5-6 Roxby Place, London SW6 1RU; Telephone 0207 903 8347; 
Fax 0870 901 7774; E-mail careconsult@careandhealth.com

FINAL DRAFT

CareConsult Division

“Finance In a New Environment”
(FINE)

Review of 
Financial Management In Social Services 

December 2001 
Executive Summary
1.1.	Background and Objectives

A significant unpredicted overspend on services for asylum seekers, volatile estimates of year end financial position, as well as reports from the District Auditor and from the Physical Disabilities Best Value review have highlighted the potential for substantive improvement in the current financial management arrangements in the Social Services Department.

Financial management in Social Services must be particularly robust to address successfully the challenges inherent in an environment which is strongly demand sensitive, and which is subject to increasingly complex funding arrangements for various user groups across multiple agencies.

Project FINE is an in-depth review of the current financial arrangements for the Social Services Department, and the development of viable recommendations to strengthen the financial management to rectify the identified areas of weakness.

The project was broken down into three distinct but related “workstreams”, led by an individual CareConsult consultant, but actively supported by the other members of the consultant team as well as the OCC part-time resources, which was made available:  

Processes: to cover the financial forecasting, budgeting, monitoring and reporting procedures and policies; links with service processes and processes of other OCC departments and external agencies
Information: to cover data included in financial and linked service planning and reporting, produced through the procedures using various IT and other systems.  This information to cover key demand and cost drivers, leading performance indicators, income and expenditure data and reports.
People: to cover issues around accountability, delegation, training financial support size and structure, communications with services, organisational cultures

The report contains an analysis of the key issues which the Council Executive should consider. The analysis includes specific attention to:  the budget setting process; the current budget structures, accountabilities and delegation scheme; the financial procedures specifically including those relating to expenditure commitments; the provision of financial support specifically addressing finance team size and structure, the inter-relationships between finance and service management within Social Services, and the level and volume of financial training available and delivered.

The report also includes a set of recommendations outlining strengthened financial procedures, appropriate reports delivering timely financial and linked operational actionable information, and guidelines to address the organisational issues identified.  These recommendations are to lead to OCC developing and implementing more explicit outcomes-based and realistic expenditure targets, as well as predictable and closely monitored spending levels.

1.2.	Current Financial Management and Key Findings
1.2.1.	 Processes

Budgeting Process

Broadly speaking, the main observations on the current budgeting process are:

•	Budget setting is top-down and incremental from previous year’s budget with adjustments, but there the process is not linked to activity (i.e. care packages delivered, etc)

•	Service management below top two levels is not significantly involved in the budget setting process, and nor is the Income & Assessment team

This has a number of consequences:

•	The budget (expenditure and income) is not strongly linked to activity. Given that service activity is in large part driven by client need and measured by Government performance indicators, a budget which is not linked to activity is not a realistic translation in financial terms of the service that needs to be delivered.   Nor is the budget tied to other plans such as the Social Care plan.  

As a result, there are inevitable budget overruns within the first few months of the year, which create substantial financial challenges for the Council and de-motivates department staff.  Furthermore, due to the lack of linked activity data, it is difficult to transparently negotiate appropriate portions of pooled budgets with Health Trusts and other external agencies, and/or to transparently re-allocate financial resources within the department.

•	The lack of involvement in the budget setting process by most of service management, as well as the lack of activity link, discourages a sense of “ownership” of the budgets by the designated budget holders.  This in turn leads to inconsistently rigorous budget management and potentially sub-optimal resource allocations

Monitoring, Reporting and Commitments

There are a wide variety of methodologies adopted by finance staff in assisting Budget Managers to review spend against budgets, between and within different department divisions.  Practices range from very good to substantially inadequate.  

There are also wide variations in the provision on non-financial information to support performance monitoring. There are some very good examples of data provided to Budget Managers, in other areas there is a total absence of such data. 

No income forecasts are included in the data produced by the Finance Officers as all income is added further up the monitoring chain.  Nevertheless, there is evidence that the Trojan income information, while not perfect, could usefully be utilised as a key source for income and activity data which could substantially improve both the predictability of budget outturns and timely corrective action by budget managers.

