AGENDA ITEM NO.
REPORT FOR INFORMATION – NOT FOR DISCUSSION
REPORT TO:
Corporate Governance & Policy Scrutiny Committee
REPORT OF:
Lee Robinson, Strategic & Performance Director
REPORT NO:
LR/12/03/S
DATE:
4 January 2012
CONTACT OFFICER: Roger Davies (292272)
SUBJECT:
1.
Office Accommodation Strategy and Agile Working
PURPOSE OF THE REPORT
To outline for Members the progress made to date in implementing the
accommodation strategy, including the proposals for the forthcoming agile working
phase.
2.
INFORMATION
2.1 With increasing estate costs and a requirement to make the best use of our office
accommodation portfolio, the accommodation strategy identifies office assets (both
owned and leased accommodation) which should be released.
2.2 As well as rationalising our accommodation portfolio, the other drivers for developing
an accommodation strategy include:
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better space utilisation and design of office accommodation;
reduction in carbon footprint of office accommodation portfolio;
the provision of flexible work spaces to enable improved working practices;
the satisfaction of proximity requirements for teams and services following the
Council restructure;
giving town centre buildings an identity and purpose;
the need to provide more modern office accommodation;
the opportunity to roll out agile working wherever appropriate; and
the need to improve efficiency by reducing the cost of accommodation.
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Figure 1: Office Accommodation Strategy
2.3 As agreed at Executive Board in June and again in November 2011, the
accommodation strategy proposes that the main town centre buildings will now have
specific purposes (Figure 1):
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The Guildhall will continue to have a ‘Civic’ and ‘Corporate’ focus (i.e. Corporate
& Customer Services);
Lord Street will be the main customer access point and drop in centre for the
general public (i.e. Community Well-being & Development, Contact Wrexham
and also the Central Housing Estate Office);
Lambpit Street will not generally be open to the public. Staff who require a town
centre location will be located here, (i.e. Finance, Prevention & Social Care, and
Lifelong Learning); The location of the CYP INFO Shop and a small entrance for
Prevention and Social Care (vulnerable families) will however be accommodated
at Lambpit Street in the space vacated by the Cash Office and the Central
Housing Estate Office).
Crown Buildings will be a temporary office base for planned moves in the future.
Staff could spend time here prior to a future permanent re-location (i.e. Assets &
Economic Development, Adult Social Care);
Old Library: Corporate & Customer Services (I.C.T.) (no change);
Abbey Road: Environment (no change); and
Ruthin Road: Housing & Public Protection (accommodating the staff from
Ruabon).
2.4 Implementing the accommodation strategy will enable the majority of current
leasehold sites to be released as well as a number of freehold buildings, which can be
marketed for sale when economic conditions become suitable.
2.5 Overall, about £377k per year revenue savings and an estimated £950k in one off
capital receipts may be generated from implementing the office accommodation
strategy.
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2.6 In order to successfully implement the accommodation strategy, a number of
sequential office moves have commenced and will continue to take place. To ensure
consistency as the office moves take place, a set of principles by which space will be
designed has been established. The principles are:
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where cost feasible and appropriate, new office environments will move to an
open plan layout and any existing open plan spaces will not be partitioned;
new office environments will ensure like functions are located together (i.e. the
co-location of the HR function, support staff and PA’s etc);
building on the principles from the ATOS Operating Model, new office
environments will ensure team leaders are located with their teams;
only Directors and Heads of Department will have their own office guaranteed;
desk space provision will be approximately 6sqm for office based workers;
teams will be encouraged to reduce storage wherever possible;
back scanning will be used for large paper file storage areas or to support
legislative requirements and move the Council towards a paperless environment;
all large meeting rooms will be held in common and centrally controlled through
an IT solution; and
Directors and Heads of Departments offices will include meeting table provision
to be used by teams when available for meetings – a clear desk policy will be
encouraged.
