Agenda item

The Chief Executive presented a report which explained the need for the Council to become a smaller, more strategic and agile organisation, with resources targeted at key priorities, underpinned by a new business model. This was in light of the various challenges facing the Council, including the need to achieve budgeted savings during the next two years and become financially sustainable. The Future Tandridge Programme (FTP) had been designed to deliver this transformation.

The Chief Executive emphasised that, as opposed to the Customer First project in 2018, the FTP would be led by Councillors / staff and not consultants. It would, therefore, be a more cost-effective exercise. However, as the Council lacked both the capacity and capability to deliver the programme in isolation, it would need to invest in expert support and external challenge to design and deliver the required changes.

The report highlighted the following four ‘critical success factors’ for the FTP:

Financial

overall reduction in net budget of 15% by 2023/24 over 18 months / overall reduction in

expenditure on ‘back office’ functions by 15-20% by 2023/24 / higher proportion of the budget is spent on ‘front line’ services and the Council’s stated priorities

Customer

customers are involved in the redesign of services / customer feedback is used to drive service improvement / customers are encouraged to use the least cost channel to access Council services

Services

a mixed economy of service delivery, with services undertaken by the most appropriate means / service performance is managed and benchmarked / service performance is demonstrably improving

Staff

the Council has a smaller directly employed workforce / managers and staff are engaged and accountable for their performance / staff feel valued and motivated and understand the values and behaviours we expect from them.

The FTP had been structured into the following 4 workstreams:

Workstream 1 - Leadership

including a senior management restructure; development of a new strategic plan;  understanding the impact of the boundary review due to be in place for May 2024 (at the earliest); and consideration of improvements to the committee system

Workstream 2 - Service review, redesign and delivery

a prioritised, consistent and rigorous review of all services which will challenge how and why they are provided - this will incorporate a review of cross-cutting themes including commercialisation, asset strategy, customer services and digital

Workstream 3 - Organisational and workforce change

to implement leaner management and service structures for the new operating model

Workstream 4 – Finance and benefit delivery

to deliver the Tandridge Finance Transformation programme and, via the Benefits Board, to oversee and manage the delivery of savings identified for delivery in 2022/23.

The report explained the governance arrangements for the FTP. Each workstream would have its own sponsor and accountable officer. Workstreams 2 and 3 would be overseen in Phase 1 (mobilisation and design phase) through the Target Operating Model (TOM) Development Group to be chaired by the Chief Executive. This will, in effect, be the guiding team for the development of the FTP. As individual change projects are identified and approved for delivery, they will be overseen by a Programme Delivery Board with the Benefits Board maintaining oversight of benefit delivery. Risk would be managed through the Programme Management Office and reported and managed through the relevant Board.

The report also identified the roles required for the successful delivery of the programme, with indicative project management and support costs for Phase 1. These costs were estimated at between £160K and £200K.  The additional investment for the delivery phase would depend on the results of the service review and redesign (Workstream 2) and would be subject to consideration of a further business case before the end of Phase 1.

In response to Members’ questions, officers explained the ‘Programme Manager’ and ‘Business Analyst’ roles and why the duration of their engagements had been set at 18 months and 6 months respectively. This was partly because these, and other external roles, would be additional resources to support TDC’s in-house staff. It was also confirmed that the governance regime for the FTP involved clearly defined terms of reference for the different boards, but that arrangements would be reviewed if they became too bureaucratic. The Chief Executive emphasised the need to continue to involve staff in the transformation process and to be open and honest with them about its likely impact. He also confirmed that this Committee was the ‘Member level’ owner of the project and that all Councillors needed to be at the heart of the strategic plan review.   

            R E S O L V E D – that:

A.    the need for the Future Tandridge Programme and the proposed approach set out within the report be supported;

            B.    a one-off investment of up to £200k, funded from flexible capital receipts, to   mobilise and undertake Phase 1 of the programme (6 months) be approved;

            C.    the indicative investment for the delivery of Phase 2 of the programme be noted (this will be dependent on the findings of the service reviews and will be the subject of a separate business case to the Committee before the end of Phase 1).