The major consequences of the above observations are that there is no consistent effective accountability for budget by service managers or mechanisms to ensure that they take timely corrective actions to address overspends. Those Budget Managers that are motivated take an active role in monitoring spend, reporting on variances and taking timely actions. Those who are more passive can opt out of the process altogether.

Basic procedures for monitoring spend against Specific Government Grants appear to be robust.

Regarding commitments, there appears to be room for improvement in consistently managing costs through more robust financial projections and a greater focus by budget managers on projected overspend which result from commitments made.  This would allow more timely actions to avoid future overspend, or to reduce costs through more active control of volumes of care delivered.  Simple gate keeping mechanisms, such as “1 in 1 out”, could even be considered to make budget management more rigorous.

1.2.2.	 Information

The main observations are:

•	The IT systems are mostly quite dated, relatively inflexible and not user friendly.  This will start to be addressed through the implementation of MIS on a SAP system, but by itself will not address all the financial information needs of the department 

•	The department has many stand-alone systems, with no links and with separate access (Trojan, Coldharbour, SWIFT)

•	The department suffers from a poorly coordinated IS strategy (e.g. SAP /SWIFT/ Trojan).  Although this was not explicitly addressed in the current project, this may well be a Council-wide issue

•	There is an absence of resources for full SWIFT implementation to include the financial module and IT training, which would make this system the primary department system integrating both care and financial management (linked to SAP MIS)

•	The stand-alone systems contain valuable non-financial activity data which are not consistently monitored to provide cost driver information (client throughput, average care package costs, domiciliary hours worked, etc)

•	Outcomes data (Performance Assessment Framework) is not explicitly linked to activity or financial data

•	PC ratio although is 1:1 FTE for Management and Support staff, it is only 1:4 FTE for field staff

•	The emphasis is on delivering care in the community, so there is a wide geographical distribution of services. Responsibility for service delivery has been devolved to front-line managers, who are expected to manage their own resources and budgets. It is expected that the proposed system developments will facilitate this process.

The major consequences from the above are:

•	There is much manual transaction input into Trojan, Coldharbour, which increases workload and risk of duplicates, errors and omissions

•	There is much manual reporting through input into Excel spreadsheets

•	This high level of manual processing results in slow reporting and little time for finance staff to provide decision support to budget managers (as opposed to low value added processing work)

•	Lack of timeliness of LAFIS information leads to manual, and/or incomplete and inaccurate monthly expenditure and income monitoring reports

•	Budget managers do not consistently receive and monitor activity cost driver information which would assist them in taking early corrective action to address budget overspends – nor is budget management linked to outcomes in an explicit manner

•	Low level of PCs among service staff makes it difficult to empower front line social workers to input basic transaction data and/or to easily monitor their performance – including budget performance

•	The geographic dispersion of staff makes it essential to develop information systems which are readily accessible remotely

1.2.3.	People

Organisation Structure

The department generally has a “professional social service” culture, in which management and finance skills are generally considered as being of secondary importance to social work know-how by most service managers at all levels.  

The consequences of the above are

•	Financial management procedures which are generally not linked to activity or outcomes
•	Inconsistent “bias to action” to correct budget overspends
•	Little information sharing and consultation between finance and service staff re budget issues 
•	Resources focused on front-line service (to the detriment of support groups such as finance – e.g. training budgets)
•	Us and them attitude by service managers, “budget is Finance Dept problem”
•	Budget management aspects are generally not rigorously emphasised in the performance management of the service

The finance staff reports functionally through to the Assistant County Treasurer.  There are few direct reporting links between finance, income & assessment, or performance information to Service management at below Director level.  Furthermore, finance is completely separate from Strategic Planning and Resources allocation processes.

This structure exacerbates the disconnections between finance on the one hand, and service planning and service operations on the other hand.

At the level of divisional finance functions, both processing and decision support is carried out by the same team.  Performing and managing these activities generally requires different types of skills, thus mixing them may be sub-optimal.

Training

Until about six years ago, a cost centre manager’ s training programme was in place.  This was discontinued.  This lack of training results in both an absence of budget management skills by service staff and a possible message that this role is not particularly important.  Naturally, this tends to aggravate the lack of ownership of budget management by the staff designated to do it i.e. the budget managers.

