Archived decisions

Hampshire County Council

Best Value Review of Policy Development in Environment Department

Improvement Plan

May 2003

Introduction

This is the Improvement Plan from the Best Value Review of Policy Development in Environment Department which was undertaken between September 2001 and May 2003. It uses the format prescribed for all Hampshire County Council best value review improvement plans; there is a separate page for each review `outcome', each of which sets out the actions to be taken, by whom and when, together with the indicators which will be used to measure the extent of improvement.

Terminology

Throughout this document, the term `customer' refers to the main users of the service - principally organisations such as district, town and parish councils, development interests and environmental groups. The phrase `public' is used when referring to Hampshire residents.

In the short time available to prepare the Improvement Plan, it has not been possible to calculate with any precision, the cost of implementing each of the actions. Therefore, only a broad indication of cost is given as follows:

· `low' officer time - action already under way, one which can be undertaken essentially as part of existing work or requiring only a small amount of time.

· `medium' officer time - a new task with a significant call on time.

· `high' officer time - a new task requiring substantial time.

The review team

Tony Ciaburro (until May 2002)

Peter Day (until December 2002)

Jacqui Hall

Jenny Heath (until September 2001)

Sheila Henley (from May 2002)

Paul Mason

Stuart Roberts (Team Leader)

Penny Velander (from April 2002)

Karen Walton


Outcome 1: Joined up working and internal/external communications, including e-government
Ref.		Performance Indicators	Current Performance			Target Performance in 2005
PI1.1		Availability of documents on the internet	80%			100%
PI 1.2		Staff awareness of other policy areas	To be established by first staff survey			To be decided *
PI1.3		Customer awareness of policies/documents	To be established by first customer survey			To be decided *
PI1.4		Public awareness of one or more policy documents (Citizens Panel)	56%			80%
Lead Section: Strategy Branch of the Environment Department
Ref.	Action			Cost	Target Date		Responsibility
A1.1	Develop and publish a communications strategy, to include amongst other things:-			High (Officer time plus printing and postage)	Will be part of a departmental strategy to be prepared. Completion September 2003		Department Communications Manager
	· How to keep stakeholders informed of ongoing work
	· All published documents on the internet with email contact address
	· E-consultation on plan preparation
	· How to keep other Departments informed to ensure joined-up working
	· A monthly internal bulletin
	· A twice yearly external bulletin
A1.2	Enhance information on the internet and intranet, including:-
	· Factsheets on key areas
	· Directory of staff, work responsibilities, contact details etc			High - officer time & IT costs	March 2004		Department IT & e-government team
	· A-Z gazetteer of topics and plans, offering brief summary of policy on each, contact officer name and links to further information Ensure info is regularly updated			(Some material already prepared)
A1.3	Improve joined-up working and awareness:-
	· Hold regular policy briefings open to all staff			Medium (Officer time only)	First to be held by June 2003		Strategy Branch Management Team
	· Make greater use of inter-group project teams
	· Develop common information systems and datasets to facilitate greater sharing of information within the service and with external agencies			High -officer time plus IT costs	March 2005		Department IT Team
A1.4	· Provide a clear and integrated sense of direction for the policy service, taking account of changing external environment (legislative social, political etc).			Medium (Officer time plus publication costs)	March 2004		Deputy Director
	· Publish after consultation with staff and external stakeholders
A1.4	· Publish annually, a Forward Plan of policy work to be undertaken over the ensuing year containing lead officer's name, milestones, nature and timing of other Departments and external organisations involvement etc			Medium (Officer time plus publication costs)	First by March 2004		Deputy Director


