An analysis of innovation and future themes of work within Kent County

Council’s business plans

Kirsty Joanna Russell5th May 2010

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Contents

1.0 Executive Summary............................................................................31.1 Background and Context...........................................................31.2 Innovative Projects....................................................................41.3 Themes of Work........................................................................41.4 Issues........................................................................................41.5 Recommendations.....................................................................5

2.0 Aims.....................................................................................................6

3.0 Innovative Projects...............................................................................7

4.0 Cross Directorate Themes...................................................................9

4.1 Generic Themes........................................................................104.2 Emerging Themes.....................................................................10

5.0 Issues..................................................................................................175.1 Issues within the Directorates....................................................175.2 Issues with the Business Plans.................................................19

6.0 Technology Transformation Team Research Themes.........................226.1 Smart Phone Applications..........................................................226.2 Innovation Playground................................................................226.3 Virtual Presenter.........................................................................236.4 Co-Creative Working..................................................................236.5 Dissemination of Ideas...............................................................236.6 New Channels............................................................................23

7.0 Recommendations................................................................................247.1 For Kent County Council....................................................................247.2 For the Technology Transformation Team.........................................24

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Executive Summary

1.1 Background and Context

The Technology Transformation team’s principle is to support and change how KCC

undertakes its business in the future. The team has helped to test and deploy a

variety of innovations in the past two years, thereby exploiting the efficiencies,

savings and benefits identified; however within 2010/11 this model will be expanded

to include a wider spread of units within KCC. To help achieve this goal it was felt

that an investigation must be undertaken in order to fully comprehend the units’

issues and needs and how they are planning to deliver their services within 2010/11.

A content analysis was conducted in March 2010 of 29 KCC Unit 2010/11 Business

Plans and 4 KCC 2010/11 Directorate Business Plans. These documents are

compiled annually and provide a general overview of the functions of structures

within KCC, along with detail of their planned activity, projects, financial budget and

any national indicators they will be working towards in the next twelve months.

The aims of the research were to firstly draw attention to any innovative projects

within these plans, along with any planned innovations. The second objective was to

establish the generic themes of work featured within every business plan, such as

tackling climate change, along with any emerging themes, such as working within

Europe and partnership working. The research also aimed to highlight any issues

that teams and directorates were facing which may impact the way they work or

deliver their services, and highlight any underlying issues with the content or

structure of the business plans. The final aim was to provide firm recommendations

based on the findings for both the Technology Transformation team and Kent County

Council.

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1.2 Innovative Projects

The innovation projects were categorised into a) Projects which had a clear method

of delivery, b) Project Developments, which were successful innovative projects

branching out into new areas of work, and c) Potential Innovations, where teams had

identified an issue where an innovative solution was needed.

The projects with a clear method of delivery included the Kent Offshore Wind Farm

(CED), the Club Connect Card (CMY), the Carbon Hub Tool (CMY) and the Home

Insulation Project (CED). Project developments included HOUSE which is evolving

into ‘HOUSE on the move’ to provide services to young people who are hard to reach

and Pick N Mix which is planned to be rolled out as part of Kent.gov. Trialling

webcast TV and creating an innovative and pioneering platform for festivals were

highlighted as potential innovations.

1.3 Themes of Work

15 cross directorate themes were highlighted; made up of both generic and emerging

topics. Generic themes were mandatory for every team to feature in their business

plan, such as climate change. Emerging themes were not mentioned within every

business plan but were mentioned on a sufficiently frequent basis to be able to form

clear patterns. These included managing information, encouraging volunteering,

working across services, partnership working outside of KCC, working within Europe,

sharing services, working with SMEs, engaging with young people, engaging with

hard to reach groups, moving services online, promoting 2012 Olympics, customer

shaping services and developing Total Place.

1.4 Issues

Political, Economical, Socio-cultural, Technological, Legal and Environmental

(PESTLE) issues which may be limiting the number of innovative initiatives in the

directorates were highlighted, with the issue of reduced budgets being the most

frequently mentioned.

