Lead Member – Councillor Lezley Picton, Leader and Portfolio Holder for Policy and Strategy, Improvement and Communications

Lead officer - Andy Begley

RESOLVED:

3.1.1  To note the work being undertaken to resize the Council
3.1.2. To approve and endorse the proposed new ways of working and sustainable plan for the future as set out from paragraph 7.15 onwards.
3.1.3. To endorse the principles around which the new model for the Council will be built as set out in Appendix 7

The Leader introduced the report which explained how the Council of the future would operate and how the organisation would resize to ensure financial sustainability.   As an operational staffing model, she asked the Chief Executive to present the detail of the report.

The Chief Executive reiterated the utmost necessity of aligning resources to return a balanced budget at the end of the financial year, but also to consider what the council of the future needed to look like in terms of structure and how it operates.  Going forward, this work would be described ‘as the way the Council of the future will operate’ rather than Target Operating Model.  

He explained the diagram set out within the report and the intended focus on early intervention, prevention work and community hubs to reduce later service demands for acute services.  He encouraged all members to view the animation available on the Financial Sustainability intranet pages which explained the diagram in detail. 

He described work underway to redesign the way that people could interact with the council in a simpler and more effective way, at a time of their choosing, recognising that mitigation was needed for those for whom online interaction could be difficult. 

Answering a series of questions, he referred to the service reviews underway to ensure delivery would be as efficient as possible and the resizing of the council, emphasizing all the steps being taken to minimise the need for any compulsory redundancies. 

The Leader explained that normally a model would be identified and agreed before resizing, but in the current circumstances the Council was having to resize at the same time as establishing the model. She thanked the senior management team and all staff for the extensive work being undertaken currently to achieve this. 

The Leader and other Portfolio Holders answered questions around the need for contractors for specialised roles, management restructure, reduction of full time equivalent posts and potential numbers and reiterated the measures being taken to avoid compulsory redundancies. 

RESOLVED:

3.1.1  To note the work being undertaken to resize the Council
3.1.2. To approve and endorse the proposed new ways of working and sustainable plan for the future as set out from paragraph 7.15 onwards.
3.1.3. To endorse the principles around which the new model for the Council will be built as set out in Appendix 7

To receive and scrutinise the report that sets out the Council’s new TOM report and clarifies the short-term arrangements that are being made, and begins to describe how the Council of the future will look and operate.

REPORT TO FOLLOW

The Chief Executive introduced the report and provided an explanation of the new Target Operating Model diagram which was presented on screen and described the principles on which the Council of the future will be built. Members were encouraged to view the animation on the intranet alongside the diagram.

Members noted that the model is based on the Shropshire Plan and is designed to create a healthy organization. It includes pre-front door community hubs, digital self-service, general inquiries, and expert support and is based on digitisation and automation. The primary objective was to become financially survivable.

Officers acknowledged concerns that not all residents have the internet and advised members that there would still be a way to speak with staff. Automation and digitisation did not mean that all communication would be done online, as systems would include chat bots, artificial intelligence and voice recognition.

Members queried whether the Council would still be selling services such as HR. Members were advised that if the services were profitable and commercially tradable, they will continue to be sold; however all services would be subject to review.

A suggestion to amend the wording “customer management" to "customer service” was welcomed.

Concern was raised regarding communication with officers which was preventing members from carrying out their casework and it was felt that it would be helpful to experience the levels of automation to gain confidence in the model. It was felt that there should be an agenda item for automation at the next meeting to which the Head of Service for Automation and Technology would be invited.

In response to a query regarding costs and the voluntary redundancy scheme, the Executive Director for Resources advised that costs were being finalised and would be reported as soon as possible. Members were also advised that there would be another voluntary redundancy scheme and that the organisation was working to minimize the impact of redundancies.

With regard to third party spend, there was lots of work ongoing with PWC to look and outcomes and ways in which services can be delivered.

Members noted the report.