(a)

the People and Organisational Development (P&OD) Transformation Business Case focused upon workforce delivery and accommodation & infrastructure; the intention was to have the right people in the right place at the right time with the right skills;

(b)

possible problems that the P&OD Transformation programme was expected to address included workforce planning to achieve the Council’s vision, a move towards a systems led culture of collaboration and the size and state of the Council’s current office space;

(c)

this area of transformation was considered to be an enabler for the other four transformation programmes namely Customer Centre of Operations (CCO), Growth, Assets and Municipal Enterprise (GAME) and Integrated Health and Wellbeing (IHWB);

(d)

aims of the programme included:

·          

options to address the capability gap currently identified to ensure that staff had the required skill sets, training, knowledge and behaviour to provide increased capability;

·          

to review current policies and procedures to help the Council work more efficiently;

·          

addressing shared priorities for system improvement with partners through collaboration;

·          

to release significant excess office space to reduce costs and enable flexible modern working spaces;

·          

to encourage flexible working practices;

(e)

specific projects included as part of the programme included the decant of the Civic Centre and the refurbishment of Ballard House as well as a focus upon workforce capability requirements;

(f)

issues excluded from the scope of the programme included the development of a high level organisational structure and detailed organisation design as well as the commercial estate;

(g)

specific financial benefits had not yet been identified as this programme was an enabling programme to support transformation in other areas;

(h)

some benefits included a reduction in accommodation space across the city, reduction in associated lease and operational costs of property occupation and maintenance and improved employee satisfaction;

(i)

it was expected that, by moving staff to alternative accommodation, there would be a reduction in sickness absence as the current accommodation was cold and damp;

(j)

costs associated with the P&OD programme were linked to training staff and human investment in ensuring the correct people were employed however PCC staff would be used on projects where appropriate;

(k)

the main equalities and diversity issues for the programme included providing facilities which were DDA compliant and equipping staff with skills to provide excellent services and recognise issued with customers including disabilities, dementia;

(l)

key partners were engaged in developing the programme through a variety of communication channels including the a full stakeholder analysis, consultation with elected members and a plan of key events; Members were advised that Public Health England and the Police were already working closely with the Council;

(m)

the main risks included the availability of both capital and revenue funding to support the delivery of assets required for the programme, ICT requirements and the scale and number of changes across the Council; it was considered that these would be addressed through prior planning and coordination;

(n)

key events for the P&OD transformation programme included:

·          

completion of Phase 1 of the refurbishment of Ballard House; it was expected that staff would begin to be moved into the building in June 2014;

·          

start on the 71 New George Street site;

·          

continue shredding and removal of waste from the Civic Centre;

·          

complete work with business architecture on flexible working strategy;

(o)

it was estimated that the Council had 10,000 linear km of paper currently stored within its buildings; a small team of people would be responsible for working through current paperwork to ensure that only that which was needed was kept;

(p)

it was hoped that scrutiny would help the programme by challenging where necessary;

(q)

officers acknowledged that some of the language and abbreviations contained within the transformation documentation was confusing; officers would aim to use plain English;

(r)

assets needed to be utilised; the Council’s buildings were getting older which was having an impact upon the cost of maintenance;

(s)

officers would refer to the document retention policy when sorting and disposing of the vast amount of paperwork stored by the Council;

(t)

decanting of the Civic Centre was anticipated to cost £895,000; Ballard House would be on lease for either 5,6 or 10 years;

(u)

the Council was already exploring options of bringing together ICT functions and administration support across partnerships;

(v)

the Council was reducing the number of staff accommodation buildings to an efficient level;

(w)

the majority of staff members working within the transformation programme were seconded on a three year contract from other Council departments.