Although the business plans seem rigorous, detailed and comprehensive documents

at first sight, there are some underlying issues that need addressing. A) It was hard

to distinguish whether teams had a lack of technological knowledge, needed help to

address this or just failed to specify their chosen tools, as many generic comments

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were made1. B) The wordles created for this report highlighted that there is an

evident difference in language between the business plans and C) there is a need for

teams to highlight how they are planning to manage future risks in their business

plans.

1.5 Recommendations

The TT team should produce an annual survey and research report using the

forthcoming year business plans. Contact will need to be made early in the year with

the individuals who compile the Directorate and Unit business plans so they can be

analysed very soon after release. The TT team will use the outputs of this report to

identify which teams could use innovation to help deliver their services in a more

efficient and cost beneficial way.

It is recommended for the whole organisation, that the individuals who create the

basic structure for the business plans should insert a section on managing risks

making it compulsory for teams and directorates to state their plans in reducing or

avoiding them. Kent County Council should also seriously consider how both the

emerging and generic themes emerging from the findings will influence the way the

organisation works and delivers services to customers in the future.

1 “Continuing to support staff with IT skills to support new technology used to improve efficiency”

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Aims of Research

1. To identify innovative projects being planned, along with project developments and potential projects.

2. To highlight and evaluate both generic and emerging cross directorate themes.

3. To identify issues with the structure and content of the business plans, and to identify issues which may be restricting the number of innovative projects being carried out within 2010/11 in all the directorates.

4. To provide a better understanding of how the TT team’s aims relate to the upcoming work of the units and directorates within KCC.

5. To provide robust recommendations for the Technology Transformation (TT) team and KCC as a whole.

6. To provide a ‘stepping stone’ for a more in-depth and detailed mapping research project that is being planned.

Innovative Projects

The innovative projects have been divided into three separate categories:

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1. Projects with clear aims and a detailed method of delivery.

2. Developments of existing innovative projects.

3. Projects where a need for an innovative solution has been identified.

See table 1 in Appendix D.

An ‘issue tree’ diagram, see Figure 1, was used to demonstrate the key innovations

being planned in the business plans, as they provide a visual ‘skeleton’ of which

teams are working on innovative projects, what these projects are and how many of

them there are. Innovative initiatives being carried out within the CMY were HOUSE

on the Move and ModernGov Member, as well as the Kent Offshore Windfarms and

Webcast TV within CED.

Figure 1: A photograph showing the issue tree diagram for the CFE Directorate

before the PESTLE analysis was conducted.

However, there were a limited number of innovative projects highlighted within

Children, Families and Education (CFE), Kent Adult Social Services (KASS) and

Environment, Highways and Waste (EHW). Within the CFE Directorate Business

Plan, a ‘Virtual School Head’ was mentioned which ‘is a post to act as Virtual Head

teacher for looked after children in Kent, who are of course widely dispersed across

schools’2. In EHW, Kent Highways Services are working on ‘Hubs’ to improve

“programming and quality of information to gangs”. Other than these, innovative

projects planned for 2010/11 were limited.

2 Mentioned by Peter Welsh, Consultant for Commissioning and Partnerships for KCC, on Yammer.

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The ‘Bubble Chart’ shows the themes identified and highlights the frequency of

mentions throughout the business plans; Tackling Climate Change has not been

included due to it being a generic theme featured in all the business plans. The chart

does show that partnership working and sharing services are the two main themes

running through the business plans. All the other themes, such as managing

information and working with SMEs, were mentioned on a similar frequency apart

from the 2012 Olympics.

6.2 Generic Themes

Generic themes refer to topics which are mandatory for each team or directorate to

mention within their business plan.

Tackling Climate Change

Most of the business plans featured ideas such as planning to “reduce CO2 from

buildings, reduce CO2 from travel and transport, and manage climate risk” (KASS

Directorate Business Plan), “car share to meetings” and “reduce office costs”.

