Housing of Tomorrow 

• Increasing resilience within our communities
  • Retraining underway to ensure all three hub areas operate to the Dawson pilot standards. 
  • Housing Officer, graduate and modern apprentice recruitment is still ongoing. Because of this training on the revised operating procedures is now expected to be complete by end October 2019.  
• Accessible Housing
  • The project is being reviewed and rescoped to better meet the needs of our tenants.
• Safe And Smart Working
  • A survey for Housing employees has been developed to find out the best way to communicate across teams and with tenants. The survey will be rolled out in January.
  • A review of existing operating principles has identified that existing policies and practices are outdated and no longer fit for purpose. Draft Service Level Agreements with Grounds Maintenance, Voids, Eviction Process and Repairs Billing Process will be completed by October.
  • The new eviction process was stress tested using a live case. With minor adjustments the form will be in use following team briefings in mid to late October. 
• BSI Standards ISO 9001 Accreditation
  • The Internal Audit Team is ready to start the first round of audits.
  • Preparatory work has been undertaken in advance of the BSI External Audit which has highlighted that the project is ready to increase the areas of the service compliant with the ISO: 2015 standard.
  • The new audit team will support the project to get Housing Services compliant with the ISO standard and drive a culture of self-assessment and continuous improvement.

Redesign of BMD 

• Internal upgrading work is progressing on schedule and an external one way road system devised for deliveries and goods coming into the depot.
• Remote stores delivery service and direct delivery of bathrooms has commenced.

Services for the Bereaved

• Promotional materials and Funeral Director session are delayed as focus has been on systems changes.

Transformation of Business Support

• Savings currently on target, however, this may change if Strategic Property Review and Adult Services Localities projects do not progress at a pace.
• Requirement for all managers to embrace self–service to allow reduction in Corporate Business Support staff.
• Meeting  held with Stirling and Clackmannanshire Councils to discuss shared services options – data being gathered re models of delivery.
• Agreed governance structure for BMD phase 3 project.

Transformation of HR and Payroll

• Informal meetings have taken place at officer level to discuss opportunities for joint working.
• A high-level evaluation of two HR and Payroll systems has been undertaken, which highlighted there was little to choose from between the two.
• A scoping and task comparison document has been prepared for a range of HR administration tasks to enable Falkirk and Clackmannanshire Council staff to document how they approach the work.
• Helpdesk calls will be logged with the aim of identifying any themes.

Transformation of Revenues and Benefits

• A positive meeting with Stirling and Clackmannanshire Councils undertaken including a full day spent in Stirling to experience how they operate.
• Best practice is a tangible outcome; shared service opportunities not ruled out.

Transformation of Environmental Services

• The full Council area has been surveyed in relation to CoPLAR and graded. This information is currently being verified by an external provider to be complete by end September. 
• The Council is currently engaging with an external provider with the view to improving efficiency of litter and street cleansing routes, including introduction of improved technologies in-cab, which will result in a better co-ordinated service.

Transformation of Governance

• Initial project scoping meetings held in August/September. Project Plan and Project PID to be developed by the end of September with project initiation from the start of October.

Transformation of Roads & Grounds Maintenance

• Good progress made in relation to the appointment of a consultancy support service to undertake a holistic review of Roads & Grounds Services in relation to transformation and commercialisation.

Review of Transport

• There is political will at the Scottish Parliament to allow local authorities to provide bus services without restrictions which will provide a number of options for the delivery of services in the future.
• The SNP’s program for government, launched on September 3rd includes £500m of funding for bus priority schemes, which could offer the opportunity for major infrastructure investment that could improve the commercial viability of bus services and reduce the requirement for subsidy in due course.

Support & Learning for All

• A successful Hackathon around a child with ASN educational journey took place on August 21st.
• The key non-financial benefits for the project have been identified.
• A multi-agency meeting has discussed the school criteria/thresholds and descriptors for Severe & Complex Health Needs for primary and secondary children.

Re-imagining Secondary Learning

• In the short-term, £455k of savings for 2020/21 have been achieved and areas for savings for the balance (£457k) have been identified. Work is ongoing to realise these savings.
• In the mid to long-term, there are ambitious plans being developed to transform learning within the secondary sector, which would impact on the overall destination profile for the Falkirk area. However these will not be achieved unless some additional support is provided and that is why a Change Fund bid has been made to facilitate some of these sub-projects.

Investing for Future Growth

• Town Centres
  • Report to June Executive identifying Town Centre Captial Fund (TCCF) £1.9m town centre locations and outline projects approved by members.
  • Sixteen outline project costs are being developed in-house and with a external consultancy for reporting to October 27th Executive.
  • Scottish Government liaison around fund reporting and spend has been progressed.
  • Locality Planning (Grangemouth) Making Places community report circulated to community for feedback to identify key social and infrastructure areas.
  • EU funding bid secured for Grangemouth town centre WiFi and Scottish Government funding bid secured for Grangemouth community capacity building – directly linked to Locality Planning community outputs and Investment Zone Growth Deal (IZGD) outline business case.
• Town Centre Partnership
  • Structure and membership agreed as per June Executive
  • TCCF and Action Plan developed 

Investment Zone Growth Deal

• IZGD Outline Business case progressing and direct liaison with UK Government at Westminster.
• Support of announcement to Falkirk IZGD confirmed by Prime Minister.

Reform of Planning Services

• The Cost of Planning group has met to discuss overall project progress and to identify where actions are needed as well as review an updated PID and project plan.
• Further meetings held with Development Management to fully scope the workplan.
• The project plan has been amended to reflect a more achievable timetable for taking forward the proposed co-location of the Development Management and Building Standards Units.
• A process modernisation sub-project has been added to the Development Management workstream to integrate service transformation work into the project.
• A meeting to discuss overall customer journey mapping within the Development Management process has been arranged
• Four process mapping meetings have been held with technical and systems support staff.

Primary Learning – Bright Starts, Bright Futures

• Project manager in post.
• All three Project Managers for Education projects working together.
• Corporate and Education links being made to enhance project.
• Identification of potential savings for 2020/21 for primary project.