Although finance staff have access to the training offered to all department staff, there is no finance skills or qualifications training available.  Over time this precludes the development of the finance function towards more value added work (e.g. IT and analysis as opposed to processing 

The current Scheme of Delegation was written in 1997/98 and it is planned to revise it.  It is a comprehensive overarching document but there is little explicit detail. These details are contained within related policies and procedures documents held separately by designated officers. This fragmentation makes it more difficult to readily refer to the appropriate policies and/or to identify inconsistencies.  

1.3.	Comparisons with Other Organisations

1.3.1.	Organisations compared

Four County Social Services departments and two London Boroughs were selected for comparison, to identify good practice elsewhere.  They were selected on the basis that each of these organisations had either demonstrated robust budget management performance and/or had successfully addressed substantial past problems in this area.

Specifically, senior finance management at the following organisations were interviewed and documents analysed:

•	Hertfordshire CC
•	Suffolk CC
•	Wiltshire CC
•	Worcestershire CC
•	LB Camden
•	LB Wandsworth

In addition the Financial Adviser of Oxfordshire CC Environmental Services was interviewed to identify areas of good practice in that department.

1.3.2.	Best practice identified

Process

•	Most departments compared use a combination of both top-down and bottom-up budgeting linked to activity.  Some, such as Wandsworth, undertake zero-based budgeting on a rolling basis (i.e. starting a budget with a blank sheet and evaluating purpose and need of service)

•	All the departments compared closely monitored income actuals and projections

•	Extensive reporting and monitoring of activity data is undertaken.  In particular, throughput in various services (i.e. numbers of clients receiving care) is closely monitored.  

•	There is frequent interaction between finance staff and budget holders, to review actual budget performance, analyse implications of commitments and budget outlook, and to agree corrective actions in case of overspends

Information

•	The IT systems are integrated, with linked client record systems (e.g. SWIFT type systems) and General Ledger finance systems

•	In part due to system integration, manual input or duplication in both transaction recording and reporting is limited, thus either reducing the number of finance staff required for processing (e.g. Worcestershire) and/or freeing them up for more analysis work

•	The ratio of PCs to services staff is being steadily increased in all departments compared, and as in Wandsworth, aims to reach a ratio of 1:2, so as to facilitate direct input, consolidation and consultation of data (including financial) by front-line staff

People

•	There are significant training programmes in finance for finance staff (usually in-house training, but sometimes also with a heavy emphasis on external qualifications such as in Hertfordshire)

•	Most departments compared had in-house finance training for budget holders, although some (e.g. Suffolk) found that if the programme was optional the take-up of training was low

•	The delegation scheme is detailed, specifying the precise authorisations to act covering all departmental activities (e.g. Worcestershire)

•	There is frequently a separation of finance processing functions from decision support staff (e.g. Wiltshire), and the decision support staff can be grouped within a Business Support group (Wandsworth)

•	In all departments compared which successfully addressed budget management, the department culture was “managerial” rather than “professional”, i.e. budget management was considered as a key part of performance for budget managers•	Finance Team size is broadly in line with OCC Social Services current arrangements

1.4.	Recommendations

An analysis of the key findings within OCC Social Services department, best practice identified in other organisations, and the individual experience of the FINE project team members, have lead to the following recommendations to meet the objectives set for the project and substantially strengthen the financial management arrangements within the department.
1.4.1.	Process Improvements

Principles of recommendations: 
•	Link service planning and budgeting
•	At least some bottom-up budgeting
•	Member sign-off of both budget and activity plan
•	Relevant, timely and accurate monthly reports down to all cost centre levels
•	Improve monitoring of activity linked to finance
•	Frequent finance staff interaction with budget managers to reconcile projections and discuss action
•	Clarify and confirm responsibilities for corrective action

Specific Action Plans (details in section 6): 

•	Improve the process for compiling the Revenue Budget for 2002/2003 by introducing in certain key areas a “bottom up” approach, with a view to extending this approach to all budgets in 2003/2004.  This will also ensure that the decisions of the Executive and Members are based on a better understanding of what budgets will purchase in terms of care packages

•	Initiate income forecasting at service level from Trojan, to improve accuracy of budget overspend outlook for division and service managers and thus facilitating early corrective action

•	Bring in a system for routinely monitoring the budget on a monthly cycle and clearly define who has responsibility for managing each budget

1.4.2.	Information Improvements

Principles of recommendations:

