Dorset Council Transformation Plan 2020 to 2024

Introduction

This amended transformation plan sets out Dorset Council’s approach to change and aligns our newly developed transformation themes to the corporate plan.

It describes the aims, objectives and approaches to deliver these themes including the initially identified key projects that support their delivery.

The overarching aim of this amended approach is to build on our one council approach and the learning and opportunities COVID-19 has enabled, as well as the financial challenges it has presented us with.

Transformation - Delivering the Dorset Council Plan

The Dorset Council Plan sets out our vision, values and our organisational aspirations.

Our transformational approach must support us to bring these to life and shape our services and together with our organisational principles of being customer focused, effective and modern, an employer of choice and creating a sustainable organisation this transformation plan will enable the new Dorset Council to continue to make those a reality.

Our vision:

To make Dorset a great place to live, work and visit.

Our values:

we are an advocate for Dorset on a local, national and global stage
we work together with our communities and our partners to make things happen
we put people first and design services around their needs now and in the future
we are open, accessible and accountable
we use time and money wisely
we value people and build on their strengths

The Council Plan

Transformation - Description of the transformed council

It is important to describe what an organisation will be like once transformation aspirations have been realised.

In bringing the elements together from the Dorset plan and refining them, our aim is that the transformed council will:

lead only when it has to
have services, designed with our customers, communities and partners
operate at low cost, with a reduced carbon footprint
plan for the long term and invest in services and activities that have clear results and real impact
use evidence, insight, data and information to inform decisions
use its assets wisely
tackle digital exclusion so that no-one in in Dorset is disadvantaged digitally Feel innovative and ambitious and is an employer of choice

Transformation – The financial challenge

There is a huge degree of uncertainty about the future state of public finances following COVID-19.

Initial modelling suggests an anticipated budget gap in 2021/22 of £41.9 million. Inaction is therefore not an option and this amended transformation plan takes into consideration both the increased emphasis on transforming services to save money and the greater amount required from change activities in order to bridge the budget gap.

In order to respond to the financial challenges, whilst still delivering our vision and values according to our principles, the council has agreed five transformation themes to guide our journey towards the kind of council we want to become.

These are to:

be a key player in place shaping, optimising community capacity and assets
be an early intervention, inclusion county
be smart in its use of assets, estate and capital
be a commercial council that demonstrates value for money services
be a great organisation to work in and with, an employer of choice

The following sections set out these themes in more detail and describe how they support the council to deliver on its values, describes the approaches required to deliver them, who needs to be involved and how the changes will be monitored and managed.

Transformation theme 1 - Be a key player in place shaping, optimising community capacity and assets

This theme delivers on the following Council Plan Values:

we work together with our communities and our partners to make things happen
we put people first and design services around their needs now and in the future
we are open, accessible and accountable
we use time and money wisely

Aim

The aim of this theme is to transform the council’s approach in order to play an important role in place shaping in Dorset, to support the delivery of the economic development strategy and outcomes from COVID recovery.

Outcomes

Working with partners to understand and tackle longer-term health and wellbeing improvements including people of Dorset having good quality jobs, homes and strong social networks. We want to focus on outcomes, for example, community wealth building approaches as an additional economic recovery measure and enabling a nuanced approach across the county to meet local need.

The council wants to be a key player in place shaping in order to:

support our residents in doing more for themselves
communities accessing more easily the support they require
develop and deliver health and wellbeing hubs
developing the local economy
creating local work for local people
good homes for the people of Dorset

Approach

In order to deliver our aspirations, the council will adopt a co-production approach.

Taking a strengths/assets based approach to community development, facilitating community led responses and the importance of connecting people to their communities. Providing infrastructure support to anchor organisations/community leaders to lead community support.

Adopting this approach to stimulate Dorset’s economy as it recovers from the impacts of COVID alongside a strong economic development strategy and vision for digital which includes facilitating the delivery of digital infrastructure and other key enablers will significantly contribute to making Dorset a great place to live work and visit. We will put people and communities at the heart of the change we are creating.

