AGENDA ITEM
REPORT TO CORPORATE AND SOCIAL INCLUSION SELECT COMMITTEE
9 JULY 2014
Scrutiny Overview Report (2013/14)
Resources Service Overview
The Resources service grouping delivers key functions, which provide both operational activities directly to the public or in many cases supports the work of the whole Council. Officers within Resources are directly involved in all major projects undertaken within the authority including the Big Ticket Reviews, Welfare Reform, Asset Review, Schools Capital Programme and Shaping a Brighter Borough Programme.
Since reporting to CSI Select Committee 12 months ago there has been some significant changes in legislation, policy implementation and budget/resource reductions. All of which indicate a continued relentless pace of change that the services need to understand and respond to in order to keep delivering the services to a high standard and meet customer need, whilst continuing to provide value for money. Resources staff plays a key role in supporting this agenda.
A detailed review of 2013/14 for the Resources service is provided below:
Communications and Human Resources
Communications
The Media Relations team:
· issue press releases;
· coordinate all responses to media;
· publish Stockton News;
· provide guidance and training on media issues;
· provide staff and members with a regular roundup of local and national stories.
The Marketing and Internal Communications team:
· develop and deliver a programme of targeted marketing campaigns;
· coordinate print and design requirement;
· arrange photographic requests;
· Are responsible for all council-wide internal communications including the weekly ‘Keeping You in Touch’ (KYiT).
The Digital Media team:
· manage and develop the Council’s website;
· have responsibility for internet and intranet development;
· Make best use of social media platforms to promote the Council.
· Monitor and provide on line communications between 8am and 10pm Monday – Friday and between 10am and 10pm at weekends.
Human Resources
The Key areas of activity of the Human Resources teams are:
· workforce development;
· building organisational capacity;
· HR policy development;
· Promotion of equality and diversity in the workplace
· Pay policy and remuneration development;
· support to schools;
· advisory functions;
· Trade Union liaison;
· supporting Service Reviews and organisational changes
The services are delivered through 4 teams - two HR Business Advisory Teams covering Corporate and Schools areas, a Workforce Development Team and a Workforce Planning Team. The service maintains links with Xentrall Shared Services in relation to transactional HR services.
What has been achieved?
Communications
· The new Council website was launched in May 2013 – feedback and usage rates for the new site are extremely positive and visit levels are now higher than the rates achieved on the old site. We achieved a 3 star (out of a maximum possible 4 star) SOCITM rating on the site in March 2014 - an industry standard message of ease of use and accessibility.
· The Digital Content Group has now been fully established with new processes in place for websites, forms and social media accounts; web authors across the council are fully supported. There has been further development of a number of micro sites linked to the main SBC core site. The Events, SIRF, Heritage and REDISCOVER websites have been developed and are operating well. Development of a new Tees Valley Music Service website and the Tees Achieve websites are underway.
· Phase 2 of the web development project is underway with plans to launch a new and improved site in 2015. A new Content Management System has been procured and a project team established. The new developments will allow for improved search facilities and will incorporate changes needed to reflect the way Adult Social Care services and services for children with additional needs are communicated.
· The Media Team has continued to secure positive coverage for a number of Council projects in the local, regional, national and trade media. The team has issued 461 press releases in the last year in addition to providing media briefings, photo calls, and handling media at events. Media support has been provided for many high profile projects e.g. the redevelopment of Billingham and Stockton Town Centres, Globe funding announcement, 1,245 Sunflowers project, demolition of final properties at Swainby Road and Mandale Park, announcement of funding for flood defences and promotion of events such as Sparkles, SIRF Cycling Festival and Duathlon.
The Media team has handled intense media interest in a number of highly-sensitive issues such as the flooding of Port Clarence, Gypsy and Traveller site consultation process, the Spark of Genius project, a number of contentious planning issues related to house building, South of the Borough referendum issues, Christmas decorations and the Durham Tees Valley Airport master plan consultation.
The Stockton Town Centre redevelopment campaign REDISCOVER STOCKTON has generated a great deal of interest and positive communication and engagement with the redevelopment project. The communication activity during the work has been positive and has helped to support businesses and residents whilst the work takes place.
Human Resources
· The Business Advisory team has continued to support the formal staff consultations which have been held to deliver the MTFP Service Review proposals approved by Council in June 2013. 20 reviews have been completed to date. Support has also been provided to the Adults and Children Big Ticket reviews.
· A significant amount of work has been undertaken to minimise the impact of Service Reviews on employees as expressions of interest in voluntary redundancy have been accommodated where possible, employee support and development for employees at risk of redundancy has been provided, including 1:1 support where appropriate. Redeployment has been explored where possible with 40.2 FTEs successfully redeployed in the last year.
· A number of TUPE transfers (arising from contract, invest to save and legislative changes) have been completed. Transfers have been completed for The Community Building Trust, Street Lighting and Time2Buy teams.
· Intensive work has been undertaken to deliver the Sickness Absence Action Plan. A range of measures to support managers in the sickness absence processes, review policies, support employees in health and wellbeing initiatives and improve the provision of information to support sickness management have been delivered. The work has resulted in an improvement in sickness absence levels from 8.5 days average per FTE in 2012/13 to 8.1 days average per FTE in 2013/14. This improvement has been used as the basis for agreeing a target of 7.6 days per FTE for 2014/15
· Proposals have been agreed for making a move towards delivering the Living Wage. It was agreed in the 2014 MTFP report that following agreement of the national pay negotiations, the Stockton pay and grading structure would be amended to begin at Grade C and be extended to allow progression within grade C up to scale point 10 (£7.26) which is the nearest scale point below the current Living Wage.
