Cabinet Report – Budget Strategy Addendum 3 - Corporate Resources – Proposals Affecting Employees Report for Consideration by Cabinet on 25 th November 2014. Cabinet Report Addendum 3 Corporate Resources final 1 Service Area Cabinet Recommendation & Responsible Officer Page number of this addendum 1 Business Services Group (BSG) – Property and HR Shared Services (HRSSC). 1.3.2 Director of Business Services Group 2 2 BSG – Strategic Procurement and Greenford Business Service Centre (GBSC). 1.3.2 Director of Business Services Group 22 3 BSG – Senior Management Team and Commercial. 1.3.2 Director of Business Services Group 27 4 Finance Services and Corporate Finance. 1.3.2 Director of Finance and Deputy Section 151 Officer 31 5 Revenues and Audit & Investigation. 1.3.2 Director of Finance and Deputy Section 151 Officer 40 6 Democratic Services. 1.3.2 Director of Legal and Democratic Services 44
Report for Consideration by Cabinet on 25th November 2014.
Cabinet Report Addendum 3 Corporate Resources final 3
1. BSG – Property and HRSSC. There are a number of proposals within the Property & HR Shared Services department. The department delivers property services including professional property advice, major projects, facilities management services, hospitality and events, corporate health and safety services and HR shared services. Details of specific roles that are proposed to be deleted are detailed below.
Proposed changes:
Service area
affected
Proposal
1 Senior
Management
Team in
Property &
HRSSC
The number of staff reporting directly to the
Head of Property and HR Shared Services to
reduce from 8 to 7.
This will be achieved through
deleting the vacant post of
Asset Manager.
2 Hospitality and
Events
It is proposed to move the catering team who manage café rendezvous in Perceval House under the Hospitality and Events team with the Catering Manager reporting directly to the Head of Hospitality and Events. The number of Facilities Managers in the FM team is proposed to reduce from 4 to 2.
Moving the team under hospitality and events will enable more efficient resourcing to cope with the reduction in the number of facilities managers And will assist with increasing commercial focus. As part of this change it is also proposed to move all existing staff to a standard Ealing role profile, grade and terms and conditions.
3 Professional
property
advice and
capital projects
It’s proposed to delete the posts of Project Support Officer (currently occupied) and Graduate Building Surveyor (currently vacant).
The team will move to a new operating model whereby 50% of their salaries will need to be met through a fee earning arrangement, attributed to capital project work. The role of architectural apprentice will continue to be funded 100% from the revenue budget and will not be part of the fee earning operating model. This new operating model will
Report for Consideration by Cabinet on 25th November 2014.
Cabinet Report Addendum 3 Corporate Resources final 4
4 Property
Maintenance
It’s proposed to delete all five roles of fabric engineer (3 currently occupied) and two new roles of Carpenter & Joiner will be created. These new roles will report to the fabric supervisor. There will also be a new role of Handyman created specifically for the Libraries FM service.
This will assist in organising resources more effectively to meet future requirements. It is proposed that all staff in this team will move to Ealing role profiles including Ealing grades and Ealing terms and conditions.
5 Cleaning It’s proposed to delete 81 roles throughout the cleaning service and reconfigure resources by creating the following: •5 x teams of 3 cleaners that will be mobile covering all sites in scope across the Borough but excluding Perceval House and Ealing Town Hall. •8 daytime mobile cleaners, covering all sites in scope across the Borough including Perceval House and Ealing Town Hall. •3 FTE cleaners on 35 hours per week contracts working across Perceval House (PH) and Ealing Town Hall (ETH) 7 days a week. •There will also be 6 cleaners working 15 hours per week from 5pm -8pm Monday to Friday •Perceval House only – 2 cleaners working 20 hours per week each on a Monday-Friday roster.
This will reconfigure resources to meet savings requirements and will result in a reduction of the cleaning service across the estate. There will be a greater emphasis on moving to night cleaning carried out by mobile cleaning teams. It is proposed that all staff in this team will move to Ealing role profiles including Ealing grades and Ealing terms and conditions.
6 Security Where security staff are put at risk of redundancy, they will have to reapply for one or more of the new positions. It is proposed to reduce the number of duty managers from 4 to 3 (one post is vacant so this group will not be at risk) Three Security Controller Posts are proposed to be deleted along with 43 security guard posts. The duties contained within the Security Controller roles will be merged with the Security Guard roles. It’s proposed the new structure will be:
9 day security guards working on a 35 hour contract, Monday to Friday including the controller duties.
