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ePathfinder2010
Half timeKey successes and efficiencies found
www.hertsdirect.org/pathfinder
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Welcome back – ourhalf time stock takeTwo Tier Pathfinder status was awarded to Hertfordshire Councils and
Hertfordshire Police Authority for a five year period. We are now just over halfway through our five year programme that began in late 2007/08.
This edition of ePathfinder is a timely one to allow us to take stock of what wehave achieved so far and share some of our learning and our successes.
In our last edition – I mentioned the stock take workshop that the ChiefExecutives had undertaken to set priorities moving forward such as streetscene/property and regulatory services and I know that our officers are gearing upto review those key issues and others moving forward into 2010/11.
We have had many key successes this year and since Pathfinder began andhave been concentrating hard this last year in particular, on finding efficienciesand looking at our support services to find ways of sharing services and reducingduplication.
Key support services are working hard across Hertfordshire to identify sharedservices options including: legal (who are working on new joint procurements anda virtual model); audit; procurement; human resources; finance; revenues andbenefits, and ICT.
Chief Executives have a programme of meetings in 2010 starting in Januaryand we are looking forward to discussing new ideas and costed options from ourgroups of officers. I do want to take this opportunity to thank our officers for allthe hard work and time that is being given to the Pathfinder process and it is acredit to us in Herts, that we are able to work in partnership across such a broadset of issues with such energy and commitment.
I am really delighted that we have managed to identify £22m worth ofefficiencies since the start of Pathfinder that have been generated throughcollaboration across the Hertfordshire councils. There is more to find and we doneed to continue to generate income and ensure that we have sustainablesupport services that can trade and support each other.
Other notable successes are from our Pathfinder Customer Access Group andare featured in this edition.
This edition is also accompanied by a case study booklet that focuses onManagement of Change. It is the first in a series of case studies that we willproduce on Pathfinder to share our learning, challenges and solutions as wemake progress. Please download the booklet at www.hertsdirect/pathfinder.org or
contact [email protected] for a hard copy or PDF version.
John Campbell, Chief Executive North Herts District Council
Improving access to services for our customers hasbeen a key priority for Leaders and Chief Executives
since the Pathfinder programme began. A group ofofficers from all councils has been working hard togetherto look at opportunities to share information andservices and respond in a more seamless way to theneeds of our customers - regardless of how and towhich of the tiers of local government the customer’squery may present itself.
Daniel Goodwin, Chief Executive of St Albans Cityand District Council is the sponsor Chief Executive forthis workstream and is keenly involved with the work ofthe group. John Sellgren, Director of Strategy andPartnerships from the County Council chairs the group.
Early on in the work programme, the officers realisedthat customer access is of course wider than a localgovernment issue and the Police, Health and localcouncils have all been involved and are keen participantsin creating convenient solutions for customers.The aims of the group are to –• Deliver improved and more efficient services for our customers.• Offer a high quality, common standard of customer experience for everyone who uses our services.• Offer a seamless service for residents with reduced referrals between councils.• Work together across the councils, sharing best practice and learning from each other.
Through highly active workshops and discussions thegroup produced a 15 point action plan and have deliveredmany of the actions already such as joint training. Morerecently they have prioritised the work programme and areconcentrating on issues of consistency and commonstandards of excellence when handling customers acrossa range of common service offers. Key targets for the group are –• A common minimum standard of customer care.• Set customer service benchmarks and use rigorous monitoring to improve customer response.• Shared training for two tier customer service staff (successfully underway).• Use avoidable contact (“National Indicator 14”) to
improve signposting and reduce onward referral of customers.
• Share and apply best practice and national benchmarks for service excellence.
Many of our councils are working hard to improvecustomer access. For example, St Albans City andDistrict Council have recently been awardedImprovement East funds of over £80k to develop acustomer excellence pilot and more information on thatwill be available in the next edition.