This is about leading with a shared sense of purpose and clarity of outcomes and repurpose activity in order to deliver these outcomes.

Transformation theme 2 - Be an early intervention, inclusion county

This theme delivers on the following Council Plan Values:

we work together with our communities and our partners to make things happen
we put people first and design services around their needs now and in the future
we value people and build on their strengths

Aim

To make Dorset an inclusive county focused on helping people at the earliest point.

Outcomes

The outcomes we want to achieve from this theme are:

people access the right help for them when and where and from the right person at the right time
we work to keep children in their families and support adults to remain in their own homes
our children and adults with additional needs stay local in local provision
decrease demand on late intervention/crisis led services
our children achieve well in school and are prepared well to economically contribute to our communities
prioritise employment for adults with additional needs
promote social care as a proactive career choice

Approach

The approach to this theme is to collate data and information and analyse the impact of the current approaches and how these need to change.

We will analyse where we spend our revenue across pathways and services to get the balance right between supportive interventions and early preventative interventions.

This will enable us to understand and evidence the cost of outcomes in Dorset.

Often the approach to wait for a crisis or for problems to hit an eligibility threshold mean services are more expensive to deliver.

In order to act, we will use data to inform our decisions as well as learning from others, before delivering a comprehensive programme of change.

Transformation theme 3 - Be smart in its use of assets, estate and capital

This theme delivers on our principles of being effective and modern and the following Council Plan Values:

we work together with our communities and our partners to make things happen
we put people first and design services around their needs now and in the future
we are open, accessible and accountable.
We use time and money wisely

Aim

The aim of this theme is to create and operationalise a robust approach to asset, estate and capital management.

Outcomes

The outcomes we want to achieve from this theme are and asset, estate and capital management strategy and embedded approach that supports the council to:

release capital for reinvestment in organisational priorities
save revenue by maximising the use of its estate
identify and provide intergenerational hubs that support our other transformation areas
demonstrably make best use of all its assets including to promote economic growth and support community development

Approach

Capital strategy and asset management group (CSAMG) will lead this theme.

The group will review existing approaches and support the development of these where they do not currently exist and then subsequently bring these together aligned to the budget setting process.

Once the strategy is in place processes and procedures can be established to embed and operationalise good asset management practice and transformation to the council’s estate to deliver revenue savings.

Transformation theme 4 - Be a commercial council that demonstrates value for money services.

This theme delivers on the following Council Plan values:

we work together with our communities and our partners to make things happen
we put people first and design services around their needs now and in the future
we use time and money wisely
we are open, accessible and accountable

Aim

The aim of this theme is to reduce the operating cost of the council by adopting a robust approach to service reviews by embedding a service design approach to examining alternative delivery models including co-production or more efficient ways of delivering services while maximising income.

The service design approach is well established way to examine options and redesign services in a customer focussed way.

Together with the approach to value for money reviews agreed by Cabinet in October 2020 this will make sure the council systematically benchmarks and assesses its service provision against others.

Outcomes

Services are stopped, re-imagined, reshaped, or enhanced and enabled through the use of technology and data to reduce operating costs or improve income.

Improve service offerings by utilising data and continually measuring services.

Approach

Starting with services that have a significant budget or that could generate more income, systematically use the service design approach to implement the new customer service approach and review services examining alternative delivery models and methods, including options to reduce service quality in order to generate savings.

This would include robust financial understanding of the existing services, any future options proposed and the cost to implement the changes.

The approach would include benchmarking our services against comparator organisations to understand our balance of cost and quality and finding out if we are offering more or less than we need to.

To do this we will ask and challenge ourselves to think differently.

The long term benefits of adopting this approach will be to move towards delivering proactive services rather than reacting to an issue, maintaining control of the services we need to provide, which in turn will move us away from the need to 're-design' and embed a culture of ‘just keep designing'.