However, units are also realising that to tackle climate change, behaviour needs to

be adapted3. Kent Highway Services are encouraging staff to realise that individuals

are just as responsible for their behaviour as units “Ensuring all staff understand their

responsibilities and actions they can take for climate chance and sustainability”, and

Youth Services are looking at updating the “Service’s Environmental Curriculum

Pack, designed as a toolkit to assist staff and young people to undertake

environmental projects at local level”.

6.3 Emerging Themes

3 , “All of this [tackling climate change] requires strong leadership and commitment to changing behaviours across the organisation” – Integrated Strategy and Planning Unit

Cross Directorate Themes

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Emerging themes were not featured in every business plan like tackling climate

change; they were mentioned on a sufficiently frequent basis to form a clear pattern.

Saving Costs

Saving costs was not as prominent a theme as expected within the 2010/11 business

plans. However; this may be as some teams have already completed the majority of

their cost savings4.

Another reason highlighted by the CMY Directorate is that saving costs will be a

significant issue over the next few years, not necessarily just in 2010/115.

Managing Information

Some teams are looking at different ways of managing and disseminating their

information so that they can improve their services. Kent Highway Services (CMY)

are looking at how they can improve information to Gateways. Sports, Leisure and

Olympics (CMY) are looking at rationalising their Service's database system to

enhance performance, management and customer communication; as are Libraries

(CMY) and Trading Standards (CMY). However, there is limited evidence of how this

is going to be carried out within the business plans.

Encouraging Volunteering

Encouraging volunteering within the community and amongst KCC staff was a

prominent theme in the business plans. Policy and Resources (CMY) are going to

encourage and spread good practice in volunteer management within KCC, and

SEDICT will be working in partnership with Kent CAN6 to deliver an annual VCS

conference. Libraries (CMY), Youth Support Services (CMY) and the Sport, Leisure

and Olympics Unit (CMY) are all looking at how they can encourage volunteering in

the community.

Working across Services

4 “The unit has already made very significant cost savings in its direct activities. The key challenge now is how we

help the organisation adjust to operating in a lower resource environment whilst protecting key Member priorities”. 5 “The reduction in public expenditure in the coming years will pose challenges for our operations as well as for users of our services” “which includes over £4m of efficiency savings over the next three years”.6 Kent CAN is a county level infrastructure organisation which exists to support and promote the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) in Kent and Medway.

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The idea that units within KCC are isolated was a common topic within the Staff

Road Shows, with Peter Gilroy, Chief Executive of KCC, mentioning that “there is a

danger that we become more silo'd when budgets are squeezed”. He went on to say

that “We must avoid that and allow money to be used in the most sensible ways”7.

The CFE Directorate Business Plan mentions that in 2010/11 “more flexible

approaches need to be organised around the needs of service users rather than

professional silos”. SEDICT will collaborate with the CMY Directorate, Arts

Development with the CFE Directorate and Kent Highway Services are also looking

at working with other directorates. It was also mentioned in various business plans

that Total Place is the way forward in stopping isolation amongst KCC teams8.

Partnership Working outside of KCC

This was a frequent theme amongst all the directorates, and included working with

district councils, the private sector and other public sector bodies.

Comms and Media (CED) are going to be working with district councils on a joint

communication newspaper, and are looking at joining up with other online services to

provide information to the Gateways. Emergency Planning will also be working with

district councils, along with voluntary organisations, faith groups and members of the

public within the civil contingencies arena.

In terms of other public bodies, Kent Highway Services are going to be looking at

working with Kent Police; Arts Development with Homes and Communities Agency;

Personnel and Development with Dover, Thanet, Shepway and Canterbury councils;

Corporate Finance are going to “Increase partnership working with Kent Districts and

other public sector bodies”.

At the moment however, Public Health within CED are the only unit who stated that

they will be developing a partnership with the private sector, with an aim of improving

healthy living in Gravesend.

