AGENDA ITEM NO. 5
1
REPORT TO:
Executive Board
REPORT NO:
CE/03/05
DATE:
12 April 2005
LEAD OFFICER:
Chief Executive
CONTACT OFFICER:
Mark Owen (Ext 2704)
SUBJECT:
Effectiveness Framework
WARD:
N/A
PURPOSE OF THE REPORT
To seek Members’ approval to establish an Effectiveness Framework as a vehicle to release
resources to drive delivery of the Council’s priorities.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2.1
The Council’s priorities for 2005/08 include “Define, develop and deliver the Council’s
priorities” and “Releasing resources to drive delivery of the Council’s priorities and improve
service performance”. The lead officer for both these priorities is the Chief Executive.
2.2
Although the Council has made efficiency savings over the years, this task has not been
approached in a structured way. There has been insufficient focus on the potential to release
and redirect resources and on recording and celebrating success. In light of the Gershon
review, the Trickey Report and the agenda set out in the Welsh Assembly Government’s
(WAG) document “Making the Connections” these are now critical.
2.3
The intention, therefore, is to establish an Effectiveness Framework (Appendix 1) as a vehicle
to co-ordinate the Authority’s work to release/redirect resources, deliver the Council’s
priorities and respond to the collaboration (“Making the Connections”) agenda. The
Framework brings together 3 different elements – Efficiency, Collaboration and Innovation.
2.4
The proposed arrangements to tackle the “Efficiency” (release and redirect resources) element
of the Framework are fairly well developed as described in this report. Further work is
required to finalise these and develop the processes relating to the other 2 elements,
“Collaboration” and “Innovation”. Clearly consideration must be given to the impact on the
customer in all changes which are considered.
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2.5
Additional capacity is required to support the Chief Executive and Chief Finance &
Performance Officer in implementing this Framework. It is therefore proposed that a new post
of Corporate Effectiveness Manager be created and filled on a secondment basis. This post
would be funded in the first instance from the budget pressure agreed in the 2005/06 budget.
The Manager would work with a Corporate Effectiveness Team comprising officers drawn
from across the authority and a member representative.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
That Members:
3.1
Approve the proposed Effectiveness Framework model.
3.2
Approve the appointment of Corporate Effectiveness Manager on a secondment
basis.
3.3
Set a target of £10 million cashable savings by 2010 for the Corporate
Effectiveness Team.
3.4
That the Corporate Issues Scrutiny Committee are asked to include this area in
their work programme.
REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS
To enable the Chief Executive to establish an Effectiveness Framework.
Isobel Garner
Chief Executive
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BACKGROUND INFORMATION
4.1
The aim of the proposed Effectiveness Framework is to provide a structure for co-ordinating 3
elements of work – Efficiency, Collaboration and Innovation – relating to the Chief
Executive’s corporate priorities. Details of how the “Efficiency” element of the framework
would work have been developed and these are described below. The “Efficiency” element in
the Effectiveness Framework is designed to identify, record and realise efficiency savings in
order to enable the Council to:
- fund its priorities;
- integrate efficiency work with its wider response to the Welsh Assembly Government’s
“Making the Connections” report, the Gershon report and the Trickey report;
- provide appropriate capacity to support the Chief Executive in delivering the Council’s
priority; and
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- use a structured approach to securing 1% efficiency savings thereby avoiding an arbitrary
“salami slicing” approach to identifying savings in future budget rounds.
The broad definition of efficiency savings is “to do the same things at a lower cost or to do
more for the same cost”. A fuller definition is provided below:
‘Gershon’ defines efficiency as follows:
“Efficiency in the public sector involves making best use of the resources available for the
provision of public services. This review has defined as ‘efficiencies’ those reforms to delivery
processes and resource (including workforce) utilisation that achieve:
Reduce numbers of inputs (e.g. people or assets), whilst maintaining the same level of service
provision; or
Lower prices for the resources needed to provide public services; or
additional outputs, such as enhanced quality or quantity of service, for the same level of
inputs; or
improved ratios of output per unit cost of input; or
changing the balance between different outputs aimed at delivering a similar overall objective
in a way which achieves a greater overall output for the same inputs (allocative efficiency)”




Principles
4.2
The following principles will apply to the identification of potential improvements/efficiency
savings:




