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Council of the Future

  Leadership: From the most senior levels of the Council: Chief Executive, Leader, Corporate management team Willingness to change: Understanding the implications of change, awareness of the risks and how to manage them, utter conviction that the outcome is worth the journey Vision for the future: What the Council will look like to a customer in 3-5 years’ time. Specific and measurable. Based on outcomes not processes Strategy for achieving the vision: A plan for achieving each element of the vision, setting out the interdependencies and the benefits, and how these will be realised in practice Capacity to deliver: Resources available and allocated - may require ‘backfilling’; external consultants used wisely with skills transfer to create in-house capacity Willingness to partner: The benefits of working with others are recognised; may include shared services, partnership to join-up public services, commercial partnerships Understanding customer needs: Knowing who the Council’s customers are, and what their needs are, using well-thought-out customer surveys; listening to what customers have to say Information audit: Knowing what information exists in the Council’s records and systems, where it is, who’s using it, and for what Baseline performance information: Knowing your starting point to enable measurement of progress. Measure outcomes not processes Customer service stategies: Strategies for delivering customer-facing services (usually covering access strategies around customer location, disability, channel preference etc) Home and smart working strategy: Strategies for implementing home, smart and mobile working – not just the technology but the policies and procedures as well ICT and info management strategy: Strategies for ensuring approporiate ICT infrastructures, services and applications are in place, and that information is appropriately managed Change management: Techniques and methods of managing change – impacting on attitudes, cultures, behaviours, practices, processes and working methods Business process improvement: Needs particular methods and tools eg skills and authority to challenge. All staff managing/handling each process to be involved Shared service approaches: Knowledge and experience of making shared services work, skills like business case development, knowing implications of EU procurement directives Corporate CRMS: Single, corporate-wide CRM, possibly shared with partners, in full use for all customer transactions via all channels Mobile working technologies: Wireless networking, thin client architectures or similar technologies to enable hot-desking, home working and mobile working. Corporate-wide ERDMS: Single, corporate-wide ERDMS serves the whole Council ensuring minimal use of paper documents and ready access electronically to all relevant information Project and programme management: Needs particular methods and tools embedded in corporate culture. Corporate standard and programme support office also in place Lean systems: Applying Lean systems approaches, in their broadest sense – to question how best to achieve required outcomes, remove waste, and focus on customer need. Commissioning and managing services: Skills to manage services or commission them from third parties, managing on outcomes (not volumes or processes) and potentially on a risk/reward basis Workflow systems: Systems which control flow of information and processes amongst relevant people in the council. May be part of the corporate CRMS Integration front to back: The website and intranet links directly to back office systems and ERDMS via the CRMS, so information is ‘held once, used many times’ Transactional WEB and internet: Web and intranet sites which enable customers and staff to complete transactions/interactions online. Full integration with back office systems Configuration based on lean systems: Processes supported by web, CRMS, workflow and service specific systems as result of applying LEAN systems thinking – anything not adding value is removed Enterprise resource planning: Using ERP tools to exploit the new potential to use the whole range of information held by the Council (which by this stage will be entirely electronic and searchable) Information sharing: For working with partners, information sharing protocols must be agreed, and systems established to enable secure access as required Applications focused on business need: Having corporate and service-specific applications to meet the business needs and comply with interoperability standards Cloud computing: Council is considering buying computer applications as services (per transaction) rather than buying, hosting and managing software Information assurance: Recognition that information is the key asset and responsibilities and processes must be in place to assure its quality, accuracy, timeliness and security Information architectures:Information structures using techniques like Service- Oriented and Enterprise Architecture to ensure information is ‘held once, used many times’ KPIs: Outcome-focused KPIs in place to measure performance Business continuity: When information is the key asset, business continuity depends entirely on availability of information and the systems which manage it Performance management: Tools and experience exist to manage performance through measurement, evaluation and improvement. Assessment by outcomes not processes Benefit realisation: Once processes more efficient, the realisation of benefits, eg cash savings, needs to be managed to ensure actual achievement Governance: Strict governance of key elements on which service delivery depends ie ICT, web, customer service resources Benchmarking: Council’s performance is independently reviewed against peer councils to aid best practice adoption and promote continuous improvement Environment: Efficiencies, flexible working, all- electronic information management, virtualisation and careful data centre planning, reduce environmental impact Skills management: Skills for the ‘information age’ are different from traditional skills. Gaps are identified and filled Continuous improvement: Firmly embedded in the culture of the organisation

