Issue - meetings

Purpose of report: for the Committee to review the scoping of a task group centering on customer experience and to appoint Members to this group.

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    The Committee reviewed the scoping document and the Chairman sought volunteers to participate in the task group work. Will Forster, Nick Harrison, Rachael I. Lake and Chris Townsend all volunteered to participate in the Customer Experience Transformation Task Group.

Purpose of report: To provide the committee with an update on current progress regarding transformation of the council, to seek their input to the next phase of work, and identify approaches to ensure effective ongoing scrutiny.

Witnesses:

Marie Snelling, Director of Transformation

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    The Committee heard from the Director of Transformation, who introduced the report and explained that good progress was being made. Positive changes were being seen within the Council and the transformation portfolio, and they were on track to deliver savings. The Director of Transformation also asked for Members to consider how best the Committee could be engaged in scrutiny work going forward.

2.    The Vice-Chairman questioned the lack of dates, targets and benchmarks contained within the report and asked for the service to explore whether these could be provided in future reports so the Committee could be informed if the transformation project fell behind schedule in any way.

3.    A Member of the Committee suggested that the service undertook a deep dive to ascertain how staff members felt about the new technology they had been provided with, and whether they felt they required any further training, as well as speaking with those members of staff who had been involved in a move to greater agile working. In response, the Director of Transformation informed the Committee that an exercise had been undertaken with social workers who had recently moved from Leatherhead to Ashley Park House in Walton-on-Thames. This allowed officers to speak directly to staff members, and the Director of Transformation said that the resulting report would be shared with the Committee. A discussion was also had about the potential for the Committee to undertake a deep dive into agile working and for Members to speak with members of staff directly, and it was agreed that the agile working task group would look into this.

4.    A Member of the Committee sought clarity on the Fig. 3 graphic included in the report and asked for more information on the organisational model following the implementation of the new methodology. In response, the Director of Transformation explained that the intention of the graphic was to try and show the shape of the organisation rather than the specific details. The Council was moving towards a more streamlined and delayered structure, and this change could already be seen within the Highways department.

5.    Referring to the Fig. 1 graphic, which related to the transformation governance structure, a Member of the Committee asked for more detail so the Committee could better understand what roles were embodied within the individual sections of the structure. The Director of Transformation said that the diagram was a highly simplified version of a detailed and robust architecture and the assurance framework would be shared with the Committee.

6.    The Committee turned its attention to the recommendations as set out in the report and considered the overall progress that had been made to date. The Chairman asked for red and amber items to be traced through into the future programme and for the Committee to have sight of this. The Director of Transformation explained that the current transformation programme ran until 2021 but they were looking at how best  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14