Environment Overview & Scrutiny Committee

AGENDA ITEM 6

BOROUGH OF POOLE

ENVIRONMENT OVERVIEW & SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

10TH JANAURY 2013

STREETSCENE SERVICES

PART OF THE PUBLISHED FORWARD PLAN YES

1. PURPOSE

1.1 To provide Members with a progress report since the launch of the Street Scene Services Team on 12th June 2012.

2. DECISION(S) REQUIRED

2.1 That Members note the content of the report.

3. BACKGROUND/INFORMATION

3.1 The Street Scene Services review forms a key part of the Changing Times Programme, which reflects the Council’s commitment to meet the challenge of its Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP), to respond to major national policy changes, to deliver the Council’s Priorities and to reshape what the Council does and the way it does it.

3.2 The purpose of the review is to consider the demands for services affecting the street-scene in localities throughout Poole, to optimise the impact of activity on the Council’s purpose (improving the quality of life of the people of Poole), to reduce waste and save money.

3.3 The success criteria for the review and newly formed team are:

 Reductions in wasted work (cutting out or reducing processes which don’t add value)  meeting demand faster  increase in overall customer satisfaction and  reductions in the cost of providing services

3.4 The net budget for Street Scene Services is approximately £10M and the team employs around 200 staff (plus 60 contracted staff for Grounds Maintenance delivery) 4. TRANSITION PLAN SUCCESS

4.1 The aims of the transition plan were:

i. to ensure that all the 52 Street Scene services moved under a single line manager in ECPS ran well on “day 1” and ii. to ensure the services that remain the responsibility of Leisure Services and Transportation Services also ran well on “day 1”.

4.2 The team formed on 12th June 2012, achieving the critical seamless change over from a customer prospective. Support from ICT and Customer Services and the new teams commitment ensured services continued to be delivered throughout. The implementation of the new team achieved a £52k under spend against the original Street Scene allocation of £160k. This has since been transferred back into the ERP reserve.

5. TRAINING & STAFF DEVELOPMENT

5.1 In July, Street Scene Team Managers with a number of Supervisors completed Systems Thinking Fundamentals training. This was followed by a number of in- house sessions focused around workshop facilitation, mapping the flow of how our work works and the measures we use to evaluate success. This training will be drawn upon throughout our ongoing journey.

5.2 Operational training is being undertaken to enhance our winter maintenance delivery team and over 40 operatives have successfully completed Level 2 Sustainable Waste Management Operative training.

6. HATCHPOND DEPOT – STREET SCENE TEAM BASE

6.1 By September considerable works where completed at the Hatch Pond Depot site. This includes Health and Safety improvements and the amalgamation of Street Scene functions under a single office building. Benefits of such investment became immediately evident, kick starting the beginnings of team culture, openness to joint working and the sharing of resources and equipment, previously lacking under the multi site model.

7. GEOGRAPHICAL LEARNING FOR CORE SERVICES

7.1 Nationally we are told that street management can make or break a council’s reputation. For example, resident’s satisfaction with street cleaning is a better predictor of overall satisfaction with the Council than all other universal council services put together. A third of people identify street and pavement repairs as the thing that most needs improving in their area – more than identified crime or health - (Tidy Britain Group). 7.2.1 For this reason it is vital that we fully understand whether we are providing the right services in the right area for Poole’s community. What the demand for these services is against existing resources? What opportunities there are to improve on the already overall good standard of delivery currently achieved (the Place Survey for Poole finding 90% of people who responded said they were satisfied with refuse collection. 83% of respondents registered their satisfaction with doorstep recycling services. Poole's parks and open spaces also scored highly with 80%) This level of satisfaction is further reflected in the overall downward trend in complaints/service requests across the breath of the service. 7.3 In September with business as usual service delivery operating well. Officers decided that the next step in learning and developing how services could be delivered in the future was to conduct a review (what, why and how) across the whole breadth of Street Scene services, in a single geographic location.

