Hampshire County Council

Policy and Resources Scrutiny and Select Committee

Item 11

05 June 2006

Review Programme Update

Report of the Chief Executive

Name: Keith Kerslake

Best Value Review of Community Engagement (Consultation)

Status: Complete

Purpose and proposed improvements:

That across the authority consultation is planned, co-ordinated and budgeted for annually, to ensure that we consult all relevant stakeholders early enough to influence outcomes, that good practice, support and guidance is available and that research results are widely disseminated to inform members and officers when developing services and policies.

Progress in implementing the Improvement Plan:

The Improvement Plan broadly sought three actions.

To seek to draw together all the County Council's consultation activity into an annual plan to meet corporate priorities.

To provide a mechanism to record all consultation activity, the methodology used and findings so it is delivered in a timely, appropriate and coordinated way.

To prepare a business case for a market research coordinator, as a spend to save initiative, to provide best practice advice, guidance and training, seek to merge consultations and encourage the use of approved contractors, to bring efficiencies, disseminate results and establish mechanisms to demonstrate that decisions are informed by consultation evidence.

Progress

All departments have been asked to provide their consultation plans for the coming financial year which it is proposed will be drawn together into an overall consultation plan for approval by Cabinet. This will enhance the present process which only includes corporate research activity.

A new authority wide web based tool will be launched at the beginning of April to enable the public to see and engage in the authority's consultation programme. This will be rolled out across the organisation over the coming months and will provide a mechanism to capture all planned and actual consultation activity and the findings.

Treasurer's Consultancy are already working with the Environment Dept as part of compiling the evidence to inform the business case for a market research coordinator. Further complimentary work has been planned with Adult Services. This work aims to provide an order of magnitude of the in-house costs associated with consultation which the BV review estimated could be very significant.

Equality and Diversity Review

Status: Ongoing

Purpose:

To put effective organisational arrangements in place to enable the County Council to meet its statutory requirements on human rights, race, age, sexual orientation, gender, disability and religion.

To put effective arrangements in place to enable the County Council to meet the specific duties under the Race Relations Amendment Act e.g. A Race Equality Scheme

To have in place an equalities strategy, Corporate Plan and policy framework which:

· reflects the latest and anticipates future legal changes

· reflects the vision and objectives agreed in the Best Value Review

· feeds into and flows from the Corporate Strategy

That there are effective communications to ensure that staff are aware of their statutory duties and that members of the public are aware of how the County Council is responding to the requirements to ensure fair and equal access to services and employment

Proposed improvements

Clarify reporting and accountability structure for Equality and Diversity Manager and Race Policy Advisor to highlight focus on service delivery

Achieved Sept `o5 after appt of new director of Adult Services

Revise structure of Corporate Race and Equality Group to include members and agree Corporate and Member `champion'

Cllr Roy Perry, Joint Chair with J. Clarke

Clarify the role of the group in:

· setting future targets

· agreeing projects to deliver outcomes

· monitoring and scrutinising performance

Secure adequate funds to support projects of the Corporate Equality Group. Budget agreed 2005/06 currently seeking continued budget 06/07

Ensure that Race and Equality Impact Assessment is carried out on all service / business plans and new or revised policies / strategies.

In progress, interim, perf reports show further work required in R&H + Ch Serv & tighter reporting for all others.

Contact for further information

Jane Goodwin: 01962 813866

Review

Routes for Members to be engaged

Progress

Review of catering in OP residential homes

To be confirmed

Currently the Catering Pilot is underway in four of six selected residential/ nursing homes for older people

· Hawthorne Court located in Sarisbury Green (a new nursing home for 80 residents)

· Linden House located in Lymington (a residential home for 34 residents)

· Cornerways located in Winchester (a residential home for 40 residents plus Kings Worthy Day Centre)

· Ticehurst located in Aldershot (joint site - residential home & new nursing home - total 58 residents)

Review of Democratic and decision-making processes

P&R S&SC / Cabinet

Work is underway with IT Services to build a more accessible and comprehensive Decision Programme which will then enable further work to be carried out into increasing democratic accessibility and decreasing bureaucratic processes. The expectation is that the programme will be in place in the Autumn of 2006.

Review of Member training / induction

Cabinet

· Full review of Member Training delayed due to the delay of the review of the democratic process

· Review of the democratic process will define Members roles i.e. Scrutiny role, Local role, Executive role

· Once roles are finalised the priorities for training and development can be defined and planned

· Therefore the Training and Development Strategy for Members is due to be drafted in line with democratic review

· Generic induction for new Members has been completed including ICT, Freedom of Information and Data Protection

Review of office accommodation

Cabinet

First part of this review completed and already reported to CMT and Cabinet which also covered the strategic property review. The focus this year is on the strategic property review - the first area being covered is office accommodation with a planned report to members during summer 2006 - this will identify some quick wins together with longer term proposals.

