Issue - meetings

(Head of Transformation) to consider the attached report.

The Head of Transformation, Mr Bailey introduced the report on the Transformation Programme. He noted that research consistently showed that 70% of all change fails to deliver on the goals set, largely due to employee resistance and lack of management support.

He went on to give the background to the programme and the position of the current projects. 53% of projects had either come in on time or were delivered early; 47% of the current closed projects had been identified as needing to have tighter timescales or improved estimation of project timescales. 69% of the projects were on cost.

Councillor Patel asked where they were now with the definition of ‘prioritisation’ and also in appendix 3 the benefits had not been listed. Would officers then go back and look at the projects and do some analysis on them. Mr Bailey said that they would go back and visit the projects when they were done, but they would need more staff to do this and they would be getting two extra staff in the new municipal year. The Transformation Board do prioritise the projects when they first come up. At present we did not need to prioritise as such because we are a well managed council financially, and could do the work brought forward without needing to make difficult decisions.

Councillor Patel asked of the 17 projects listed in the report, were they all the completed projects to date. Recommendation 11 that says that the projects would be reviewed in 12 months. Would they be reviewed on a yearly basis or continue to be on a quarterly basis. Mr Bailey replied that other projects had closed since this report had been written and they will be reviewed annually. Also this Overview and Scrutiny Committee had asked for an annual report on the projects so they would be done at the same time. Councillor Patel thought that a year was a long time to wait. Immediate analysis would be better. Councillor Sartin asked if these projects would also be reported to the various Select Committees on a more regular basis. Mr Bailey said that just because they were reviewed formally annually, did not mean that they were not reviewed as they went along. Also reports would go to the Select Committees as they were closed.

RESOLVED:

(1)          That the Committee noted the findings of the summative evaluation of project closures and the recommendations agreed by the Transformation Programme Board;

(2)        That the Committee noted the report on the findings from the twelve-month implementation review to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in April 2019; and

(3)        That the Committee agreed the potential areas for future scrutiny as listed in paragraphs 54, 55, 56 and 57 of the report.