Working within Europe

7 Taken from Hollie Snelson’s Yammer Feed whilst she was reporting live from the Staff Road Shows https://www.yammer.com/kent.gov.uk/tags/staffroadshows8 “Total Place may help to unlock ‘silo’ mentality when it comes to tackling ingrained issues” (Supporting

Independence Programme, CMY).

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SEDICT within CED are going to be focusing on “Widening and deepening the

products of the Kent in Europe seminar programme to encompass a think-tank

approach” and are going to “Deliver a seminar and follow-up research and visit

programme to widen Kent’s European network and influence on skills provision

particularly for the 14-24 age range including NEETS”. Arts Development within

CMY Directorate are also going to be delivering ‘EuroCamp’: an international camp

based at the Swattenden Centre for 240 young people aged 14-17 from Kent and

Europe in July/August 2010”. SEDICT especially is sowing the seeds for KCC to

branch out into even more partnership working within Europe, suggesting that this

focus may be more prominent in the future business plans.

Sharing Services

Sharing services was a consistent theme due to pressures for teams to make cost

savings and adopt an influential ‘Total Place’ approach. This again was mentioned in

all the Directorate Business Plans; the major projects being ‘Tell Us Once’ and the

merge between Libraries and the Registration Services both of which are based in

the CMY. The Public Health team (CED) will be carrying out a pilot project to

establish individual health assessments in Kent libraries.

There are other brief mentions of merging services from Kent Highway Services

(EHW), Commissioning and Partnerships (CFE), Libraries (CMY), SDU (CED),

Comms and Media (CED), Personnel and Development (CED), SEDICT (CED) and

the CFE Directorate Business Plan are more passing comments following on from

the success of Total Place and the Gateways.

Working with Businesses

There was an aspiration of helping small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and

working with them, especially within the CED. EHW’s Low Carbon Futures Project

helps SMEs to reduce their emissions and the Arts Development Unit within CMY are

going to working on a framework to help support them in the creative industry. Within

CED, it is planned to map businesses within Kent, help them to ‘internationalise’ and

deliver seminars to help them develop. Trading Standards within CMY are also

hoping to provide trading law advice to them, targeting companies who are

‘developing new or innovative’ products.

Engaging with Young People

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At the KCC Staff Road Shows, Peter Gilroy and Paul Carter emphasised both getting

young people to work at KCC and reducing the number of unemployed young people

within Kent: “We have an ageing workforce, we need to get more people in and

make the targets tougher…in Kent the number of people over 16yrs old has

plummeted thanks to the enormously successful 14-16 vocational programmes” 9.

Personnel and Development within the same directorate is aiming to “Develop a

skilled workforce for the future through the recruitment of young people to influence

the age demographic”.

Again, within EHW there seemed to be contrasting views on drafting young people

into the organisation. Kent Highway Services (CMY) states that “Since the age

profile of the KHS workforce reveals that approximately 30% of staff are over 55

years of age a succession planning and career pathway process is put in place to

ensure continuity of skills and service delivery”, yet within Environment and Waste

“There is a greater proportion of younger staff in the service and currently succession

planning is not an urgent issue as other directorates/services”.

Engaging with hard to reach and disadvantaged groups

This theme was featured in both the TT team’s ‘Transformed By You’ events and was

evident in the business plans. An interesting finding is that the Supporting

Independence Programme (CMY) labelled young people as a ‘disadvantaged group’

and placed them as a priority above all other groups10. HOUSE on the Move also

aims to target young people, but those who are particularly hard to reach11. The

‘Your Safety, Your Health, Your Choice’ quiz by Trading Standards (CMY) aims to

target disadvantaged groups, again there is a focus on young people12.

Personnel and Development (CED) are hoping to map disadvantaged groups within

KCC to “Build a comprehensive picture of the organisation by diversity strands.” Arts

Development (CMY) is going to support the KCC Diversity Festival Work with

DaDa13, and Libraries (CMY) will be looking at how to make their services more

accessible to these groups.