•	Move towards integrated IT systems, and automated reporting

•	In short-term 
o	Automate report downloads from LAFIS and Trojan to Excel
o	Regular reporting and monitoring of existing activity data within financial reporting framework

•	In longer-term
o	Develop departmental Information and Information Technology strategy within framework of LIP, integrating into MIS through SWIFT
o	Link finance, activity and outcomes
o	Move primary data input to service staff from finance 
o	Direct access to budget data by budget managers, with ability to manipulate for analysis

Specific Action Plans (details in section 6):

•	Automate downloads from Trojan and LAFIS to Excel

•	Short–term: make the best use of non-financial cost driver information currently available from existing systems (Trojan, SWIFT, payroll, LAFIS and misc. spreadsheets), 

•	Longer term: ensure that all data required for the service, including business management, is entered once and appears instantly within the information needs of the department.  This may be information about individuals, client groups or other aggregations and may be required to be shared with partner organisations.

The Local Information Plan Strategy (LIP) already provides the framework for the delivery of this objective and draws together the key implementation milestones for SWIFT and MIS.  The LIP should therefore be developed and form the basis of the detailed implementation plan for meeting this objective, encompassing the wider aims and objectives of a departmental IT/IS Strategy within the corporate context.

1.4.3.	People Improvements

Principles of Recommendations: 

•	Separate finance processing jobs from decision support
•	Strengthen performance management culture: “Budget is important, Action is not optional”
-	Budget performance as part of budget managers’ supervision / appraisal
-	Reward success
-	Communication programme
•	Compulsory training for both finance staff and budget managers
•	Develop clear and detailed delegation scheme
•	Improve coordination between finance, income& assessment, performance monitoring / management and strategic planning

Action Plans (details in section 6):

•	Formalise & approve all finance staff as directly responsible to a finance manager with secondary responsibility to a service manager

•	Short-term: split staff below DFO’s into an Analysis group and a Process group. Long-term: move processing into service

•	Align budget structure and owners to Social Services organisational structure and decision making points 

•	Improve coordination between Strategic Planning, Finance, Income & Assessment, and Performance Monitoring / Management

•	Ensure service managers’ Job Descriptions include budget responsibilities as part of performance management responsibilities

•	Strengthen focus on budget management within performance management

•	Institute active finance training programmes for finance staff and for cost centre managers

•	There is a proposed re-structuring of the Department’s top management.  This proposal groups the Resources Division and the Strategic Planning and Resources Division into one Business Support Unit.  We broadly support the direction of this approach, so long as it ensures that operationally the Finance, Income & Assessment and Performance Information work more closely together

1.5.	Implementation 

Action Plans are useful only to the extent that they are implemented.  
The action plans described above have significant, though manageable, resource implications in terms of staff utilisation. There is no single action plan which, with the exception of the LIP, is beyond the capabilities or resources of the Social Services department, assisted as appropriate, with only a modest level of support from the OCC corporate centre and/or external consultants or experts.  Nevertheless, together, the action plans represent a significant programme of work which needs to be prioritised and managed proactively.

A complete analysis of these resource implications, dovetailed with an analysis of resources required for other departmental initiatives (Planning into Action, MIS, SWIFT, IIP, etc) needs to be carried out.  At that point the action plans from this FINE initiative and those arising from the other initiatives can and must be prioritised and scheduled to ensure adequate resourcing.

Furthermore, the programme of action plans will need to be project managed and monitored to ensure implementation.  Appropriate programme management resource (internal and/or external) needs to be allocated by the department to ensure proper implementation to realise the improvement objectives.

1.6.	Vision for the future

The target environment for financial management in the Social Services department is one where the budget is allocated to operational staff in line with their service objectives. Managers throughout the organisation are appraised against their performance defined as the delivery of their objectives in line with their agreed resource allocation. Staff consequently routinely monitor both their objectives and expenditure. In addition to the normal appraisal process DMTs review their key divisional activities and expenditure on a regular basis, with SMT reviewing each major services area within the same timescale. 

To support staff in the delivery of this, budget allocations are calculated ‘bottom up’ and directly linked to expected outputs. Each budget is fundamentally reviewed at least every 5 years, more frequently in the case of more volatile or large budgets. As a result of regular staff appraisals and supervisions, job descriptions and training needs will be continuously reviewed and updated at least annually.  Managers are trained and appraised on competencies that include financial and performance management. Staff are supported by efficient and effective information systems whereby data is input once only and all required information (both on individual and aggregate level) is instantly available to the budget holder. Staff are supported by a decision support team who provide assistance on costings and activity predictions.

