Scrutiny Overview Report (2009/10 YTD)

Scrutiny Overview Report (2012/13)

Corporate and Social Inclusion Select Committee (CSI)

Resources Service Overview

The Resources service grouping delivers the following key functions, which provide both operational activities directly to the public or in many cases supports the work of the whole Council. Officers within Resources are directly involved in all major projects undertaken within the authority including the Big Ticket Reviews, Welfare Reform, schools capital programme.

Since reporting to CASSI 12 months ago there has been some significant changes in legislation, policy implementations and budget/resource reductions. All of which indicate a continued relentless pace of change that the services need to understand and respond to in order to keep delivering the services to a high standard and meet customer need, whilst continuing to provide value for money. Resources staff play a key role in supporting this agenda.

Key functions of each service area within Resources are detailed below:

Communications and Human Resources

Communications

The Media Relations team:

issue press releases;
coordinate all responses to media;
publish Stockton News;
provide guidance and training on media issues;
provide staff and members with a regular roundup of local and national stories.

The Marketing and Internal Communications team:

develop and deliver a programme of targeted marketing campaigns;
coordinate print and design requirement;
arrange photographic requests;
assess new product development;
are responsible for all internal communications including weekly KYiT.
projectmanage marketing campaigns with a named officer.

The Digital Media team:

manage and develop the Council’s website;
internet and intranet development;
make best use of the new and emerging technologies, including Facebook and Twitter.

Human Resources

workforce development;
building organisational capacity;
HR policy development;
internal communications;
support to schools;
advisory functions;
supporting reviews.

Human Resources also providea Policy and Employee Relations Team, two HR Business Teams covering Corporate and Schools areas, a Workforce Development Team and a Workforce planning Team.The servicemaintains links with Xentrall Shared Services.

Customer Services & Taxation

Customer Services:

manage the Access to Services programme – a range of access channels;
manage the Contact Centre - now includes a wider range of services;
manage the Customer Contact Centres in Stockton and Thornaby;

development and implementation of the Customer Service Excellence programme;
internal Customer Service awards.

The Administration service:

central support to all service groups through smalls hubs;
involved in a number of Corporate Projects;
courier Services;
postal Service;
PA support Service to Heads of Service;
numerous general administrative duties.

The Taxation service:

responsible for the administration of local taxation – Council Tax and Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR);
cashiering functions;
fulfils the requirements of 1988 and 1992 Local Government and Finance Acts, the Local Government Act 2003 and many statutory instruments associated with these Acts;
managed a number of legislative changes enacted during 2012 including the introduction of Council Tax Support, new Council Tax charges for empty properties and retention of business rates income.

Finance

The Finance Service is focused on safeguarding and maximising financial resources, supporting the strategic aims and objectives of the authority and overseeing governance arrangements.

The Accountancy team:

provides advice on corporate and service specific financial issues;
it provides guidance on the impact of legislative and statutory changes to management and the Audit Committee;
setting the budget and Council Tax levels;
producing the Medium Term Financial Plan;
production of the Council’s annual accounts and liaising with external auditors;
leading on external reporting, especially to Government;
maintaining and developing the Council’s Agresso accounting system.

The Financial Planning team:

conduct financial planning and research;
produce national funding projections and consultation responses;
VAT and treasury management, providing advice and consultation in addition to monitoring the Council’s cash flow and loans/investments.

The Asset Management Projects team:

provide financial support to capital schemes and major projects;
manageResources and Law & Democracy revenue accounts;
responsible for the Council's Strategic Asset Management including the preparation of the Council's Capital Strategy & Asset Management Plan.

The Land and Property team:

hold details of all land and property owned by the Council;
manage the property portfolio;
act as landlord for council properties and tenancy agreements;
provides a valuation service.

The Internal Auditteam:

provide an advice and consultation service;
strategic risk analysis and action planning;
conduct special investigations including fraud and irregularity;

An advice and support function to many of the areas of the council.

The Risk Management & Insurance team:

arrange insurance cover to protect the assets and activities of the Council;
deal with any claims;
a comprehensive risk management service.