9 Mike Harris and Hollie Snelson Yammer Feed live from the KCC Staff Road Show: https://www.yammer.com/kent.gov.uk/tags/staffroadshows10 , “An immediate priority is young people because evidence indicates that they are being disproportionately disadvantaged by the current recession, although other disadvantaged groups will not be forgotten.”11 “House enables the identification of local needs for hard-to-reach young people who have previously not engaged with services that can lead to significant service re-design.”12 “Teachers and special needs co-ordinators have told us young people with learning disabilities are often overlooked when planning consumer education strategies and so this quiz has been developed to address this gap.”13 DaDa - South regional disability arts organisation

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Moving Services Online

Peter Gilroy mentioned in his Chief Executive foreword for the 2010/11 Business

Plans, “Continuing to develop the new website to be a fully interactive with services

available online. Online transactional capability will not only deliver a better customer

experience but financial savings as well’, however this wasn’t echoed as strongly

within the business plans. Arts Development (CMY) will be looking into increasing

awareness of the Unit and the services it offers through developing a web presence.

Corporate Finance (CED) will be moving into ePayments in 2010/11, and Libraries

(CMY) are going to develop innovative IT solutions for their Library and Archive

services with ISG and other partners (e.g. Radio Frequency Identification - RFID).

The Specialist Children’s Service Group (CFE) are trying to encourage their

educational psychologists to take online and video interactive training.

Promoting 2012 Olympics

The Sports, Leisure and Olympics team (CMY) will have a strong focus on this theme

throughout 2010/11, including seeking to attract events of major significance and

international teams to Kent through the London 2012 Games. However, the only

other business plan that mentioned this event was the Arts Development unit (CMY)

who are going to be helping to organise and run the Kent School Games 2012.

Customers Shaping Services

This theme was a another common theme amongst the business plans, as Peter

Gilroy mentions in his Chief Executive Foreword ‘Citizenship is having increased

meaning in shaping public services - understanding of the customer interface is

therefore of critical importance’.

Within CED, the shaping of HOUSE on the Move is going to be shaped and moulded

based on the feedback from focus groups (Public Health). SDU are going to be

delivering a youth channel driven by young people and focusing on their issues and

ideas. The unit will also be setting up focus groups with customers to review current

service delivery and potential improvements, and the information gathered from

these groups will be used by staff as part of the Insight to Innovation programme.

Comms and Media are also going to be looking at not only customers shaping

services, but allowing them to access more personalised information tailored to their

needs, developing: “website registration to get personalised information and

services, report faults, track the progress of requests/faults and sign up for regular

updates.”

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Within KASS, the rationale behind the modernisation is to give customers a more

personalised service and a higher level of choice and control. Although it is not

stated in the Directorate Business Plan how this is going to be carried out, the work is

ongoing and is related to the FAME project. Customers are also going to be given

more choice and control through the ‘Valuing People Now’, which is again part of the

ALFA modernisation.

KASS also have the Kent LINk (Local Involvement Network) which is an independent

network of local people and community groups working together to influence and

improve Kent’s health and social care services. The Directorate Involvement Group,

has been reconfigured to include members of the public and will be jointly chaired by

a member of the public and a SMT (Senior Management Team) member. The

Learning Resource Team within KASS has also trained 13 service users with mental

health problems to provide training on the Approved Mental Health Practitioner

course for Social Work staff.

Within EHW, Integrated Planning and Strategy are going to improve customer

experience including public access in the planning process, e-consultation and

applications available on the web, while Kent Highway Services are going to engage

with the community to develop and consult on proposed improvements to the

highway network.

Youth Services within CMY are looking at empowering customers to have a greater

influence over the services provided for them, Supporting People will be conducting a

pilot of self directed support to examine the impact, and Policy and Resources will be

listening to young people’s views and opinions and developing their ideas to improve

education and life in Kent.