2.	Recommendation Action Plans
2.1.	Fundamental Process Improvements
2.1.1.	Principles of Recommended Actions

•	Link service planning and budgeting
•	At least some bottom-up budgeting
•	Member sign-off of both budget and activity plan
•	Consistent, relevant and accurate monthly reports down to cost centre levels
•	Monitor activity as well as finance
•	Frequent finance staff interaction with budget managers to reconcile projections and discuss action
•	Clarify responsibilities for corrective action

2.1.2.	Recommended Action Plans
OBJECTIVE: To improve the process for compiling the Revenue Budget for 2002/2003 by introducing in certain key areas a “bottom up” approach, with a view to extending this approach to all budgets in 2003/2004.  This will also ensure that the decisions of the Executive and Members are based on a better understanding of what budgets will purchase in terms of care packages	
Ref	Lead
Offc	Approach	Milestones	Resp	Compl	Resources
Required	R	I	Dependencies & Risks	
	ACT	The budget for 2002/03 will be a combination of "top down" and "bottom up" budget preparation and will include consideration of activity as well as
Money for selected budgets.  SMT will try to determine a budget within the
Cash limit for year and agree with the relevant members of the Executive.

Complete preparation of Service Plans and decide how these will be linked into the budget process for 2003/2004.

-Further develop the use of activity data in "bottom up" budgeting.
-Decide how to link service planning and budget process.
-Determine whether information coming out of the PAF has budgetary implications for the coming year, e.g. whether action needs to be taken to change unit costs in a given service area
-Consider how to develop the budget based on outcomes, rather than
being determined by inputs.	Budgets which will be subject to bottom-up for 2002/3 and sources of activity data identified (which will include Childr. + some Adult)

	ACT	15.01.02	6 person days (DFO +SM) for each bottom-up budget 

	L	H	Effective automatic downloading of information from LAFIS and Trojan 

Finance staff and Operational Managers being trained to undertake the enhanced roles 

Risks that activity data is unreliable and becomes discredited

Risk that SMT cannot close the budget gap by basing decisions on activity/service plans issues and resort to across the board cuts not linked to either.	

OBJECTIVE: 
•	To bring in a system for routinely monitoring the budget on a monthly cycle
•	To clearly define who has responsibility for managing each budget.

Ref	Lead
Offc	Approach	Milestones	Resp	Compl	Resources
Required	R	I	Dependencies & Risks	
	ACT	The ADs will be responsible (through their DMTs) for delivering the agreed activity levels, in so far as these have been determined as part of the budget process and for delivering services on budget.

SMT will consider a report early in 2002 that will define the duties of DMTs in relation to budget management and review. This report will specify minimum requirements that SMT will expect to receive on a monthly basis to enable them to manage overall resources of the department.

The DFOs will assemble financial and activity data for the period, then spend time with Cost Centre Managers and Operations Managers in forming an understanding of what the figures mean and in preparing the report in the standard format to DMT –which they will also attend.

New monitoring report template reviewed

New monitoring procedure tested in all DMTs

 	

ACT

PFM	

31.1.02

28.02.02

5 person/days of finance staff?

Each DMT will need to devote 1-2 hours per month to consider the budget position determine corrective action . In some DMTs this already happens.

It is estimated that the budget monitoring process will take 10 days for each DFO. 	

M	

H		

2.2.	Fundamental Information Development
2.2.1.	Principles of Recommended Actions

•	Move towards integrated IT systems, and automated reporting
•	In short-term 
o	Automate report downloads from LAFIS and Trojan to Excel
o	Regular reporting and monitoring of existing activity data
•	In longer-term
o	Develop departmental IS strategy within framework of LIP, integrating into MIS through SWIFT
o	Link finance, activity and outcomes
o	Move primary data input to service staff from finance 
o	Direct access to budget data by budget managers, with ability to manipulate for analysis

2.2.2.	Recommended Action Plans
OBJECTIVE: Automate downloads from Trojan and LAFIS to Excel	
Ref	Lead
Offc	Approach	Milestones	Resp	Compl	Resources
Required	R	I	Dependencies & Risks	
	PFM	•	Establish for each service division how budget monitoring currently takes place and work with the Divisional Finance Officer to confirm benefits of automatic LAFIS and /or Trojan downloads 

•	Create templates based on the model rolled out in Support Services for LAFIS.

