Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 31/1/2011 Part 9 – Strategic Change Programme update (continued)

Cllr Salter then asked if he was confident of a quality service? Cllr Green replied that a key element of the consultation had been providing the same if not better. Seven people had been permanently in the respite home. Consulting better as to how to meet their needs meant better placement. A couple were being … Continue reading “Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 31/1/2011 Part 9 – Strategic Change Programme update (continued)”

Cllr Salter then asked if he was confident of a quality service?

Cllr Green replied that a key element of the consultation had been providing the same if not better. Seven people had been permanently in the respite home. Consulting better as to how to meet their needs meant better placement. A couple were being supported at home.

Cllr Kenny said some of his points had already been covered by Cllr Davies and Cllr Salter. He referred to 4.4 of the report and the £7 million of savings in transforming Adult Social Services. He also referred to appendix C and said the £5.37 million of savings was “very ambitious”. He was not clear on what it means and the difference between item 3 and 33. What was the difference between project 3 and 33? He said he had had a lot of complaints. He asked Cllr Green if he was confident enough to assure him that he had the right people?

Cllr Green replied that he was confident and that he had asked similar questions himself as well as speaking to clients, carers and staff. He had been reassured in some cases. There have been things that have gone wrong but lessons have been learnt. Councillors haven’t heard where things have gone well. To a degree there were cultural issues in DASS.

Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 31/1/2011 Part 8 – Strategic Change Programme update (continued)

Cllr Gilchrist referred to the Cabinet report of the 15th October 2009. He stated that this report had said by April 2011 the target was for 30% to have personal budgets. He then referred to project 33. He said Social Services reform had been more difficult. There were people that we had to help and look after sensitively and that there had been delays that weren’t envisaged.

Mr. Green said this was one of the benefits of this approach. This had been a project with no associated savings. As it had been no set out as a project there had been no oversight. It was not just about financial savings but transformation too. In the program was a major piece of work. They would measure the performance and learn lessons whilst applying project management skills. There was no reason why it couldn’t become a Corporate Project Delivery program.

Cllr Salter asked about the reprovision of in-house care services and the homes that would close. Had suitable alternative providers been found?

Cllr Green answered that to be precise he should ask the Director of Adult Social Services. However he was assured they had the right people in place. It was an amber but he was still confident it would be achieved.

Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 31/1/2011 Part 7 – Strategic Change Programme update (continued)

Cllr green continued by saying that next Friday there would be pressure over some of the projects with £0 gains. If additional capacity was put towards these there would be added benefits. He said he was being honest and clear. He said he was to trying to be clear and careful regarding achieving the benefits.

Cllr Phil Davies said he had one more question about governance. In paragraph 5 he recognised the main risk was projects not being delivered. It was being carefully monitored by the Scrutiny Programme Change Board and office. Quality assurance was being provided by the Director of Fiance. He wanted some assurance that if things went “off the rails” that Scrutiny councillors would be told of problems during the year if the projects were not delivering.

Cllr Green said they were better at project management and there was a proper risk register. This was available for people to see. The risk management strategy led to a greater deal of transparency. Where there is a risk, the key thing was mitigation. He was confident at the moment. He would identify projects if they were missing key stages and tell individual scrutiny councillors.

Mr. Green said that there was a plan. The projects that made up the program featured in the performance monitoring reports which was reported on a quarterly basis to scrutiny committees. Performance was also monitored regarding the corporate plan, which would be coming to overview and scrutiny committees too.

Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 31/1/2011 Part 6 – Strategic Change Programme update (continued)

Mr Green answered that he was very confident. Regarding the status across all project, the project manager had signed off as had the Chief Officer. In addition so had the Director of Finance and the SCP office. He said analysts had gone through, so had accountants and it had been signed off by all parties. The only caveat was being realistic and honest. He said there will be ups and downs. For example the £200,000 PACSPE saving might be £210,000 or £240,000. There was a reason behind the cautious approach. If brought forward some projects would bring added savings which might add up to more than £10.75 million.

Cllr Phil Davies referred to appendix C (the DASS transformation programme highlighting the two largest savings which totalled £7 million. He asked for the confidence that these two Social Services savings will be met.

Mr. Green replied that it was the same as before. Projects had been signed off and they had made sure there was no double counting as a result of the EVR. One reason why the market management project could fail would be if suppliers didn’t accept the new price.

Cllr Green said from he had years of experience in being told they would do things and then were not able to. The previous track record had been quite considerable amounts of savings. The work required discipline and analysts. The Director of Finance had spoken with DASS regarding how realistic the figures are. For example there were no amounts for assistive technology. Asking questions realised benefits over and above the savings that were originally claimed. Where things change they were keeping a record as to why and what so it could be tracked back.

Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 31/1/2011 Part 5 – Strategic Change Programme update (continued)

Mr. Green continued by saying the easy answer was no but he was not saying no in the future. They had built on 6-9 months of work and could move people around and possibly bring in specialists although they had very good people within the authority. When they supported people’s ideas to improve the service they tended to blossom and catch onto the idea.

Cllr Gilchrist asked about Equality Impact Assessment and referred to the work of Jacqueline Cross. He referred to 11.2 and asked although they were not required for the program as a whole whether they were conducted for each individual project and were held in a database?

Mr. Green said the simple answer was yes, this was held by the Strategic Change Programme Office. Peter Crawford’s software and paperwork was also held by individual project managers and Chief Officers who had copies as well. Cllr Green referred to Harry Jones and the case of minutes of a meeting that hadn’t happened yet being published. He said there would be no minutes before Friday’s meeting.

Cllr Davies thanked Mr. Green for the report and said it was helpful. He said he looked forward to the councillor’s seminar in March. He asked whether Mr. Green was confident that £10.7 million of savings would be achieved?