Developing Total Place

Total Place was noted earlier as helping to shape an approach by sharing services;

however the actual project for delivering this will be developing and expanding within

2010/11. The Property Group’s business plan (CED) states that the unit has been

tasked with making savings of £251k in 2010/2011 and is focusing on identifying

opportunities to generate significant savings. However, the SDU Unit (CED) will be

responsible for the majority of the work for Total Place as they mention that during

2010/11 they will be working with KCC theme leads and external partners to deliver

the aspirations within the Total Place submission, co-ordinating the delivery of the

actions within the programme, ensuring the links between the three themes are made

and liaising with central government as appropriate. They will be exploring

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approaches taken by other pilot areas on Total Place and share ideas and best

practice from these areas in Kent. The CFE Directorate will also be making sure that

in 2010/11 the directorate will be fully involved in Total Place, and discussions will be

linked with the Corporate Centre at the relevant levels – Resource Directors, BWP

(Better Workplaces), COG (Chief Officer Group) and Cabinet.

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Issues

5.1 Issues within the Directorates

A PESTLE analysis14 was conducted to determine any underlying issues which may

be restricting innovative projects being developed within all of the directorates and

may explain the emerging themes that were identified. Each directorate was

analysed in terms of political, environment, social-cultural, technological, legal and

economical issues that appeared in their business plans.

Chief Executive’s Directorate

It is interesting to see that the analysis for the CED, highlighted technology, financial,

social and environmental issues for not only the directorate, but for the wider public

sector and the community too. These were seen as intertwined, meaning that an

issue in the community or public sector may affect the work of CED in 2010/11.

The issue of reduced budgets was highlighted for the whole public sector and the

voluntary sector15 however CED is also looking to generate income, not stated by

other directorates16. The Business Plan not only highlighted a need for technological

solutions, but recognised that these are ever changing and that there is a danger of

the organisation being left behind17. From a social perspective, the directorate

highlights the importance of users shaping services, as highlighted in the research

themes earlier, but there is a danger of not fully understanding their needs18 and

teams not willing to change the way they work to make room for this transformation19.

However, succession planning20 and the rolling out of broadband21 could be

opportunities for innovation rather than barriers within the directorate.14 “A PESTLE analysis involves identifying the Political, Economical, Socio-Cultural, Technological, Legal and Environmental influences on an organisation or strategy” – Strategy Survival Guide, Cabinet Office, Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, July 2004. 15 “This business plan is set in the context of a difficult financial situation. Financial reductions across the public sector, and the voluntary sector, which plays such a key role in Kent, are set to be very significant.”16 “Maximising income generation.”17 “The pace of change in technology is now so rapid that local government is in danger of falling behind the expectations of citizens who are embracing these new technologies. It is essential that we, the public sector family collectively, make the most efficient use of our assets and continue to harness the benefit of emerging technologies”18 “Citizenship is having increased meaning in shaping public services - understanding of the customer interface is therefore of critical importance”19

“This means we have to transform the way we interact and engage”20 Services will maintain a focus on succession planning within the Unit, but good progress was made in 2009/10.

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Children, Families and Education

There was a recognised need for innovation to make improvements within the CFE

Directorate Business Plan, but this was set against a background of reduced budgets

which may limit the amount of innovation planned for 2010/11:

“All require an innovative response from us within the context of reduced public

spending” – CFE Directorate Business Plan

The business plan highlights social problems such as rising demands from the

customer22, the reorganising of the directorate23 and the problem of other local

authorities placing children within Kent24 which again may be barriers against

innovation.

Communities

The CMY Directorate recognises financial issues will arise in 2010/1125, however see

these as a challenge rather than a problem26. No other issues were highlighted by

the analysis which may explain the large number of innovative initiatives planned for

this directorate within 2010/11.

