12 RESOURCES AND CAPACITY

The scale of the financial challenge facing the Council has already been clearly set out in this Strategy. To meet this challenge the Cabinet has agreed a set of revised Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP) Savings Principles, which are as follows: -

  • We will seek to protect services for the most vulnerable whilst continuing to evaluate all other services.
  • We will limit the impact of cuts on front-line  services where we can whilst continuing to reduce expenditure and explore opportunities to generate new sources of income.
  • We will adopt a longer-term approach to  financial planning that considers the impact  on future generations.
  • We will need to accept that we will not be   able to maintain existing levels of service but will introduce more innovative ways of working through the use of emerging technologies.
  • We will engage with our communities   to understand their needs and explore options to deliver some services through collaboration, partnerships, community trusts etc. to ensure that communities remain resilient and sustainable in the longer-term.

The #TeamCaerphilly - Better Together Transformation Strategy aligns with these principles, and developing new ways of working will be a key element in ensuring that the Council remains financially resilient moving forward.

As the various elements of the Strategy are further developed there will be a need for one-off investments to pump-prime the service changes required. Investments will need to be supported by robust business cases clearly demonstrating how the funding will lead to service efficiencies and savings.

There will also be a need to ensure that we have sufficient capacity within the Council to drive forward the ambitious transformation programme to a successful delivery. We will harness the range of skills and experience within our workforce and create opportunities for staff to lead and be involved in various workstreams that will ensure successful delivery of the programme.

The Council’s Corporate Policy Unit will be the central point of co-ordination and administration of the transformation programme. Furthermore, the Performance Management Unit has worked with Directorate  Management Teams in recent months to introduce a new approach to service planning and performance management. This has resulted in the introduction of new Directorate Performance Assessments, which are designed to provide a ‘single source of the truth’ and will give insight into the how each Directorate is performing, as well as highlighting any actions that are being taken to drive improvement.

The Corporate Policy Unit will also have a key role to play in terms of researching innovative best practice and sharing this across the Council.

Whilst we will maximise the use of existing staff, there will be a requirement to establish some additional capacity to help drive forward our new approach at pace. It is therefore proposed to appoint three Transformation Managers initially on fixed-term contracts for a period of two years. The individual portfolios for these managers will be:-

  • Innovation
  • Commercial Investment
  • Workforce planning

As we move forward there may be a need for further staffing capacity as the various elements of the new operating model are further developed. However, it is anticipated that this will be on an ‘invest to save’ basis as new ways of working will deliver sustainable savings year-on-year.

KEY ACTIONS TIMESCALE
Cabinet approval to be sought to appoint  three Transformation Managers initially
on  fixed-term contracts for a period of two  years 		Cabinet approval on 12th June 2019
Embed the new Direct Performance  Assessments across the Council Quarterly reporting from June 2019
onwards
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