IDeA Report 2000
Leadership - Vision and Strategy
Strengths
Somerset County Council (SCC) has developed a vision for its area which is “a good quality of life for all residents” involving “access to services and information for all citizens and communities and the opportunity to influence service delivery”. It has defined six areas in which the county council aims to make improvements in order to move towards the vision. Examples are improving educational achievements and providing increased opportunities for sport, leisure and cultural activities.
The priority of the elements of the vision was determined through consultation with the community via Somerset’s residents’ panel. The vision appears and is explained within the best value performance plan and the summary document sent to all households.
There is a general awareness amongst staff that the council has a vision although they may be less clear about its elements.
The political and managerial leadership of the authority has over recent years recognised the need for SCC to concentrate on developing its corporate capacity, and has taken steps to ensure that it moves away from what was formerly a strongly departmental culture. For example, it has corporate directors who manage not only staff connected with the specialist nature of their departments, but also those responsible for some of the more central functions.
SCC has also identified seven cross-cutting themes which it considers underpin the vision and which, together with its partners, it is seeking to address. These are improving access to services and information, sustainable development, equal opportunities and inclusion, economic and community regeneration, promoting active citizenship, stewardship of assets for future generations and community safety. These are termed the county council’s commitments and demonstrate Somerset’s commitment to corporate working.
A new heads of service forum has recently been established which will provide an opportunity for structured thinking on corporate issues. The forum will have regular meetings with the corporate management team.
A group of middle managers entitled the Movers and Shakers has also been drawn together by the authority in order to act as champions for corporate initiatives. Many staff, particularly at the middle and senior levels of the organisation, displayed an enthusiasm for the more corporate style of working which is emerging and would like to see this further strengthened. Partners also supported the work which has been done to provide stronger corporate leadership.
Both officers and members within the county council are keen to adopt a community leadership role and this is referred to within its best value performance plan.
Somerset has a very strong tradition and record in relation to sustainability issues. There is a team within SCC which has worked through a Sustainable Somerset Forum, involving over 40 statutory agencies, business interests and individuals, to produce a Local Agenda 21 Community Vision for Somerset.
SCC has undertaken two major surveys of households specifically on the environment and quality life, to which over 7,000 responses were received. It has also produced a list of sustainability indicators which it monitors in order to assess progress in terms of improving the environment.
Relationships between members and officers within SCC are good, and there is common understanding of relative roles and responsibilities. The majority party is also mindful of the rights of the opposition parties and adopts an inclusive style of political management.
Issues to Address
Whilst awareness of SCC’s vision is beginning to emerge, the review team felt that it needs to be further used by the county council to inform its programmes, plans and budgets. There is a report within the best value performance plan on what is being done under the headings of each of the council’s commitments, but no real sense that there is a structured agenda for each driving its actions.
The need for the vision to be underpinned by a clear strategy, the production of which should be led by the corporate management team, was one which was voiced by many staff who either met with the review team or who sent emails.
In producing a plan, SCC might like to reflect once again on the elements of its vision. Currently all of the services provided by the county council are covered by the vision and the conclusion therefore is that everything which is being done is a priority of one type or another. Given the need to address other corporate initiatives such as best value and e-government, SCC needs to be much clearer about the relative importance of the tasks it is facing.
It is considered that this work would reinforce the corporate leadership and new style of working which SCC is promoting. There is still a sense in which the corporate management team is acting as a co-ordinating body rather than one which is providing clear leadership. The review team recognises that there has been considerable progress achieved in moving away from the departmentalism of the past, but considers that there is scope to drive the corporate agenda further and faster.
The review team felt that there was scope also to bring greater clarity to the presentation of the vision. Within the best value performance plan there is reference to the vision for Somerset with its six elements, and the council’s seven commitments which underpin it. However, the same document also lists a vision for the county council with four different elements. Elsewhere there is a local agenda 21 vision with ten themes. Whilst the review team understands the distinctions between these different messages it is felt that there is the potential for the public receiving different documents to become confused. Indeed one partner remarked “its vision to the outside seems to be sustainability”.
