Having spent 15 minutes
reporting on Bexley’s financial position, Council Leader David Leaf moved
his Cabinet to the Transformation Strategy. It is not as you might expect a
program to improve the environment or the lives of residents but a scheme to
save money by doing things like pushing even more customer services on line, The
overall aim is to save £3·63 million this year which has been dented by the appointment of
Tower Hamlet’s Deputy Director of Transformation on £132,594 a year.
She
described 300 possible changes to customer service access as an opportunity to
enhance services. Children’s and Adult Care Services would be integrated where
possible and a more commercial approach taken on fees and charges.
The first phase of the Strategy is to be launched this month. It will involve
“large scale collaboration with our workforce”. You may recall that in the past,
surveys revealed that senior staff rarely if ever spoke to their underlings.
Ms. Rahman spoke for five minutes without revealing anything especially
interesting to the average resident. By 2030, it is hoped that there will be
further savings in the region of £7 million. Presumably the Cabinet found the
report as interesting as I did as none of them had anything to say.
Councillor Nicola Taylor (Labour, Erith) was concerned about the changes planned for the Contact
Centre because residents already complain about how hard it is to get in contact
with Bexley Council and everything has worsened in recent years. “How will you
measure your improvements?” The Council Leader said that “residents are used to
using digital technology". The more digitalisation there is, the more spare
capacity can be moved to face to face intervention. “The performance of our
Contact Centre is usually very good. I can give that assurance.”
Councillor Taylor noted that her question had not been answered.
Councillor Borella (Labour, Slade Green) said he had heard the word
Transformation discussed in Council ever since he first became a Councillor. He
had not missed the reference to fees and charges and did not think that
increased parking charges had always been assessed intelligently. (Some have
caused revenue reductions. The full Transformation report specifically refers to
reviewing margins on Car Parking.)
He was not sure that all staff saw Transformation as Culture Change but as “a
Cuts Programme dressed up”.
Councillor David Leaf said that this time Transformation is different.