Our Productivity Plan

To make best use of our colleagues’ skills and emerging technology to deliver our services, the Council adopted a new Target Operating Model (TOM). We have implemented a Transformation Programme to support the delivery of this model. The aim of the model is to achieve the savings necessary to make up for future reductions in real Government funding. 

The Transformation Programme – including a small transformation team to support services in improving productivity - is funded from the Transformation Reserve. We also have a capital budget of £500,000 to allow the Council to harness Artificial Intelligence (AI) and emerging technology to deliver better quality services available 24 hours a day at a reduced cost. 

The TOM is based upon a proven model extensively used in the private sector and increasingly in the public sector. Known at SCDC as the “60/30/10” model, we aim to move to a position where 60% of the council’s interactions with customers are through self-serve options available 24/7, 30% with a holistic customer services function and only 10% with back-office experts. This model ensures that the most cost-effective channels are used to deliver services.

We are the first Council in the country to trial a four-day working week. International and private sector UK four-day work week trials have been shown to: 

• Increase productivity.  

• Improve staff wellbeing.  

• Reduce sickness.  

• Improve retention. 

• Deliver improved benefits/recruitment offering.  

The four-day week trial is so far showing numerous improvements including – 

• Staff turnover has reduced by 39%, reducing our total recruitment demands. 

• We have seen a 53% increase in average number of applications for roles advertised externally. 

• Improved staff engagement scores between August/September 2022 and April 2024: 

• Mental Health went from -4 to +6 

• Physical health moved from -3 to +7 

• Motivation has improved from -2 to +4 

These were measures evaluated by a third party – Robertson Cooper- the score for SCDC being compared to a benchmarking score from a variety of UK organisations with '–' scores indicating these being below the benchmark and the '+' the scores above the benchmark. The higher the score the larger the deviation from the benchmark.

• Projected net annual cost of agency colleagues covering key vacancies has reduced by £483,000. 

• Most Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have improved or been maintained during the trial. 

• Efficiencies and innovations continue to be delivered and are being shared across services. 

• Numbers of complaints have reduced by 8.5% in non-waste teams, and 20% in the Shared Waste Service, during their trial periods. 

• The financial assessment of the trial shows a known full year net cost saving of £371,500 

The Council’s trial has delivered promising results, a final decision on a permanent adoption of a four-day working week is pending.  

The Transformation Programme has so far delivered many key successes, including: 

• A new telephony system using a “Golden Number”. This saved the Council around £70,000 a year, improved telephone answering times, and provides higher quality data for call volumes, resolution times and first-time resolution rates. In addition, the system has improved the customer journey.  

• Supporting the Planning Service to improve their customer journey. This generated an increase of £100,000 a year in income, through a revised and improved pre-application service. 

• Saving £30,000 a year by modernising and rationalising printing arrangements in South Cambs Hall. 

• Supporting the Revenues and Benefits function to improve their customer self-serve options. Once fully implemented, this will save approximately £500,000 a year. 

• Combining the Elections and Democratic Services functions delivering £70,000 a year in savings by reducing management costs whilst modernising processes.

• Restructuring the HR department, creating business partnering arrangements and saving £10,000 a year in the process. 

• Restructuring the Project Management Office arrangements, streamlining management lines and saving £50,000 a year. 

• The waste service has introduced new routes that have enabled crews to collect more bins each day, reducing travel time and increasing tonnages collected. Crews now average 125 more collections per day, absorbing recent housing growth (13,400 properties) and future-proofing to accommodate ongoing expansion.   

• An impressive 83% efficiency improvement has been achieved in the work undertaken on awarded watercourses. 

• A 20% efficiency improvement in street sweeping has been delivered.

• Redesigning processes such as Animal Welfare Licensing and applications for Houses for Multiple Occupation that require production, validation and storage of documents. These can now all be submitted and paid for online reducing administration costs and speeding up delivery. 

• The Greater Cambridge Shared Planning (GCSP) has undergone probably the highest level of transformation so far. As well as generating additional income for pre-applications already mentioned, it has also improved employee empowerment, well-being, retention, and streamlined recruitment practices.
• By empowering team members to streamline areas within their control, the service has witnessed substantial improvements. Some of these initiatives include:  

• A move from employing over thirty agency workers/contractors in 2022 to only six in 2023, all for specific project work. 
• The establishment of an Apprentice Academy, with seven apprentices joining the Council. These apprentices contribute to various projects across the service, using the apprentice levy. 
• Introducing a new performance reporting mechanism. This allows team members to track individual progress, leading to the removal of backlogs, reduction in caseloads and customer complaints. Financial reporting has also been enhanced, resulting in increased income for discretionary services and reduced contributions from partner councils. 

The Transformation Team will support the Climate, Environment and Waste service over the next 18 months. The full-service review is expected to deliver significant additional income and streamline processes to enable residents and businesses easier access to our services. In turn, this will improve business efficiencies and customer satisfaction.  

The Transformation Team will support the completion of all service area reviews over the next three years. Using the TOM, our aim is to ensure that savings are made from streamlining and automation of processes. Currently there are many time-consuming processes which could be automated. Examples of areas for automation and use of AI include - reporting fly tipping, answering transactional enquires by voice and webchat and processing taxi licence applications. The Transformation Team will focus on areas and processes where the biggest efficiencies can be achieved.  

In 2022 the Council introduced Hybrid working allowing colleagues to work where they can be most efficient and deliver most benefit to customers. Our hybrid working policy also offers an opportunity to generate income through renting out office space. This will also provide an incubator space for small and new local businesses. The ground floor of our offices is being rented out, as are parts of the second floor with the remainder of the second floor being in preparation for renting.  