Transformation theme 5 - Be a great organisation to work in and with, an employer of choice

This theme delivers on all our Council Plan values:

we are an advocate for Dorset on a local, national and global stage
we work together with our communities and our partners to make things happen
we put people first and design services around their needs now and in the future
we are open, accessible and accountable
we use time and money wisely
we value people and build on their strengths

Aim

The aim of this theme is through our approach to transformation and other specific actions, to create an organisation that is an employer of choice.

Outcomes

The outcomes of this theme are to:

develop the organisational culture so staff are proud to work for the council and encourage others to do so
develop our leadership culture that support distributed leadership and enables people at all levels to get involved in the delivery of change and transformation
encourage high levels of involvement in areas of personal/professional interest to support pride and job satisfaction
develop strong recruitment and retention programmes to minimise the use of agency staff
become a coaching organisation
deliver the Dorset Workplace Project
be an organisation where you can be yourself, equality and diversity issues are recognised and taken seriously, for example Pride and Black History month are celebrated

Approach

This theme is strongly underpinned by the council’s people strategy, including work programmes within Organisational Development to support the development of great leadership and an inclusive culture together with deliver of the outcomes in the Dorset Workplace.

Approach to transformation

How an organisation embarks on transformation at this scale can have a positive or negative impact on culture depending on the approaches taken.

The success of the transformation programme will be supported through work to develop the organisational approach to leadership and culture.

This work will highlight the journey that employees will take as we continue to embed the new culture for Dorset Council.

Work is taking place with managers to lead the way in embracing change, committing to our new shared ways of working and language, and leading in our behaviours.

This work will align to the People Strategy and the Dorset Workplace within the broader Council Plan and will help empower employees to work more efficiently and embrace best practice, whilst having their holistic needs met.

It will enable all employees to build better relationships and be a part of the changes, on our journey to become an employer of choice. During the council’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic we adopted different techniques for driving change.

This included investment and energy from across the whole workforce who stepped forward and were redeployed.

Our delivery at pace during this time has been because we have moved to a more positive risk-taking framework and in order to deliver the transformation we aspire to, we need to keep this momentum and enable many more people to participate in delivery and this refreshed transformation plan enables that to happen, through the new approach to governance described in the next sections.

Financial outcomes from transformation

Alongside the desire to progress transformation plans differently is the additional financial challenges on the council as a result of COVID-19.

With a £41.9 million projected budget gap for 2021/22, transformation must deliver more and deliver it quickly.

Therefore, the currently identified transformation projects (described below) while supporting the delivery of our transformation themes also contribute considerably to supporting the council to bridge the deficit.

It is anticipated that as projects that support the delivery of our transformation themes come forward they will be prioritised and added to the portfolio and savings totals updated.

Working on a rolling basis with projects coming forward throughout the year should encourage the whole organisation to always be thinking about alternative more effective ways to do things and plan in the delivery of those projects.

Currently projected transformation savings as at 20 October.

Total

Year 1, 2021 to 2022 - £9158057.00

Year 2, 2022 to 2023 - £8740525.00

Year 3 to 5, 2023 to 2025 - £6500000

Grand total £24398582.00

Adults and Housing

Year 1, 2021 to 2022 - £6581922.00

Year 2, 2022 to 2023 - £6035525.00

Year 3 to 5, 2023 to 2025 - £3000000.00

Grand total £15617447.00

Children's

Year 1, 2021 to 2022 - £1070000.00

Year 2, 2022 to 2023 - £2125000.00

Year 3 to 5, 2023 to 2025 - £3500000.00

Grand total £6695000.00

Place

Year 1, 2021 to 2022 - £1616135.00

Year 2, 2022 to 2023 - £580000.00

Year 3 to 5, 2023 to 2025 - £0

Grand total £2096135.00

As described above, in addition to the savings above, there are new projects currently in early stages of initiation, with the scope to make further savings. Discovery work is underway enabling the total value of savings to be clearer in the next 4-6 weeks. It is expected these will identify several million in further savings

Investment – Transformation fund

When the transformation programme was first conceived there was a transformation fund of £5million established to support the investment required to deliver change.