3 night security guards working on a 35 hour contract, to cover the building 7 days a week.
It is proposed that Perceval House will remain open 24/7 with restricted access via the security team from 8pm to 6am Monday to Friday and 8pm Friday to 6am on a Monday. Ealing Town Hall will be open from 6am to 12pm, Sunday to Friday and on Saturdays until 1am the following day.
No proposed changes to borough CCTV guards.
5 day security guards working on a 35 hour contract, on a shift basis to cover the building 6am to 1am 7 days a week including front of house duties
Report for Consideration by Cabinet on 25th November 2014.
Cabinet Report Addendum 3 Corporate Resources final 5
3 security drivers working borough wide working on a 35 hour contract, on a rota basis covering 6am to 10pm, 7 days a week. There will also be a requirement for each guard to cover overnight on-call duties every third week.
2 cover/relief guards working borough wide working on a 35 hour contract
Greenford Depot
9 guards working on a 35 hour contract , on a shift basis to cover the site 24/7
1 Greenford Depot supervisor working on a 35 hour contract. This post is proposed to be grade 5
301 Ruislip Road, Ealing Active Centre, Cavendish Study Centre, Southall Town Hall, Greenford Assembly Halls and Northolt Family Centre
1 guard per site working on a 35 hour contract. Additional hours on these sites will be covered by a combination of relief guards and overtime offered to all security guards
contracts.
7 Facilities
Managers and
FM Service
Centre Team
There are currently 4 Facilities Managers and 1
FM Service Centre Manager.
It’s proposed to delete two Facility Manager
roles (not occupied). It is proposed that the role
Report for Consideration by Cabinet on 25th November 2014.
Cabinet Report Addendum 3 Corporate Resources final 6
additional responsibilities due to the reduction in
Facilities Managers from 4 to 2 and a new role
profile has been proposed. It is proposed that
the existing cleaning managers will lift and drop
into these new roles.
8 Catering This team currently comprises of 1 Catering Manager and 5.5 Catering Assistants. It is proposed that these roles are deleted and a new role of Catering Team Leader will be created at grade 4 and four new roles of Catering Assistants at grade 2. Therefore all people in this team will be at risk of redundancy.
It is proposed that all new posts in this team will be with Ealing role profiles and Ealing grades and Ealing terms and conditions of service.
9 Business
Support
With the Asset Manager role now vacant and proposed to be closed as part of these proposals, this has provided an opportunity to merge the Asset Management team and refine the roles within the team still further. A new role profile for the Business Development Manager has been created called ‘Business Performance & Development Manager’. It is proposed that the existing post holder will lift and drop into this new role as the new role is substantially unchanged when compared to the old role. A new role of FM Business Analyst has been created and the proposed grade of this new role is grade 8 or 9. This is deemed as a ‘lift and drop’ from the role of Business Development Coordinator as the new role is substantially unchanged. The role of Commercial Assistant will move from the Asset Management Team and report directly to the Business Development Manager. There is no other proposed change to this role profile.
This newly merged team of business development and asset management will be responsible for: •Development of new business into the FM and Technical Services teams •Business engagement with existing clients to ensure service is aligned to their needs including an established customer forum and regular customer feedback •Management of the data contained within the Atrium database, liaising closely with the Atrium Systems Administrator in the ICT team. •Production of strategic property asset data reports including FM performance report to the Executive Director of Corporate Resources •Continuous benchmarking and analysis of FM and property cost data with comparable organisations
10 Strategic cost
management
and Quantity
Surveying
The role of Commercial Assistant will move and report to the Business Performance & Development Manager. The role of Graduate Quantity Surveyor is currently vacant and is proposed to be deleted.
11 HR Shared
Service Centre
It is proposed to delete the following posts:
Payroll & Pensions Manager
Advisor position in HR Admin & Recruitment Team (currently unoccupied)
One Recruitment & HR Administrator role
One pensions coordinator role (payroll & pensions)
One system administrator role (payroll & pensions)
HR Administration and recruitment existing team will now take on the additional responsibility for the iTrent helpdesk service first level enquiries. Contracts management This existing team will take on
Report for Consideration by Cabinet on 25th November 2014.