Environment, Highways and Waste

The analysis showed that a need to generate ideas and innovative is evident within

the EHW business plans, but the technological tools to enable this are yet to be

determined which may be a barrier to innovative initiatives. For example, one team

stated that they “want to manage existing IT systems and determine and deliver new

innovative business solutions in 2010/11” however how this will be achieved or with

which tools is not mentioned27.

21 “Grants will be made to increase the wired broadband availability across the county; this is currently 98% for households and 97.3% for businesses and move towards meeting the Digital Britain 2mb+ standard.”22 “Within CFE, in common with many other local authorities, there are challenges in relation to increased demands on our children’s social services”23 “The new delivery model, subject to consultation, will be a significant change for some of the 4,500 staff working within CFE, and there will be the loss of around 260 posts”24 “This continues to create risks across a range of services including the need to provide additional support without the potential for cost recoupment from placing authorities”25 “Upcoming reduction in public finances highlights particular risks that the directorate faces due to its make-up Managers will be focused on delivering a tough Medium term Plan, which includes over £4m of efficiency savings over the next three years”26 “Internally, our services are responding to the challenge to become leaner, more flexible and better able to respond quickly to the changing environment. Our staff will need to continue to be at their creative best, innovating beyond the expectations of our customers, and their development is our priority.”

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Economical barriers28, such as reduced budgets, as well as environmental barriers29,

such as adverse weather conditions during the winter were also mentioned frequently

within the unit plans and again may be barriers to innovative projects being

conducted.

Kent Adult Social Services

The analysis highlighted a need for ‘modernisation’ and personalisation’30,

which is sometimes considered a driver for innovation, and a major

environmental disruption for staff from the directorate restructure31. KASS is

widely known for their innovative mobile working for staff, Telehealth and

FaME project (Flexible and Mobile Working Engagement), and it could be that

the continuation of these major, large-scale innovations may also be

responsible for a lack of new, innovative projects mentioned for 2010/11.

5.2 Issues with the Business Plans

Technological Knowledge

There was a tendency for teams and directorates to make broad statements such as,

“Continuing to support staff with IT skills to support new technology used to improve

efficiency” – Kent Highway Services. The teams stated what they wanted to achieve

(technologies to improve efficiencies within the team) but did not reveal how to

achieve this and which technologies to consider using. Whether this is due to a lack

of technological knowledge or a failure to state planned research into potential

technologies is unknown. However, the TT team has a wealth of knowledge

regarding innovative, time and money saving technologies and should be

disseminating this information amongst all these teams.

Language

27 “To ensure that the country parks service is well-managed, sustainable and innovative, managing the

expenditure/income balance and enable the delivery and development of key services and future visitor needs” - Country Parks for EHW28 “Insufficient resources to meet business objectives and cover workloads”- IS&P29 “We are experiencing the most challenging winter for 30 years – something that was impossible to predict but which has placed significant additional demands on our services” – E&W, “Accidents involving a member of the public or staff at a Household Waste Recycling Centre, in a country park or on a Public Right of Way” – E&W30“Improve the level of personalisation, choice and control”31“Active Lives for Adults (ALfA) is a programme of total transformation… This has been a challenging time for staff”

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There was an evident difference in language between the business plans. For

example, words such as ‘systems’, ‘innovation’, ‘platforms’, ‘prototypes’,

‘applications’, ‘marketplace’ were commonplace throughout the TT team business

plan, compared to a focus on ‘priorities’, ‘delivery’, ‘service’, ‘outcomes’,

‘performance’, ‘people’ and ‘assessment’ within the other unit business plans, see

Figures 2 and 3. It would be beneficial to highlight words that may be uncommon to

other teams or directorates and to provide alternatives, or make it compulsory for

detail to be given about the meanings of uncommon words or synonyms within the

footnotes.

Figure 2: A wordle of the KASS Directorate 2010/11 Business Plan

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Figure 3: A wordle of the CFE Directorate 2010/11 Business Plan

Highlighting Risk Management and Issues

Plans on managing risk within 2010/11 were stated and clearly labelled within some

of the business plans but not all. It is recommended to make this along with stating

expected future barriers and limitations within the business plans compulsory.