Outcome 2: Speeding up the process of preparing policies
Ref.	Performance Indicators	Current Performance			Target Performance in 2005
PI2.1	Time taken from start to adoption of plans	Structure Plan: 10 years Minerals and Waste Local Plan: 7 years Local Transport Plan: 3 years			Minerals and Waste LDF: 4 years Local Transport Plan: 2 years (NB: Structure Plans are proposed to be abolished)
PI2.2	Does HCC have a Structure Plan and Minerals & Waste Local Plan adopted in the last five years? (BVPI 200)	Yes			Yes
PI2.3	If "No" are there proposals on deposit for an alteration or replacement? (BVPI 200)	Not applicable			Not applicable
PI2.4	Training of project leaders in project management	Current skills to be audited			100%
Lead Section: Strategy Branch of the Environment Department
Ref.	Action		Cost	Target Date		Responsibility
A2.1	Formal project plan to be prepared for each significant project:-		Low (Officer time only)	Immediate (Formal project plan already introduced for Minerals and Waste LDF)		Strategy Branch Management Team
	· approved at outset by Strategy Branch Management Team; major projects by Members too
	· quarterly progress reports to Management Team
	· covers use of consultants/partnering
	· sets out relationship with any partners, with stakeholders and Hampshire LSP
	Completed project to be "signed off" by Strategy Branch Management Team
A2.2	Review and streamline member decision-making especially for plans prepared jointly with other authorities.		Low (Officer time only)	March 2004		Strategy Branch Management Team
A2.3	Project management training for all project leaders		Medium (Cost of training)	March 2005		Personnel and Training
A2.4	Develop a culture amongst members and officers of the importance of speedy policy development and regular review to keep policies up to date		Low	March 2005		Strategy Branch Management Team

A2.5

Undertake review of admin/technical staff to relieve professional staff of routine tasks

Medium (but implementation may have higher cost)

Admin review to report May 2003

Department Business Manager


Outcome 3: Community engagement, consultation methods and transparency of decision making
Ref.	Performance Indicators		Current Performance			Target Performance in 2005
PI3.1	Consultees satisfaction with consultation process		No data			To be decided *
PI3.2	Level of residents participation in consultation		0.3% (Structure Plan)			0.5%
PI3.3	Hard to reach groups participation in consultation		No data			To be decided *
PI3.4	Residents satisfaction with consultation methods used		No data			To be decided *
Lead Section: Strategy Branch of the Environment Department
Ref.		Action		Cost	Target Date		Responsibility
A3.1		Involve all partners, stakeholder groups and LSPs in process from outset		Low (Officer time only)	Immediate (Already introduced for Minerals and Waste LDF)		Strategy Branch Management Team
A3.2		Establish new role of `Consultation Co-ordinator' (existing or new post) to be a centre of expertise and coordinate consultations		Up to £35k pa if new post	June 2005		Department Management Board
A3.3		Develop and publish a Customer Charter covering service standards for communication, consultation, reply-times, information availability, transparency of decision-making etc.		Medium (Officer time only)	March 2004		Strategy Branch Management Team
A3.4		Consultation strategy to be prepared in advance of consultation on each draft plan, to include the following:-		Medium (Officer time only)	Immediate		Project managers
		· Organisations/individuals to be consulted
		· Consultation methods to be used
		· Engagement of hard-to-reach groups
		· E-consultation
		· Use of consultants/facilitators
		· Methods for evaluating effectiveness of consultation
		· How respondents will be informed/involved subsequently
		Strategy to be approved by Strategy Branch Management Team 3 months prior to the consultation.
A3.5		Develop inclusivity protocol for consultation		Low (Officer time only)	March 2004		Department equalities group


Outcome 4a: Monitoring and implementation of policy
Ref.	Performance Indicators		Current Performance		Target Performance in 2005
PI4.1	Percentage of adopted policies which have targets and/or indicators		Information to be added		To be decided *
Lead Section: Strategy Branch of the Environment Department
Ref.	Action	Cost		Target Date		Responsibility
A4.1	Introduce systematic monitoring of all policies:-	Low (Officer time only) Medium (Officer time only)		All new plans after October 2003. Some already produced. Full portfolio of monitoring reports by March 2005		Heads of Service
	· All key policies * to have a target and/or indicator, with accompanying explanation of how it will be monitored
	· Annual monitoring report to be published for each key policy document * and regular but less frequent for all other policy documents
A4.2	Establish Hampshire quality of life indicators to help monitor outcome of the Service's activities overall	Low (officer time only)		March 2004 (some already being developed)		Research and Communications Team