•	Consult with stakeholders to confirm benefits

•	Create separate template for each SDOS and test.

•	Roll out as part of the standard budget monitoring process.

•	Audit current skills and determine training needs of Finance team to use auto downloaded reports

•	Provide in-house training to meet identified needs	•	Detailed map of current budget monitoring process in each service 

•	LAFIS and Trojan templates completed

•	Consultation completed

•	SDOS templates tested

•	SDOS templates utilised in all divisions
•	Training programme designed
•	Training programme delivered	PFM

PFM & IAM

PFM

PFM & IAM

PFM

PFM

PFM	15.01.02

31.01.02

31.01.02

15.2.02

28.02.02

31.1.02

31.3.02	1 person day

5  person days

2 person days

10 person days

1 person days

2 person days

2 person days?	

M	

H	

Availability of skilled Excel person to design templates	

OBJECTIVE: To make the best use of non-financial cost driver information currently available	
Ref	Lead
Offc	Approach	Milestones	Resp	Compl	Resources
Required	R	I	Dependencies & Risks	
	
ACT	
1	Identify what is available from Trojan, FAA spreadsheets, LAFIS downloads, Swift, Coldharbour, payroll systems with particular focus on:

•	Client Throughput – numbers, new, leavers, average stay
•	Activities – Domiciliary care hours, no of visits (in house), no of placements, movements between care packages, travel to client
•	Staff – Number, Vacancies, agency staff, overtime levels, sickness levels – available from a mix of LAFIS downloads and Vidipers

2	Feedback and comment
	SM’s and UM’s to agree and feedback what they consider to be useful and identify other key data that is missing

3	Gap Analysis
	Identify the gaps in data by comparing 1 and 2 and also compare against the SSRADU conclusions.  Ascertain how much of any additional key data identified can be can be produced at minimum effort and cost, e.g. spreadshs/databases maintained in Children’s Serv.

4	4.    Develop Process
	Agree what will be produced and by whom, to include schedule of regular reports, purpose and who should receive them.  The initial suggestion is that for example, activity reports produced from Trojan would be passed to the relevant DFO who would incorporate the data into the relevant finance report for the budget manager.  Some data testing will also be required.

            
	
The Trojan Systems should contain the majority of the service activity information that is readily available.  The first stage is therefore, for the Income and Assessment Team should therefore list, by client group the client throughput and activity measures that can be produced from Trojan.  

This should be followed by a workshop with I&A, Finance and SM representatives to select data set to be used  

The key data sets available will be presented to Service Managers and a representative selection of Unit Managers in their DMT’s / DMM’s to demonstrate what can be provided and receive comment about how useful it could be.	
PFM?	
15.01.02

15.02.02

31.3.02

31.3.02

	
Maximum of 2 days effort to prepare available data

5 person/days for attending 1/2 day workshop + follow-up?

Attendance by say Nick/Neil/Steve at relevant meetings, half day each = 1.5 days

5	Allow 10 days input from Trojan programmer for complex reports e.g. movement of clients between care packages and 10 days internal resource for other report s/ downloads.

6	Maximum resource is therefore say 15 days internal resource and 10 days external resource (cost £5,000)	

M	

H	In the longer term the efficient and timely production of activity and outcome measures will be dependant on other systems e.g. SWIFT and MIS/SAP.

As with all data, the maxim “rubbish in rubbish out” will apply so the accuracy and also interpretation of data is crucial.  On this latter point it should be remembered that Trojan was not created to produce key activity / outcome data so the interpretation of the data held by the system is crucial to aid understanding	

OBJECTIVE: To ensure that all data required for the service, including business management, is entered once and appears instantly within the information needs of the department.  This may be information about individuals, client groups or other aggregations and may be required to be shared with partner organisations.
	
