ITEM EX8 - ANNEX 1

EXECUTIVE – 22 JANUARY 2002

IDeA PEER REVIEW

Raising Our Performance: Progress Report

1. Raising Our Performance was drafted during summer 2001. It is a measure of the current rapid pace of change within the County Council that, although the document received official approval less than four months ago, significant progress has already been made on many of its twenty action points.
2. Clearly a great deal has happened over the last few months and the willingness of staff and members to commit to the ambitious programme of change set out in Raising Our Performance should be acknowledged and appreciated. Given that this is a four-year programme, substantial progress has been made in the first few months.
3. The areas of potential difficulty that are starting to emerge are those which require deep-seated cultural change or where the resource implications of the original proposals have yet to be addressed.
4. Several of these cluster under the heading of "Better Ways of Working". The results of the latest Employee Survey suggest that the organisation needs to make significant improvements in communicating with staff, both informally (through team briefings and regular meetings) and formally through the appraisal process. Most staff will have noticed no immediate improvement in their working conditions as a result of Raising Our Performance and indeed many will feel under greater pressure as a result of the additional initiatives which they may perceive to have been generated by the Action Plan.
5. As well as some "quick wins" in areas such as improvements to accommodation and ICT, clarity about (a) the Council’s priorities and key targets and (b) the roles of Directors, Heads of Service and managers in achieving these will be essential if the commitment of staff is to be maintained and enhanced.
6. This progress report follows the headings set out in the original Action Plan.

Why an Action Plan?

7. Raising Our Performance opens with an invitation to the organisation to set its sights high and commit to becoming a leading edge authority by implementing the proposed four-year strategic action plan (action point 1). After a period of consultation with staff, elected members and partners, the action plan itself was approved at Strategy and Resources Committee in September.
8. As part of this commitment, an IDeA Peer Review (action point 2) took place during October and the final report from the review team has been received. A report on the findings will be considered by the Executive in January. Recommendations from the Peer Review will be incorporated into the Raising Our Performance Action Plan.

What Do We Stand For?

9. Raising our Performance set out a draft vision statement and a draft set of organisational values (action point 3) . Initial consultation on these took place with managers and members during September, and further consultation involving a wider group of staff and members took place in November. Feedback from these sessions showed a high degree of consensus and a final draft of the vision statement and set of values were informally agreed at a meeting of the Executive and CCMT in December.
10. Work has taken place with the Executive to ensure that the next edition of the Oxfordshire Plan (action point 4) is informed by a coherent set of strategic priorities. The newly agreed vision statement and values will be incorporated into the Plan. A draft of the summary leaflet will be presented to the Executive in January.
11. Views have also been sought on the use of a strap line and logo (action point 5). There was general support for retaining the crest as the basis of the Council’s corporate identity, and consensus that the new vision statement should be crisp enough to be used a strap line in certain situations. A separate strap line is not therefore being pursued at present.

More Effective Leadership

12. A new political structure with an Executive and Leader (action point 6) was introduced formally in November. A review of the new political management arrangements is due to be produced in March/April.
13. The first meeting of the Local Strategic Partnership Steering Group (action point 7)will take place in February. The membership of the partnership has largely been resolved, funding is included in the draft Budget and recruitment to the secretariat is under way. A Community Strategy Issues Paper has been submitted to an informal meeting of the Executive for consideration.
14. As part of the refocusing of the top management structure (action point 8), two new directorates (Strategy and Business Support) were established in November and a structural review of Education, Social Services and Cultural Services has been initiated. Work is now taking place to clarify the role of Directors and to strengthen team working in CCMT.

Keeping In Touch

15. Initial reports on support for councillors in their local roles (action point 9) and local area structures (action point 10) were submitted to the Corporate Governance Scrutiny Committee in December . A review panel has been set up to report back on both issues by March/April.
16. Some short-term changes to accommodation in the Council Chamber have been introduced (action point 11) and a complete refurbishment is being considered as part of the proposals by the Osborne Group to develop Old County Hall as a conference centre.
17. A review of options for a County Council magazine (action point 12) will be carried out by the Spring together with a review of publications budgets across the authority. For 2002 the Oxfordshire Plan summary will continue to be delivered to households with the Council Tax Demand.
18. A report on the Contact Centre (action point 13) will be submitted to the Executive in January, linked to the budget report. The Project Manager post has been advertised as a secondment.
19. From April, reception areas (action point 14) will be part of an integrated Central Offices Facilities Management Unit. An interior designer has been commissioned to give advice on improving reception areas and his report should be available in January.

Better Ways of Working

20. Resources are not currently available to undertake work on the Employment Strategy and related issues (action point 15) because of pressures caused by major projects (including job evaluation and MIS). Feedback from the Employee Survey on communication and appraisal suggests that the target of achieving IiP accreditation across the whole authority by December 2002 will be difficult to achieve. We clearly need to make more progress on this in the New Year.
21. An E-Government Adviser has been appointed and key projects in the E-Service Strategy (action point 16) - MIS, the Oxfordshire Community Network and the new website - are on target. Discussions are taking place with consultants on refining the strategy.
22. A report on buildings improvements (action point 17) will be presented to CCMT in January.
23. A report on performance management (action point 18) will be considered by the Executive in January.
24. Negotiations with the government on a Public Service Agreement (action point 19) are due to start next May. The PSA Steering Group will be meeting shortly to review progress and a progress report will be submitted to CCMT in January. Discussions are continuing with District Council Chief Executives. This will require focused attention in the New Year.

Making It Happen

25. A draft Budget Strategy (action point 20) was agreed by the Executive in November and final budget recommendations to Council will be considered by the Executive in January. The Council itself will consider the Budget on 5 February. While the Budget will invest in Broadband, there remain key areas of weakness, including financial management in certain areas and inadequate investment in ICT and the working environment for staff. New strategies need to be developed.

January 2001