Agenda item

Verbal Update and presentation slides from the Corporate Director of Resources.

The Committee received a presentation from the Corporate Director of Resources, which set out the Council’s journey towards becoming a more modern, flexible and agile Council with a move to a new Civic Centre.

The Corporate Director circulated his presentation titled ‘Members and the Flexible Futures Programme’ at the meeting and described the planning of the Modernisation Programme which was intended to take the Council into the digital world.  He referred to the various slides as follows:

Slide 1 – Modernising How We Work – Themes

It was intended to review the Council as a whole and the ‘client journey’ would also focus on residents.  It was intended to automate manual processes.

The ‘core enabling’ would entail the modernisation of internal processes and tools and the empowerment of staff.  It would examine how officers worked with a view to simplifying and standardising processes such as sickness absence.  Training and motivation of staff would be fundamental in ensuring an empowered and energised staff.  A flexible and modern workspace would help support the move to a new Civic Centre.

Slide 2 – What is Flexible Futures?

The Council was preparing to move to a new Civic Centre in 2023/24 and it was intended to embed a flexible approach to work which untied staff from ‘owning’ a desk and allowed staff to work from any place.  The physical space would be defined, including special requirements.

Additionally, how staff worked in a space and how they were managed would also be defined.  Training would form an integral part of this exercise.  It was intended to introduce new technological devices to ensure flexibility and allow for smarter working.  Ensuring security of data would form an essential ingredient of this exercise.  Workplace design would examine various steps – flexible, smarter and agile working by allowing staff to work anywhere, at anytime and anyhow with anyone and anything.  The vision towards achieving this ambition was being worked on.

Members of the Council would need to be involved in this journey and provide leadership to help embed flexible and agile working.

The Committee asked a number of questions which were responded to as follows:

What arrangements would be in place to allow staff to work from home and would synergy working be available?

Staff would be able to work from any place, including libraries and coffee shops.  The policies on working from home, including lone working, would be revised. In this context, data security would be particularly important.  It was expected that no one would have their ‘own’ desk but the teams would be allocated an area.  Other facilities, such as ‘interview rooms’, would also be required for some service areas.

On average, what percentage of time were desks currently occupied?  Had the move to smarter working been costed?  Was there room to be more aspirational?

The Corporate Director replied that whilst he did not have the figures to hand, it was in the region of 50% and desk space was available in the building. Currently, the Council’s available technology restricted how flexibly staff could work.  The new technology, soon to be introduced, would start the journey of improving the ability to be flexible and the intention was to prepare staff for flexible working before the move to the new Civic Centre.

An adviser stated that in the ‘Corporate World’ many companies had moved to a fully agile workspace with very few desks and it was important to plan for this eventuality.  Otherwise, money could be wasted.  She added that a fully agile workspace further reduced costs.  In response, the Corporate Director report that the workspace design for the new Civic Centre would be as flexible as possible.

How would services users (particularly elderly residents) who were not IT literate access services, particularly as the number of older people in the borough was expected to increase?

The Corporate Director reported that the presentation slides concentrated on users who were members of staff.  He acknowledged the need to define clients who were residents.  However, the Councillor was making a pertinent point in relation to the ability of staff/customers (residents) to use new technology adequately.  He added that the pilot for both Members and officers on the new devices, such as Microsoft Pros, would allow the Council to test how they worked before they were rolled out widely with training.

The Corporate Director added that conversations needed to take place with both Members and staff regarding future workspace design.  He was aware that some subject areas could become emotive and a host of issues would need addressing, such as car parking, desk space, storage of ‘special’ chairs, provision of stand up desks.

DSE Assessments and Health and Safety issues would require consideration.  Neighbourhood working provided increased output and remove isolation within teams.  The inability to work remotely with an iPad needed to be recognised.

The Corporate Director reported that, after the new devices had been piloted, it was intended to roll them out from April to the end of summer 2020.  The Wifi in the existing building would also be enhanced and officers were also trialling how best to connect the new devices when working remotely.  It was also intended to replace desk telephones with ’soft’ phones and revise the mobile ones.  Windows 10/365, which would be the new operating system, had a range of functionality and would allow more flexible working.

The practicalities of working off site needed to be considered.  What was the vision?

The Corporate Director noted that the whole ‘Modernisation’ transformation would support flexible working including looking at how staff would work and be managed in a flexible environment where they may not see their manager for days at a time.  The Council was developing an internal communication strategy and the intention was to communicate and engage with staff better.  He also referred to the Borough Plan, as a uniting vision, which was set out on the agenda as a separate item.

The Chair was of the view that Councillors were a perfect ‘test bed’ due to their working methods which required them to be mobile and flexible.  He recommended wrap around support in areas such as IT, in particular during weekends when Councillors would mostly catch up on the work from their constituents.  He acknowledged that car parking would become an issue in the new Civic Centre as it might reduce accessibility.

The Corporate Director of Resources explained that four Councillors, two from each party, would be provided with the new technology as part of the trial.  He expected the new devices to be easier to use and added that a further report would be submitted to the Committee in due course.

RESOLVED:  That the presentation be received.