Agenda item

The Committee received an update on the ‘Transform, Innovate and Change’ (TIC) programme. Members noted that the initiative, established in 2012, was launched in response to the significant financial challenges being faced by the Local Authority and that to date, the TIC approach had assisted in identifying, or was helping to deliver, approximately £6.4m of efficiency savings. The Committee also received an overview of projects relating to services in the Education & Children Department which had led to significant savings in both time and money, as well as leading to more efficient methods of working. The projects were:

·         Food orders for school kitchens

·         School catering timesheet returns

·         Petty cash

·         Free school meals service

The following issues were discussed during consideration of the update: 

Reference was made to the different contact points within the food orders process for school kitchens (e.g. supplier, Education Department and Financial Services) and whether this could be further rationalised to one point of contact. The Strategic Development Manager noted that partnership working was key to this particular project, especially from the supplier’s perspective. As a spin-off from this project, the Department had identified other processes where the number of contact points had been challenged and significantly reduced. In one particular area of work, his team had been removed from the process altogether, enabling the delivery of cashable savings.

In response to a query as to whether schools themselves had realised savings from the food orders, the Strategic Development Manager noted that these were processes related to the work of the Local Authority but that there was significant potential for schools to benefit from employing the TIC methodology to their activities. This was the main reason that the Department would be developing a business case in conjunction with the TIC Team to employ an officer dedicated to working with schools on efficiency projects. 

It was asked whether the savings achieved to date were good enough or was the Authority aiming higher and working commercially enough to sort out issues of waste and inefficiency, as would happen in the private sector. The TIC Programme Manager informed the Committee that the approach from the outset had been one of working in partnership and alongside services rather than demanding savings from departments, an approach that would have been a barrier to developing relationships with services. The TIC Programme Team considered the identified savings as a positive outcome although he reminded the Committee that whilst efficiencies were welcomed, the approach had also brought about streamlined and efficient processes and the opportunity for services to invest to save (i.e. to request additional funding / staff in order to gain greater efficiencies in the longer term).

The Committee welcomed the developments and thanked officers for their presentation. The Chair also suggested that the Committee receive further updates on progress relating to the projects considered.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the update be received.