In line with Cabinets decision in Nov 2019 allocations from the fund (detailed below) have been over seen by the transformation board and followed a gateway process and the criteria set out for the transformation fund.

In line with the revised approach to transformation it is recommended to Cabinet that the Performance Leadership Group take on the responsibility of allocating and keeping track of the fund.

A revised gateway process is shown below demonstrating this proposed change.

It is not proposed that the investment fund criteria are changed and remain as follows. Successful applications to the fund must:

a) Deliver the priorities for Dorset Council

b) Fundamentally change systems, processes, people or technology across the whole organisation to improve outcomes for residents

c) Be able to deliver the proposal straight-away

d) Be costed and financially viable

e) Demonstrate cross-council working

f) Evidence the rational using robust data and customer insight/research

The information below demonstrates the value of the gateway process as some projects have not been taken forward to gateway 1 as initial work has led to a change of direction or emphasis or indeed the project was no longer seen to be viable as conceived.

These fund where unspent are then returned to the fund.

Currently there are 3 projects at gateway 1 and a further 7 projects proceeding, having received gateway 2 funding.

There is a further description of all projects comprising the transformation plan in the next section some of which will be looking to secure investment from the fund in order to start to deliver their outcomes.

Stage 1, not on track

Approval at gateway 1 - £40082.00

Approval at gateway 2 - n/a

Total approved spend - £40082.00

Description

This project will improve the user experience for adults and children booking and using transport in Dorset including the provision of SEND transport through an alternative delivery model.

Through rationalising the way customer services are delivered, we will improve our overall service, reduce the cost of customer services and free up resources to support impactful services.

This includes procurement of a new digital platform to support this across the organisation.

Project name - Business Intelligence

Stage - 2. Bid approved

Approval at gateway 1 - £40082.00

Approval at gateway 2 - £220000.00

Total approved spend - £260082.00

Description

The purpose of this project is to further develop our own data warehouse and technical skills in house to deliver transformational business intelligence, insight and performance for Dorset Council.

This bid is to support the entire transformation programme in adults releasing £15,617,447 of saving individual projects are listed in the next section.

Total investment from the fund

Approval at gateway 1 - £210328.00

Approval at gateway 2 - £2479965.00

Total approved spend - ££2690293.00

Description

This bid is to support the entire transformation programme in adults releasing £15,617,447 of saving individual projects are listed in the next section.

Remaining Transformation projects that make up the current portfolio as at 18th October 2020

Building capacity in our education partners

This will see Dorset Council work in partnership with Dorset schools to seek to strengthen their capacity to deliver outcomes, to redefine a new operating model, to support schools become self-sustaining and reduce reliance.

We would seek to ensure that we have the capacity in our special school system to provide support to Dorset schools across the full spectrum of needs for children with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND).  

Development of local special school provision

The project will develop a multi-purpose site to enable local provision of special schools and alternative provision.

This will tackle financial pressures on the high needs block and support the development of more appropriate provision that can meet needs and support targeted interventions. 

Early intervention - whole family approaches to service delivery

This project will further develop a service and culture that supports whole family safeguarding, focused on meeting the needs of both children and the adults around them. By working with multidisciplinary teams, which include adult specialist workers, families can access tailored support to address their needs and the risks posed to children.

Family self-serve support

This project will redesign transactional processes to introduce self-service service portals and standardised and automated working processes and technological solutions that are fit for purpose.

This will reduce costly and inefficient workarounds, releasing efficiencies, but also change the nature of support services. 

Review of early help

Review of early help services to ensure appropriate provision, including the role of Children’s Centres.

Children in care external placements

This project will reprofile the spend on external placements for existing children in care to ensure value for money and improve outcomes for children and young people.

Increased registered provision

This project will review the landscape in respect of unregistered provision and to implement changes to increase registered provision in Dorset, reducing cost pressures.

