An overview of the Entrepreneurial Services Workstream was given by Senior Responsible Owner, Carl Bullough, Head of Environmental Services.
Key points made include:
- Although the workstream is looking to maximise income, it isn't just about commercialisation – it’s about embedding a new way of thinking across all of the Council.
- The Entrepreneurial Sprint programme has been organised to help 25 employees enhance their skill, use new tools and adopt a growth mind-set, then inspire others to do the same.
- What the Board is looking to do is investigate how to expand the scope and ambition of projects so they aren’t just 'business as usual’.
- The Board will is also looking beyond 2024 to identify other opportunities to take forward.
- There is an understanding that any commercial activity undertaken has to be legal and fair.
- The Board is aware of concerns re competing with local businesses for customers ,so the focus is to find opportunities that provide the Council with a unique selling proposition.
- Always have to remember, the more income the Council generates the fewer jobs need to go.
- The Board is responsible for managing that risk and looking at market demand.
An overview of the Transformation of Environmental Services was given by Project Manager, Douglas Gardiner, Waste Services Manager.
- Central to change is the need to bring employees on board and with you.
- Face-to-face communication has been undertaken to ensure teams understand the need for change and want to be involved.
- A staff suggestion scheme will shortly be launched to provide teams with an easy way to give their views.
- Better use of data and technology will also help the project realise £1.19m savings by 2024 and increase efficiencies. This includes:
- Refuse collections: using current in-cab technology to help reduce the number of missed bins.
- Street Cleansing: installing in-cab technology that links to our website that allows people to see on a map, in real-time, when streets have been swept.
- Fly tipping: work is underway to use MyFalkirk so that members of the public can drop pins on fly tip locations allowing people to see if a report has already been made.
- The roll out of 70k burgundy has gone relatively smoothly.
- Card and cardboard is now of a very high quality and is immediately being bailed.
- This frees up capacity to offer space to other local authorities.
- Confidence that new technology and an engaged workforce will help the project succeed and shape the future of the Service.
New projects and quick wins
- Hydrotherapy pool: idea to commercialise hydrotherapy pool when not in use put forward by an employee now being taken forward as a project.
- Clackmannanshire Council: now undertaking contaminated land work for Clacks after their officer left their organisation.
- Anticipate three educational projects will be green by next meeting; Digital is amber due to resource requirement.
- The Board was reminded of the linkages between the top ten projects and the need for accurate reporting to enable progress.
- As reporting is a new skill for many Project Managers, support is being provided to help them develop a better understanding of what is required.
Vision & measures of success
- Both discussed at Leadership Forum and Employee Listening Events in September, and at each Workstream Board.
- Aim is to produce a vision and measures of success that describe what the Council will look like over the coming years.
- Making it easier when trying to communicate our goals to customers, communities and businesses.
- Ideas have been generated. Meat now being put on the bones by each Board.
- There were no bids to discuss.
- £350k left in the fund.
- A range of options to be considered are expected to be brought to the next Board.
Risk Register
- Meeting with Glasgow City Council and ALARM, the Risk Manager’s Group for Scotland.
- Using information from those meetings – and input from Project Managers - a review of our risk register was undertaken.
- Potential risk of failure re partnership added – as it is so important to the success of many of our projects
- Reduced the risk on information due to new governance structure and on people , due to the range of work and engagement being undertaken around culture change – this will take time to bed-in.
AOB
The employee newsfeed and the Council of the Future pages were highlighted to members of the Board as good sources of additional information.