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Four system administrator roles (iTrent) It is proposed to create the following posts:
Two development support officers
One senior development officer
One business analyst
One compliance & reconciliation officer
the existing responsibility for the administration of pensions, integrating this with the existing duties of contract managing the LPFA contract. In addition, this team will incorporate the function of compliance and reconciliation. The payroll reconciliation (known as payroll system) role will move to the Contracts team and will broaden to include compliance. This role is substantially unchanged and will therefore be a ‘lift and drop’ from the existing role iTrent system team This team will take on the responsibilities for the technical running of the payroll and payroll system development. Both payroll team leader positions will move to the iTrent team, along with the payroll administrators, one new position in lieu of one of the administrators to be created as a senior role to support system change.
Report for Consideration by Cabinet on 25th November 2014.
Cabinet Report Addendum 3 Corporate Resources final 22
Officer
HRSSC Development Officer
2 TBE* 35 4 x system administrators
TOTAL 84
*TBE – To be job evaluated. The overall budget saving that will be met from these proposals is £1,421,000. 2. BSG – Strategic Procurement and GBSC. Strategic Procurement
The last restructure of Strategic Procurement took place in summer 2011. Since then the environment in which the service is operating has continued to become more challenging financially, with funding to the council continuing to reduce significantly. During this time, the aim of the council has always been to protect front-line services to the community as much as possible.
Already with this in mind, the 2011 revised team structure was designed to take enable service areas to be more self-sufficient and empowered to let and manage their own contracts in exactly the way stated within the council constitution. The team roles defined were mainly in response to feedback provided from across the Council (both directly from service areas and via for example the Corporate Resources survey) that consistently recommended that the team should be more strategic and less operational/tactical. There was also demand from services for provision of professional support throughout the commercial lifecycle from needs analysis through to contract management rather focussing than purely on the tender part of the process as had been the case previously. In the new financial environment, the latter especially has become even more the case with service areas seeking support with business cases, exploring new ways of delivering services and generally adopting a more commercial approach to the way they operate with external organisations to deliver services.
Therefore, the purpose of the Procurement restructure is two-fold: Firstly, the proposal aims to create a strong, highly skilled core Commercial & Procurement team with the capability to support services throughout the commercial lifecycle of contracts and equivalent arrangements with external organisations, and also able to adapt their commercial thinking and procurement/ supply chain knowledge to support the different service areas specific needs, for example with market management and development. Secondly, the proposal will result in budget savings.
The proposed changes within the core Procurement team involves the deletion of posts covering a headcount of 8 as well as 2 FTE vacant posts and the creation of 4 FTE posts as well as refining the role profiles for 2 FTE posts (Procurement Officer).
Greenford Business Support Centre (GBSC)
The Print, Post and Distribution team within GBSC are:
responsible for receiving and sorting all incoming and outgoing mail, including all central offices around Ealing and 167 sites in the borough including 14 libraries, 89 schools, deliveries to Members home addresses and bulk mail; and
responsible for bulk printing and copying documents, including agenda papers and cabinet reports, on behalf of the council.
Following an analysis of the workload and capacity, it is proposed that a reduction in the number of posts in the Post room and Reprographics part of the team from 12 to 7 is feasible.
The Procure to Pay (P2P) team operates as part of the Greenford Business Support Centre (GBSC) to deliver support to both service areas and suppliers with regards to the payment process and use of the Agresso finance system for Council transactions with suppliers.
Since the transfer of Ealing Homes back to the council in April 2011, the P2P team has included a post of Senior Payments Officer, this post being part of the previous Ealing Homes establishment. This post has
Report for Consideration by Cabinet on 25th November 2014.
Cabinet Report Addendum 3 Corporate Resources final 23
been retained to date unchanged as, for a period of time after the Ealing Homes transfer, there was a need to cover previous Ealing Homes Accounts Payable and systems queries and on a longer-term basis, managing payments in relation to the Ohms system repairs and maintenance work. However, a specific role is no longer needed as the wider P2P Team has been cross-trained to cover any remaining Housing specific duties so that there is suitable cover for annual leave and any other absence. For these reasons, it is proposed to delete this 1 FTE post.
For the other posts within the P2P team, each member of the team has been allocated a group of service areas to support with the responsibilities of each being the same, which, combined with cross-training within the team to cover certain specialist tasks to allow for cover for team member absence, means that the disparity in role profiles is no longer appropriate. Therefore, the remaining team posts covering a headcount of 5 are to be deleted and replaced with 5 FTE Procure to Pay Support Officer roles.
Report for Consideration by Cabinet on 25th November 2014.
Cabinet Report Addendum 3 Corporate Resources final 24
Proposed Structure
Greenford Business Service Centre (GBSC).