Whole life service

This project will bring children’s services and adult services together to consider the potential for a whole life service, supporting families together to improve outcomes.

Residential spend reduction

This project reshapes the community offer to residents with enhanced strength-based services and enables a reduction in residential spend.

This will include reviewing out of county placements and changing the model of care homes to provide more specialist and enhanced provision.

Impact of enablers

This project will increase the number of users in receipt of direct payments by 50%. It will develop a tool to enable a review of current 700 Direct Payment Users and ensure that their payments are appropriate.

Service redesign of day services

The project will explore new models of delivery for day services, including the private day services market, using learning from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Focus will be on connecting to communities, promoting wellbeing, increasing independence, pathways to employment and implementing the dementia services review.

Implement full care charges

This work will implement a process from April 2021 to charge people who use our services the actual cost of care.

Integration of brokerage and quality services

This project will integrate brokerage and quality services into a joint integrated service across the Integrated Care System (ICS) footprint.

Workforce efficiencies in Adults and Housing

Exploration of opportunities to ensure more effective delivery of statutory services using the learning from Covid and the impact of the new service model.

Reduction in contracted capacity

Following the impact of the new service model, opportunity to reduce contracted capacity within the market

Travel savings reduced business travel

This project will explore the reduction in mileage travelled by employees for work purposes and consider the right energy efficient vehicles to reduce both cost and CO2 emissions. 

This will be undertaken whilst still ensuring that we provide the same or an improved user experience for Dorset Council residents. 

Parking harmonisation

The harmonisation of parking charges across the Dorset Council area will be undertaken following local government reorganisation in 2019.

This will deliver greater consistency for our customers, from aligned charging and opening times across the Dorset Council car park estate. 

Waste review

A review of the Dorset waste service has been commissioned to benchmark Dorset against other local authorities and against the private sector.

It will make recommendations on opportunities for improved service delivery, alternative delivery models, efficiencies and financial savings. 

Leisure service review

This review will consider the leisure services offer and make recommendations in respect of future delivery models.

Dorset Workplace

This programme will review the ways of working for office based employees and implement a flexible, more agile approach.

This work has a dependency with the asset management review of the Dorset Council estate.

Commercialisation

This project will develop four aspects of commercialisation; making money, commissioning, being business friendly, and behaving in a more business like way.

The initial priority will be to focus on contract management, and identify any areas of duplication inherited from predecessor councils along with the identification of efficiencies.

This will enable contract disposal/harmonisation opportunities and savings, including effective commercial contract management and re-procurement.

Proposed revised approach to releasing resources from the transformation fund

Releasing resource from the transformation fund:

ideas - Portfolio holder and Exec Director sponsorship
gateway 1 - Approval to proceed with discovery. Leadership performance
gateway 2 - Approval to invest in solution. Leadership performance
gateway 3 - Implementation overseen. CLT
gateway 4 - Benefits realisation confirmation. Leadership performance

Transformation – Governance

Recognising that there are change or transformation resources embedded across the council that can be used to succeed in delivering a single transformation programme and to embed our #oneteam approach, a cross-organisational group called DART (Dorset Agile Resource Transformation) brings change resources and activity together across directorates and services into one place.

DART is led by Steve Ford, Corporate Director TIDE • Transformation, Innovation & Digital and Ecology.

This team will support and monitor all change whether through large projects or transformations through ongoing incremental continuous improvement that is agile.

Therefore, the delivery of change activity happens within services, by people who know and understand the business and their customers.

Our transformation themes and framework through DART reflects, supports and aids the delivery of directorate transformation plans, for example ‘A better life’ in Adult services.

Therefore, all transformation is supported by the Digital and Change Service who provide specific skills in delivering change, will co-ordinate sourcing additional capacity if needed and who will maintain the master list of changes that comprise the transformation portfolio.

They will work alongside colleagues from across the organisation to make sure EQIAs are completed early for all projects and provide a central reporting mechanism to track progress.