2.7 The presentation of the business case for the accommodation review and
accommodation strategy has been presented to the Transformation Project Board and
the Unions. In June 2011, Executive Board approved the overall accommodation
strategy. The more detailed accommodation strategy has since been supported by the
Strategic Leadership Team and has also been presented to the Strategic
Management Team on 12 October 2011. Further detail and consultation behind the
accommodation strategy has also taken place with Lead Members on 24 th October
2011. Executive Board also endorsed the more detailed accommodation strategy at
their meeting on the 1st November 2011.
2.8 Phase 1 of implementing the overall accommodation strategy was a series of works
aimed at improving the office space within the Guildhall. The work aimed to increase
the capacity of the building to provide enough space to incorporate the co-location of
the HR function. This increased the capacity from 34 staff to 45 staff. An increase of
33%. The extra capacity afforded following the works also enabled other teams to be
located within the Guildhall, conforming to the overall accommodation strategy. Works
also improved the office accommodation environment in the building, providing open
plan layouts wherever appropriate.
2.9 This first phase was, for ease of managing moves, split into two separate move ‘lots’.
Lot 1 enabled the co-location of all HR staff on the Ground Floor Guildhall. This
included bringing in staff from Lambpit Street and Lord Street. Lot 2 has enabled the
space on the third floor Crown Buildings to locate all of the town centre based Assets
and Economic Development staff.
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2.10 Phase 2 of implementing the overall strategy concerns the re-location of CYP staff to
Lambpit Street and the re-location of Community Well Being and Development staff to
Lord Street. This phase has commenced with the implementation of Lot 3.
2.11 Lot 3 involves Leisure and Libraries staff and Emergency Planning staff moving from
Lambpit Street to Lord Street and Integrated Family Support Services and Parenting
moving from Crown Buildings to Lambpit Street.
2.12 Further 'lots' under Phase 2 will be worked up with a view to being completed during
January and February 2012 and future phases are also being worked up and will be
implemented as identified in the sequence of office moves.
Agile Working
2.13 The agile working review is a secondary phase of the overall office accommodation
strategy, as agreed by Executive Board. Although it has been identified that we have
sufficient space to relocate all staff into their respective buildings, there is still the
potential for teams/services to move to smarter ways of working either before, during,
or after they relocate and thus relieving the space pressures on buildings even further.
2.14 A data gathering exercise was carried out in 2009. However, due to re-organisation,
this data will now need to be updated to reflect the new departments, both in terms of
numbers and requirements. The aim of this data gathering exercise is to ensure we
have a greater understanding for the potential of agile working across the Authority by
gathering an understanding of the number of staff across the authority who could
potentially work in an agile way, either as a ‘flexible worker’ or a ‘mobile worker’ and
moving away from the standard ‘fixed office worker’.
2.15 The findings from the agile working data will help inform the Council’s emerging ICT
Strategy by giving us a greater understanding of what infrastructure we will need in
place to allow staff to move to more agile ways of working. Discussions will also need
to be held with HR to ensure we have the correct policies in place to support agile
working.
2.16 The Council is working closely with DTZ, the consultant on board to help with the
wider assets strategy, to ensure the data collected assists it with its review.
Discussions will be held with DTZ to ensure that data collected is at the right level and
that our timescales match any which they may have around agile working. The initial
questions which we will need to answer to assist DTZ are around establishing and
quantifying the demand of flexible workers use of “mainstream” office building and
community resources. Similarly, around mobile workers utilising community assets
compared to totally working in the field.
2.17 The findings from the agile working data collection exercise and the DTZ work should
be available during February 2012. There then needs to be some work commissioned
with ICT and HR in terms of the strategies underpinning any emerging agile working
strategy. It is hoped that this work can commence in the spring along with the
emerging agile working strategy.
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2.18 Officers will report back to Scrutiny Committee on the findings and the proposals
around a potential Agile Working Strategy in 2012.
BACKGROUND PAPERS
LOCATION
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