North Yorkshire County Council
Delivering a Modern Council
Briefly describe the initiative/ project/ service
The Modern Council programme in NYCC has delivered innovation and service re-design across the council and beyond. We sought to put our customers at the heart of what we do and developed a set of principles to capture our vision of a modern council. The aim has been to protect services and engage the workforce to redesign and improve productivity, reduce resources and be outcome focused. This has been a collaboration of people, place and process, with a strong foundation of enabling technology. We recognized to deliver services as budgets remain challenging we needed to change, and this needed to be a fundamental change in culture and approach across the council.
This is demonstrated by pioneering work at Jesmond House that helped define a method to service redesign that we have gone on to replicate and deliver results.
Key elements:-
• Senior manager engagement
• Managers focus groups –aligning with modern council principles and culture ,
• Staff engagement – to develop ideas,
• Meeting and collaborative spaces – review the type of spaces needed, workspaces are designed to be clear and welcoming and equipped to a consistent standard.
• Health and well-being
• Working virtually anywhere -empowering managers
Why do you think it should win this award?
Our story is one we hope will inspire others, public sector is facing the same challenges and our future is reliant on finding new ways to deliver services. Our approach has been recognised as one of good practice and received a special judge’s award at this year’s TW3. We have been invited to speak at national and regional events to share our approach across sectors and work with national leading thinkers to develop & promote smart working practice
We hosted an event to bring together transformation professionals from across the country to engage and learn both from our experience and to support peer learning by sharing stories, this has helped to develop a community of practice.
While we can demonstrate success with a range of achievements our staff provide the best evidence to support our nomination, and it’s a recognition that our people are really at the heart of what we do and our purpose.
“modern council means I can base where works best for me and my clients and save on mileage and time, I vary my hours to be with families when they need me and the ability to tether means I can make referrals immediately”
“staff work (literally) in the field at times, and we’ve improved skills in managing virtual teams by outcomes”
What are the key achievements?
Technology
• Smartphones and tablets deployed to all our mobile workers
•Virtual PCs enabling shared workspace
•Spaces with Wifi, visual and sound equipment designed around virtual meetings
•Data strategy – GDPR ready
•Skype technology for collaboration
•Interactive dashboards
People
•Training for all managers -90% said it’s had a positive impact
•A working virtually anywhere toolkit to support delivery of mobile working
•A virtual and physical model office
•Removal of barriers to flexible working practices
Place
•Implemented 0.7 desk ratio with a reduction of up to 50% in Jesmond House resulting in building disposals.
• A workspace finder tool & team zones reflecting work styles which have reduced 100’s of works spaces
• Property portfolio savings of £1.5million
£100kand 3000 hours saving in 2017 so far.
94% of staff agreed as a result of the programme they are working flexibly and in our recent organisation staff survey an increase of 8% of staff saying they have the right resources and technology to do the job and a 10% increase in staff who would recommend the Council as a great place to work
In conclusion modern council represents service re design supporting public services enabling transformation.
