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, 10 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, Ms M Smith, Dr I Cockburn, Mr A Christie, Mr T Prag, Dr J Davis, Mr J Gray, Mrs D MacKay, Mr T MacLennan 

Non-Members in attendance:
Ms J Douglas

Officials in attendance:
Mr S Barron, Chief Executive
Mr D Yule, Director of Finance
Mrs C McDiarmid, Head of Policy and Reform
Miss J MacLennan, Democratic Services Manager

Business

1. Apologies for Absence

Apologies for absence were intimated on behalf of Mr G MacKenzie and Mr B Thompson.

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 Monday, 18 April 2016 which were AGREED. 

4. Phasing the Work of the Board

There had been circulated Report No. RDB/4/16 dated 4 May 2016 by the Chief Executive which set out the proposed phasing of the work for the Redesign Board. In this regard, it was confirmed that more detail was available for the early work of the Board at this time and future phases would be developed as the work of the Board progressed.

During discussion, and with specific reference to the identification of other groups (internally and externally) who could be involved in a future workshop setting, it was suggested that more consideration was needed on how Community Councils could be involved in what was acknowledged to be an evolving process with very tight deadlines.  

Thereafter, the Board AGREED the proposed phases of work and associated timeline for phases 1-6 as set out in Appendix 2 to the report and the proposed detailed timelines for phases 1 and 2 as set out in Appendix 3.

It was NOTED that detailed timelines for future phases would develop as the work of the Board progressed and would be reported to future meetings for agreement.

The Board also AGREED to consider (as part of the workshop which was to follow the meeting) whether there were any other groups, internally and externally, who could also take part in the workshops on purpose, values and outcomes.

Further, it was AGREED that Board Members would take part in the discussions with Heads of Service when information was being gathered on current and potentially future service delivery arrangements and that three further workshops (each of two hours) should be 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 had been circulated Report No. RDB/5/16 dated 3 May 2016 by the Chief Executive which invited Board Members to consider the potential sources of external input to the Redesign and to advise how they wished to engage in each case.

In this regard, it was confirmed that potential sources for the Board to consider included – 

(i) Chief Officers and/or Senior Councillors from Local Authorities who had relevant experience of redesign; 
(ii) Representatives from the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE) with consultancy support from SOLACE Enterprises; 
(iii) The Improvement Service (CoSLA);
(iv) Current and former Chief Officers from public sector partners;
(v) Continuous improvement specialists (such as LEAN Practitioners);
(vi) Specialist private sector consultants;
(vii) Visits or invites to exemplar organisations; and
(viii) Attendance at Conferences.    

During discussion, it was stressed that the definition of the purpose, values and outcomes from this work was paramount and as such there was a need for a clear brief from the outset in relation to which services were to be redesigned. Also, visits or invites to exemplar organisations and the sharing of experience with other local authorities in specified locations could be extremely helpful as part of the learning process.

In terms of the suggestions for potential sources of external input, and whilst these were all welcomed, it was queried as to whether there could perhaps only be limited input from Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service in view of their established practices and systems. 

Also, in regard to Chief Officers and/or Senior Councillors from local authorities who had relevant experience of redesign, examples quoted included Greater Manchester and Kent and it was noted that these would be followed up and a further update provided for the next meeting. 

It was further suggested that contact should be made with the Scottish Government to investigate other possible additional examples of external input which could perhaps also be used as part of this process. 

Thereafter, the Board AGREED in principle to the potential sources of external input which had been proposed on the basis that further information on all options would be presented in due course, including the identification of speakers for future workshops and the locations for visits to other organisations.     

6.    Approach to Engaging with Staff 

There had been circulated Report No. RDB/6/16 dated 4 May 2016 by the Chief Executive which recommended seven new ways of involving staff in the Board’s work on redesign. In this regard, it was confirmed that these methods would have a legacy beyond the redesign period.

At this point, the Chair and Vice Chair confirmed that they were to contact Mr John Gibson, UNISON, and it was anticipated that he would be in attendance at and would participate in future meetings of the Board. 

During discussion, it was suggested that there was a need to invest in and to manage the process for the involvement of staff on a digital level and to ensure that there was a balance between Union and non-Union staff members.

It was also highlighted that there was a need to ensure that staff from all areas and services were represented on the proposed Staff Panel in order to ensure representation from across the Highland area.      

Thereafter, it was NOTED that redesign and the work of the Board would be covered in normal arrangements for engaging with staff over the next twelve months, whether face to face, electronically and through Trade Unions.

It was also AGREED that the following new methods of involving staff in redesign should be pursued and discussed with further with Trade Unions – 

1. representation from Trade Unions in the work of the Board;
2. a Staff Panel to be 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 to be run in localities to feed into relevant phases of the Board’s work;
4. discussions with Heads of Service, and others as identified, to be undertaken to gather information on current functions and how they might be delivered differently in future - with the involvement of Board Members;
5. Board Members to shadow 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.

The meeting ended at 3.45pm.