While DART members will work day-to-day with their project sponsors, the group as a whole and the transformation programme are directed by the Corporate Leadership Team, consisting of membership from directors and other senior leaders.

This group have accountability for the delivery of projects as business owners.

The Performance Leadership Group consists of Cabinet members and the senior leadership team and their role is to hold the programme accountable for delivery.

Subject to Cabinet’s agreement this group also determine investment in transformation and provide challenge to ensure return on investment.

Transformation programme governance

Performance leadership group then
Corporate leadership team then
Cross-organisation co-ordination by DART (Dorset agile resource transformation) supported by the Corporate Project Management office (PMO) then into 4 groups

a better life. Adults and Housing PMO
Children's PMO
Place projects
Corporate projects

Finally, project

Appendix b - Risk assessment

Current risks

Reference

CRR01

Title

Budget

Dorset transformation plan v3.0 risk description

In order to implement transformation continued use of the transformation fund will be needed

rating

High

Reference

CRR21

Title

Covid-19 response

Dorset transformation plan v3.0 risk description

Uncertainty over our required future responses to Covid-19 will have a continued impact to the future design and delivery of transformation and the projects and programmes that comprise them

rating

High

Residual risks with controls in place

Reference

CRR01

Title

Budget

Dorset transformation plan v3.0 risk description

Transformation has a major role to play in redesigning services in order to facilitate savings.

rating

High

Reference

CRR021

Title

Covid-19 response

Dorset transformation plan v3.0 risk description

Performance Leadership and CLT will actively review the impact of COVID-19 on phases of transformation and monitor and review impacts and priorities as necessary

rating

High

Review

This policy was last reviewed in 2020.

The next expected review date is autumn 2025 in line with the review and refresh of the council plan.

Dorset Council Transformation Plan 2020 to 2024

Introduction

Transformation - Delivering the Dorset Council Plan

Transformation - Description of the transformed council

Transformation – The financial challenge

Transformation theme 1 - Be a key player in place shaping, optimising community capacity and assets

Aim

Outcomes

Approach

Transformation theme 2 - Be an early intervention, inclusion county

Aim

Outcomes

Approach

Transformation theme 3 - Be smart in its use of assets, estate and capital

Aim

Outcomes

Approach

Transformation theme 4 - Be a commercial council that demonstrates value for money services.

Aim

Outcomes

Approach

Transformation theme 5 - Be a great organisation to work in and with, an employer of choice

Aim

Outcomes

Approach

Approach to transformation

Financial outcomes from transformation

Currently projected transformation savings as at 20 October.

Total

Adults and Housing

Children's

Place

Investment – Transformation fund

Description

Transformation projects and stages of investment funding as at 18th October 2020

Project name - Dorset Travel Joint Commissioning and SEND Travel

Description

Project name - Asset Management Review

Description

Project name - Planning Convergence and Transformation

Description

Project name - Regulatory Services Convergence and Transformation

Description

Project name - DWP- In-cab Devices

Description

Project name - Carbon Neutral Greenspace Management Equipment

Description

Project name - Customer Services and Platform

Description

Project name - Business Intelligence

Description

Project name - Whole of Life Integrated Commissioning Unit

Description

Project name - Review of a Whole of Life Disability Service

Description

Project name - Independent Travel Training

Description

Project name - Refurbishment Costs to set up Residential Children's Home

Description

Project name - Embedding Strength Based Practice with Partners

Description

Project name Digital Infrastructure Projects

Description

Project name - Adults Transformation

Description

Total investment from the fund

Description

Remaining Transformation projects that make up the current portfolio as at 18th October 2020

Building capacity in our education partners

Development of local special school provision

Early intervention - whole family approaches to service delivery

Family self-serve support

Review of early help

Children in care external placements

Increased registered provision

Whole life service

Residential spend reduction

Impact of enablers

Service redesign of day services

Implement full care charges

Family self-serve support