consolidate these services and, through integrated and generic management, ensure that they work closer together to deliver a more effective and efficient service to the people and communities of Dumfries and Galloway.

Another of our key aims is to ensure the best quality of life for the people and communities of D&G. We are clear that we must engage with and listen to our people and communities in order to understand and address their needs. We are also clear that we cannot deliver on the needs of D&G on our own and that we must both lead and contribute to partnership working in order to achieve our ambitions.

2.2Department Structure

* Please NOTE: The Strategic Planning, Improvement and Engagement and Resource Planning functions, each attached to a different Head of Service, are the responsibility of that Head of Service to deliver for the whole Department.

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2.3CCS Finances

The CCS revenue budget for 2012/13 is £30.578 million, as broken down into the Table below.

Apportionment of Budget to activities / Leisure and Sport / Arts and Museums / Community Learning and Development / Libraries / Customer Services / Registrations / Revenues and Benefits / Directorate, Area Framework, Strategic Improvement and Engagement / Total
Expenditure
Staff Costs / 5,994,600 / 996,436 / 2,038,535 / 1,561,808 / 1,312,932 / 480,140 / 3,156,306 / 1,478,390 / 17,019,147
Property Costs / 2,899,164 / 257,706 / 65,533 / 460,015 / 6,309 / 32,686 / 199 / 8,659 / 3,730,271
Supplies & Services / 460,579 / 177,972 / 123,349 / 436,546 / 124,554 / 19,904 / 424,493 / 122,357 / 1,889,754
Transport Costs / 168,433 / 8,890 / 41,049 / 53,933 / 15,263 / 8,578 / 22,084 / 34,759 / 352,989
Admin costs / 547,129 / 69,992 / 112,398 / 65,220 / 57,405 / 60,418 / 343,015 / 57,879 / 1,313,456
PTOB / 366,759 / 396,165 / 91,272 / - / - / - / 711,220 / 2,142,920 / 3,708,336
Total expenditure / 10,436,664 / 1,907,161 / 2,472,136 / 2,577,522 / 1,516,463 / 601,726 / 4,657,317 / 3,844,964 / 28,013,953
Grants / 544,125 / 58,492 / - / - / - / - / 1,849,300 / - / 2,451,917
Fees & Charges / 3,161,501 / 262,035 / 34,361 / 189,084 / 20,573 / 1,488 / 46,501 / - / 3,715,543
Other income / 190,800 / 8,903 / - / 34,162 / 187,149 / 978,023 / 393,110 / 6,270 / 1,798,417
Total Income / 3,896,426 / 329,430 / 34,361 / 223,246 / 207,722 / 979,511 / 2,288,911 / 6,270 / 7,965,877
Nett Controllable Expenditure / 6,540,238 / 1,577,731 / 2,437,775 / 2,354,276 / 1,308,741 / - 377,785 / 2,368,406 / 3,838,694 / 20,048,076
Centrally Allocated Costs / -
Shared Admin Premises / 62,187 / 23,514 / 503,543 / 25,125 / 157,786 / 69,705 / 135,644 / 166,668 / 1,144,172
Central Support Costs / 839,539 / 209,402 / 301,044 / 478,924 / 180,209 / 123,876 / 2,294,296 / 1,096,718 / 5,524,008
Capital Charges / 2,867,358 / 210,201 / 125,491 / 456,227 / 160,086 / 42,155 / - / 635 / 3,862,153
3,769,084 / 443,117 / 930,078 / 960,276 / 498,081 / 235,736 / 2,429,940 / 1,264,021 / 10,530,333
2012/13 Estimates / 10,309,322 / 2,020,848 / 3,367,853 / 3,314,552 / 1,806,822 / - 142,049 / 4,798,346 / 5,102,715 / 30,578,409

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Budget savings of £957,000 as agreed at the Full Council meetings on 22 December 2011 and 9 February 2012, will be implemented during 2012/13. These are:-

Efficiencies – Building Healthy Communities, travel, Village Hall Improvement Scheme, vacant posts £210,000

Management/staffing reductions (and associated savings) through review of service activities £472,000

Sports Development service review£175,000

Integration of Customer Service Centres, Libraries and Registration£100,000

Over the life of this Business Plan, we will continue to devote resources to further budget development including identification of efficiencies and budget pressures, and working up of savings proposals. This work will also involve thorough reviews of both our income streams and of our procurement processes to ensure maximum efficiency. All this work will be undertaken through our dedicated Resource Planning Team supported by the departmental Management Team.

