Decision details

(1)

it be noted that the following activity has already commenced within the Council in respect of:-

·         developing a bespoke agile working solution that is tailored to the Council’s needs as part of the Public Sector Reform Project ‘Asset Maximisation’; and

·         engaging with Senior Management of the Council to ensure that buy-in to the project is maximised as this will be critical to delivering the required cultural change;  

(2)

the contents of the Accommodation Strategy/Agile Working Group Final report and recommendations be approved and accordingly, the Head of Corporate Resources be requested to implement the following recommendations:-

(a)

mobilise an Implementation Team across the following key disciplines in order to support project delivery:

·         Property

·         Human Resources

·         ICT

·         Communications / Transformation;

(b)

develop systems to address the business storage requirements to facilitate a paper-less/paper-lite office and support business transformation;

(c)

develop as part of the Asset Maximisation Programme, a full business case taking account of the financial and non-financial benefits for each proposal;

(d)

develop a Communications Plan that can be disseminated throughout the Council;

(e)

develop a policy and create protocols and engagement with the workforce to ensure operational discipline;

(f)

continue to work with and monitor progress in service areas that have already adopted elements of Agile Working;

(g)

consider the development of a demonstration area (mock-up of accommodation) that can trial the proposals made and encourage staff to embrace a new way of working;

(h)

investigate training for managerial staff in changes of management style required for the new method of working and supervision thereof; and

(i)

identify areas of benefit / improvement from other corporate environments to:

·         continue to explore experience of other organisations including Local Authorities; and

·         monitor / Measure / Adapt - baseline how we work now and review once Agile Working is implemented; and

(3)

that the Head of Corporate Resources submit a monitoring report to the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Regulatory, Compliance and Corporate Resources to be held on 16 January 2018, setting out progress made against each of the recommendations set out in the report and that thereafter, monitoring reports be submitted to the Committee on a six monthly basis.