Ref	Lead
Offc	Approach	Milestones	Resp	Compl	Resources
Required	R	I	Dependencies & Risks	
	
ACT	
1
5.	Implement New Process 
The Local Information Plan Strategy (LIP) already provides the framework for the delivery of this objective and draws together the key implementation milestones for SWIFT and MIS.  The LIP should therefore developed and form the basis of the detailed implementation plan for meeting this objective, encompassing the wider aims and objectives of a departmental IT/IS Strategy within the corporate context..
The LIP strategy requires that a number of objectives are met which are complementary to the FINE objectives, i.e.
o	Single client record
o	Knowledge management  i.e. information content, availability and structure
o	Universal access - single point contact

The next meeting of the Board and Group in early December will define the roles of the Board Members and supporting structure.  Outline programme implementation plans are scheduled to be developed by March 2002.

ACT	

31.12.01
for meeting

The  key dates are:
October 2004 by which date the single client record must be implemented within the Departments and 
October 2005 by which date the strategy must be fully implemented with Health partners. 

The LIP for contains details of the investment required - £11m capital and £3m revenue for a “Gold Standard” service.  No additional resources have been allocated at this time and a further debate is therefore required on what can be achieved / afforded over what timeframe.  

	

H

	

H

	There are some concerns about levels of hardware available and abilities of software suppliers (SWIFT) to meet timescale.  The long term future of Trojan and the role/interfaces between SWIFT/Trojan and MIS need to be explored and clarified.

Significant risks include

1.	Uncertain investment – ranges and cost of options need to be explored
2.	Organisational structure to support decision making 
3.	Flexibility of and access to IT infrastructure
4.	Implementation of SWIFT	

2.3.	Fundamental People and Organisational Development
2.3.1.	Principles of Recommended Actions

•	Separate finance processing jobs from decision support
•	Strengthen performance management culture: “Budget is important, Action is not optional”
•	Budget performance as part of budget managers’ supervision
•	Reward success
•	Communication programme
•	Compulsory training for both finance and budget managers
•	Develop clear and detailed delegation scheme
•	Improve coordination between finance, income& assessment, performance and strategic planning

2.3.2.	Recommended Action Plans

OBJECTIVE: Re-align Organisational Structure (1)

Formalise & approve all divisional finance officers as directly responsible to a senior officer in the finance function with secondary responsibility to a service manager
	
Ref	Lead
Offc	Approach
	Milestone
	Resp	Compl	Resources
Required	R	I	Dependencies & Risks	
	ACT	1.	Formalise & document exact reasoning significance of arrangements (to ensure consistency)

2.	Memorandum of confirmation for 2 year period to further review

3.	Communication to 3rd level service managers and finance officers explaining implications of arrangement re working with finance	Document
Completed

Document completed

Information
Sessions completed (DMT’s?)
	PFM

DSSD

ACT	15.01.02

15.01.02 

15.01.02  	Negligible

Negligible

Negligible	

L	

L	

Must ensure that finance officers affected are clear about implications	

OBJECTIVE: Re-align Organisational Structure (2)
Short-term: split staff below DFO’s into an Analysis group and a Process group
Long-term: move processing into service 

Ref	Lead
Offc	Approach
	Milestone
	Resp	Compl	Resources
Required	R	I	Dependencies & Risks	
	PFM w 
HPATH	1.	Define current tasks and job arrangements:
•	What are the processing tasks
•	Who does them
•	Who manages them
•	Where they are
•	What other tasks they do

2.	Design alternative job and reporting structures

3.	Consult with stakeholders

4.	Implement (possibly 1 DFO + 1 AFO to manage processing)

5.	Carry out feasibility of moving processing to service	Current
task/staff member matrix

New
task/staff member matrix and org structure

Consultation report

New structure operational

Study completed	PFM

NB + HPATH 

HPATH

PFM

30.11.02

31.3.03	5 person/days

5 person/days

5 person/days

10 person days

Tbd	

M

H	

M

H	

Budget for increase in ratio of PC’s to staff available	

OBJECTIVE: Re-align Organisational Structure (3)
Align budget structure and owners to Social Services organisational structure and decision making points 
	
Ref	Lead
Offc	Approach	Milestones	Resp	Compl	Resources
Required	R	I	Dependencies & Risks	
	DSSD w ACT	1.	Ensure that each existing budget has an effective designated budget holder responsible

2.	Combine internal & external purchasing for each service under one budget holder

3.	Determine feasibility of restructuring budgets by client group, each the responsibility of one budget holder	•	Analysis of current budget and holder links
•	Identify 3rd level  budget managers for orphan budgets
•	Communicate new arrangements

•	Design purchasing rules and model outcomes through working group led by PFM (rf) with HPATH and 2 representatives each from purchasers and provider services to design new procedures and supporting material
•	Submit to SMT for approval
•	Implement new structure

	PFM (Proj)

PFM
(Proj)

PFM
(Proj)	15.01.02

30.11.02

30.11.02	5 person/days?

