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Testing of council self-help tool underway TESTING IS CURRENTLY UNDERWAY FOR A NEW SELFASSESSMENT AND IMPROVEMENT TOOL FOR LOCAL COUNCILS DESIGNED BY IESE AND ITS CONSORTIUM PARTNERS. Commissioned by the Local Government Association (LGA), iESE along with partners Knowledge Hub, PFI Knowledge Solutions (PFIKS) and Porism, have been codesigning the Efficient and Intelligent Councils tool. The product, which will be free to use and is expected to be unveiled this summer, will allow chief executives and leaders to get a better idea of how they are performing and the next steps they could take to become more efficient and intelligent. The tool will be backed up by a full suite of resources, such as case studies, methods, additional tools and contacts, to signpost help in areas local authorities would like to improve.
To get the design right the consortium has been working with representatives from 30 different councils including district, borough, county, unitary authorities and city councils. By answering the questions, a local authority will get an idea of how they are performing in different areas. There will be four levels or stages of the improvement model. At level 1, a council is at the service-led level of change, at levels 2 and 3 at the demand-led level and at level 4 they are going right back to the actual needs being presented and responding to these in a holistic and intelligent way, solving the root causes of need. Local authorities do not need to pass through each stage before progressing to the next level, they may decide that for a particular service a stage is not necessary or aligned to its goals, as for some services, leaner or faster processes may be adequate.
Graham Simmons, Senior Business Consultant at iESE, gives the example of a council working at level 1 as one streamlining its processes to get stairlifts to customers quicker, while a council working at level 4 would be asking why the customer needs a stairlift in the first place. "It might be because the customer keeps falling and they might keep falling because of mobility issues. The mobility issues might be due to health and diet or lack of local support. With level 4, you are going right back to the beginning," Simmons explains. He added that once the tool is available later this year, local authorities should take part because they will have the opportunity to assess where they are as a council and see where they are on the scale of improvement. "They can identify what the gap is, what they can do better and gain access to the resources to move to the next level," he added.
Alliance helps develop enterprise authorities IESE HAS FORMED A STRATEGIC ALLIANCE KNOWN AS NEXTGOV TO ADDRESS SOME OF THE URGENT PRIORITIES AND CHALLENGES FACED BY LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND HELP COUNCILS BECOME SELFSUFFICIENT ENTERPRISE AUTHORITIES. In alliance with Archemys, an organisation which advises private companies and local authorities on restructuring for growth and regeneration, and Aylesbury Vale District Council (AVDC) NextGov will join iESE's expertise and sector knowledge alongside the business re-engineering capabilities of Archemys and the experience of AVDC in implementing leading-edge digital solutions. This combination brings a hybrid of models, specialist skills and application tools for re-engineering and turnaround to offer a low-risk, cost-effective programme of enterprise transformation. NextGov provides a modular programme from iESE, Archemys and AVDC - together with break-through councils and leading technologies. Each council is able to
map out their own modular implementation plan - some may just start with the basics, while others may scope out a more comprehensive road map. "Rather than a multimillion pound top-down transformation programme, which we believe is the wrong way, we come from a ground-up approach. What we say is that transformation can occur one venture at a time," said David Robson, Director at Archemys. "iESE has incredible in-depth experience of the processes and protocols of the sector. We are very much a nuts-and-bolts company and when we get involved it is with a practical outcome. What we do first is re-wire management, particularly in the case of a turnaround, and then we give them the right tools and programmes to set about re-launching and scaling their business. We do the same with local authorities and our modular programme, together with tools and the applications, has been adapted and repurposed for local government," he added. Dr Andrew Larner, Chief Executive at iESE, said he was
looking forward to working with Archemys and AVDC. "We know the thread has run out with tightening the efficiency nut. We need to get to a model of local public services that is sustainable. Local government leaders know they need to transform, but with no financial head room and no room for failure, the question is how. "NextGov looks at fundamentally need in the community and how this drives demand for public service. The difference is that it hits that sweet spot that meets need by generating value for the community, creates viable business generating commercial value and also reduces demand by generating value for traditional public services. It is not about reducing activity, you could actually be increasing it, but it is about viable solutions. That is why NextGov has the insight of an equity investment commercial approach but with a public-good ethos behind it." To find out more about NextGov contact: andrew.larner@iese.org.uk
Seeing the bigger picture CHIEF EXECUTIVES AND HR DIRECTORS WILL SOON BE ABLE TO ACCESS A REAL-TIME PICTURE OF THEIR AUTHORITY'S ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE AND REMODEL THIS AT THE TOUCH OF THE BUTTON TO SEE HOW CHANGES AFFECT ITS OPERATING MODEL. iESE is in the process of testing its new platform which takes organisational data from payroll and HR records. The modelling application will show the structure visually and with accompanying summary information, allowing scenarios to be visualised and different versions saved for comparison. The platform can also integrate with Active Directory software, which automatically updates the organisation's structure when anything changes, such as if someone leaves. Once a leaving date is present in the host system,
Active Directory automatically deletes the person, removing the risk of not having an up-to-date structure chart or 'ghost employees' who could otherwise potentially remain as headcount. Several organisations are already lined up to both test and use it when fully operational. It will also, in time, become a central platform which iESE will add Apps onto - data from which will feed into the same central employee records. The first planned App which will link up to the platform is the Cultural Compass tool. This will take behavioural framework data and, by allocating this information to each employee record, will allow an organisation to roll the data up to see measures for each team, section, directorate, service line and for the overall authority to give both the current position and
the direction of change for the culture of the organisation. "Being able to have a live view of the current organisation structure and costs to be modelled and understand proposed changes in real time to see what will happen to the bottom line is the holy grail for many organisations particularly for HR and Transformation teams" said Chris Bond, Senior Business Consultant at iESE. "Even more exciting is our ability to quickly add cost-effective Apps and link this data into employee records. This will give a much fuller and real-time picture in one central place, replacing the need for multiple unrelated pieces of software trying, and often failing, to link up to a legacy system with out-ofdate and inconsistent data." To find out more contact: chris.bond@iese.org.uk
First Certificates of Excellence awarded IESE HAS LAUNCHED A NEW CERTIFICATES OF EXCELLENCE (COFE) SCHEME TO ALLOW LOCAL AUTHORITIES TO APPLY FOR AN AWARD TO RECOGNISE ANY PROJECT THEY FEEL DESERVES RECOGNITION AT ANYTIME THROUGHOUT THE YEAR. An application can be submitted on behalf of a whole organisation, a department or for an individual project. Unlike our annual Transformation Awards there are no set categories.
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We have awarded five certificates since the inception of the scheme, with the first five presented to the winning organisations at our Local Government Transformation conference last November. We will be featuring the winning projects of two organisations in each issue of Transform, starting in this issue with Insight Bristol and Surrey County Council (see page 5 for more information). The other three winners, which will be profiled in a later
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edition of Transform, are: The Metropolitan Police Service for its One Met Model, South Staffordshire Council for its Efficiency and Income plan and Kent Public Service Network Govroam - a secure private Wi-Fi network for public sector staff. To apply for a Certificate of Excellence or find out more, visit our website: https://www.iese.org.uk/ certificate-of-excellence
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