· web viewforeword cornwall council has developed an organisational development framework to...

Organisational Development Framework2016Cornwall Council: fit for purpose, prepared for the future

February 2016

Foreword Cornwall Council has developed an organisational development framework to ensure that - together with our partners - the Council is fit for purpose now and prepared for the challenges of the future, including delivering the Council Strategy.

Everyone at the Council and our companies is passionate about delivering good public services and making life better in Cornwall.

Our long term Strategy is to create a sustainable Cornwall:

A prosperous Cornwall that is resilient and resourceful; a place where communities are strong and where the most vulnerable are protected.

To help deliver the Strategy we need to recognise the ways in which public services are organised and delivered in Cornwall are changing.

The devolution benefits secured by the Cornwall Deal will fundamentally alter how the Council works with local delivery partners, local communities and the users of public services.

The financing of local government is changing dramatically with the Council having to rely less on funding from Government and more on raising income, local devolution, becoming even more efficient and doing things differently.

The roles of elected members and public servants are evolving and we need to equip our people and partners with the skills, attributes and values needed to succeed.

We have reviewed the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation and used this information to set our ambition for transforming and aligning the core elements of Cornwall Council – our people, our systems and processes, our allocation of resources and our strategies for the future - the future Cornwall.

We are all responsible for improving how the Council operates; after all, the Council is the sum of its parts. Therefore I would encourage you - as Councillors, Employees and Partners – to get involved and help take this agenda forward.

Kate Kennally Cath RobinsonChief Executive Interim Director of Communities Cornwall Council and Organisational DevelopmentIntroduction

What is the organisational development framework?

Organisational Development Framework 2Second Draft

The organisational development (OD) framework has been established with the overall aim of ensuring that Cornwall Council remains fit for purpose now and ready to meet the challenges of the future, including delivering the Council Strategy1.

The OD framework ensures the organisation is focussed on the right things to deliver the Council Strategy and directly contributes towards the delivery of the strategy theme of being ‘efficient, effective and innovative’.

We have taken a very practical approach to developing the OD framework, which includes structuring the framework across four core elements of the organisation which impact most on our ability to achieve the Council Strategy. These are:

i) People – our staff who deliver services and our members who represent the views of our residents and communities;

ii) Systems and Processes – the ways in which we organise, manage and deliver our work;

iii) Resources - the allocation of our resources – money, staff and assets – to our delivery activities and our investments for the future;

iv) Strategy – our longer term aims and objectives for Cornwall, for Cornwall Council and for Cornish public services.

The overarching aims of the OD framework will be delivered through 10 linked strategies. Each of the strategies will have an impact directly or indirectly upon the four core elements (see diagram 1 below).

Cornwall Council Context

Created in 2009, Cornwall Council is one of the largest unitary authorities in England.

1 Cornwall Council Strategy


Diagram 1 – Four elements of the organisation

http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/media/9924949/CC-Strategy-121214.pdf

We have a clear four year Strategy and budget which covers the period 2015 to 2019.

We have 123 locally elected Members representing the views of over half a million Cornish residents and communities.

We have 5,500 staff who are organised under 3 directorates into 13 services and who are based at 60 offices across Cornwall. We also own a group of companies, employing over 2500 staff who deliver a range of services in Cornwall on behalf of the Council.

We have an annual gross budget of £1.1 billion. Reduced funding from the Government, coupled with additional demand and rising costs, has required the Council to reduce the budget by £170m since 2010. Plans are already in place to deliver a further £103m from April 2016.

The challenges and opportunities faced by the Council are equally compelling.We have in the order of 250 statutory duties that we are required by law to undertake and we use 1300 software applications in the course of delivering our day-to-day activities.

We are experiencing an increasing demand for our services – people are living longer in Cornwall but with long term health conditions which require support. Customer expectations of our services are changing as a new generation of service users comes of age.

We have secured a pioneering devolution deal with Government securing greater freedoms and flexibilities to work with local partners to develop an integrated health and social care system, and to deliver significant economic growth, together with a much improved public transport network and more efficient use of public sector buildings.