Outcome 4b: Monitoring of the Service's performance
Ref.	Performance Indicators	Current Performance	Target Performance in 2005
PI4.2	Customer satisfaction with overall service performance	No data	To be decided *
Lead Section: Strategy Branch of the Environment Department
Ref.	Action	Cost	Target Date	Responsibility
A4.3	Improve service performance monitoring:-	High (survey costs and officer time)	March 2004 (Some of this is already under way at departmental level)	Head of Performance
	· Conduct regular service users/public satisfaction surveys
	· Establish a customer representative group
	· Devise local performance indicators
	· Establish an internal group to spearhead and monitor continuous improvement
	· Quarterly report to Strategy Branch Management Team on performance
A4.4	Implementation Monitoring Group of Members and officers to meet quarterly during life of this Improvement Plan to monitor its implementation and its effectiveness and make any amendments necessary as a consequence	Low (Member and officer time only)	First Meeting in October 2003	Deputy Director


Outcome 5: Costs and comparisons with others
Ref.	Performance Indicators		Current Performance		Target Performance in 2005
PI5.1	HCC position in league table on counties cost per head of population		Data still being analysed		To be decided *
PI5.2	Exchange visits with comparator councils		None in 2002		3 per year
Lead Section: Strategy Branch of the Environment Department
Ref.	Action	Cost		Target Date		Responsibility
A5.1	Compare with costs and good practice of comparable authorities:-	Medium (Officer time only)		March 2004		Strategy Branch Management Team
	· Participate in benchmarking clubs
	· Hold exchange visits with comparator councils
	· Design the HCC local performance indicators (Action A4.2 above) to allow comparison with other authorities where possible
A5.2	Investigate and regularly review potential for working with consultants	Low		Immediate		Project Managers


Outcome 6: External provision / working in partnership
Ref.	Performance Indicators		Current Performance		Target Performance in 2005
PI6.1	Cost of in-house provision compared to external provision		Costs of lower graded in-house staff are below consultants' equivalents. Senior in-house staff costs are similar to those of consultants		To be decided *
Lead Section: Strategy Branch of the Environment Department
Ref.	Action	Cost		Target Date		Responsibility
A6.1	Review annually, in house v consultants cost comparison	Medium (Officer time only)		March 2004 & March 2005 (Progress reports to PRC)		Strategy Branch Management Team
A6.2	Investigate and regularly review potential for, and value of, partnership working with consultants	Low (Officer time only)		March 2004 and continually thereafter
A6.3	Introduce system for post contract evaluation of consultants	Medium (Officer time only)		March 2004
A6.4	More detailed comparisons to be undertaken and reported to Implementation Monitoring Group	Medium (Officer time only)		October 2003


Outcome 7: Innovative, inclusive and integrated policies
Ref.	Performance Indicators	Current Performance		Target Performance in 2005
PI7.1	Customer satisfaction with readability and presentation of documents	To be established by first customer survey		To be decided *
PI7.2	Customer satisfaction with relevance and usefulness of policies	To be established by first customer survey		To be decided *
Lead Section: Strategy Branch of the Environment Department
Ref.	Action	Cost	Target Date		Responsibility
A7.1	Innovate and learn from others:-	Medium (Officer time only)	Immediate		Project Managers
	· Survey other authorities' approaches and experience as part of background research to all policy making	Medium (Officer time only)	Immediate		Project Managers
	· Evaluate software for modelling policy scenarios	Medium (Officer time only)	March 2005		Department IT team
A7.2	Ensure inclusivity:-	Low (Officer time only) Medium (Officer time only) Low (Officer time only)	March 2004 March 2005 Immediate		Department equalities group Department equalities group Project Managers
	· Develop generic equalities policies for inclusion in plans
	· Develop a technique for evaluating policies in relation to equalities
	· All documents to contain plain English, a summary, an index, and glossary of technical terms
	· All publicised documents to offer large print, audio and minority language versions on request · Training for all policy writers in equalities and use of plain English.
A7.3	Develop an overarching vision for a sustainable Hampshire to which all policy documents will relate for inclusion in Community Strategy	Low (Officer time only)	March 2004		Strategy Branch Management Team
A7.4	Explain in each new policy document, how it links with and will help achieve Community Strategy, Corporate Strategy, crime and disorder reduction, sustainable development, equalities	Low (Officer time only)	Immediate		Project Managers
A7.5	Enter documents/projects for external accreditation/awards	Low (Officer time only)	Ongoing		Strategy Branch Management Team

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