Hampshire County Council

Best Value Review Panel (Recreation and Heritage Committee)

28 March 2001

Project Brief - Hampshire Transport Management

Report of the Director of Property, Business and Regulatory Services

Contact: Richard Green Ext:6281

1. Goal

1.1 The Review Team will undertake a Best Value fundamental performance review of Hampshire Transport Management (HTM). The review will cover the County Council's fleet management, vehicle maintenance and internal courier operations and will identify and recommend areas of continuous improvement.

2. Objectives

2.1 Having completed the review, the team will make recommendations in the following areas:-

· The most efficient and effective arrangements for the delivery of the County Council's fleet management, vehicle maintenance and courier activities.

· A strategy for the continuous improvement of the service provided to customers, with clear targets and performance measures.

· A customer consultation strategy, building on the current HTM User Group and service questionnaire.

· The business strategy for HTM which is contained in the Business Plan, as approved by the Business Sub-Committee on 8 January 2001.

3. Approach

3.1 The review team will use the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model and business planning as the prime diagnostic tools. The current Business Plan (copy attached) for the period 2001 to 2003 has only recently been prepared and approved and many of the areas to be covered by the Best Value Review have already been referred to in the Business Plan. In addition, key performance indicators and benchmarks will be identified and compared with other providers from both the public and private sectors. The review will also reflect the County Council's strategies on equal opportunities, sustainability and E government.

3.2 Appendix 2 contains details of the issues the review team needs to consider against the relevant `C' of best value.

4. Scope

4.1 The review will concentrate on the core operations of Hampshire Transport Management which are:-

· fleet management;

· vehicle maintenance;

· the Courier and Schools Delivery Service; and

· the school meals delivery contracts and the Members' chauffeuring service.

The review will not cover:-

· the staff car leasing scheme which is administered by the County Treasurer; and

· the transport related activities currently undertaken by the County Surveyor's Passenger Transport Group.

5. Constraints

5.1 The review will start during April 2001 and will be completed by the end of December 2001.

5.2 The constraints are expected to be the availability to the review team of comparative data as HTM operates within a commercial environment and this type of information is commercially sensitive.

6. Dependencies

6.1 There are no direct dependencies however, HTM is a support service to the front-line service providers of the County Council. As such it is subject to changes resulting from reviews of the front-line services it supports and, in order to continue to exist, must be able to react positively and quickly to any such changes.

7. Resource Requirements

7.1 The review will not incur any additional costs. The team will undertake the preparatory work and the review as part of their normal tasks and will be required to prioritise their workload in order to accommodate this.

7.2 The total amount of time expected to be spent on the review is 47 ½ man days as follows:-

Initial discussion, agreement on tasks 9 staff x ½ day 4.5

Preparatory, investigatory work 4 staff x 3 days 12

Review 9 staff x 3 27

Report, consultation 4 staff x 1 day 4

Cost, based on an average £115 per day £5462

8. Review Team

8.1 The core members of the Review Team are as follows:-

Richard Green Head of Business Operations, PB&R

Brian Friend Transport Manager, HTM

Tony Bone Operations Manager, HTM

Mike Jeatt Finance Officer, HTM

Colin Russell Contracts, County Supplies

Alan Bloomfield Senior Manager, Social Services Department

Paul Leaves Staff Representative

John Franks Staff Representative

Duncan Savage Corporate Best Value Team

8.2 In addition to the above, a Member of the Best Value Review Panel (Recreation and Heritage) will be nominated to participate in the review process.

9. Project Plan

9.1 A project plan providing the key milestones and time-scales is provided as part of this Scoping Report.