London Borough of Ealing – The Ealing VfM Programme October 2010

1. London Borough of Ealing – The Ealing VfM Programme October 2010

2. The Vision

3. The Vision for VfM In line with all Public Sector Organisations, Ealing faces an environment of increased demand for services, with decreasing resources. The VfM Programme is one of the key mechanisms Ealing is using to meet this challenge. History of Success Over the past five years, Ealing has successfully transformed itself into one of the best performing councils in the country, with a sound financial footing. This success has been achieved through empowering Directors and Services to drive change and meet budget challenges; rather than imposing a solution from the centre. Corporate Board decided to build on the success of the past five years to develop a collaborative and distributed approach to meeting the current challenges. This approach has strong alignment with the values and culture of Ealing. The Programme The VfM Programme is a three year programme to orchestrate cost saving initiatives across the council. The programme does not include in scope; and does not manage local initiatives proposed and owned by individual Directors within their services. It encompasses broader initiatives, that a salami slicing model may miss. The Programme also does not rely on a large centralised team to drive and deliver the programme; but leverages existing skills and talent through encouraging collaboration. Star Chamber, Business Planning and Benefits Realisation The VfM Programme sits alongside the annual budget setting process. One of the key elements of this is the Star Chamber process. Rather than re-invent the wheel, the programme works with the Star Chamber process to identify cashable benefits and to track these through to delivery.

4. Managing, Governing and Leading the Ealing VfM Programme

5. Overview of the Programme of Work Corporate Board and the VfM Group Corporate board own the VfM Programme and review progress on a monthly basis. They are supported by the VfM Group, where each Corporate Board member is represented by a Director-level nominee. A key role the VfM Group Members take is to manage the conflict that arises between service level savings initiatives and corporate level savings.

6. Management Structure Reviews To Protect Frontline Services, there was a recognition that Ealing needed to challenge its Management Structure to deliver a broader structure with fewer layers between Corporate Board and frontline delivery. The Reviews are led by the Executive Directors; supported by staff from the Strategic HR team. The Management Structure will be reviewed every budget cycle to assure the direction of travel is to a lower proportion of managers. • The Review Process • Step 1 - Desktop Review – Based on Current Structure held on our HR System • Step 2 - Challenge Process • Initial review by HRBP and Executive Director • Each Director to review with their management team & HR • Management team to review and challenge across whole of the Service area • Type of teams Manageable Span • Management of professional or management structure 1:5 – 1:10 • Supervision of skilled technical team (similar field of work) 1:12 • Supervision of skilled technical team (more than one field of work) 1:6 to 1:8 • Supervision of an unskilled/semi-skilled team 1:<20 • Step3 – Output Challenged by Corporate Board and Members

7. The Lean Academy Ealing is investing in developing a Lean culture across the organisation. Lean is the set of tools that assist in the identification and steady elimination of waste. As waste is eliminated quality improves while costs are reduced. • The Lean Academy • A Lean Academy has been established Managed by Performance and Planning. • A Lean Consultant has delivered a series of training courses in Lean and run a pilot Lean review • Over 40 members of staff have been trained in Lean Methods • Standard tools, methods, templates and approaches have been put in place • An Efficiency Network of Lean practitioners has been established • The Lean Programme • The following processes are in the current Lean Programme of work: • Vacancy and Agency • Housing Benefits • Purchase to Pay (Nov - Feb) • ASB - Integration of Ealing Homes and Council ASB Teams • Revenues • Housing Contact Centre • Schools Admission • Social Work Re-Modelling

8. Non-Essential Spend Over the past few years, expenditure on non-essential areas has been allowed to grow. With increased austerity, there are a number of areas of spend that Ealing decided were no longer acceptable, in the face of potential service cuts. A short-term piece of work has been initiated to implement and police new policies on how we spend council money on discretionary items. Some of these initiatives will deliver tangible savings, and these will be carried into budget setting; others are more symbolic, but help towards an change in attitudes from staff as to what is and is not acceptable as a way of spending council money. • The Target Areas • Attendance at conferences • Use of mobile phones • Refreshments • Awards • Hiring of external rooms for meetings • Office plants • The Christmas Tree • Spend on stationery • Ensure post is sent 2nd class. • Training Restrictions • Introduce staff suggestion scheme • Promote the power down campaign to save electricity • Water coolers – switch off so that they serve filtered at room temperature. • Review of spending on advertising and marketing • Stop making CHAPS payments • Restrict staff use of taxis.

9. Savings Proposals We asked all of Ealing’s staff to suggest ideas for cost saving – Anonymously Over 400 ideas have been submitted so far; many related to projects/policy changes already taking place, but others are being taken forward through the VfM subgroup and/or through immediate policy changes. Feedback on the “first wave” of suggestions will be issued through December edition of “Inside Ealing” Service Specific Many of the ideas related to specific services. The Directors are considering which of these ideas to take forward. Though many are already train to be implemented over the next three years. Existing Initiatives Where we had an existing programme, for example, the ICT Strategy delivery programme. These programmes have been asked to identify how they will include the staff suggestions in their implementation. Communicating As part of the Communications strategy, we Inside Ealing to tell staff where we have taken their ideas and put them into practice. • The New Initiatives • From the suggested ideas the following projects have been initiated: • Room Hire and Utilisation Improvements • Contract Management Strategy • Temporary Staff Cost Reduction Opportunities • Review of Consultancy Spend • Review of Transport costs • Mobile Service Delivery • Review of Courier Services • Review of Printers

10. Cross-Cutting Reviews • There are a number of functions in the Council, that are undertaken by more than one department. We have asked Directors to undertake reviews of these functions to identify where we could make savings by having a more joined up approach • The Current Reviews • We have initiated reviews into the following Functions, with more to follow: • Performance Management • Property • Communications • Finance

11. The Medium Term When the current tranche of projects are complete, the pressure on costs won’t go away. To address this, Ealing has commissioned a series of Strategic Reviews from our Policy and Improvement Teams, to identify future models of working; and to develop business cases to deliver improved ways of working in a number of High Concept areas. The Big Ideas to Investigate Volunteering – Which of our services can be delivered more effectively by using voluntary sector Market Testing (e.g. charitable trusts) – What is the best delivery model for each of our services, in house, out-sourced or a third way Channel Shift – What services do we deliver and contracts do we manage, that could be done cheaper in a different channel. Regulation – Possibly better described as De-regulation – do we do anything under the banner of regulatory requiremetns, that actually we do not need to do

12. Communications To successfully deliver a Programme of Change and a Cultural Shift of the scale Ealing is currently facing, we need to constantly be communicating to our key stakeholders. The Programme team is working with the Corporate Marketing and Communications teams to develop a strategy for the three year programme Working with the LSP • To leverage our Local Partners to look for savings across • Focus on the highest cost families in the LSP area • Use of Property Assets • Better Information and Data Sharing Fees and Charges To ensure that Ealing are maximising revenue opportunities, Finance are leading a review of all areas we collect revenue to identify where there are opportunities to increase revenue.