Improvement in Action
Capital Ambition has targeted its support to boroughs most in need, offering tailored packages of support to assist boroughs in improving their public services and boosting their CPA scores. Please see below for information on a selection of the authorities awarded Capital Ambition funding to aid improvement in their local communities.
Peer Support
Barking and Dagenham has benefited from Capital Ambition’s Peer Support Scheme, which identifies individuals with specific expertise and places them with authorities where their expertise is required.
The authority underwent a Corporate Peer Review, conducted by the IDeA, in 2006. One of the main recommendations was a review of political structures to ensure that the authority was geared to meet the demands of changing legislation, following the publication of the October 2006 White Paper on ‘Strong and Prosperous Communities’.
The Council established a working party in early 2007 to examine the current political structures and received expert advice and support on the review from Terry Osborne, Solicitor at the London Borough of Brent.
Terry was able to draw on her considerable experiences at Brent and assisted with the review of existing Constitutional arrangements at Barking and Dagenham to ensure they were fit for purpose. She was also able to offer valuable insight into the role of political assistants, which the borough has incorporated into the recent restructure of its democratic support function.
Terry’s involvement and contribution to the governance review was appreciated by Members and Officers alike and her work has made a significant impact on decision making structures both to address the implications of the new legislation and for the forthcoming Comprehensive Area Assessment in 2008.
For more information on Capital Ambition's Peer Support Scheme, please visit the Peers and Secondments section of the website.
Contact for this project : Nina Clark nina.clark@lbbd.gov.uk
Neighbourhood Management Scheme
Capital Ambition has provided funding to support the development of Barking and Dagenham’s new Neighbourhood Management Scheme. A community fun-day was set up to launch the scheme, which enables residents to get more involved in improving their borough.
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Cllr Fairbrass, Leader of the Council (left) with Cllr Reason at the Neighbourhood Management event at LB Barking and Dagenham |
Neighbourhood Manager for Heath Ward, Victoria Ekubia (centre) at the Neighbourhood Management event at LB Barking and Dagenham. |
The scheme also includes the introduction of Neighbourhood Managers to each ward, to provide a stronger link between the Council, voluntary groups and residents.
For further information on Barking and Dagenham’s improvement package, please click on the press release below.
Capital Ambition press release (40kb)
Contact for this workstream: Micah Gold micah.gold@lbbd.gov.uk
Overall Improvement Package Contact: Philip Ruck philip.ruck@lbbd.gov.uk
The London Borough of Hillingdon has seen significant improvements in both service delivery and corporate capacity over the past four years. The council’s ambitious improvement agenda has been driven by a homegrown improvement programme known as the Hillingdon Improvement Programme or HIP. During this time HIP has encompassed a wide-range of projects, which are delivering improvements for residents across a number of services.
Following the successful delivery of a number of HIP projects in 2007, the authority is developing the programme to ensure that the structure going forward is fit for purpose. Improvement is a continuous journey which will deliver the council’s priorities and strategic vision - a modern, well-managed council, delivering excellent customer services.
Capital Ambition has provided funding to support the development of a number of key HIP areas including the Hillingdon Academy and the council’s Service Reviews.
Hillingdon Academy
The council has developed a new learning and development programme and a key part of this was the introduction of the Hillingdon Academy. The Academy takes an innovative approach to involving community, business and partnership aspects as well as action learning sets and secondment opportunities.
The Hillingdon Academy was launched in autumn 2007 to develop high performing staff from across the council and uses a structured programme of development to build sustainable capacity and capability in key management skills, which will help to deliver the council’s change management programme – the Hillingdon Improvement Programme.
The primary focus of the Academy will be to provide support for personal, professional and management development targeted at managers.