Capital

The CCS Maintenance Block capital budget for 2012/13 is £1.067 million.

2.4Our People

Our diverse and multi-skilled work force is based throughout the region, delivering a wide variety of customer and community based services. A breakdown of our workforce by grade, age and gender is below:-

Service Area / Category / Band
01-09 / Band
10-12 / Band
13-15 / Band 16 + HS / Directors / D&GC – Others / No. Of Positions / FTE Total
Community Services / No. of Posts / 510 / 31 / 10 / 2 / 1 / 23 / 577 / 390.76
Customer Services / No. of Posts / 355 / 17 / 3 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 376 / 293.79
Total Community and Customer Services / No. of Posts / 865 / 48 / 13 / 3 / 1 / 23 / 953 / 684.70

CCS Staff by Pay Grade Banding

The table above shows a breakdown of CCS staff by pay grade. Staff paid at Band10 or higher represent less than 10% of the workforce. This demonstrates a relatively streamlined management cohort.

Age Distribution of CCS Staff

Age distribution - This chart shows that the younger age ranges of people are underrepresented across CCS staff. Linked to this, there are some areas of business where a significant proportion of staff can potentially retire in the near future.

Gender Distribution of CCS Staff by Age Group

Gender Distribution of CCS Staff by Pay Grade Bandings

Gender distribution – The charts above show that the Department does not maintain a consistent gender balance across age groups, and female staff are underrepresented at senior and middle management level (Director, Head of Service and Service Manager).

The actions that we will take to address the ‘People’ issues, outlined above, are described in section 4.2 (‘Developing our People’)

2.5Our Assets

CCS Estate

CCS has a diverse range of approximately 200 properties within its portfolio including Town Halls, libraries, sports centres, community centres, museums and art galleries. The portfolio also contains sports pitches and multi use games areas.

There are considerable challenges for CCS in reducing the size of the CCS estate as well as improving the properties that remain. Approximately £1 million per year has been invested in capital maintenance over the last few years and improvements have been achieved. However, there are still many issues to be addressed. Investment will be increased in 2012/13 to £1.067m.

Asset Management planning for our land and property, as well as the monitoring of ongoing programmes is delivered through the CCS Estate Management Strategic and Tactical Groups which both involve the support of Strategic Property Services and DG Design.

In 2010/11 CCS carbon emissions were 8,205 tCO2 and we will manage both the service and assets to work towards achieving the emission reduction targets outlined in 4.7.

In addition to the management of CCS properties and facilities, CCS is taking the lead on the SNAPi programme on behalf of our Council and community planning partners. The aim of SNAPi is to ensure that our Council, in its smaller communities, has the right buildings in the right places delivering the right services within communities, in the context of needing to have fewer but better assets. The SNAPi programme will assist CCS in integrating Customer Service Centres, Libraries and Registration services as well as community facilities with schools.

CCS vehicles

CCS has a range of vehicles in use across all community services. We are currently reviewing these arrangements to ensure that these resources are deployed effectively and to reduce costs wherever possible.

Technology and Information Management

We are developing a CCS Technology plan that will prioritise where investment requires to be made to support service improvement as follows:-

  • Adopting a co-ordinated approach to ICT across the Department focusing on reducing the number of different applications currently in use, more effective use of online booking and rationalisation of information kept on electronic files and databases.
  • Development of Self-Service through the Council website to achieve service improvements and future savings. The first stage of this process will be Revenues and Benefits, looking at electronic billing for Council Tax allowing customers to view and pay their Council Tax online. Future phases will consider a range of service activities such as booking leisure classes and requesting and paying for a bulky uplift.
  • Reviewing processes and procedures in relation to DG Direct including the requirement for infrastructure upgrade.

We will upgrade our hardware and software systems where this will make a best value contribution to improving our services.

Information is a key asset and we are committed to developing and managing our Service’s Information Asset Register. We are also working towards improved record management and classification in terms of Data Protection, Freedom of Information and data management as a whole. Our information assets support the operation of CCS both at a corporate and local level through our various management information systems,such as Covalent, PIES (Performance Information and Evaluation System), Scuba and RESPOND.

In a similar way to budget development (see section 2.3), our Resource Planning team is a dedicated resource to support our asset management planning.

