Agenda item

The Panel had requested an overview of the activities and initiatives being undertaken by the Council in support of Smarter, Healthier and Greener ways of working.

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility (CMR) for Corporate Services and Communication introduced the report noting that, from the perspective of developments in IT, there was a massive opportunity for the Council to move forward and make good decisions based on good knowledge.  Officers and Members were working at pace to increase productivity and improve communication.

The Strategic Director of Commercial and Change made the following main points:

·       The Council had had a flexible working policy for many years and had been looking to build on this before the pandemic.  More recently, following the pandemic, there had been a move towards use of Microsoft Teams as a basis for flexible and mobile working.

·       Given increased flexible and mobile working there was a need to optimise the Council’s estate and consider whether there was sufficient capacity.  Other councils had taken a range of approaches to this.

·       Consideration was being given to providing employees with the opportunity to purchase an electric vehicle (EV) through a salary sacrifice scheme.

·       The Council’s move to LED lighting should be seen in the context of rising electricity costs.

·       There was a need to strike a balance between meeting the needs of residents and maintaining good productivity.

The Chairman noted the overview nature of the report and reminded the Panel that this was an opportunity to identify any specific issues that they would like to consider in more depth at a future meeting.  The Panel was given an opportunity to ask questions and the following main points were raised:

·       In response to a question about the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, the Panel was informed that as part of the EV scheme participants would be provided with a home charger.  There were a number of ways to take forward such a scheme and the approach taken would depend on the number of employees who wished to take part.  It was confirmed that the chargers in the underground car park at County Hall were specifically for use by the County Council’s fleet of EVs, something that could be changed as necessary.  Concern was expressed that the scheme should be accessible to all employees whatever their residential circumstances.  In response, it was confirmed that any scheme would aim to include mitigations for employees who did not have access to off street parking.

·       A Member noted that there had been little investment in the Council’s estate in the last ten years and, given the age of the Council’s assets, it was likely that investment would be needed in the next ten years.  It was suggested that decisions about what was done next would be critical.  The Strategic Director reminded Members that the Council had recently taken back resources from Place Partnership Limited (PPL) and was now in a better place to look at what was needed.  It was acknowledged that buildings were getting older and it was important to be careful about where investment was focused.  The aim was to optimise the estate and take this forward in conjunction with partners where possible.  In relation to the one public estate strategy, the Panel was informed that there were regular meetings and work plans across the local authorities in Worcestershire including the district councils, with the aim of using the estate collectively.

·       In response to a question about the climate and biodiversity emergency, Members were informed that the Council was highly focussed on reducing its carbon footprint as far as possible.  The Sustainability Team was working across the Council on this and the work done in the Corporate and Commercial Directorate was a small but important component which contributed to the work rather than set the strategy.

·       A question was asked about what the Council was doing to audit the effectiveness of working from home.  The Panel was reminded that productivity was already managed in a number of ways, including via case management systems such as Liquid Logic, overlaid with good management techniques.  Effectiveness was measured by looking at outcomes and data.  It was acknowledged that hybrid working would create savings but would also need to demonstrate effectiveness.

·       Members were reminded that performance conversations had continued with a focus on well-being.  Throughout the pandemic, the majority of Council employees had worked without change with only 20% moving to work from home.  Workplace assessments had been undertaken virtually and equipment had been distributed as necessary.  During lockdowns many employees had had children at home or other caring responsibilities and remote working had allowed them to have flexibility around this.  Staff surveys had been undertaken and all staff had been required to take part in a mandatory learning programme.

·       It was suggested that costs saved by the Council as a result of increased working at home, were passed on to individual employees in the form of additional lighting and heating costs and adding to their carbon footprint.  It was acknowledged that there would need to be further discussion about this in the future, although it was noted that, due to the system of heating used, the heating at County Hall could not be fully turned off.

·       It was acknowledged that the response to the pandemic had been a very reactive process and there was now a chance to design systems to improve ways of working.  For example, the Liquid Logic system could facilitate smarter working in social care by allowing fieldworkers to take a large amount of data into a client’s home via a handheld device.

·       A question was asked about whether the Council was confident that it was prepared for changes in the ways residents wished to access services as the country emerged from the pandemic.  It was confirmed that there were plans to look at the customer experience, including further use of ‘chatbot’ technology.  Previously there had been concern that this might alienate residents but experience and data suggested that this was not the case.

·       It was confirmed that staff had been informed about tax relief available to those working at home and had been encouraged to apply.

·       The CMR discussed the potential to move to fully agile working and noted the importance of monitoring outcomes and KPIs to ensure delivery.  Data was critical to improving productivity and he gave the example of Freedom of Information Requests and Subject Access Requests where accurate data would indicate whether a question had already been answered previously.  He felt the Council was moving into a very exciting time and suggested that many of the developments would not have happened so quickly without the covid pandemic.

In summarising the discussion and potential action, the Chairman made the following main points:

·       It was noted that work was ongoing to establish a method of measuring productivity in relation to working at home.  Once the approach was agreed, data should be added to the quarterly performance information received by the Panel.

·       The Panel would like to monitor the percentage of staff who were designated Flexible workers/Office based/Fieldworkers etc and this data should be included in the Panel’s quarterly KPIs.

·       The Panel would like to ask the Adult Care and Well-being O&S Panel to consider adding The effectiveness of hand-held technology used in adult social care (ie devices used in clients’ homes) to its work programme.

·       The following should be added to the work programme for consideration later in the year

o   Worcestershire One Public Estate

o   Electric Vehicle charging points on the County Council Estate

The Panel received a demonstration of Pentana, the Council’s new system for producing its performance scorecard.  The system was currently being trialled and it was hoped that it would be used to produce performance data from Quarter 1 2022/23.  In response to a question from the Chairman, it was confirmed that the aim was to give Councillors and members of the public access to real time data rather than simply a snapshot in time, allowing changes in performance to be noticed at an early stage.