SCC has recently produced an annual report setting out its activities during 1998/99. These are reported along very traditional departmental lines with sections detailing activities undertaken in the fields of, for example, education and social services. Whilst the current vision was not in place during the year in question, it will be important in the future to ensure that such reports reflect the council’s cross-cutting commitments.
Reference was made in the preceding section to the desire expressed by officers and members for SCC to adopt the community leadership role. Both sets of individuals felt that the county council could bring to this role a good understanding of the overall needs within the area. One member stated of the county council “it has an overview of the county and has the infrastructure to make it happen”.
SCC will need to display sensitivity in acting as the county’s community leader, as clearly districts at the more local level also have such a role to play. However, the review team feels that thought should be given to the way in which SCC should pursue this role, and that action to do so could be built into the plan supporting its vision.
Change Management
Strengths
SCC is a council that is not afraid to change. It has responded positively to the government’s modernising agenda. It has reviewed and amended both its managerial and political structures and is open to external views, whether expressed by members of the public or by bodies such as the review team.
SCC has also learnt from the changes that it has introduced. Accordingly, the new political structures are being informed by the positive aspects of the previous ones.
Generally speaking staff do not appear to be unduly concerned about working in an environment of change. Best value was generally viewed in a positive light with more comments on the need to further strengthen the challenge elements than on almost any other aspect.
The chief executive produces a monthly newsletter for staff which is cascaded down through the organisation. This regularly contains articles about planned changes and the reasons behind them. Recent examples include information on the planned changes to the political structures and the impact of best value. Heads of service genuinely appear to try to facilitate staff discussions around changes.
Specific newsletters are issued to staff on changes which may affect them. Issues covered include single status, pensions and office accommodation.
Issues to Address
There is an extent to which the series of changes to political structures has left some members feeling world-weary. One member remarked “we had too much habit and got stale, now we’ve destroyed habit and are exhausted”. SCC is no doubt aware of this and needs to ensure that it provides the officer support necessary to ensure the success of the new political structures.
It is clear from discussions with staff and from emails received that the ongoing office accommodation review and the resulting working conditions has led to low morale in some quarters. Changes which affect individuals’ working conditions are notoriously difficult to manage and the review team acknowledges that there will always be some degree of dissatisfaction associated with them. However, it appears that a lack of information about the review and its objectives, and the level of leadership and project management skills brought to bear in driving it through, have not assisted the process.
The review team has no detailed knowledge of this initiative. However, it is suggested that SCC reflect on the current status of the programme, and consider whether there are any changes it could make in the way in which it is managed which could assist in restoring the morale of those staff affected.
Motivation
Strengths
SCC has introduced 360 degree appraisals for its most senior managers and this step appears to be viewed positively by those involved.
Core competencies for managers are being developed and are linked to the skills required to progress best value.
Issues to Address
It was clear from the staff who had contact with the review team that there is more scope for the authority to celebrate success both within and outside the organisation. This is discussed in greater detail in the section on communication but it is important to mention it at this point in the report also, as it is considered that more acknowledgement of individual and group efforts would have a motivating effect on staff.
Innovation and Creativity
Strengths
SCC is an authority which demonstrates high levels of innovation. At a corporate level it introduced cross-service policy commissions as part of its previous political arrangements. There is no doubt that these have been highly successful, having resulted in clear action plans on issues such as disaffected youth, and having engaged the interest and enthusiasm of the members who sat on them.
Key to this success was the level of officer support lent to them by individual members of the corporate team and by committee and member support staff.
It is, however, at creating and contributing to innovative projects that Somerset excels. The review team visited, or heard of, many schemes which were approaching problems in a creative way. One example is the Promise mentoring scheme which is making excellent use of skills and enthusiasm amongst members of the community to assist socially excluded young people, or those at risk of becoming so. The Roller Coaster project includes a scheme to involve young people in building and racing hovercrafts and is entering a team for the world hovercraft championships this year. Elsewhere, the Exmoor Computer Centre allows the public to access computers for business, study and recreational purposes, and the Donyatt agricultural development project is seeking to improve the profitability of some of the farms on the county estate through joint arrangements for purchase and sale of goods.