7.4 For the purposes of this ‘Check’ process the area of Bourne Estate was chosen as it offers a broad representation of street scene service activities, is a known resource intensive location due to its demographics, and includes representations from Poole Housing Partnership (PHP) other housing associations and private landowners, an active Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) and has an established Bourne Valley Action Group (BVAG). 7.5 Considerable learning opportunities resulted, with a report being finalised to share with staff and senior management in early 2013. This will inform a borough wide action plan for the year ahead and will inform the shape of our team. Common factors identified included:  Staff committed to delivering services to Poole’s residents  Employees “can do” attitudes make the best of the current systems  Staff knowledge of local issues is impressive  The service is dictated by resource intensive seasonal demands  Protection of own budgets – there is a perceived importance of “internal trading”  Repeated failure demand – lack of ownership of a problem, focus on fire fighting/getting through the day not investing time in identifying a permanent resolution.  Lack of communication and planning within services previously delivered by 3 independent service units missing opportunities to deliver services in a co-ordinated timely manner. Opportunities surrounding schedules for waste collection, grass cutting, gully emptying, cleansing etc  Insufficient formal action against private industry failing to provide timely responses to complaints generating repeated demand on Council services.  Reliance on a few key members of staff already busy with other activities.  Prohibitive policies, e.g. missed bins, entry criteria HWRC, inspection regimes  Frustrations born through lack of service expert engagement at project/initiative stage (strategic element believe that they know enough about operational delivery to not require Street Scene involvement, ultimately frequently leaving street scene services with unmanageable/unrealistic timescales/demands/future maintenance problems.  Challenge of continually ensuring Customer Services have the right information to answer enquiries. The current system is resource intensive and lacks the flexibility/knowledge base and ownership that an in house team solution could provide  General unwillingness to say no – give unpopular feedback to a service request, when this does happen it is often overridden by senior management and or elected members  Numerous and disconnected ICT software systems  Land identification and ownership challenges  Natural cross over of work functions –people in the same location at the same time doing a specific function concerned only with own area of responsibility, behaviour driven by previous structure  Equipment no longer fit for purpose in a time of more multi- functional roles  Large resources invested in mitigating risk – e.g. highways and parks inspection programmes, recording of activity  Use of agency staff instead of offering permanent contracts – creates limitations within teams  Work activities influenced by the same community groups – are these influences representative of the needs of Poole’s wider community?  A seemingly common need to ‘go and see’ to get quality information before acting  Need to build relationships with Poole’s community to increase self help, local community ownership, currently lacking in some areas across the borough

8. REVIEWS UNDERWAY

8.1 As discussed above the learning from the high level check exercise will be used to develop formal reviews over the next year, however a number of areas of service delivery are already under review these include

8.2 The team are already working to reduce micro management and administration. Working with colleagues in Financial Services to review and dismantle administrative accounting systems to ensure that they are more purposeful. With colleagues in ICT the team are working to get mobile information to those on the ground who can use it. With colleagues in Customer Service the team are reviewing how we can best communicate customer requests accurately to the teams who do the work. Each of these pieces of work are in development and will deliver efficiencies. It is however essential that we get it right. Doing it too fast and getting it wrong might save money immediately but it will simply drive costs up and make service worse in the medium term.

8.3 Operational reviews:  Severe weather response plans  Personal Protective Equipment  Review of Highway maintenance repairs ‘potholes’ early intervention to reduce highway failings.  Review of Greenspace inspection programming  Review of manual cleansing allocation – maximising available resource to support leaf clearance and litter clearance prior to grass cutting  Review of Lagan customer services service request classifications

8.4 For examples of ‘quick wins’ please refer to Appendix 1.

9. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS 9.1 Members set an expectation of savings of £300k from the Street Scene ERP. In order to provide some understanding, context and progress towards this objective, the following has been detailed to illustrate the changes undertaken to date:

9.2 During 2011/12 the Heads of Service of ECPS, Transportation and Leisure removed a tier of senior managers in each of their services. These managers were largely focussed on the delivery of street scene services. Together with other changes the total savings equated to £353k some are highlighted below:

ECPS Waste Services Manager, net saving £51k Transportation Services Works Manager, net saving £56k Principal Engineer, net saving £51k Leisure Services Open Spaces Manager, net saving £27k

In addition, ECPS also deleted a Principal Officer (Waste & Cleansing) post in 2011, net saving £35k and a Waste Collection Chargehand post also in 2011, saving £33k.

9.3 ECPS has been encouraging reduced hours appointments when this supported work life balance and reducing capacity in line with demand. This has involved 5 post holders within the newly formed Street Scene Team and the saving equates to £25k.