2.6Strategic Partners

CCS has worked with, and will continue to work with, a wide range of internal, other public sector, third sector, community sector and private sector partners at both a national and local levelto plan and deliver services and achieve shared outcomes for the people of D&G. More detail on our work with partners is contained in section 4.1.

3 Where we want to be

3.1Our Improvement Plan

One of our key aims is to improve the quality of life for individuals and communities across D&G. To achieve this, we will engage and consult with our communities, work in partnership with a wide range of partner agencies, invest in our staff and develop a culture of self evaluation, improvement and quality assurance. Further, we will encourage innovation, creativity, empowerment, collaboration and foster a culture of sharing and learning.

We are committed to delivering improvement across all areas of CCS. Our improvement plan is set out in detail in Annex 1. It covers the following improvements:-

  • Develop a coherent and comprehensive Quality Assurance Framework for CCS
  • Improved understanding of communities and their needs
  • Work with communities and organisations to deliver activity that supports and enhances the work of CCS
  • Review how we deliver services
  • Use, manage and maintain our properties more effectively
  • Improve customer service
  • Develop our staff
  • Implement the corporate approach to CCS procurement to create efficiencies
  • Develop and implement action plans resulting from any Health and Safety audits
  • Contribute to the corporate Council through developing Area Teams, customer services improvements and commissioning community safety services

3.2Measuring Performance

We will report regularly on our performance to Policy and Resources Committee and the four Area Committees, using ourKey Performance Indicators (KPIs). Our KPIs link through our Department objectives (see para 1.2) to our Council’s priorities and theSOA, and have been developed with our staff.

The CCS KPIsarelisted below with detail on targets and past performance against each KPI detailed in Annex 2:-

  • Percentage of customers reporting satisfactory or above with CCS services
  • Percentage of CCS front facing staff who have achieved Customer Service Professional Accredited Training
  • Number of Council service activities available through Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
  • Number of individuals achieving nationally recognised accredited awards
  • Number of individuals achieving personal development goals (non accredited)
  • Number of volunteers supporting the delivery of CCS activities
  • Number of community groups supported to deliver services
  • Number of attendances per 1,000 population at swimming pools
  • Number of attendances per 1,000 population at indoor sports and leisure facilities
  • Number of attendances at coached physical activities in D&G
  • Number of attendances per 1,000 population at Libraries
  • Number of visits/usage of Council funded or part funded museums per 1,000 population
  • Percentage of Member enquiries dealt with through the Elected Member Enquiry Service (EMES) within the agreed timescales
  • Percentage of Community Councils satisfied with the support provided by Council staff that enables them to be confident to deliver in their community
  • Percentage of people who attended who felt that they had the opportunity to have their voices heard at Area Committee Community meetings.
  • Percentage of active Community Councils/Communities with a Community Resilience Plan
  • Percentage of positive resolutions implemented based on number of reported litter issues; dog fouling issues; ADB incidents; abandoned cars; discarded needles; and fly tipping
  • Value of debt managed through Money Advice Service
  • Value of additional benefits identified through income maximisation services
  • Number of customers aged 60+ involved in CCS activities
  • Time taken to install Care Call equipment from initial referral

KPIs that have been changed or deleted from 2011/12 are listed in Annex 3.

Our Statutory Performance Indicators (SPIs) are detailed in Annex 4. Our SPIs will be reported both to Council Committees and the Scottish Government as required.

We will also set measures and develop milestones to evidence progress on our Improvement Plan (Annex 1) and on our major projects (para 3.4).

Our Council has a number of corporate KPIs. Annex 5 details the corporate indicators which are measured at service level and where CCS are responsible for delivery.

We will also develop team plans and individual staff work plans that include supporting performance indicators. These will ensure that we are able to evidence the impact of all of our activity at a local level.

3.3SOA

CCS will contribute to the D&GSOA and are responsible for the following performance indicators within the plan:-

Priority 1 – We will provide the best start in Life for all our Children

  • Target increase in number of parents and children involved in Family Learning activity by 10% (page 38 of SOA)

Priority 2 – We will prepare our young people for adulthood and employment

  • 10% increase in the number of young people achieving accreditation (page 41)

Priority 3 – We will care for our older and vulnerable people

  • Number of older people involved in activities in their own community (page 44)
  • Number of people assisted with financial advice (page 49)
  • Amount of unclaimed benefits accessed by people in D&G (page 49)

Priority 4 – We will support and stimulate our local economy