The fact that many of these projects arose from the ideas of individuals and groups, and were able to proceed via partnerships and funding to fruition, indicates a willingness on the part of SCC to encourage and resource innovation and creativity. The council should be congratulated on its work in this area.
The council has been willing to consider at an early stage outsourcing of major services where it considered that this would result in service and financial benefits.
Issues to Address
Given this very positive report, the review team was disappointed that innovation often seems to happen in an opportunistic and local way. There do not appear to be structures in place to ensure that the authority as a whole learns from the individual experiences of managing a project from the idea to the implementation stage.
There needs to be better information made available on where expertise is located to enable it to be shared. This could perhaps be achieved through seminars on individual initiatives, or through a simple list of the council’s projects and lead officers put on the intranet to facilitate networking. This would make it easier, and possibly cheaper, to replicate innovation. This point also links to the earlier one about the need for the authority to celebrate its successes more.
There needs also to be greater evaluation of initiatives. Where these are funded through programmes such as SRB, objectives and targets are automatically set and progress monitored against them. However, in other areas it was felt that there was room for improvement. One member of staff pointed out that if no evaluation of initiatives takes place, and therefore an assessment of positive outcomes, then it only takes one complaint to make people feel as though they have failed.
Alliance Building
Strengths
Somerset County Council, principally through its leader and chief executive, has adopted a very high profile in South West regional affairs, and its contribution to regional work is known nationally. It contributed the first chair of the regional chamber and has been responsible for much of the hard work involved in setting it up and ensuring its effective merger with other bodies. One remark made to the review team was “whatever you think of regional government, Somerset has done a good job of setting it up”.
Somerset is also active in terms of European affairs and has established an office in Brussels, together with Dorset, Devon and Cornwall.
There was widespread acknowledgement that SCC, together with its districts, has worked hard in order to improve the relationship between the two tiers following the 1994/95 local government review. Two partnership committees have now been established between the county and South and West Somerset district councils in order to bring decision-making closer to the public, and there is scope to replicate these elsewhere. There are also operational links in terms of personnel and IT between the county and Mendip District Council.
There were positive examples of partnership working on the ground, such as the work undertaken jointly with the health authority, primary care groups, district councils and the voluntary sector in order to produce a health and social needs analysis. Other examples are provided by some of the innovative projects mentioned earlier which involve a number of agencies.
Members’ involvement in partnership working was particularly singled out for praise, and their contributions to the community were valued.
Relationships with the voluntary sector are generally sound, and efforts are being made, together with the district councils, to move towards a more co-ordinated approach to funding and dealing with groups.
The county council has been instrumental in assisting individual local groups directly. It enabled Somerset Business Link to continue to operate when it encountered difficulties some years ago. It was also active in its support of the establishment of Somerset Racial Equality Unit.
Issues to Address
There has undoubtedly been strong partnership working between the health authority and the county council, which has achieved innovations in areas such as care purchasing and access to mental health services. However, it is considered that there is scope for the authority to consider more widely potential benefits to the council both from this, and other, relationships with partners.
There would have been advantages, for example, in the county sharing information on its citizen’s panel with the health authority which already runs health panels. The health authority also felt that there could be benefits from exploring a more widespread sharing of expertise on performance management between the council and itself. There is undoubtedly a strong commitment on both sides to partnership working around social services provision. Given that the health authority now has a duty of partnership, thought should be given at the strategic level to ways in which the council and the health authority could work more closely together across the board in order to maximise benefits and reduce duplication.
A similar point can be made in relation to Somerset’s links with businesses which tend to be issue-related. Its links with quarrying companies, for example, are heavily focused on environmental issues. It is considered that there would be benefits for both parties if businesses could be involved on a broader front in promoting the well-being of the county as a whole.
The county council should consider how best to involve all of the key statutory and voluntary agencies in the area to ensure maximum benefits for Somerset. This links back to the earlier point about Somerset County Council working towards establishing a community leadership role. However, the council will by then have to be clear about its own key priorities.
The voluntary sector considered that their potential could be more fully realised should the council invest in building its capacity through the more strategic use of grants, and that this would reap benefits for the county as a whole. It is considered that further consideration should be given to this point.
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