The changes are as follows:
The roles of Senior Payments Officer, Procure to Pay Officer, Procurement Support Officer and Payment Support Officer are all to close, to be replaced by 5 Procure to Pay Support Officers.
The overall savings from these proposals is £321,500 per annum. BSG – Senior Management Team and Commercial.
Proposal.
Senior Management Team (SMT)
It is proposed to delete the post of Executive Assistant to Director of Business Services (Position
Number P022943).
Reason for Proposal.
Since 2010 the senior management team of the Business Services Group has reduced from 7
Heads of Service to 5 Heads of Service in 2011 and then further to 4 Heads of Service in 2012
and now to 3 Heads of Service in 2014. Given these reductions, the administrative support
required for the Director and the senior management team has gradually reduced over this
period. During this time the council has also refreshed its ICT platform, introduced smartphones
and offers staff full remote desktop access from tablets. As a result of the introduction these tools
the Director and Heads of service have become increasingly self-sufficient in terms of
administration, telephony and diary management.
As a result of the need to meet the significant savings target for Business Services from 2015/16 onwards all areas of Business Services directorate have had to be examined for the potential to make savings. It has been clear for some time that a full time role to support the Director and the Senior Management Team is not required and as such it is proposed the role be closed.
Report for Consideration by Cabinet on 25th November 2014.
Cabinet Report Addendum 3 Corporate Resources final 28
Proposal.
It is proposed to delete the post of Project Management Partner (Position Number P027388).
Reason for Proposal.
Commercial Management - Programme Management
Programme management in Ealing is a distributed function across the directorates and service areas. The Head of Project and Programme Management role within Business Services was closed through a restructure in August 2012. The rationale for this was that the Head of Project and Programme Management had set up structures and governance across the council to monitor and report on major projects and programmes. The Programme Management team had facilitated training of key staff in the service areas in project management skills, improving the council’s capabilities in this area to a level where service areas and directorates were successfully managing projects and programmes independently with little or no central support. Since the Head of Project and Programme Management role closed in 2012 the Project Management Partner role has reported into the Head of Commercial Planning and Performance and then from 2014 to the Commercial Planning and Performance Manger. The post holder has been predominantly working on projects within Business Services Group such as the introduction of “follow me printing” and the transition to the new print contractor. The print project completed sometime ago and over the last year the post holder has been working on the introduction of Atrium, the council’s Property Asset management database and CAFM (Computer Aided Facilities Management) system. The Atrium project is due to complete by the end of 2014. As a result of the need to meet the significant savings target for Business Services from 2015/16 onwards all areas of Business Services directorate have had to be examined for the potential to make savings. As a result it is proposed to close the post of Programme Management Partner.
Report for Consideration by Cabinet on 25th November 2014.
Cabinet Report Addendum 3 Corporate Resources final 31
Proposed Post Deletions.
Summary of proposed post deletions in Senior Management Team (SMT) and
Commercial.
Corporate Resources – BSG – Senior Management Team (SMT) and Commercial
Proposed Post Deletions occupied by:
Post Title
Current number of posts
Proposed Post Deletions
Employee Vacant Agency At risk
1 Executive Assistant to Director of Business Services
Headcount 1 1 1 0 0 1
FTE 1 1 1 0 0
2 Project Management Partner
Headcount 1 1 1 0 0 1
FTE 1 1 1 0 0
Total Headcount 2 2 2 0 0
2 FTE 2 2 2 0 0
There are no proposed post creations in SMT and Commercial. The proposal for SMT and Commercial Planning and Performance will deliver savings of
£105,000.
4. Finance Services and Corporate Finance.
Proposal Since January 2014, Finance teams have been reviewing working practices, processes, and systems as part of the move to business partnering and new ways of working. This proposal creates a Finance structure that:
Creates a business partnering model
Reorganises resources to create a flexible structure that supports strategic/project work as well as ensuring “business as usual” financial disciplines are maintained across the Council
Facilitates the cultural changes required to meet the future needs of the Council
Facilitates the achievement of the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for the Finance Department medium and long term vision and enable the required Finance Department savings of £1.5m to be delivered for 2015/16.