Review of HR structure

CMT and Leader

Customers have been surveyed and closer consultation mechanisms put in place.

HR performance metrics have been identified and agreed and the HR SLAs and Service plan are now in place.

HR Strategy was approved by CMT and Cabinet in November 05.

HR development programme launched in January 06 to address key skills gaps.

Review of external research with secondary headteachers to ascertain feedback on current service performance

BLPP / Leader

Research with Head teachers has been completed and informed our new Service Level Agreement which will go to schools in autumn 2006for commencement in April 2007

Review of buildings with low environmental potential

BLPP / Leader

To follow

Review of existing engineering term contracts due for renewal November 2006

BLPP

The new contract arrangements will be similar to that of the existing although the areas will be reduced from four to three. The existing budget framework will be maintained and national KPI's will be used to measure the contactor's performance.

Review of business process innovation programme

· Review of pensions administration

To be confirmed

To follow

· Review of budget monitoring

To be confirmed

To follow

Review of Occupational Health Unit

To be confirmed

To follow

Review of improving attendance

To be confirmed

Targets are to reduce absence by at least one day per employee over 3 years reducing costs on agency staff and on overtime cover absence

Managers will have a guide to manage short term and long term absence

Staff will know what is expected of them

The project will complement action to support staff getting fit and healthy, making them more productive

Review of community safety service

Cabinet

The service is performing well generally and has been well received by the police in the four pilot areas where it is working.

We need to improve on the number of fixed penalties issued as this is patchy, and the rate of payment by offenders.

A new `Yellow Card' scheme to act as a warning to youngsters has worked extremely well.

The service needs to expand outside the four pilot areas and plans are in place to extend the teams' geographical areas and introduce a mobile team to cover the rest of Hampshire.

The shift pattern is under review to make the service more effective.

The service has been successful in achieving its aims and feedback in the four areas has been very positive.

Review of out of hours health service

HRC

Reports delivered to 28.03.06 Committee

Review of public health

HRC

To follow

Review of Project Integra Inquiry

P&R SSC

To follow

Review of RETIS project

Referred to Executive member for Community Development

To follow

Review of information management

E-gov't Steering Group / Cabinet via Annual Audit letter

To follow

Review of management arrangements for grant claims

Cabinet via Annual Audit letter

To follow

Review of pooled budgets and joint commissioning

Cabinet via Annual Audit letter

To follow

Review of flexible working, incorporating mobile working

Leader/ Social Care PRC / CMT

Jane Page, HR Business Partner for Environment leading on this and linked into the Matisse project and proposed Ashburton Court rebuild. We have dedicated HR resource on the Contact Centre project (Maggie Hill) and she will also link with Jane. We have prepared a high level action plan which will be discussed at HRDMT today which seeks to co-ordinate and link into all the various projects and bring together interested parties to ensure we lever maximum advantage from the key projects about. HR will form an internal 'expert' team to support delivery.

Review of Quasi-inspection - register offices

Reported to Leader as part of general report on regulatory services.

No further information at present from the General Register Office - they are mainly concerned at the moment to ensure that HCC are ready for online registration (now put off until early 2007) - we are in line to be a pilot authority so will be prepared.

Review of adoption inspection

Social Care PRC

To follow

Name:

Procurement `health check' and review programme

Purpose:

The County Council commissioned an independent review of its progress on implementing the recommendations contained in the National Procurement Strategy for Local Government (NPSLG) and its procurement activities. The County Council is committed to improving its procurement arrangements and has also established a review programme as part of this work.

Current performance

The reports prepared by our consultants indicate that the County Council:

Is fully committed to meeting the milestones and requirements of the NPSLG and has performed well in meeting these

Is currently performing well in terms of the results it achieves from its procurement activities and compares very favourably with similar reviews undertaken for 22 other public bodies

Internal reviews have been completed for a number of areas of expenditure, such as corporate travel and venues, and work on other areas is in progress. Departments have also continued to develop their procurement strategies and service delivery arrangements in parallel with these developments and, during 2005/6, this has included work on construction (buildings) and the highways professional services contract.

Proposed improvements and how they will be achieved

The health check produced a very useful commentary on our practices and procedures and suggested a range of potential improvements. These have been considered and the key themes and a number of the recommendations have been carried forward into the Council's revised Corporate Procurement Strategy and action plans. These include a greater emphasis on procurement planning and processes, contract management and performance information.

The County Council has increased its capacity to move the procurement improvement agenda forward and appointed two new staff in December 2005 on an `invest-to-save' basis. A wider programme of procurement reviews is now in place and this covers work with individual departments on specialist activities and expenditure on common-use goods and services. The reviews are intended to support the County Council's efficiency and service delivery plans.

Contacts for further information

Neil Jones Head of Business Services

Shaun Le Picq Procurement Development Manager