Employee Conferences November 2024 - Manager briefing

Managers should use this detailed briefing to inform their teams about the key points discussed during the November 2024 employee conferences. Please encourage staff to provide feedback as we'd love to hear their thoughts and suggestions for future events. They can complete this feedback form. 

Recruitment of the new Chief Executive

Applications for the new Chief Executive close at the end of November. The new appointment is subject to approval by the Employment Committee on 7 February 2025 and ratified by Full Council on 26 February 2025.

Budget overview

• Government funding: The Autumn Statement includes £1.3 billion for local government. This includes funding for social Care, highways, SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities), Household Support Fund, schools' maintenance, free breakfast clubs.
• Financial challenges: We face rising costs due to National Insurance and minimum wage increases. Detailed budget information will be available in December.
• Compared to other councils we are in a good financial position. However, this year we could be overspending by up to £20 million.
• We need to find ways to be more efficient, so will be asking for your ideas. We are working on setting up a process for you to provide your feedback.

Council Plan

This will give us a clear plan of where we as a council want to go in the next five years and allow us to see how our roles fit into the organisation.

The five-year plan will focus on:

• Better lives for all: Helping children, families, and adults to fulfil their potential and improve their physical and mental well-being.
• Economic ambition: Enhancing investment, transport, and job opportunities in Lancashire.
• Stronger communities: Making Lancashire a happier, safer, and greener place.
• Thinking differently: Ensuring the council operates more effectively and efficiently.
• Stakeholder engagement: Extensive engagement with the public, partners, members, and staff to shape priorities. Feedback from Change Influencers and employee networks has been invaluable.

The new plan will be rolled out across the council in the New Year, serving as a roadmap for day-to-day activities and ensuring alignment with organisational goals.

Change Programme

Many changes are already underway, but we need consistency across the council. We must seize opportunities by:

• Scaling up prevention efforts
• Embracing technology
• Collaborating with communities and partners
• Being more data-driven

Change programme: Implementing a change programme with initiatives such as:

• Transforming Adult Social Care
• Automating business processes

Staff involvement:

• We will be encouraging staff to suggest improvements and get involved in the change process.
• More details on the change programme and involvement opportunities will be shared soon.
• We are developing support and engagement mechanisms to ensure staff feel involved in changes.

Supporting the workforce

Mark has been out in the past few months meeting teams, and seeing first-hand the impact we have on communities. It has been invaluable hearing from staff about what we do well, where we can make improvements and how you see us developing for the future.

Staff survey results:
We had our highest ever response rate to the staff survey, over 6,806 of you took part in our staff survey, which is a fantastic result. Many positive areas were highlighted, including:

• Inclusion – Feeling accepted and able to be yourself at work.
• Work objectives – You are clear on what you are expected to do in your role.
• Communication and awareness – You know what is going on in your team.
• Support – You know how to access support and value our approaches to flexible working and wellbeing.
• Line management – Many of you feel you have respectful and supportive line management.

There were also some areas for improvement:

• Pay and workload – Many of you have concerns that pay is not reflective of the complexity of your role, or that workloads are unmanageable.
• Change management and involvement – Many of you still feel that change is not well managed, and we could be better at involving you in shaping changes that affect you.
• Leadership effectiveness – There are opportunities for leaders to better understand operational pressures, engage more effectively with you and seek feedback on their impact.
• Harassment, bullying or abuse – Some of you feel you have experienced harassment, bullying or abuse at work in the past 12 months.

• Actions: Plans are in place to address these areas, including developing an Early Careers Strategy and improving talent acquisition. People Services is supporting Directorate Leadership Teams to make improvements.

Directorate Updates

Adult Services directorate

CQC Inspection: We have received notification of inspection from CQC and are waiting for confirmation of the date but anticipate February or March.

Living Better Lives in Lancashire: This is our overarching ambition for our residents and we are showcasing examples in our Self-Assessment to CQC. We will be highlighting our support to carers, technology-enabled care, robust safeguarding processes, and strong customer feedback.

Areas to develop: Tackling assessment backlogs, finding care alternatives, and improving staff morale and their experience of change.

Education and Children's Services directorate

Vision: Ensuring children, young people, and their families are safe, happy, healthy, and able to achieve their full potential.

Key areas to develop and celebrate: Investment in SEND services, early intervention, support for education settings, and leadership commitment.

Key areas for development and challenges: Strengthening performance management practices, developing a comprehensive workforce strategy, implementing a whole-service approach to family safeguarding, strengthening early help services for SEND, enhancing mental health support, improving support for care leavers, improving attendance and educational outcomes, reshaping the approach to serious youth crime and reshaping in-house children’s home provision and ensuring sufficient school places.

Growth, Environment, Transport, and Health directorate

Devolution

• The GETH directorate leads this initiative for the county council.
• The new government have confirmed their commitment to Lancashire's proposed level two, non-mayoral devolution deal and Combined County Authority (CCA).
• A formal legal document, known as a Statutory Instrument, was presented in Parliament. This document is necessary to legally establish the new body. Once Parliament approves this Statutory Instrument, it will provide the legal framework needed for the CCA to be officially formed and begin its operations in early 2025.
• Work is underway to implement new powers and funding, including a £20 million capital fund for projects. 

Key achievements and future plans

• New Business Board: Established and drafting a new Growth Plan for Lancashire.
• Farington Cricket Facility: Progress on building an elite cricket facility with community and educational benefits. Pitches are ready for opening next year.
• Lancashire Central: Planning permission granted for a £220 million mixed-use employment site, expected to create 3,000 jobs.
• Samlesbury Enterprise Zone: Investment to unlock 1.5 million sq ft of commercial space for high-tech industries.
• Investment pipeline: £22 billion for strategic employment sites, transport, digital, and low carbon infrastructure.
• Road Resurfacing: 750,000m² of road resurfaced and 64,000 highway defects fixed.
• Levelling Up Fund: Largest UK investment in round 2, including:
  • £50 million for sustainable transport improvements in East Lancashire.
  • £50 million for Eden Project Morecambe: Development of a world-class visitor attraction and centre for environmental research.
• Bus service improvements: Enhancing frequency, reliability, affordability, and passenger information.
• Cyber Sector: Hosting the new National Cyber Force Headquarters, creating thousands of jobs and boosting the local economy.
• CQC Self-Assessment: Public Health is actively contributing to the adult social care CQC self-assessment and preparing for the upcoming inspection.

Resources directorate

The Resources directorate provides essential services such as managing finances, developing staff, maintaining properties, powering ICT systems, and supporting decision-making.

Key achievements last year:

• Resolved over 50,000 ICT issues and prevented over 253,000 attempted cyber threats monthly.
• Managed 400 buildings.
• Paid 12,500 staff (excluding schools).
• Oversaw a budget of £1.8 billion gross.
• Supported over 100 committee meetings.
• Answered 748,362 calls through the customer access service.

Resource redesign programme: Initiated by Mark Wynn to modernise and improve services.

• Developed a new service offer, clarifying expectations for both staff and customers.
• Reshaped services by bringing together teams with natural connections.
• Developed a new digital strategy to better use technology and AI.
• Rolled out a new leadership framework for senior colleagues.
• Created a comprehensive financial plan and change programme to address financial challenges.
• Implemented a new modern constitution and updated officer decision-making processes.

Major Initiatives: Supporting key projects such as devolution, building new schools, redesigning SEND services, developing a new Council Plan, and preparing for elections.