Proposed post deletions and creations are summarised in tables below and above Reasons for Proposals The current Finance structure does not support business partnering and is not configured in a way that supports cultural changes needed to ensure that Finance develop the type of financial management that will be required in services across the Council. Recent reviews of the Finance teams identified that there is too much reactive rather than proactive practice and a culture of silo working that is preventing flexibility with work flow, and career development opportunities for finance staff. The majority of the posts in the current structure of the Finance team focus on operational support with a small minority of posts
Report for Consideration by Cabinet on 25th November 2014.
Cabinet Report Addendum 3 Corporate Resources final 32
designed to deliver a strategic service. There are also a large number of senior staff conducting transactional activities e.g. journals and virements. The aim of Finance is to provide and promote sound financial advice and quality assured financial information to enable the financial resilience and business objective delivery to the Service Clients. To create flexibility, agility and responsiveness as part of the day-to-day working of the Finance team. The key benefits of the proposed organisational changes are to: • support the Finance culture shift towards full business partnering • focus on strategic and operational financial service requirements • have the right people, with the right skills, in the right place • create a ‘matrix’ working environment across senior management and the finance teams; • increase opportunities for career development • create flexibility and adaptability with capacity and capability to manage work streams across the
teams • retain and grow the Graduate Programme to effectively succession plan future ‘home grown’
finance business partner experts • remove the need for agency workers • generate and deliver a saving of approximately £1.5m.
Summary of proposed post deletions in Finance Services and Corporate Finance.
Report for Consideration by Cabinet on 25th November 2014.
Cabinet Report Addendum 3 Corporate Resources final 40
5. Revenues and Audit & Investigation
Proposal
The proposals are the proposed reorganisation within the Revenue and Audit & Investigation teams, which contributes in part, to the 2015/16 savings through reductions in staffing and management. The aim of this proposal is to now create a structure that will aid continuous performance improvement and best practice and facilitates the achievement of the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for the Department medium and long term vision. It will also enable the required Department saving of £1.5m to be delivered for 2015/16. Proposed post deletions and creations are summarised in tables below and above
Reasons for Proposals
The aim of Revenues is to provide and promote sound financial advice and quality assured financial information to enable the financial resilience and business objective delivery to the Clients and Residents. It provides an opportunity to rename the service Accounts Receivable so that staff can be prepared for greater accountability to enable them to aid continuous improvement of performance management and control. In addition, the structure will create flexibility, agility and responsiveness as part of the day-to-day working of the Accounts Receivable team. The key benefits of the proposed organisational changes are to:
focus on strategic and operational Financial service requirements
have the right people, with the right skills, in the right place
create a ‘matrix’ working environment across senior management and the finance teams;
increase opportunities for career development
create flexibility and adaptability with capacity and capability to manage work streams across the
teams
remove the need for agency workers
generate and deliver a saving of approximately £1.5m.
Proposed Post Deletions (Specific roles proposed to be deleted given below)
Report for Consideration by Cabinet on 25th November 2014.
Cabinet Report Addendum 3 Corporate Resources final 44
6. Democratic Services Proposed Post Deletions (Specific roles proposed to be deleted given below)
Proposed Post Creations: 3 FTE posts moving to the Chief Executive’s Directorate.
Proposed post creations
Number Advisory Grade
1 Head of Leader’s Office 1 13 2 Executive Assistant to the Leader 1 11 3 Mayor’s Driver 1 5
Total 3
Proposal
The Members Services Team provides support to Members. It is proposed to reorganise the existing Members Services Team by reducing the number of posts and by creating a new Leader’s Office Team reporting to the Director of Strategy and Engagement to provide strategic policy research and development in support of the Leader and senior officers.
Proposed post deletions and creations are summarised in tables below and above
Reasons for Proposals
The unprecedented budget pressures on local government, coupled with the fast moving pace of national policy development, mean it is more important than ever that members and officers are working together in an integrated and coordinated way to ensure that Ealing is well placed to exploit opportunities and respond to pressures. This requires the highest level of policy understanding and the development of strong and clear communication channels. At the same time, budget pressures across the council mean that budget savings must be made in officer support to members. One way to achieve this is to combine more traditional officer support roles with the policy and co-ordination functions that the council now requires in order to set consistent policies and achieve effective service delivery into the future. For this reason, it is proposed to create a new Leader’s Office team. This politically neutral team will be primarily concerned with policy research and development, and with developing and enhancing co-ordination and more effective understanding and working between members and officers. The team will take the lead in identifying policy opportunities and threats, and Ealing’s response to these. The team will be part of the Chief Executive’s department, thus putting it right at the heart of the council’s officer team and creating a direct bridge between the Chief Executive and the Leader.
