Transformation through Collaboration: June update
The latest meeting of the Transformation through Collaboration Board took place on 17 June, with work continuing across a number of projects involving Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling Councils.
The programme is focused on exploring where Councils could work more collaboratively in the future to strengthen services, improve resilience and make better use of public resources.
Work continues across the projects currently in scope, with business case development progressing well.
The Housing workstream has now moved into a deeper review phase. This work will explore how housing services could work more collaboratively across the three councils and assess the potential benefits, opportunities and challenges.
Given the scale and complexity of housing services, this work is expected to take several months to complete and will focus on developing a detailed understanding of future options before any recommendations are made. The Board also agreed funding for specialist support to progress the Housing work, recognising the size of the project, across the three Councils
Progress is also being made on the Procurement for IT in Education project. Officers from the three Councils have now been identified to lead the work to develop the project scope. The focus of this project is to find benefits from joint procurement for IT equipment used in schools.
The Board agreed to bring two additional projects into the programme, they are:
- Support for Additional Support Needs (ASN) Services
- Regulatory Services, including Environmental Health, Building Standards and Trading Standards.
Scoping work will now begin to help assess how these projects can be taken forward.
Funding was also agreed by the Board for support with the HR implications of this work, the organisational development requirements and specialist support to map out processes for different areas of work covered by the projects.
The second Joint Staff Forum took place earlier this month and included representatives from all three councils for the first time. It was agreed that updates will be provided to the Forum on the scope and progress of the various workstreams at future meetings.
Kenneth Lawrie, Chief Executive, said:
The programme continues to make steady progress, with project teams developing the detailed information needed to assess future options across a range of service areas.
"The update provided to Council this month highlighted the progress being made across the programme and the work that has been carried out over recent months.
"The knowledge and experience of our employees remains one of our most important resources. As this work develops, it is important that colleagues continue to have opportunities to contribute their expertise and help shape future proposals.
Members of all three Councils were updated on progress at Council meetings on 25 June, where reports were presented outlining the work carried out to date. No decisions were sought through the report.
Staff with questions should speak to their line manager in the first instance or email collaboration@falkirk.gov.uk.