The Corporate Procurementunit:

plan and co-ordinate procurement;
provideprocurement advice and guidance;
manage contract procedure rules;
co-ordinate procurement training and oversee devolved buying;
arrange corporate and service specific contracts, directly or through (NEPO) or Tees Valley Joint Procurement Group (TVJPG).

The Health and Safety team:

assist managers to comply with the requirements and prohibitions of statute;
provide advice on current and newly emerging legislation, safe systems, safe methods and safe places of work;
promote workplace competence and ownership of sensible and proportionate health and safety risk management;
provides health and safety advice to schools.

Policy, Improvement and Engagement (PIE)

PIE supports the Strategic and Service Planning arrangements for the Council and the Local Strategic Partnership, manages the Council’s and the LSP’s Performance Framework, coordinates, deliversand advises on engagement and consultation activity and equality, diversity and impact assessment.. As well as a more strategic corporate role, the Business Support and Improvement Team within PIE support the Resources Service group with a number of Performance Management and Governance functions.

The Community Engagement team:

provides guidance and support to all service groupings in relation to consultation;
undertakes consultation activity e.g. Residents survey, staff survey;
manages the Viewpoint Residents’panels;
supports the Local Strategic Partnership infrastructure;
advises and supports diversity and community cohesion activity;
supports the development of the VCS;
manages the relationship with keycommunity engagement partners (including Catalyst, Community Empowerment Support, Voice Forum, Disability Advisory Group, Over 50’s assembly)
manages of Ragworth Neighbourhood Centre;
provides support to other Community Centres.
Manage the contracts for Healthwatch, Back on Track (social fund) and information advice and guidance (SDAIS)

The Business Support and Improvement team:

reviewand interpret national policy and legislation, support implementation at a local level;
provide briefings/reports for CMT, elected members and officers;
undertake Strategic, Service and Business Planning;
co-ordinate the delivery of the Performance Management Framework;
coordinate responses to national consultations on policy and legislative changes;
coordinate delivery of Members’ policy and information seminars;
provide a data and intelligence function, demographic data, Customer insight;
co-ordination of Freedom of Information requests, Data Subject Access requests and comments, commendations and complaints across the authority
Undertake research activity in response to ad-hoc requests

Xentrall Shared Services

Xentrall Shared Services is a partnership with Darlington Borough Council for the delivery of a number of “back-office” services. Like many other areas across the Council, Xentrall have also undertaken a review of service provision, rationalising teams and ensuring efficiency savings are made.

The Partnership, which went live on 1 May 2008, includes the following services:

The ICT service:

guides and advises on the strategic direction and deployment of ICT services;
identifies opportunities to exploit information and communication technologies;
handles all ICT incidents through the Service Centre, encompassing the Service Desk (first-line) and second-line support team who support the Council’s PC, lap-top, printer and blackberry estate;
is the point of contact for all ICT related project procurement and equipment purchases;
provides support, development, integration and interfacing services for the Council’s application portfolio, including corporate systems such as email and web based services;
provides support for the Council’s ICT Strategic Architecture, which encompasses the main Datacentre and backup facility, corporate voice & data network, virtualised servers & storage array, perimeter defence systems (firewalling, intrusion detection, virus prevention, spam filtering, web-site filtering);
provides dedicated Members’ ICT support via the Service Centre team;
delivers Information Security Management which ensures that security is embedded across the ICT service and built into the services it provides;
co-ordinates the Authority’s Information Governance programme, ensuring that personal and sensitive information is handled and managed in the appropriate manner;
provides ICT business analysis, project management and ICT procurement related services to manage the process of ICT system identification and acquisition across the Council.

The Design and Print service:

provides a comprehensive design and print service using high volume digital printing facilities and associated finishing services. Specialist design and print requests can be also managed externally though this unit. All requests are channelled through the centralised Communications service.

The Transactional Finance service:

provides transactional services to its customers such as Creditors, Debtors, Banking, Income, Car Mileage processing and the development and support of the Financial Management System, Agresso.

The Transactional HR service:

provides transactional services to its customers such as Payroll, Recruitment, Contracts, Absence Reporting, and the development and support of the HR Management System, PSE.