· Development work has been undertaken to support the Chief Executive in the design of a major organisation-wide programme to provide long term development of employees to increase capabilities and capacity. The “Shaping a Brighter Future” programme has been agreed by Cabinet and is being developed for delivery over the next 5 years.
· The workforce development team have continued to provide training and development support to employees, with a focus on course to support staff through periods of challenge and change. A new two-day 'Personal Development and Professional Effectiveness' course has been designed and delivered for young staff (aged 25 and under) to progress work on building up the workforce of the future.
· The LGPS changes have been successfully implemented, despite extremely tight timescales associated with the conformation of final proposals.
· The four equality staff forums have agreed action plans for 2014/15 and continue to meet quarterly with the Chairs and Vice Chairs, with support from Human Resources.
· There are currently 18 young people who are following a short term apprenticeship framework, and 5 long term apprenticeships in ICT and horticulture. Two of the Council’s Looked-After Children are currently undertaking apprenticeships with the Council. The programme has grown from 2012/13 and is proving to be successful in long term outcomes.
What has proven more difficult?
Communications
The Media team continues to face a significant workload and is challenged to meet demand for the combination of proactive and reactive work associated with many issues arising from Service changes. A review of the service is underway and these capacity issues will be addressed.
Human Resources
· The delivery of the sickness absence action plan is a significant challenge for the organisation and whilst progress has been made in the last year. The current levels of sickness are still higher than we would like and this remains a challenge in the coming year.
· The delivery of HR support to the Service and Big Ticket Reviews remains a capacity challenge and this workload is expected to remain high.
· The LGPS changes were especially difficult to deliver due to the timing of the final scheme details. The full impact of all changes will continue to be felt through the first year of operation in 2014/15.
Emerging Issues
Communications
· The workload issues associated with communicating the ongoing changes associated with the Service Reviews will remain a challenge.
· The continuing move towards digital media and communications remains an issue which we respond to and consider in our delivery of services. The current review of the Communications service reflects this and will position us well to continue to respond to changes.
Human Resources
· The focus on sickness absence continues to be a priority for the future.
· The impact of the implementation of the new pension arrangements will be significant in the coming year.
· The national pay negotiations continue. We are currently preparing for the strike action on 10 July (with possible further days in September).
· The challenge to the workforce of continuing to deliver excellent services as we continue to review services and reduce the workforce is significant. The Shaping a Brighter Future programme will be vital in helping to build capacity and capability across the workforce.
Customer Services & Taxation
Customer Services:
· manage the Access to Services programme – provide a range of access channels that support customer interactions with the Council and develop digital solutions to encourage customers to use cheaper access channels, when appropriate (channel shift);
· manage the Contact Centre - now includes a wider range of services;
· manage the Customer Contact Centres in Stockton and Thornaby;
· development and implementation of the Customer Service Excellence programme;
· internal Customer Service awards.
The Administration service:
· central support to all service groups through smalls hubs;
· involved in a number of Corporate Projects;
· courier Services;
· postal Service;
· numerous general administrative duties.
The Taxation service:
· responsible for the administration of local taxation – Council Tax and Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR);
· cashiering functions;
· fulfils the requirements of 1988 and 1992 Local Government and Finance Acts, the Local Government Act 2003 and many statutory instruments associated with these Acts.
What has been achieved?
Customer Services and Taxation
· Work has commenced on the new £2.7 million customer service centre and library in Billingham, bringing a variety of council services together under one roof. The centre is scheduled to open in winter 2014.
· The Council retained the Customer Service Excellence award for a further 12 months and remains one of only 16 councils nationally to hold the award across all of its services.
· Customer Services are now taking service requests from Twitter and Facebook and posting information out using these social media channels.
· Customer Services has also successfully developed end to end processing for concessionary fares and residents parking permits. Utilising technology to introduce these new arrangements has resulted in improved customer experiences and more efficient processes.
· Over 22,000 calls were answered in the contact centre in March 2014, 60% of which were for Taxation and Benefits.
· The annual billing exercise took place in quarter four, with the Administration, Taxation and Benefits teams working together successfully to combine council tax bills and notification letters for over 20,000 customers, also ensuring that 84,000 council tax bills were issued in a timely manner. In addition, this year after a very successful promotion exercise, nearly 2,500 customers received an e-bill, making savings on postage and printing costs, more than doubling the number of customers choosing this option compared with last year.
· Retail relief was awarded to over 500 businesses before issuing annual business rates bills - a real achievement given the timescales involved.
· A pilot texting scheme has been introduced for council taxpayers and is proving successful. A text was sent out in December to 341 customers whose special payment arrangement was in default; as a result, approximately 25% of those customers subsequently made a payment or contacted the team, thus avoiding further enforcement action. In addition to this, a further text was sent to 330 council taxpayers who had not paid their regular instalments at the beginning of the month; as a result, approximately 50% of those customers contacted/and or paid their instalment thus avoiding the necessity for a statutory paper reminder.
· Developed a business case to support the introduction of an in-house enforcement team that will deliver a holistic approach to debt recovery and an appropriate level of support for vulnerable residents and those facing the impact of welfare reform.
What has proven more difficult?
· The introduction of Council Tax Support has impacted on Council Tax collection performance. By the end of 2012/2013, we had collected 98.2% of the Council Tax billed for the year; the equivalent collection performance for 2013/2014 was down to 96.9%.
· The higher level of non-payment has resulted in a sharp increase in the volume of enforcement action. Whilst new initiatives such as text messaging and home visits have been introduced to try to bring in payments and support those residents that are struggling to pay, although these measures have generated some success, all of the extra recovery action has increased the overall cost of collecting Council Tax.