We have 59 local devolution projects in train transferring local assets and services to local councils, groups and organisations within Cornwall.

We have many strengths but, like all local authorities, we recognise that we have areas for improvement which we need to tackle in order to be fit for the future.In order to understand the priority actions that Cornwall Council should take to be fit for the future, we have set out to understand the current strengths and improvement needs of the organisation.

We have collated a new organisational evidence base drawing from a range of corporate surveys and assessments, service based inspections and reports, customer survey exercises (including the Residents Survey), as well as the feedback from a range of engagement exercises held with members and over 600 staff at various events across Cornwall and online in October and November 2015.

We have had the evidence base independently reviewed and, set out below, is a summary of the core strengths and areas for improvement of Cornwall Council:


Significant Strengths The passion and commitment of our staff. Employees are loyal and

committed to meeting the needs of the customer.

Basic customer access systems work – more residents are satisfied with their most recent contact with the Council than are dissatisfied

Structural change arising from restructures has been well managed and leadership is strong – the relationships between cabinet and senior managers are good and performance measures are well developed.

Other strengths of the Council include the value that staff place in their line manager, the flexibility provided by modern working practices (eg working at home, flexitime), a drive to put the customer first, the clear direction given by our Strategy, how we work in partnership with others and our willingness to adapt and embrace change.

In addition, Cornwall Council is leading the way in our pioneering devolution deal, our Leader was positioned on the Local Government Chronicle’s list of the most influential people in local government and we have been nominated for their Council of the Year award.

Areas for improvement

Connections and relationships between staff, leaders and members would benefit from investment. Specific examples include visibility of leaders, understanding of the role of members and the need for leaders to role model positive behaviours.

The breadth and diversity of work delivered by the Council and its companies, combined with the geographical spread across Cornwall exacerbates the presence of a silo culture and disconnection between services and locations. Reinforcing the corporate brand and a common purpose that everyone can identify with would help to mitigate this.

In general our systems and processes are considered too burdensome, bureaucratic and too controlling. Staff experience significant issues with particular systems which impacts on staff morale and effectiveness. Examples highlighted include HR policies and procedures and IT systems (examples include EDRMS, ERP, MOSAIC, Lagan).

There is a need for clarity regarding how some of our key strategies and policies link together , including the impact of the Cornwall Deal and the future operating model of the Council (i.e its size, structure and the role of the group of companies). Without clarity it is very difficult to ensure that decisions taken by the Council are aligned and prioritised towards a common goal.

There is evidence of a culture of risk aversion and many staff do not feel supported.


In light of reduced staffing levels and budgets, the organisation needs to prioritise resources and to communicate the impact of prioritisation to customers, the public and our partners. Staff are also asking for help to prioritise locally and for support from leaders in the decisions they take.

The ability to recruit and retain skilled staff.

Priority challenges for 16/17:In general, the evidence base points to the need for us to think differently about how we work, to think and plan strategically and to coordinate and integrate our ways of working at organisation, team and individual level.

Staff are asking for:

increased opportunities to engage in decision making inspirational leadership transparency of decision making and 2-way communications less bureaucracy a balance between enabling support services which operate through

frameworks and guidance, and the balance the mandatory and legislative requirements which operate through rules and procedures

empowerment to innovate and take risks

The priority areas for development which the framework needs to respond to in 16/17 include:

Enhancing leadership capabilities, including our leaders actively demonstrating or ‘role modelling’ the positive behaviours that we are seeking to encourage through our Performance Development System

Refreshing and coordinating corporate engagement and internal communications activities to improve morale and reconnect staff, leaders and members

Tackling systems and processes issues, namely HR policies and procedures and IT systems

Providing tools and methods to prioritise and explain our allocation of our resources – locally and at organisational level

Exploring how to tackle the culture of risk aversion

Providing clarity on the key strategies impacting on the current and future activity of the public sector in Cornwall, and what that means for the Council

Building the views of local communities, customers and our partners into our decision making processes

Building trust and enhancing the reputation of the Council


How will we deliver the Organisational Development Framework?The OD framework will be delivered in two main ways. Firstly, the actions identified within the ten component strategies which sit beneath the framework will be incorporated into the Council’s annual business and service plans and these are subject to the Council’s risk and performance management processes.