Highlighting these barriers may help to forge relationships between units who may be

facing the same barriers, and can instead embrace partnership working in tackling

these issues together.

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The Technology Transformation Team’s main driver is:

‘Innovations that radically change the way KCC does business by supporting

users/customers/staff and Members to do more for themselves via remote,

transactional channels and thereby empowering them to shape services and

personalise access to information to meet their own needs.’32

Therefore, it is essential for the TT team to fully understand how teams are currently

conducting their work and if they have the potential to benefit from the research into

innovation that will be conducted in the upcoming year. With this in mind, links were

made between the research themes highlighted in the TT Team’s 2010/11

Programme and the Unit and Directorate business plans.

6.1 Smart Phone Applications

There are numerous teams, especially within EHW, looking to promote or share

information about their services in a way that is easily accessible to the general

public. Teams are also looking at ways that their customers can inform them of

changes in the environment and help to shape the services, for example reporting fly

tipping in the local area, which can be achieved through smart phone applications.

6.2 Innovation Playground

Sports, Leisure and Olympics and other teams within the CMY directorate are

interested in a platform that would help them source funding and partners to work

with on projects.

6.3 Virtual Presenter32 Taken from The Technology Transformation Programme 2010.

Technology Transformation Team Research

Themes

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The Virtual Presenter tool may be able to help the several teams looking at different

ways of delivering training, such as online, and Kent Highways Service who are

looking at streamlining their ‘out of hours’ service.

6.4 Co-Creative Working

The Technology Transformation Team has recently hosted two events, ‘Transformed

By You’ and ‘Transformed By You On Campus’ which had a theme of co-creative

working. The Arts Development Team is working on two similar events with the

Dreamland Trust to deliver innovation and creativity within the development of the

Dreamland site, and with National Federation of Artists’ Studio Providers and KADU

to support creative workspace development opportunities. Similarly the Gateway

projects within CED have a theme of co-creative working, but this is not a priority

within the rest of the directorates.

6.5 Dissemination of Ideas

Teams within KCC are mainly disseminating their ideas via newsletters and the web;

although the Comms and Media team (CED) are now embracing social media.

6.6 New Channels

Teams across all the directorates are looking to adopt new channels to engage with

customers and provide cost efficiencies, such as providing digital services, e-

solutions and using social media, however how these are going to be implemented is

generally not specified.

For more detailed information, see Appendix F.

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Kent County Council

• To consider including a section on managing risks and potential barriers,

especially with respect to innovation, in the Business Plan structure. This

would be achieved through contacting the individuals responsible for

structuring the business plan and explaining the potential benefits for them to

consider for the 2011/12 business plans.

• To encourage teams to think innovatively when tackling addressing generic

themes such as climate change and sustainability. Many teams merely

stated that they were addressing this issue through reducing office costs, but

more innovative solutions such as tackling behaviour may be more effective

in the long term.

• To recommend that detail be given about the meanings of uncommon words

or synonyms within the footnotes of the business plans. This again would be

achieved through negotiations with the individuals who are responsible for

structuring the business plans.

• To take into account the success of Total Place and the vibrant theme of

other teams within the organisation wanting to work like this, and to look for

further opportunities to encourage this in the future.

Technology Transformation Team

• To determine what needs to be followed up from this report, by whom and

when, especially for the innovative projects highlighted.

• To contact teams highlighted under the Technology Transformation Team

Research Themes to find out more information about their projects and what

Recommendations

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is planned for them. For example, Kent Highway Services for smart phone

application.

• To conduct research into the level of technological knowledge outside of the

team and how it impacts innovative projects.

• To produce an information pack on technological solutions to give to teams

within KCC.

• To conduct a research report annually after all the new business plans have

been released, and to compare trends and innovation between KCC business

plans and what is happening with London and nationally.

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