Project contact: Susie Kemp skemp@hillingdon.gov.uk
Service Reviews
Hillingdon Council's vision is to become a 'modern, well managed council, delivering excellent services'. To achieve this, the authority is looking in detail at all of its services in a series of Service Reviews. The council wants to become more efficient, find savings and make improvements to provide better services to its local residents. By taking a transformational approach to the future delivery of services, the authority has been able to free up resources to make improvements to services. This will involve a radical approach to how services are delivered, back-office infrastructure and the use of existing resources. The outcomes have delivered efficiencies and an improvement in public services.
Project contact: Susie Kemp skemp@hillingdon.gov.uk
Overall Hillingdon Improvement Programme (HIP) contact: Susie Kemp skemp@hillingdon.gov.uk
Lambeth
Lambeth was awarded funding in July 2007 to support improvement in the borough. To find out more about the improvement package, please click on the press release below.
Overall Improvement Package Contact: Sophia Looney slooney@lambeth.gov.uk
Merton
Merton was awarded funding in November 2006. For more information, please click on the press release below.
Capital Ambition Press Release (40kb)
Below is a selection of some of the projects resulting from Merton’s improvement package.
Value for Money Review of Street Cleansing
Merton’s improvement package included funding to carry out a Value for Money review of street cleansing across the public realm. Phase 1 of the review focussed on cleansing work carried out by three Council divisions; Housing Estate Services, Green Spaces and Street Cleansing.
Review activities included:
- internal and external benchmarking of the service against other authorities and major land owners in the Borough
- consulting residents through a series of focus groups
- study visits to three other London Boroughs
- assessing the service against DEFRA best practice report 'Achieving improvements in cleansing and related services'.
The review assessed the service as an improving one with overall costs above average when compared to neighbouring authorities and with a significant improvement in customer satisfaction levels.
From these activities a best practice service improvement plan has been developed recommending tasks in the following areas: joint working between divisions and other major land owners in the borough, staffing (including joint training and recruitment) and joint procurement. This plan is being implemented and monitored by the newly established Street Cleansing Liaison Group. The group's first task is to carry out GIS mapping of the service across the borough coupled with process mapping and re-engineering.
Contact for this project: Jane Arditti jane.arditti@merton.gov.uk
Emerging Communities Project
This Merton project has been collecting and analysing population information from across the council and local partners to identify the newly arrived communities settling in Merton. This has helped to boost and update local census data. The information came from a range of different sources, including schools, Electoral Services, National Insurance registrations and health specialists from the Primary Care Trust.
A seminar was held in Summer 2007 to share and test out this information with local service providers and community groups. Participants have identified immediate, medium term and longer term needs of new communities so that local service providers can reflect this in future planning.
Contact for this project: Monica Wambu monica.wambu@merton.gov.uk
Overall Improvement Package Contact: Abdool Kara abdool.kara@merton.gov.uk
Waltham Forest
Waltham Forest was the first borough to benefit from Capital Ambition funding. For general information on the Waltham Forest improvement package, please click on the press release below.
Waltham Forest press release (31kb)
Below is a summary of one of the projects which has resulted from Capital Ambition funding.
Value for Money within Performance Management
Capital Ambition funding was used by the Council to integrate reporting on Value for Money (VfM) within the Council’s wider performance management framework.
The Council commissioned KPMG to work with a designated lead officer for VfM to design a methodology for annual and where appropriate, more regular update reporting on VFM. Emphasis was placed on involving senior and middle managers, including finance and performance specialists.
A key design feature of the reporting framework put in place is a cost and performance matrix with a clear line depicting the minimum acceptable VFM position. Work on the project began in early 2007 and the Council drafted its first Value for Money Performance report in July. The reporting framework has continued to be well received by both managers and members and has provided a much sharper appreciation of strengths and priorities for VFM improvement across the Council. The Council has also received some good initial feedback from the Audit Commission on this development.
For a copy of the report, please click on the link below.
Waltham Forest Value for Money Report (196kb)
Project Contact: Martin Calleja martin.calleja@walthamforest.gov.uk
Overall Improvement Package Contact: Jan Wickham jan.wickham@walthamforest.gov.uk