Secondly, an organisation-wide change programme is being prepared to support and coordinate implementation of the overall framework aims alongside delivery of the component strategies, in particular those strategies which require cultural or behavioural shifts to take place.

The OD Steering Group, chaired by Kate Kennally, Chief Executive, will continue to oversee delivery of the framework, receive performance updates, guide the change programme and lead an annual review of the framework and component strategies.

How will we measure our success?

Each of the ten component strategies contains their own measures of success which the Organisational Development Steering Group will monitor delivery of on a quarterly basis and as part of their annual review of the framework.

To measure the success of the overarching framework itself we will develop a set of baseline measures for each of the four core elements of the organisation (People, Systems & Processes, Resources and Strategy). The Employee Survey and the Residents Survey are likely to provide the main vehicles for establishing the baselines and measuring progress.

The Council’s Employee Engagement Group (EEG) was formed in 2015 and comprises staff volunteers from each service and from across Cornwall. The EEG will continue to be the primary way of engaging staff in the OD framework, along with our internal communications highlighting progress and seeking input from all staff through the intranet and the ‘team talk’ cascade briefing.

We will also create a Stakeholder Insight Group to inform and challenge delivery of the OD framework. The Group will be comprised of a mix of Cornish individuals and organisations including delivery partners, local interest groups, businesses and staff. We will be seeking volunteers to join this group shortly.


Our Organistional Development Framework is made up of four key Strategic Aims;

Over the next few pages, each of the four strategic aims will be presented as follows:

The strategic aim describes what we are going to do to support the overall Council Strategy.

The rationale explains why this is important and describes the current context.

The activities explain what we will need to do or put in place to achieve our strategic aims.

The measures describe how we will evaluate our success.


Strategic AimOur people are confident and capable

The rationale…Our people – our 5,500 staff and 123 Members – are the biggest strength of Cornwall Council. They are passionate about delivering good public services and making life better for everyone in Cornwall.In order to be fit for the future we want our people to be confident about the purpose of the Council and how we work alongside our partners, about their own role, the decisions they take and be able to advocate how what we all do makes a difference.We also want all our people to be capable which means providing the right support, ranging from a set of basic tools and training through to inspirational and engaging leadership. It also means recruiting and retaining capable people.

We will achieve our aim by… Delivering an organisation-

wide change programme to support implementation of the framework

Implementation of the People Strategy which will deliver a lean, resourceful, talented and productive workforce

Implementing a leadership development programme to prepare our leaders for new challenges

Supporting our people – staff and members - to be ready for the changing future role of local government in the 21st century

Ensuring all staff and members are aware of the expectations of their role and future changes

Discussing with public sector partners shared strategies to recruit and retain skilled staff to deliver Cornish public services

Building understanding and working relationships between Members,and staff and Cornwall’s delivery partners

Maximising engagement opportunities and embedding understanding of Cornwall Council’s values and principles

How will we know we’ve been successful… Improved employee engagement index scores Our leaders are recognised as effective role models Our people feel confident and capable

Strategic Aim


Our systems and processes are enabling and effective

The rationale…Time spent by our people on corporate systems and processes is potentially time lost on either the delivery of public services or considering how public service delivery might be improved.In order to be fit for the future our systems and processes must focus on enabling the effective delivery of public services, our systems and processes should not create unnecessary burdens or controls.

We also want our systems and processes to be effective which means listening to the needs of users of our systems and processes – be they customers, partners or staff – and acting on their feedback as we design and improve our systems.