For most councils, a reduction of 20% in their annual revenue budget, improved services, greater engagement with their communities, and working more closely with their partner organisations - that's what the Council of the Future means. And there is plenty evidence to show it is achievable. 

The council of the future is going to be very different from what we know today. It has to be. How else can it meet the challenge of ever-rising expectations of service quality and value for money?

It will be much more of a virtual organisation, having rid itself of much of its expensive and constraining offices and grand buildings. Instead, it will have a number of shop front locations for serving customers, and flexible back office accommodation for the few staff it needs behind the scenes. Routine services such as refuse collection, streetscene, maintenance will be mainly outsourced, even personal services such as social care and children’s services while still heavily dependent on professional council staff will use self help tools to reduce the dependency on care staff or teachers – already adult social care is moving towards personalisation and self directed support. The council’s main asset will be its nformation, which it manages effectively and makes appropriate information available seamlessly and securely to the staff who need it. Staff will be largely based at home, which for some staff could be anywhere, not necessarily close to the council area. ICT resources will be much less than at present, with cloud computing enabling the council to select the applications it needs in a flexible way, and to “pay as you go” for access to them.

Staff costs, accommodation costs, ICT costs will be much lower than they are today; services wil be largely self-serve, delivered at a fraction of today’s costs, and much of what remains directly within the council will be its regulatory functions. Even they will be different, as councils seek to engage with their citizens and businesses more closely through the Web, and regulate more by consensus than by process. Some traditional functions such as the provision of libraries will be re-examined – and just as they have moved on to accommodate records, then CDs and videos, and now DVDs, they will increasingly reflect the changes in the publishing industry towards electronic access.

For the customers, they will see a council that is agile and responsive; able to change to meet changing needs, able to deliver services efficiently and well, and taking account of people with disabilities, or people in more remote areas with travel difficulties. They will see a council that engages with them and involves them – and most importantly they will see it as “my council” rather than just “the council”.

These are enormous changes – but nothing in the above view is new – examples of every element can be found in councils today – the only difference is bringing it all together.

To achieve these changes will need strong leadership to let employees become innovators, challenging the way you do things, taking risks and being rewarded for success. Leadership with the vision to take that success and apply it elsewhere in the organisation, and then to demand more.

The council of the future is the transformational organisation, and the transformational organisation is always looking to do things better.

How Socitm Consulting can help

  • Defining the strategic vision
  • Stakeholder communication
  • Change management and skills transfer
  • Future-proofing information and ICT strategies
  • Developing flexible HR and estates policies
  • Ensuring procurement is in step with long term strategic goals
  • Partnership development
  • Performance management
  • Developing client skills/supplier management
  | Tags: Applications focused on business need, Baseline performance information, Benchmarking, Benefits realisation, Business continuity, Business process improvement, Capacity to deliver, Change management, Cloud computing, Commissioning and managing services, Configuration based on lean systems, Continuous improvement, Corporate CRMS, Corporate wide ERDMS, Customer service strategies, Enterprise resource planning, Environment, Governance, Home and smart working strategy, ICT and information management strategies, Information architectures, Information assurance, Information audit, Information sharing, Integration front to back, KPIs, Leadership, Lean systems, Mobile working technologies, Performance management, Project and programme management, Shared services approaches, Skills management, Strategy to implement vision, Transactional web and intranet, Understanding customer needs, Vision for the future, Willing to change, Willingness to partner, Workflow systems

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