9.4 Savings from Street Scene will be delivered by applying the principles agreed for the change and by ensuring that everything we do is aligned to our purpose that ensures the public spaces of Poole are safe, clean, protected, attractive and easy to use.

This will involve understanding customer demands more clearly, getting work to the people who can do it more quickly, empowering teams to own services and make decisions about them and that everyone at all levels takes responsibility for finding solutions.

9.4.1 The need to make further savings is real and accepted and the Service is striving to deliver these. Street Scene has identified £34k of efficiencies already. In addition the team are currently reviewing the usage of vehicles (est £20k). Contractual overtime will be removed without replacement for the last few remaining employees who benefit from it (subject to Union and staff consultation) saving a further £24k. Finally the team have also renegotiated an element of the grounds maintenance contract to deliver a further £37k. The combined delivery of each of these pieces of work should generate in excess of £110k.

10 LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

10.1 None

11. RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS 11.1 The main risk to the Council relates to meeting the demands of the MTFP and the expectations of the ERP strategy. The team cannot yet predict when the savings target will be achieved but this report is intended to provide some confidence that progress is strong and is balancing the financial and service delivery risks.

12. EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS

12.1 Any changes to service delivery would be subject to a full Equality Impact Assessment.

SHAUN ROBSON Head of Environmental and Consumer Protection Services

Report Author Contact officer: Kate Langdown – Street Scene Team Manager Appendix 1 – Street Scene Reviews Underway/Quick Wins

1 Hatchpond Depot Office and Yard accommodation changes centralising core team in a single location 2 Review of Employee 1st system to reduce the need for system changes by standardising post titles and budget position removing 'waste work' from E&CPS, HR, Payroll and Financial Services 3 ERU (graffiti removal team) now supporting Highways with cleansing of road signs 4 Gully emptying crews now undertaking sign cleansing alongside gully emptying scheduled work maximising use of mobile works costs 5 Review of how Regulatory team can support Street Scene team with enforcement/education work i.e. Littering, dog fouling, street litter control notices (business compliance) drainage (Wessex water) etc 6 Highways & Greenspace teams where practical now clearing flytips when seen – “See it Do it” 7 Trial of changes to grass cutting frequencies. Continental Landscapes looking at sites suitable for trialling extending period between grass cutting and identifying areas that could benefit from more frequent visits 8 Continental Landscapes increasing efforts to clear grassed areas of litter ahead of grass cutting operations, further discussions re cleansing support to work alongside grass cutting schedules to be programmed in identified locations 9 Trials of plug v’s patch early intervention in pot hole filling. All highways officers now equipped with material to undertake plugging work on small holes 10 Highways Drivers supporting bin delivery operations when workloads allow or undertaking work in an area requiring delivery 11 Review of leaf fall clearance operations. Move to trial seasonal Winter single person operations on borough cleansing teams primarily tasked to parks & open spaces which have naturally less usage during this period. Reallocate 3 x operatives to J650 cleansing support (leaf blowing ahead of vehicle) 12 Bring together seasonal mechanical cleansing operations to support gully emptying service i.e. Ensure cleansing occurs at least day before gully emptier is due to attend to ensure road is clear of leaf fall build up in predetermined areas throughout Poole 13 Gully emptying service to support weed treatment programme by hoeing weeds around drain when in attendance to clean drain 14 Review of severe weather response plans and trained operatives to improve coordination of activities should such as event occur 15 Lagan review of Waste Collection Lagan classifications and scripting - reducing front end options 16 Cleansing have evaluated and subsequently introduced modern hand barrows into the town centre, providing a platform for lone operatives to deal with a multiple of cleansing tasks. 17 Review of Street Scene Vans/small fleet - Seeking to identify pooling opportunities and reduce fleet costs 18 Greenspace Maintenance assisting cleansing teams with moss treatment trials on hard surfaces 19 Numerous examples of resolving Customer Service enquiries through joint working and team combined knowledge – achieved through shared office environment 20 Waste Operations supporting gritting services through the replenishment of grit bins 21 Mechanical cleansing teams are now equipped with weed treatment technology to provide a dual service approach to sweeping and weed control ( 2013 first full season)