Agendas, reports and minutes

A meeting of the Re-Design Board of the Highland Council will take place on Tuesday, 10 May 2016 at 3.00pm in the Convener’s Hospitality Room, Highland Council Headquarters, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness. 

You are invited to attend the meeting and a note of the business to be considered is attached.

Yours faithfully

Michelle Morris
Depute Chief Executive/
Director of Corporate Development 

Business

1. Apologies for Absence

2. Declarations of Interest

Members are asked to consider whether they have an interest to declare in relation to any item on the agenda for this meeting. Any Member making a declaration of interest should indicate whether it is a financial or non-financial interest and include some information on the nature of the interest. Advice may be sought from Officers prior to the meeting taking place.

3. Minutes of Previous Meeting
 
There are circulated Minutes of the previous Meeting held on Monday, 18 April 2016 for approval.

4. Phasing the Work of the Board

There is circulated Report No. RDB/4/16 dated 4 May 2016 by the Chief Executive which sets out the proposed phasing of the work for the Redesign Board. More detail is available for the early work of the Board at this time and future phases will be developed as the work of the Board progresses. 

Board Members are asked to consider and agree any changes to the proposed phases of work and associated timeline for phases 1-6 as set out in Appendix 2.

Board Members are also asked to consider and agree any changes to the proposed detailed timelines for phases 1 and 2 as set out in Appendix 3.

Board Members are asked to note that detailed timelines for future phases will develop as the work of the Board progresses and will be reported to future Board meetings for agreement.

Board Members are asked to agree – 

1. following the workshop, if there are other groups internally and externally who could also take part in the workshops on purpose, values and outcomes;
2. whether individually they would be interested in taking part in the discussions with Heads of Service when information is being gathered on current and potentially future service delivery arrangements;  
3. that three further workshops (each of two hours) are scheduled by mid-June to meet the deadline for making recommendations to the Council on 29 June 2016. 

5. External Input to the Board 

There is circulated Report No. RDB/5/16 dated 3 May 2016 by the Chief Executive which invites Board Members to consider the potential sources of external input to the Redesign and to advise how they wish to engage in each case.   

Board Members are asked to consider and discuss these and other potential sources of external input to the work of the Redesign Board. Such inputs will be most valuable over the course of the next three months and Board Members are asked to advise how they wish to engage with these sources.   

6. Approach to Engaging With Staff

There is circulated Report No. RDB/6/16 dated 4 May 2016 by the Chief Executive which recommends seven new ways of involving staff in the Board’s work on redesign. These methods would have a legacy beyond the redesign period.  

Board Members are asked to note that redesign and the work of the Board will be covered in normal arrangements for engaging with staff over the next twelve months, whether face to face, electronically and through Trade Unions.

Board Members are asked to agree that the following new methods of involving staff in redesign are pursued and discussed with further with Trade Unions – 

1. representation from Trade Unions in the work of the Board, as verbally reported to the Board meeting from the Chair and Vice Chair;
2. a Staff Panel is created to gather staff feedback by surveys, with a report on recruitment to the Panel and its size at the next Board meeting;
3. staff focus groups are run in localities to feed into relevant phases of the Board’s work;
4. discussions with Heads of Service, and others as identified, to gather information on current functions and how they may be delivered differently in future. Individually, Board Members may be willing and able to take part in these discussions;
5. Board Members shadowing particular staff to understand their role and service delivery issues and ideas for change;
6. the creation of a Staff Facebook page (closed group); and
7. recommendations on a digital platform to subscribe to at a future Board meeting to enable staff to provide redesign ideas, debate them, rank them and vote on them. Such a platform would have wider community use too.