Our contact centre will introduce an AI-powered voice service. This new service will allow customers to telephone the Council 24 hours a day and receive tailored advice and support. Trials in other local authorities have found a reduction of up to 40% in customer-employee interactions. This will allow Customer Service Officers to focus on customers with complex enquiries and allow efficiency savings.  

The Council is currently trialling the use of AI in administrative functions by comparing Microsoft CoPilot and Teams Premium for a range of functions across the Council including the People team, the Communities team, the Democratic Services team, a number of PAs and a Data Officer amongst others. This trial will allow us to identify where an investment in this technology will enable significant efficiencies to drive service improvements and cost reduction.

The Council also has an “AI Club” attended by colleagues of all grades and from all services across the Council (including the CEO), who are brought together by an enthusiasm for finding new and innovative ways of using AI. This has proved a fantastic channel for getting buy in from colleagues across the Council for delivering transformation through technology, and for generating ideas and suggestions for where technology can best be used. It is a great example of the people who do the job on the ground being best placed to know where there are real opportunities to use this technology effectively.

In collaboration with Cambridge City Council, Innovate Cambridge and Cambridge University we will explore the benefits of AI. The project group will review the "pain points" in the delivery of Council services. It is expected that this project will support us to deliver innovative solutions, which could then be applied across the sector.  

The Council’s procurement arrangements require that any new systems purchased have well documented Application Programming Interface (APIs) that are compatible with those of our chosen platform and support delivery of the TOM. However, there are some legacy systems within the Council – for example, the Orchard system used by the Housing service - that do not currently have the APIs we need to deliver true integration. 

The Council is prioritising the transformation of processes that involve systems that have strong APIs whilst pushing the providers of systems without these to include their development on their roadmaps. 

The interim target for the Transformation Programme is to complete the delivery of £2,000,000 in a combination of savings and additional income by the end of the 25/26 financial year. The programme will then be expected to deliver a second, larger tranche of savings in the following three years. 

The Council measures improvements in productivity through a range of KPIs to identify the combined impact that the full range of inputs (staffing, capital, materials etc) have on the service delivery in key areas. The KPIs are reviewed quarterly by the Council’s Scrutiny and Overview Committee as well as by Senior Council Officers on a weekly basis.

These KPIs are combined with the overall Council cost base information. The cost base is identified by a regular refresh of the medium-term financial plan and by savings delivery tracking at Transformation Board made up of both Members and Officers. By considering both the KPIs and the savings delivered, we can gauge the impact of overall efficiency gains and the technological advancements delivered. 

A benefits realisation process is also in place that ensures those financial and non-financial benefits identified at the start of any project or programme continue to be measured and delivered after the handover to “Business as Usual.” 

The Council recognises that data collection, storage and analysis are key to achieving our organisational aims. Our Technology Strategy makes a commitment to using data effectively. It states- 

 “We will make the most of data; it will be a key aim of specialist colleagues using architecture, repeatable standards, and exploitation of data to improve performance and the customer journey supporting decision making in the Council as a whole. We are also committed to data sharing with appropriate partners to enable improved joined up working and decision making as well as providing enhanced information and services to residents. We will ensure our customers are empowered, can see their own data and can self-serve at times convenient to them.” 

In 2024, the Council is investing in two officers to lead on the best use of data. The new roles will be working across the Council to develop the corporate data strategy. They will work with all Council services to improve data quality practices and use of data and across the organisation. 

Our staff Data and Intelligence Network supports the use of data across the Council. The network connects different teams, sharing best practices, and exploring the future of data within the Council. It aims to create connections between people working with data, allowing for discussions on different tools, approaches, and practices, as well as addressing shared problems and opportunities.  

The first meeting took place in May 2024, with 44 colleagues attending from across the organisation. The network meets bi-monthly and is open to all staff with an interest in data who use, or are looking to use, data in some capacity within their role. 

A review of the Council’s strategic KPIs is due to be undertaken. The aim of this will be to ensure that there is a clear link between the Council’s corporate business plan and performance measures. This will include Member / Officer workshops (to take place in September 2024), as was recommended by the 2023 Peer Review. 

A review of our customer feedback survey is being completed, with a view to improving the quality of feedback data received. The survey will be more targeted to gather experiences of the public on services that interest or have affected them.  

At present, the customer feedback survey data is used on an ad hoc basis to improve service delivery. One example is recent analysis of the website feedback for our website development project. We will be trialling the introduction of quarterly customer data updates for internal circulation. This will support us to further promote the customer perspective within the organisation. We will also identify opportunities for service improvement as part of business-as-usual activity.  

The Council's priority is to ensure we have a robust approach to financial management. We ensure that expenditure is in line with approved budgets. This year, we introduced "Star Chambers" for each service area. This has enabled employees and managers to challenge areas of spend, identify potential savings of over £1,000,000, (in addition to the around £1,000,000 already delivered so far by the Transformation Program) and suggest ideas for income generation.

In addition, monthly meetings between Heads of Service and Finance Business partners provide early identification of potential overspends, enabling swift remedial action.  

“Lessons Learnt” exercises are undertaken after every major project, and areas of potentially wasted use of resource are identified and recorded to ensure they are not replicated in future projects.

Our senior leadership team review any proposed increase in spending, via a bid process. The leadership team ensure value for money before increases are first scrutinised and then approved or rejected by members. Only increases in spending that are funded, will generate significant benefit, or are needed to comply with statute, are approved. 

The Appendix to this report identifies the specific actions that the Council will deliver over the next 2 years. Although only some of many projects, reviews and efficiency improvements the Council are currently working on, the actions in the appendix give examples of the type of work being undertaken across the organisation in services such as the Waste service, Planning, Housing, Finance and Transformation. 

Progress against these actions will be undertaken by the Council’s Transformation Board that is made up of Cabinet Members and senior officers and meets on a quarterly basis.