Key Achievements

Communications

Various public campaigns have been delivered with positive results;
Managed the communications response to Flood emergencies;
Supported delivery of the 2013 Stockton International Riverside Festival;
Re-launched new look Stockton News;
The Council’s internal communication function, including the KYIT newsletter, has been revamped with an ‘Ask Neil’ page and leader’s blog developed.
Supported delivery of thewinter events programme;
Delivered rebranding project;
A comprehensive spring / summer events programme has been developed and delivery commenced, including: duathlon, specialist markets, engineering festival, Stockton International Riverside Festival, cycling festival;
The service gained a three-star SOCITM rating; this was previously rated one-star;
Delivered communications for various major events associated with the London Olympics and the borough’s Royal Visits and also supported the Preston Hall relaunch.

Customer Services and Taxation

Development of interior design plans for the Billingham Customer Service Centre.
Supported the Council’s retention of the Customer Service Excellence award for a further 12 months.
Implemented upgrade to latest version of the Customer Relationship Management system.
Introduced Self-service forms for the Environmental Health service, now available on the Council’s website.
Improvements to Municipal Buildings Reception Area.
Together with the administration and benefits teams, 16,500 council tax bills and council tax support notification letters were merged and sent out to customers, as part of the annual billing exercise.
Delivered an e-billing campaign which resulted in us more than doubling the number of e-billing customer numbers from last year, with nearly 1,000 business rate and council tax customers choosing to receive their bills electronically - saving money in terms of stationery, packing and postage costs.
Collection levels achieved 98.2% for council tax (the highest collection rate ever for council tax) and 99.0% for Business Rates.
Staff from Taxation led on the development of the Tees Valley Enterprise Zone Business Rates Discount Scheme and administrative arrangements for the flow of information and funds between billing authorities and TVU.
The key project strands for the next phase of the Council’s Access to Services Programme have been identified and project plans are being drawn up. These plans support the Council’s Efficiency and Improvement Programme and aim to maximise the potential of new and available technology.
A campaign to encourage eligible small businesses to apply for small business rate relief resulted in 226 additional awards of relief, totalling £79,800.

Finance and Assets

Set a balanced budget amidst complex circumstances and uncertain times.
District Audit found financial practice and approach to value for money was good.
Asset Review – well under way, continued to develop proposals and plans for consolidation, development and disposal of Council assets.
Implementation of the Community Assets Transfer Policy.
Assessed the implication of Government funding changes and incorporated into the Medium Term Financial Plan, including the introduction of localisation of Business Rates.
Assessed financial implications of introducing localisation of Council Tax benefit system.
Development of joint venture with private sector partners for delivery of Care and Education as part of the Big Ticket reviews.

Finance and Procurement

Internal Audit achieved re-accreditation for ISO9001:2008.
Treasury Management Strategy has been approved (2013/4 to 2015/16).
Investment returns for 2012/13 exceeded the target set.
The new Procurement Plan and associated changes to the Contract Procedure Rules have been agreed.
Since April 2011, the reviews of corporate categories and service categories have yielded accumulated savings of £1,229,129.

Human Resources

Employee support and development programme has been developed for 2013/14 and is now available on the intranet.
A numberof HR policies have been developed, updated and approved, including Management of Organisational Change and Redeployment. Several others are at the consultation stage.
A total of 26 apprentices were successfully recruited.
Four Equality Staff Forums have been held, including: Age, Black and Minority Ethnic, Disability and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender.
Workforce Development Programme was commissioned for 2012-15 and contracts were awarded in May 2012.
Won a national training award (North East Region) for the middle manager development programmeand highly commended at national level. The programme was considered to be “exemplary".
The appraisal scheme was reviewed and updated successfully.

