Issue - meetings

THE BRILLIANT CO-OPERATIVE STREET SERVICE FULL BUSINESS CASE

 

 

Meeting: 02/09/2014 - Cabinet (Item 48)

48 CREATING A BRILLIANT CO-OPERATIVE STREET SERVICE PROJECT STRATEGIC BUSINESS CASE pdf icon PDF 715 KB

Anthony Payne (Strategic Director for Place) will submit a report on the strategic business case for change within the Street Services department to progress the aim of creating a Brilliant Co-operative Street Service, which included a review of exiting provision, alongside the ongoing management restructure, in preparation for the implementation of alternative methods of service delivery. 

 

Background papers to this report can be accessed at the Council’s website Council and Democracy/Councillors and Committees/Library/Cabinet background papers or using the following hyperlink –

http://tinyurl.com/q3d6bmh

 

The outcome of the consideration by members of the Working and Your Plymouth Scrutiny Panels on 28 August 2014 will also be submitted. Please see the recommendations attached to item 7 above. 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Anthony Payne (Strategic Director for Place) submitted a report on the strategic business case, including an options appraisal, to progress the creation of a Brilliant, Co-operative Street Service Project.

 

The report indicated that - 

 

(a)

the Street Services Department was currently divided into the following service areas -

 

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Street Scene Services comprising waste collection, street cleansing, grounds’ maintenance and parks and open spaces;

 

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Fleet and Garage Services;

 

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Parking and Marine Services;

 

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Living Streets and Network Management;

 

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Waste Disposal and Contracts;

(b) 

the proposed project included the following three work streams -

 

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a management restructure, creating a more effective, efficient and transparent model of working across the department which had already started and was due to be completed by 1 October 2014, with predicted savings of around £1.1 million over three years;

 

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a review of service provision, providing an understanding of existing capacity and cost in the context of statutory, strategic and stakeholder requirements;

 

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following from the review, the development of service provision, optimising opportunities to work with partners to provide some services in different ways while focusing on core services to be retained within the Council to make them ‘brilliant’, which would achieve additional savings;

(c) 

‘brilliant’ service standards would be achieved through better performance management and intelligence that would enable street services to focus on community priorities, with a locality based service structure, promoting responsibility and accountability and encouraging joint working between voluntary organisations, the community and the Council;

 

(d)

the development of community capital, with communities from across the city empowered to take ownership of their environment;

(e)

the project required an investment in human, communications and IT resources amounting to around £50k, although additional resources may be required through the project;

(f)

specific actions relating to service provision would be placed before Members and the community prior to change occurring, ensuring that the project retained its democratic focus.

 

Councillor Evans (Council Leader) referred to the draft minute following the joint scrutiny review that had been held by the Working and Your Plymouth Panels on 28 August 2014 which supported the recommendations within the proposed business case subject to Cabinet reconsidering the delegation of decisions to officers and asking Cabinet to consider any alternative service delivery for street services at Cabinet, in the interests of openness and transparency.     

 

Councillor Vincent (Cabinet Member for Environment) introduced the proposals.

 

Simon Dale (Interim Assistant Director for Street Services) and Stephen Evans (Project Manager) attended the meeting for this item and Simon Dale highlighted the benefits of bringing departments together with more effective working and interaction to achieve service improvements within reducing resources. Services would also be devolved where possible with closer working with the voluntary and community sectors. 

 

Alternative options considered and reasons for the decision –

 

As set out in the report.

 

Agreed -

 

(1)

the strategic business case as submitted subject to the amendment agreed in (4) below;

 

(2)

that in accordance with the business case, officers undertake a review of existing services to develop an understanding of cost,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48

Meeting: 28/08/2014 - Scrutiny - Cooperative Scrutiny Reviews (Item 11)

11 THE BRILLIANT CO-OPERATIVE STRATEGIC STREET SERVICE BUSINESS CASE - TO FOLLOW pdf icon PDF 715 KB

Members will be provided with a copy of the Brilliant Co-operative Strategic Street Service Business Case for scrutiny.

 

Minutes:

Simon Dale, Councillor Vincent and Tom Cox (Project Manager – Transformation) provided Members with a brief update on the Brilliant Cooperatives Strategic Street Service Business Case.

 

Members were informed that –

 

(a)

the Street Services department was created through the amalgamation of the Council’s Transport & Infrastructure and Environmental Services Divisions in 2013;

 

(b)

the introduction of cooperative principles requires that services work in different ways, moving from an officer led approach to a model that promotes co-design and co-production;

 

(c)

the project proposes three work-streams including a management restructure, a review of service provision and a development of service provision optimising opportunities to work with partners to provide some services in a different way;

(d)

benefits to be realised from the project included a more performance focused management structure, better performance and intelligence management systems, closer engagement with community and partners.

 

In response to questions raised it was reported that –

 

(e)

the senior management restructure would realise savings;

 

(f)

changes were required to ensure that a brilliant service was provided to the Council’s customers; employees and Unions would be consulted throughout the process;

 

(g)

it was expected that £50k was required as a provisional cost to help move forward the street services project; workloads needed to be prioritised and costed to realise what additional resources were required.

 

Members agreed to commend the recommendations as stated within the business case to Cabinet subject to the following additional changes:

 

1

benefits realisation of all projects within the GAME programme should be considered at future scrutiny panel meetings (to be decided by the Co-operative Scrutiny Board)

 

2

reconsider the delegation of decisions to officers for consideration at cabinet, in particular the commercialisation strategy and the alternative service delivery for street services in the interests of openness and transparency;

 

3

the commercialisation strategy and any future alternative service delivery models for street services should be considered at a scrutiny panel to be decided by the cooperative scrutiny board.