Every service to be included in the system
Potential improvements to include financial savings, non-financial savings and increased
income
All efficiency savings to be formally recorded
Savings in the Procurement programme of work to form part of the efficiency element of
the Effectiveness Framework.
Structure and Process
4.3
The need for additional capacity to support the successful implementation of the Effectiveness
Framework has been identified during the development of the approach. Whilst the operation
of the Efficiency element would draw largely on contributions from existing officers, a
dedicated officer would be needed to support the Chief Executive and Chief Finance and
Performance Officer. It is therefore proposed that a new post of Corporate Effectiveness
Manager be created and filled on a secondment basis. This post would be funded initially from
the funding agreed in the 2005/06 budget. The Corporate Effectiveness Manager would work
with the Corporate Effectiveness Team (CET), the role and composition of which is described
in Appendix 2.
4.4
A 3 stage efficiency process has been identified as follows.
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Step 1 – Thinking of ideas (improvement proposals)
Everyone - employees, managers, members and service users - to feed ideas in to a corporate
“ideas bank” to be maintained by the CET.
Scrutiny
Policy and
Performance
Team
SMT
Executive
Board
Corporate
Effectiveness
Team
(CET)
Individual
Members
Staff
Departments
Step 2 – Assessing ideas for potential improvement
The ideas submitted to the CET would be categorised, assessed and considered for further
development, not appropriate on ‘parked’ for consideration at a future date.
Projects could be at national, regional and local level.
Step 3 – Implementing Schemes
If approved, depending on the scale of the proposed improvement, project plans and teams may
be established to implement the improvement. Any financial savings would be identified in the
implementation project plan.
4.4
Generally speaking, the process of thinking of ideas and achieving improvements should be a
continuous one. Those ideas that need a review, or a substantial action plan, would need to be
incorporated into the service planning process and tie in with the annual corporate and
financial planning cycle.
4.5
Individuals and various groups of officers and members have different roles to play within the
Effectiveness Framework. These are described in Appendix 2. It is anticipated that an
individual member would be part of the corporate Effectiveness Team and this will be
considered further once the Team Manager is appointed.
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4.6
Summary of Proposals
4.6.1 To establish an Effectiveness Framework.
4.6.2 To appoint a Corporate Effectiveness Manager (secondment) to support the Chief
Executive and Chief Financial and Performance Officer in implementing the
Framework.
5.
CONSULTATION
5.1
These proposals were highlighted on a number of occasions during the Budget Workshops
and have been considered by the Strategic Management Team.
6.
SCRUTINY COMMITTEE COMMENTS
6.1
A report on joint working or “collaboration” was presented to the Corporate Issues Scrutiny
Committee, by the Chief Executive on 2 March 2005. Members were generally positive and
supportive of the proposed approach but stressed that the Council must avoid some of the
difficulties encountered in previous joint working. The Committee were keen to take an
active role in this area.
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IMPLICATIONS
7.1
Policy Framework - the Effectiveness Framework is designed to support the achievement of
2005/08 corporate priorities agreed as part of the corporate and financial planning process.
7.2
Budget – boost Funding of £100k was agreed as part of the 2005/06 budget.
7.3
Staffing – a new post of Corporate Effectiveness Manager is proposed, which would be
funded from the agreed budget.
7.4
Legal – the proposals outlined in the report pose no legal implications for the authority.
BACKGROUND PAPERS
1. None
LOCATION
WEBSITE INFO.
Appendix 2
Roles
Strategic Management Team (SMT) and Executive Board
Role – To consider the possible large areas for saving, offer guidance on which schemes should be
developed and implemented, and, monitor progress. SMT to drive the process and be answerable for
the Council target.
Corporate Effectiveness Team (CET)
Role– To support the process of finding ideas for savings, develop specific ideas, challenge the
robustness of proposals and present reports recommending priorities for action to SMT for decision.
Also, to prepare quarterly progress reports.
Who – The following membership is suggested:

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



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Chief Finance & Performance Officer
Member – Efficiency Champion
Corporate Effectiveness Manager
Performance Senior Manager
Officer from the Performance team
Chief Officers – x 4
Audit & Technical Manager
Departmental Management Teams
Role – To identify possible areas for savings, in consultation with the Finance and Performance
team, and implement schemes
Who – Chief Officers and their teams, together with Policy and Performance Senior Manager and
their team.
Role of Members
Corporate Issues Scrutiny Committee – to confirm main schemes as part of the service planning
process, and monitor progress quarterly.
Executive Board – to approve large schemes and quarterly monitoring.
Individual Members – to contribute ideas to the “ideas” pool.
Efficiency Champion – to maintain momentum and champion the work in this area