Policy, Improvement and Engagement

Along with colleagues, the team have supported the transition of Public Health into the authority including commissioning the Healthwatch and NHS Advocacy contracts.
Conducted the Residents’ Survey.
Delivered the Employee Survey and undertook analysis.
Started torefresh and reconfigure the Youth and Adults Viewpoint Panel. This will be completed in the first quarter of 2013/14.
Supportedand advised on consultations such as: Adult Carers' Strategy, Young Carers' Strategy, Changes to Council Tax Discounts and Exemptions for Empty Dwellings and Second Homes, Yarm Car parking charges, Learning Disability and mental health EIT reviews.
A series of Voluntary and Community Sector workshops were all delivered, for example: Equality & Diversity, Safeguarding for the sector and preparing for procurement.
Allocation of £224,107 through two roundsof the Investment Fund - over 41 local VCS organisations have benefited.
Investment has been secured via Catalyst for additional resources to develop a community asset transfer model
Seven Community First panels are in place and fully supported.
Implementation of the recommendations from the Freedom of Information pilot study.
Supported Welfare Reform changesincluding commissioning of contract for delivery of the Social Fund.
Work to support the Armed Forces Community Covenant
Ten Members’ policy seminarswere delivered in 2012/13.
Numerous briefing notes produced to support officers and members.
Co-ordinated responses to 30 government consultations
A volunteer and student intern have been successfully supported.
Led on the Council’s Service Planning agenda, including development of the Council Plan, Family Poverty Framework and Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

Xentrall

High level information risk assessments have been completed across some service areas, with indicative 'corporate' risks identified.
A customer satisfaction survey was undertaken across both Stockton and Darlington customers in March 2013. The survey will be used to inform service improvements. The overall satisfaction for Xentrall services was 80% in Stockton and 76% in Darlington.
Xentrall was a finalist for the APSE 2012 public sector partnership award.
An Internal Audit review of the Governance in Xentrall achieved Full Assurance.

Xentrall ICT Services

Have successfully achieved re-certification to both Information Security (ISO27001) and Quality Management Systems (ISO9001).
Also now have aBusiness Continuity Management system compliant with ISO22301.
Successfully implemented a programme of comprehensive Disaster Recovery testing deployed for service based applications.
Successfully brought the NextiraOne network service in-house and realised significant savings as a result.
Seamless accommodation move for all ICT staff with noreduction or break in service.
Rolled-out the printer consolidation programme across the Council and this is nearing completion.
Migrated out of the MunicipalBuilding computer room.
Have introduced a desktop based self-service facility for logging calls with the Service Desk, which frees up time on the desk to give better customer service e.g. 99%+ of calls answered within 3 minutes.
Worked with Redcar to re-launch the Telepresence services in Stockton and Billingham.
Implemented a secure Wi-Fi service.
Completed 59 service based ICT projects.
26,293 calls logged by Service Desk First-Line and another 11,512 logged via self-service (figures include DBC).
25 tonnes of redundant IT equipment collected in, de-personalised and securely and environmentally disposed of (figures include DBC).

Xentrall Design & Print Services

Have completed their service improvement plan which analysed end-to-end workflow processes.
Consolidated accommodation to both free up space corporately and improve team communications & dynamics.
Installed new Canon digital printers replacing the old failing Xerox devices. Again, making better use of space to aid workflow.
Variable date processing now possible on large-scale prints e.g. name & addresses.
The service produced a large and varied volume of jobs (over 3,500), covering everything from business cards to large exhibitions.

Xentrall Finance and HR

The Creditors, Debtors and Payroll services are benchmarked for quality of service and overall cost of the service, using the CIPFA benchmarking service. The unit cost for all of these services has reduced every year and value for money continues to be a focus for Xentrall.
Implemented - Your Miles Your Money - online car mileage processing developed to generate efficiency savings by improving and automating a very manual and labour intensive process saving valuable resource for claimants and the Xentrall Creditors team.This service has been rolled out in both Councils.
The development of a solution for Academies has meant that Xentrall has retained school business from Stockton and Darlington as they have transferred to Academy status.
Stockton schools finance team joined Xentrall in April 2012.
A snapshot of transactional volumes processed during 2012/13:
150,000 salary payments
260,000 supplier payments
3,500 CRB checks
55,000 debtor invoices
10,000 job applications
37,000 sickness absences
11,000 helpdesk calls; 5,000 Agresso, 6,000 PSE
20 internal audits (11 full assurance, 9 substantial)

What has proven more difficult?