We will achieve our aim by… Delivering a corporate

programme to tackle issues with key systems and processes which impact most on morale and effectiveness

Reducing bureaucracy and simplifying corporate systems and processes through implementation of the Corporate Improvement Strategy

Ensuring our IT systems and processes support the delivery of public services through our Information Strategy

Implementing the Positive Governance Strategy which will embed governance in day-to-day activities

Reviewing and updating HR policies and procedures, through implementation of our People Strategy

Improving the efficiency of customer service processes through implementation of the Customer Access Strategy

Reviewing the structure and culture of our support services to ensure they are enabling and fit for the future

Encouraging innovation and ideas by providing support and forums for staff and customers to improve systems and processes

How will we know we’ve been successful… Staff morale improves as issues with key systems and processes are tackled Customers recognise efficiency improvements in our service processes Our systems and processes are recognised as enabling and effective

Strategic Aim


Our resources are prioritised and proportionate

The rationale…Staffing levels are declining and government funding is likely to reduce further. We need to use and invest our limited resources in ways which achieve the maximum impact for Cornwall, being clear and transparent about our resourcing decisions.In order to be fit for the future we want the allocation of our resources to be prioritised at an organisation level, with robust information about customer need informing those decisions. We also want to support our people to plan and prioritise their resources and time locally within their teams and as individuals.

We want the resources that we allocate to the delivery of each of our services and activities to be proportionate to the public service benefits they deliver for Cornwall.

We will achieve our aim by… Undertaking prioritisation of

resources at organisation-wide level and being clear about the impacts for our customers and partners

Learning lessons from others who have achieved success eg shifting to new customer delivery channels and reducing the demand for services through early intervention

Developing tools and methodologies to support staff and managers to prioritise resources within their teams

Further developing a culture of robust financial management across the Council through implementation of our Finance Strategy

Managing our property in the best interests of the people of Cornwall through our Property Strategy

Building a commercial culture across the Council through implementation of our Commercial Strategy.

Exploring new opportunities to generate income from the services we deliver.

How will we know we’ve been successful… Our people feel supported when prioritising local resources Our allocation of resources to priorities is clear and transparent Our allocation of resources to our services is recognised as proportionate

Strategic Aim


Our strategies are aligned and understood

The rationale…The ways in which public services in Cornwall are organised and delivered are changing, as are the needs and expectations of our customers. We need to consider the future role of the public sector in Cornwall, and what this means for the future operating model for delivering public services in partnership.

In order to be fit for the future we want the strategies that we and others are working towards to align and where there are conflicts or tensions, we want to actively manage them.

We also want our strategies to be clear so that our people and our customers understand and are aware of what we are working towards and the service levels they can expect from us, building trust in the Council and enhancing our reputation.

We will achieve our aim by… Preparing for changes in public

service delivery in Cornwall and understanding the impact for the operating model of the Council

Building trust in the Council by communicating our services and achievements through the Communications and Marketing Strategy

Developing and communicating a clear explanation of the strategies shaping public service delivery in Cornwall

Continuing to pursue double devolution for Cornwall through implementation of our Localism Strategy and the Cornwall Deal

Actively managing tensions between the strategies which shape public service delivery in Cornwall

Understanding and measuring customer experiences and acting on feedback

How will we know we’ve been successful… Our people and customers are clear about what we are seeking to achieve The strategies we are pursuing are aligned and any tensions are managed The impact of changes to future public service delivery in Cornwall Council

are clear and plans are in place to respond to them

Summary…


The ways in which public services are organised and delivered in Cornwall are changing.

We are embarking on a programme of organisational development to prepare the four core elements of the Council for the challenges of the future – our people, our systems & processes, our resources and our strategies.

The aims of the organisational development programme are captured in this Organisational Development Framework, which will be delivered by 10 strategies through a coordinated delivery programme.

Ensuring that Cornwall Council is fit for purpose and prepared for the future is a shared responsibility. Get in touch and get involved.

If you would like this information in another format please contact:

Cornwall CouncilCounty HallTreyew RoadTruro TR1 3AY

Telephone: 0300 1234 100

Email: [email protected]

www.cornwall.gov.uk


http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/

mailto:[email protected]

· web viewforeword cornwall council has developed an organisational development framework to...

Documents