Capacity Building

The City Council is constantly striving to increase its capacity to provide services that achieve its priorities and statutory obligations. We do this through a variety of means. We constantly monitor and review services to make them more efficient and eliminate waste, we train staff to make them more effective and we look for sources of external funding. Reviews of processes include effective use of information and the introduction of new, more effective systems.

Often, increased capacity results from better matching of resources to demand. For example, we continue to develop the website to provide a broad range of information at all times that would otherwise require a telephone call or a visit. This is switching demand to more cost effective, self-service “channels”. We’ve also moved away from the rigid nine to five working day to allow home working for appropriate staff, by providing home computer access to Council systems over the internet, an initiative that has been expanding over the year. A further example of channel switching is the provision of cash kiosks in the Customer Service Centre to provide the facility to accept straightforward payment transactions without tying up cashiers.

During the year we established a business case for a full Business Process Review of Planning and Building Control, agreeing a methodology and governance arrangements for the project which is now being fully implemented in the current year.

We are reviewing the whole way we manage and ensure the consistency of Business Transformation projects for the authority with a complete register of projects with corporate impact.

We undertook a Business Process Review of Refuse and Recycling

which improved the communication between the depot and the Customer Services Centre leading to fewer complaints and less time spent investigating missed bins with the spin-off of several staff attaining BPR qualifications.

We undertook a thorough corporate information audit looking at the way in which staff keep and access administrative and operational information. The recommendations are currently being considered.

The Strategic Housing Team reviewed the process of application for social housing to prepare for the introduction of Choice Based Lettings which aims for better management of demand for housing. As a result of the review we commissioned a new system which was introduced at the start of this year.

A full review of Performance Management has tightened up the Council’s Service planning and Corporate planning so that new plans were produced in time for the start of this year. They will better align service activity to our priorities and statutory obligations making the whole organisation more effective.

The City Council continues a full programme of training of its employees make sure they maintain their ability to perform their roles. This has included putting fifteen managers through Herefordshire/Worcestershire Leadership Development Programme and 47 staff gaining the European Computer Driving License. We also have young men and women as apprentices in Parks and at the Commandery.

During the year we have also been successfully assessed for the West Midlands Member Development Charter Milestone award.

Statement on Workforce Contracts

We did not award any contracts during 2007/8, which involved the Code of Practice on Workforce Matters in Local Authority Service Contracts.

However we transferred City Council employees who worked in Revenues and Benefits to the South Worcestershire Shared Service and the employees of the Worcestershire FA Development Team (for whom we were the host authority) have been transferred back to the County Football Association, and these transfers have been under the provisions of TUPE in 2007/08.

The Council will include in any future contracts awarded the requirement to comply with the Code of Practice on Workforce Matters in Local Authority Service Contracts.

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