Agenda item

Oadby and Wigston Change Management Programme

A resident read out a prepared statement:

“At the November forum meeting the Chair stated she is open to putting information about the Change Management training on the next Forum agenda. We asked about this last week and to quote Samuel Ball`s reply.

“An update in respect of the Change Management Programme shall feature as part of the Agenda item at the Forum`s meeting entitled “Chair`s Updates”.

The Chair`s Update is in front of us, but it has nothing about the Change Management Programme.

The Programme was set up to oversee improvements in how the Council works. A report by Mr Penn, from the Local Government Association, identified issues including communication, decision making processes, management structures, culture and staff development. He said an action plan for improvement was required with a framework for cultural change and how improvement should be monitored and evaluated.

The 2015 Local Government Transparency Code requires Councils to be open about decision making, and issues important to local people. So these are the two questions;

Why have residents` requests for information on the Change Management Programme not been answered as promised?And when will this information be provided to the Forum?

The Chair asked Mr Hone to present his Change Management update to the Forum

He explained that The Terms of Reference for the Council’s Change Management Committee included:

·         To provide oversight and scrutiny of any major change management projects being carried out within the organisation;

·         To provide oversight and scrutiny of any major staffing related issues that could affect the outcomes delivered by the Council; and

·         To make any consequent recommendations arising out of the above to the appropriate committee of the Council or to the Council.

He said that the workload of the Committee over the past year had focused on delivering the recommendations of the Penn Report – and that there were two recommendations: (i) A short-term action plan on immediate improvements. All the agreed actions have now taken place; and  (ii) A longer term plan dealing with governance, etc. which the Council was working through with the Local Government Association (LGA) at the moment. It was said that the LGA were carrying out their on-site review later this month.

Other work of Change Management Committee over the past year was said to  include:

·         Plans for service transformation

·         Recruitment and use of agency staff

·         Improving business and project planning

·         Performance management

·         The Council’s four year efficiency plan

·         Asset management

Items for next month’s meeting of CMC was said to include a report on the outcome of the public consultation on waste and a presentation by Investors In People on their assessment of the Council which was carried out last November.

Chair Update on Grievance

It was said that there was no update to give due to there being nothing new to report from the previous meeting. It was said that ongoing grievance and investigation at Oadby and Wigston Borough Council is still in progress and once concluded a meeting will be called.

(All the associated information that is lawfully permissible to disclose is freely available online on the Council’s website under the remit of the Change Management Committee by clicking here - https://goo.gl/IlvRfq).