Agenda item

CEO1063

The Sub Committee received a report updating Members on the progress made on the first phase projects within the Organisational Improvement Programme.

The Committee considered the recent ‘Idea’s Aloud’ events delivered by the Organisational Improvement Team as part of Customer Service Week.  The two sessions brought together staff from a range of different services with Councillors to generate a range of improvement and efficiency ideas.  The Chairman thanked the Organisational Improvement Team for organising the event as well as those Councillors who attended the sessions and noted that a number of positive ideas had been suggested, including the development of a corporate volunteering programme and formalising processes for Bromley staff to report street scene issues.  Participants had also highlighted the importance of more cross-working across the Council to improve service delivery and communication.

With regard to the workstream around Civic Centre Accommodation, the Head of Improvement, Efficiency and Effectiveness confirmed that work was being undertaken with the Director of Renewal and Recreation to ensure efficient use of office space, with the emphasis currently on accommodating additional Children and Young People Department staff on the Civic Centre site.

The Shared Services project with London Borough of Bexley was progressing.  A joint board made up of both Borough Chief Executives and key Chief Officers had met twice.  Areas that had been identified for progression included procurement and the potential for shared Legal Services across both organisations.  Councillor Bennett highlighted the recent review of government waste by Sir Philip Green and queried whether a single procurement strategy was in place across the Council.  The Head of Improvement, Efficiency and Effectiveness confirmed that there were a number of framework agreements which the Council, together with other public sector organisations, could access to support efficient procurement.  Another Member highlighted that there were regional agreements around joint purchasing of adult and community services.  The Committee suggested that it would be useful to have an agreed list of suppliers that could be utilised across all public sector partners. 

Regarding the Agency Staff workstream, the Head of Improvement, Efficiency and Effectiveness confirmed that use of agency staff had been reviewed and a revised vacancy management procedure had been issued by HR to ensure the most appropriate route would be used to fill vacancies. There were still difficulties in attracting permanent staff to fill social care vacancies, however HR was working with other boroughs to minimise instances of competing for staff.

The Head of Improvement, Efficiency and Effectiveness confirmed that the rollout of the Voice Recognition System to officers and Members went live on 21^st June 2010 with an accuracy rate of 70-80%.  Work to improve the accuracy of the system by increasing the VRS vocabulary was currently being undertaken.  The procurement process was now underway for both external switchboard calls and ‘report it’ functionality to handle calls for simple requests.  This would be delivered in two separate phases to allow time for development work around the ‘report it’ function, and delivery of the Voice Recognition System for the external switchboard was scheduled for 1^st November 2010. 

RESOLVED that the progress made on the first phase projects within the Organisational Improvement Programme.