Relationships First

• Successful communication about the project led to more than 30 notes of interest from Council employees.
• Those who did not go through to interview have expressed an interest in supporting the project as it moves forward.
• Twelve staff have now been recruited from across Council services and the Community trust.
• A programme of engagement with the citizen group has been developed and is underway with eight people who are in or have left care in Falkirk.

Information Working for You

• The Business Classification Scheme (BCS) is now live for consultation and progress has been made.
• Progress still needs to be made with the information asset register.
• BCS’ completion is key to the success of the Office 365 project.

Fit for the Future

• Anytime Anywhere - Phase 2: Anytime Anywhere key milestones have been developed and initial engagement has taken place with CANs to champion the roll-out of the milestones in August. A number of CANs have volunteered to support the project.
• Communications: the employee website is working well, helping communicate more effectively with employees who are not on the Council network and allowing them to access key Council information and policies. Feedback from employee groups, such as Catering & Cleaning, Roads & Grounds and Waste, has been very positive. A detailed communications plan has been developed for the Employee Engagement Survey, which will be launched in September. It is essential that managers at all levels and across all Services encourage their teams to complete the survey and allow them time need to fill it in.
• Organisational Development - Phase 2: a further seven workshops for 5/6th tier managers have been delivered. Rising Stars programme for MECS and Catering completed. A hackathon on Annual Personal Development System (APDS) has been carried out and the findings will be analysed and recommendations produced for the Workforce for the Future Group.
• Absence: work has progressed on the procurement and Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) process for the nurse reporting arrangement. Nurse reporting arrangement on a pilot basis is scheduled for August and feedback will be reviewed.
• Recruitment Review: services have been updated on the progress with the new recruitment processes which includes new job profiles, induction, contractual letters and not checking adverts.
• Workforce of the Future: draft presentations to Directors have been prepared. Next stage is to ensure Trade Unions are engaged in process and new Trade Union reps are up-to-date with discussions.

Smart Working Smart Travel

• Staff mileage claims are decreasing however further improvements could be made.

Strategic Property Review (SPR)

• Phase 2 Carronbank: relocation of Adult Social Work from Camelon Social Work Office and Denny Business Centre expected to be completed by August 7th.
• Closing date for the sale of Stenhousemuir One Stop Shop is July 5th.
• Work is on going in respect of the SPR “lock in” appraisal and Falkirk Community Trust work.

Council HQ & Arts Centre

• Desk requirements identified by service managers indicate the 0.6 ratio is currently not feasible. Discussions will take place at DMT to address this.
• The report from the consultants commissioned on behalf of Falkirk Community Trust on options for the arts centre has now been produced. This will assist in informing the business case and feasibility study prior to Executive decision at the end of August.
• Culture change is required to support new ways of working.

Corporate Approach to Fleet Hire

• Email sent to all service managers advising reductions in Service hire budgets effective of July 1st. Monitoring will be undertaken by the hires and fleet teams.
• An exploratory meeting took place within fleet management to agree the future internal process and this has been the basis for the report developed for CMT approval.

Revitalising Town Centres

• A report was approved at Executive in June regarding the Town Centre Regeneration Fund award of £1.9m.
• Broader Town Centres Theme continues to be scoped under Growth Deal business case development with partners and HQ/Arts Centre Project.