10 person/days 

tbd	L

M

H	M

M

H		

OBJECTIVE: Re-align Organisational Structure (4)
Improve coordination between Strategic Planning, Finance, Income & Assessment, and Performance 
	
Ref	Lead
Offc	Approach	Milestones	Resp	Compl	Resources
Required	R	I	Dependencies & Risks	
		CURRENT DRAFT SSD REORGANISATION PLAN BRINGING FINANCE, PERFORMANCE AND STRATEGIC PLANNING UNER ONE AD BUSINESS SUPPORT	•	

			

OBJECTIVE: Ensure service managers’ Job Descriptions include budget responsibilities as part of performance management responsibilities

Ref	Lead
Offc	Approach	Milestones	Resp	Compl	Resources
Required	R	I	Dependencies & Risks	
	ADO w HPATH	1.	Review current job descriptions to check for budget responsibilities content

2.	Propose updated job descriptions

3.	Consult with staff and unions

4.	Implement new job descriptions	Review completed

New job descriptions completed

Consultation completed

New job descriptions reviewed with staff affected	HPATH

HPATH

HPATH

HPATH	31.1.02

31.1.02

31.3.02

31.3.02	5 person days

2 person days?

Part of supervision	L

L

	M

M		

OBJECTIVE: Strengthen focus on budget management within performance management

	
Ref	Lead
Offc	Approach	Milestones	Resp	Compl	Resources
Required	R	I	Dependencies & Risks	
	DSSD w HPATH, ACT	
Embed within supervision and appraisal, a compulsory requirement to monitor and report on budget and service performance, with appropriate corrective action should this not happen and rewards for good performance
	
•	Directive memorandum from DSSD

•	Instructions to training section manager for re new appraisal procedures

•	Ongoing list of budget management failures from supervision reported to DSSD

•	Working group to design rewards for good budget management

•	Approvals by SMT for proposed rewards

•	Communicate and implement rewards

	
DSSD

HPATH

HPATH

ACT

ACT

ACT	
15.01.02

31.01.02

31.01.02

28.02.02

31.3.02

31.03.02

	

1 person/day

5 person/days

2 person/days	

L	

M		
OBJECTIVE: Institute active finance training programmes for finance staff and for cost centre managers

Ref	Lead
Offc	Approach	Milestones	Resp	Compl	Resources
Required	R	I	Dependencies & Risks	
	ACT w HPATH	•	Design and deliver training programme for budget managers to service level managers, with support from existing specialist post in Treasurer’s department.

 

•	Design and deliver finance training strategy for finance staff, with support from existing specialist post in Treasurer’s department.

	•	Initiate training needs analysis 
•	Define goals of the training
•	Draft and cost training programme
•	Submit to PPR Unit for approval and SMT for decision
•	Deliver 1 day training programmes for each of 5 divisions, with service managers and DFOs attending

•	Initiate training needs analysis 
•	Define goals of the training
•	Draft and cost training programme

•	Deliver programme
	TO 

TO	15.01.02

15.01.02

15.01.02

31.3.02

15.01.02

31.01.02
31.01.02

Ongoing	

5 person/days?

5 person/days for trainer (£5000 if external provider?) +
40 person days attendees

5 person/days incl. benchmarking of finance staff

£10,000 p.a.?	

L

L

L

M	

H

H

M

M	

New finance function organisational structure and new budget structures in place	

Key:

DSSD		Director Social Services
ACT		Assistant County Treasurer (Social Services)
PFM		Principal Finance Manager
PFM (proj)	Principal Finance Manager (Projects)
IAM		Income & Assessment Manager
HPATH	Head of Personnel Training and HR
TO		Training Officer
DFO		Divisional Finance Officer
SM		Service Manager
UM		Unit Manager
IAM		Finance Manager Income & Assessments