(a)

Economic Development,

·         the restructure would be complete by 1 April 2013;

·         there had been significant delayering of management with a reduction in the number of Heads of Service from 11 down to four;

·         savings had been achieved in management capacity which had freed up funding to support front line services and would help bring forward the growth agenda;

·         the changes had been implemented with the full engagement of staff;

(b)

Environmental Services,

·         the focus of the restructure had been to realign services so that they would work better together in order to add value;

·         there had been a delayering of management through cross-department integration with the number of third tier managers having been reduced from six to four;

·         significant savings had already been achieved across the service and the service was confident of achieving more moving forward into 2013/14;

·         priorities in terms of staffing had been identified as (1) to reduce sickness levels from an average of 14 to 10 days per annum, (2) increase engagement with staff as there were a large number within this particular service area who did not have access to e-mail, and (3) delayering of management and increase efficiencies;

(c)

Planning Services,

·         the restructure had focussed on the need to support and deliver growth across the city;

·         it had already established itself as one of the top-performing teams across the country;

·         a new shared building control service with Cornwall Council was in the process of being established;

·         internal recruitment had commenced over the summer of 2012 and the formal implementation of the revised planning structure had come into effect on 1 November 2012;

·         the service had reduced its staffing levels by 7.6 full time equivalent posts and the removal of two tiers of management;

(d)

Transport and Infrastructure,

·         the restructure was ongoing with the aim of increasing efficiencies within the service and contributing to council wide savings;

·         there had been a reduction in the number of senior management and staffing levels of six full time equivalent posts.

(e)

Waste Services now included Parks;

(f)

an updated version of the structure chart would be circulated to members upon completion of the Directorate for Place restructure;

(g)

the Director was confident he could achieve the budget savings identified for 2013/14 but he would like time for the new structure to bed-in before commenting on the possibility of achieving further savings beyond 2014.