Agendas, reports and minutes

Minutes of Meeting of the Re-Design Board of the Highland Council held in Committee Room 2, Council Headquarters, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness on Tuesday, 24 May 2016 at 3.00pm.

Present:
Mrs I McCallum (Chair), Mr B Lobban (Vice Chair), Mrs M Davidson, Mr B Fernie, Mr A MacKinnon, Mr M Reiss, Dr I Cockburn, Mr G MacKenzie, Mr A Christie, Mr T Prag, Dr J Davis, Mr J Gray, Mr T MacLennan 

Non-Members in attendance:
Mr K Gowans, Ms F Robertson, Mr H Fraser

Officials in attendance:
Mr S Barron, Chief Executive
Mr B Alexander, Director of Care and Learning 
Mrs C McDiarmid, Head of Policy and Reform
Ms R Cleland, Corporate Communications Manager 
Miss J MacLennan, Democratic Services Manager

Business

1. Apologies for Absence

Apologies for absence were intimated on behalf of Ms M Smith, Mr B Thompson and Mrs D MacKay.

2. Declarations of Interest

There were no Declarations of Interest.

3. Minutes of Previous Meeting  

There had been circulated Minutes of the previous Meeting held on Tuesday, 10 May 2016 which were AGREED.

In this regard, an update was provided at the meeting by the Chair and Vice Chair on their recent meeting with Mr John Gibson, UNISON, during which it was confirmed that Mr Gibson was to meet with a representative from another Union to discuss involvement with the work of the Board. It was therefore anticipated that there would attendance by two Union representatives at future meetings which was welcomed. 

4. Developing a Staff Panel

There had been circulated Report No. RDB/7/16 dated 19 May 2016 by the Acting Head of Policy which set out the background and options for developing a Staff Panel. In this regard, specific information was provided in relation to the Proposed Criteria and Sampling Approach and Potential Options for Panel Creation.

In relation to Panel Creation, three options were presented for consideration as follows – 

Option 1 – Service Representation as the Primary Factor
Option 2 – Service Representation with an Area dimension 
Option 3 – Area Representation with a Service dimension 

During discussion, it was stressed that it was imperative that full and detailed information on every aspect of the process was highlighted from the outset. In this regard, it was suggested that experience gained from the Citizens Panel could perhaps be utilised in order to avoid any circumstances of ‘survey fatigue’ which would be detrimental to the process.   

Specifically, and in relation to Option 3 which it was noted would require a Panel of around 5000 staff, it was confirmed that survey questions would need to be carefully phrased in order to fully clarify the remit of the Board and to achieve the most informative level of response. It would also be helpful for Focus Groups to be arranged in different localities and for Panel members to be included in those Focus Group meetings wherever possible.
 
Thereafter, the Board AGREED to adopt Option 3 as outlined in the report, namely Area Representation with a Service Dimension - creation of a Panel which was representative of staff groups within each Council area which would mean that Members would be able to consider the results of staff surveys by Council area and be confident about the views being representative of the staff population in those locations.

It was also AGREED that invitations to participate in the Panel should be sent out by 3 June and a further report brought back regarding the take up and what this would mean around levels of representation.      

5. Proposed Communications Strategy

There had been circulated Report No. RDB/8/16 dated 20 May 2016 by the Corporate Communications Manager which invited consideration of the draft Redesign Communications Strategy. 

In this regard, it was confirmed that this aimed to manage effective internal and external communications with a wide range of stakeholders during the redesign project and subsequent decision making and implementation phases in order to maximise the Council’s ability to meet corporate objectives and reduce associated risks.

During discussion, it was stressed that this would be a very important aspect of the work to be undertaken by the Board and that all communication to be undertaken should be clear, concise and easily understood by all concerned.

It was also suggested that the public response to the work of the Board should be reviewed on a monthly basis to enable constant monitoring of views and reaction as they were received.   

Thereafter, the Board AGREED the draft Communications Strategy as circulated. 

6. Exclusion of the Public

The Board RESOLVED that, under Section 50A(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, the public should be excluded from the meeting for the following item on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1 and 6 of Part 1 of Schedule 7A of the Act.  

7. External Input to the Board – Follow Up

There had been circulated to Members only Report No. RDB/9/16 dated 17 May 2016 by the Chief Executive which proposed that the Board should access external input through Workshop Sessions with experienced Chief Officers from Scottish and Local Government and develop other options, including consultancy and attendance at relevant Conferences.

There had also been circulated to Members only specific details in regard to Consultancy Services.

At this point, it was suggested that, in addition to the recommendations within the report, Members should also consider inviting Ms Donna Hall (Wigan Council) to attend an early Workshop Session.  

During discussion, Members raised the following issues:-

• in relation to consultancy services, it would be  essential to be clear from the outset as to exactly what was required and at what stage in the process. In this respect, it was suggested that this might be most helpful during the implementation or detailed design stage of the work;
• there was a need to be clear as to how the work of the Board was to progress, particularly in terms of the timescale for consideration of which services (currently provided by the Council) could perhaps be delivered differently in future or no longer provided;
• it would be imperative that information was made widely available as part of the communications strategy in terms of how, when and who was making the decisions on the future delivery of services;   
• this should be viewed as a process of making positive choices about priorities in the first instance;
• in terms of the suggested consultancy support form SOLACE Enterprises as detailed in the report, there was a need to further consider how this related to the particular circumstances of the Highland area and as such it might be better to delay any decision on this aspect until later in the process;
• it would be beneficial for Members of the Board to visit other Councils who had already undertaken a redesign process in order to gain knowledge and insight into their experiences;
• it was important to highlight that specific budgetary and service arrangements in English Local Authorities differed from those in Scottish Local Authorities in some Services, such as Education; and
• it would be preferable to perhaps implement all the recommendations within the report but on a phased basis i.e. undertake the Workshop Sessions in the first instance and authorise the Chief Executive to explore options for support from the Improvement Service, with the other potential sources of external input being considered at a later date in the process.   

Thereafter, the Board AGREED:- 

(i) to Workshop Sessions with Mr Kenneth Hogg (Scottish Government), Mr Jim Savege (Aberdeenshire Council) and Ms Donna Hall (Wigan Council) being arranged immediately;
(ii) to authorise the Chief Executive to explore options for support from the Improvement Service; and
(iii) that Members should identify and apply to attend relevant Conferences which focused on public sector redesign and reform. 

It was also AGREED that the other potential sources of external input as detailed in the report should be considered at a later date in the process.

The meeting ended at 3.55pm.