Relationships first

• Eight young people participants continue to attend weekly evening engagement sessions.
• The group have developed a two-day programme to help them share and gather information about their care and nurturing experiences. The programme will be facilitated by the young people and supported by project members over the weekend 3-4th August 2019. A graphic artist has been employed using project funding to capture this information.
• Two Public Servant recruits have withdrawn from the project leaving 10 Public Servant participants.
• The Public Servant  training programme has been developed to include input from:
  • Who Cares? Scotland, who are a nationwide independent voice and representative organisation for care experienced children and young people via Independent Advocacy, Membership and Influencing.
  • Dr Laura Steckly, Strathclyde University – lecturer on development theory, trauma and attachment.
  • Falkirk Council Children’s Services, Leaving Care Team

Information working for you

• Some progress on Business Classification Scheme (BCS). Out of 1,000 rows of information on functions/activities, 80% has been checked.
• BCS nearing finalisation. This will form the structure of how, and for how long, we hold records , and is integral to the success of the O365 project.

Fit for the Future

• Anytime Anywhere
  • Milestones have been amended – one for employees and one for managers.
  • Awaiting information from procurement on the mini competition.
  • Alternative style lockers reviewed.
• Communications
  • Communication activities are progressing to plan and are being well-received by employees.
  • Feedback from the Employee Communications Group continues to be positive. · Almost a quarter of the page views of the employee website have come from outside the Council’s network. This means employees are using their own devices to access information that up until now they were not able to see.
  • The Council has been shortlisted in the Internal Communications category of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations PRide Scotland awards.?
• Organisational Development
  • Completion of the Leadership & Vision workshops. Final figures on attendance and customer satisfaction will be available soon.
  • Local Government Judgement Indictor has been sent out to all Service Managers and Chief Officers for completion by 30th August
  • Design for Cultural Change workshops for 5/6th Tier Managers is underway and invites have been sent out
  • Work has begun with two new teams to work on Council of the Future values and aspirations
• Absence
  • Occupational Health contract reviewed and extended until July 2020 subject to meeting service provision targets including introduction of on-line portal.
  • Discussions ongoing with Optima re provision of counselling service.
  • Internal Audit report on sickness absence across Council provided substantial assurance re roles, responsibilities, procedures and training together with the availability and adequacy of management information. It highlighted inconsistencies in application of policies at Service level – to be monitored by Corporate Management Team.
• Recruitment Review
  • Recruitment and Selection Policy has been approved and implemented, reducing pre-employment checks
  • New template letters now in place for all recruitment letters and these will now be issued corporately
  • Services have been notified of the induction programme and asked to identify managers to participate/support the process
  • Communications for implementing the new job profiles has been drafted.
• Workforce of the Future
  • Meetings with Trade Unions taken place and package discussed.  Meetings with Trade Unions and managers to review high overtime spend in Roads has also taken place.
  • Trade Unions appear supportive of a modern package and are happy to participate in Roadshows

Smart Working, Smart travel

• Monthly reports have been provided to all Directors and Heads of Service showing the spend on mileage claims up to 30 June 2019. This still shows a monthly spend in excess of £50k per month. This needs to reduce and the additional vehicles will help to support that.
• 31 vehicles delivered and the trackers are being arranged prior to vehicles being passed to services for use.
• It should be noted that some service areas have advised that they feel that there is no need for additional pool vehicles within their teams despite showing significant monthly claims. However, they will monitor the claims themselves to try to reduce that through the use of existing pool cars and also using service vehicles.

Strategic Property Review (SPR)

• Phase 2 Carronbank – relocation of Adult SW from Camelon SW Office & Denny Business Centre with target completion by 7 Aug.
• Acceptable offer for sale of Stenhousemuir One Stop Shop received and will be sold subject to conclusion of legal agreements
• Stenhousemuir Social Work office now vacant and being assessed by Housing for redevelopment of the site.

Council HQ & Arts Centre

• Report from DCA on Arts Centre brief finalised and issued on 5/9/19.
• Testing of footprints of Small/Medium/Large HQ & Back Office Options along with Medium Arts Centre commenced on Municipal Buildings site
• Initial Financial Models on Municipal Buildings site set up, awaiting finalisation of space requirements
• Financial position may be in excess of  of budgeted allocation for Arts Centre

Corporate Approach to Fleet Hire

• £50k agreed as the saving has already been apportioned across service areas to ensure that the savings will be achieved. Services have been advised of this by the PM and monthly reviews of the hires spend will take place to ensure that the savings are achieved.
• The processes for hire have been concluded and will be sent to services in the next couple of weeks so that the correct process is followed when arranging a hire. Requests have been made to services to provide a list of authorised signatories and these will be the persons who can sign off the actual hire request. If a request is received and the signature does not match then the hire will not be approved.
• This information is being gathered and should conclude once the schools return as lists of HT’s and DHT’s is needed. Other service areas who have not responded will be chased by business support.