More than trebling the number of employees working in a Council building has helped improve service delivery, created a vibrant place to work and resulted in the sale of two other buildings.

Last November Carronbank House was reopened following a refit that created a modern and bright workplace where 135 employees now work across three floors. In the past just 40 people were based there.

Housing, Children & Families - Social Work, Advice Hub, Business Support, and Revenue & Benefits now work side-by-side and have recently been joined by Adult Service’s new West Locality team, providing our Homecare and Community Care teams with the chance to work directly with NHS District Nurses already based there.

Bringing together different teams has provided customers with easy access to multiple services under one roof and offered employees a way to knowledge share and work mobile and flexibly. It’s also helped the Council of the Future Strategic Property Review (SPR) reduce our portfolio of buildings to 273.

Income generated through the sale of buildings previously occupied by teams now based in Carronbank (Stenhousemuir One Stop Shop and Finance Office in Bonnybridge) is now being re-invested in other Council buildings, while Stenhousemuir Social Work Office is earmarked to be repurposed.

Craig Isdale, Asset Management Manager, and Council of the Future SPR Project Manager, said: “The Council currently owns twice as much office space as it needs, and many of our buildings are under occupied and in need of serious upgrading. One of the main aims of the SPR is to identify those buildings we want to retain and invest in so we can create welcoming spaces for our employees to work in and for our customers to visit. Carronbank House is a perfect example of how the SPR can help us better utilise space.”

The SPR team, which consists of Craig, Lesley Malkin, and Dawn West, is currently working on major redevelopment and upgrade projects that will significantly impact our workforce and the local community, including the new Council headquarters and Central Hub.

Work with services is also being undertaken to repurpose and upgrade:

• Kinglass Social Work Office in Bo’ness: this will be turned into a nursery as part of our commitment to extend free Early Learning Childcare. The nursery is expected to be open by August 2020.
• Grangemouth Social Work Office: will be fitted out to Anytime Anywhere standards, creating a modern base for a range of teams in the East Locality.

Craig said: “Because the teams in these locations will need to be relocated to allow for improvement works to be carried out, a working group has been set up to decide where they will be based in the short-term. Both buildings need to be vacated by December. That is why it is important that managers clearly explain Anytime Anywhere requirements to their teams, as work to clear out the offices needs to begin in earnest now.”

For more information on Anytime Anywhere visit the Projects' page of our intranet or email councilofthefuture@falkirk.gov.uk.