This session celebrated and shared the innovation that saw not one but two South West Councils pick up awards at this year’s iESE Public Sector Transformation Awards.South Hams & West Devon Councils and Tewkesbury Borough Council were recognised as having transformation teams who had made an exceptional contribution and long-term positive impact in their organisations through a series of transformation and continuous improvement.
Tewkesbury Borough Council’s senior executive and members believe that their Business Transformation Team has had a profoundly positive impact on service management and delivery. Referred to at an LGA meeting as ‘flying the digital flag for district councils’ they broke free of dysfunctional and unconnected systems.
They drive transformation with a flexible and innovative approach. While fully remote, they’ve
greatly simplified systems
reduced officer admin time, resulting in quicker customer response times
significantly improved council finances.
Their actions in their first 18-months have saved over £100,000 and are increasing the council’s capacity to drive service income.
Clare Evans, Corporate Services Manager and her team shared how they have got to where they are and the vision for where they want to go.
Using big picture thinking, South Hams & West Devon Councils have an ongoing and steep transformation trajectory.
Step-by-step, they’re realising their digital ambition by driving continuous improvement.
Working alongside stakeholders and recognising their needs, within 18 months they have:
transformed 90 processes, helping 75% of customers to self-serve.
eliminated hidden waste which is improving productivity and adds to daily effectiveness
balanced work across staff resources which is reducing stress and improving job satisfaction.
Customers can give feedback after every process, growing customer satisfaction. Freeing teams from costly broken processes and siloed data has delivered +£450,000 savings. Their 2022 roadmap has big plans including:
Support for remote workers, to help mobile workers connect, interact and report back in a rapid, effective manner. This will reduce admin frustration as it improves their ability to support residents.
An interactive platform for elected members enabling residents to be in contact increasing the personal impact of their democratic duties.
Digitisation of internal processes such as HR, Finance and Legal, enabling internal staff to deliver work in a smooth modern way, reducing waste and ensuring more professional outcomes.
Platform approach by default, that will enable rapid and continuous change. The universal use will mean the team have digital freedom to achieve their goals without the need for very skilled developer staff. This will free them to support SHWD digital ambition strategy, and deliver more.
Mike Ward, Head of IT & Jim Davis, Customer Improvement Manager discussed the culture, technology and approach that has supported their award-winning activity.