Other councils are also leading and piloting ideassuch as East Herts, North Herts and Hertsmere. Moreinformation will be in the next edition of ePathfinder onthe pilots. If you would like more details in the meantimecontact the lead officer listed in Café Society or [email protected]@hertscc.gov.uk [email protected]
3www.hertsdirect.org/pathfinder
John Sellgren,Director of Strategy and Partnerships
There is “No Wrong Door” forcustomers in Hertfordshire
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Café Society
Helen Farrell – East [email protected]
Carina Helm – Association Parish and Town [email protected]
Neil Sloper – East [email protected] Ball – Herts Police
[email protected] Tycer – Herts Police (Access to Services)
[email protected] Fieldhouse – [email protected]
Angela Gee – [email protected]
Bob Breakey – [email protected] Gallagher – Hertsmere
[email protected] Hall – Three Rivers
Sue Kiernan – Welwyn [email protected] Knight – HCC
[email protected] Lancashire – Dacorum
[email protected] Dawson – St Albans
[email protected] Holliday – HCC
[email protected] Phillips – North Herts
[email protected] Saville – North Herts
[email protected] John Sellgren – HCC
[email protected] Style – Pathfinder
[email protected] Whittenham – Pathfinder
The group have also recently hosted a multi-agency workshop in“café society” style. A wide range of officers met and had pacey
roundtable sessions on issues that they wanted to cover as agroup – to take forward the ‘no wrong door’ vision and in particularthink about the face to face response to customers and how we canwork together more with efficient use of our respective contact sites.John Sellgren convened the session and others taking part were:
The group took as its focus how the ‘no wrong door’could work in Hertfordshire for face-to-facecustomer access. As a starting point it wasrecognised that all the organisationsrepresented at the session alreadyhave customer access points;council offices, libraries, Parishand Town council offices, policestations. Working in groups,participants looked at how thecurrent arrangements could bemade more effective.
Themes emergingServices which are the responsibilityof a single agency being offered byothers at their customer service points –• Making use of technology to link staff onthe front line so that the need to refer simple enquiries to
others is minimised.• Having common training to ensure that
referrals between agencies is reduced andmore customer enquiries are dealt with
at the first point of contact.• The potential to offer ‘one
stop shop’ or multi-agencyservice points by co-locatingagencies.• The importance of ensuringthat face-to-face contactpoints are easily accessible in
more rural parts of the county.• The group also identified
some specific localities wherethere is currently potential to take
some of these ideas forward. TheCustomer Access group will be taking this
work forward over the coming months.
Council given award to enhance its customer service
St Albans City and District Council has been awarded£88,740 by the Department of Communities and Local
Government to pilot a new Toolkit designed to help localauthorities deliver a better customer service.
Following a successful bid by the council, St AlbansCity and District has been selected as one of only nineareas in the country to participate in the government-backed pilot programme.
The council is well on the way to embedding a cultureof customer care throughout the organisation and hasalready established an ethos of ‘putting the customer first’.
Its customer services team has been rated highlyby residents. According to a survey undertaken inSeptember 2008, 99% of customers surveyed wereeither very satisfied or satisfied with the service theyreceived in the centre.
It will use the government’s ‘Getting it Right, and
Righting the Wrongs’ Practitioners’ Toolkit to improve itscustomer service even further by taking steps tounderstand and evaluate the complaints handling processfrom the customers’ perspective.
As a developing centre of excellence on customerservice, the council is committed to sharing it findingswith other councils across Hertfordshire. The Councilwill also offer its partners in the St Albans and DistrictLocal Strategic Partnership guidance and advice oncustomer service.
The project has been led by the council’s ChiefExecutive Daniel Goodwin. He commented: “This awardrecognises the improvements that our customer servicesteam have already delivered by using their skills to informnational developments. We are constantly seeking ways tolearn from the feedback we get from our customers and toimprove our performance.”
Joint Customer Service TrainingThe Pathfinder agenda is about working in
partnership with each other to share services andstreamline practices. The local authorities inHertfordshire are doing just that as they launch a seriesof training days, accessible to all local authorityemployees across the county; aimed at developingcustomer service skills in line with the commitment todeliver effective customer focussed services to thepeople of Hertfordshire.
The courses commenced in September 2009 andare running until February 2010; ‘Advanced callhandling’ delivered by the Baikie-wood Consultancyand ‘Managing challenging customers’ delivered byWiz Training & Development Ltd.
Issues addressed in ‘Managing challengingcustomers’ training include; attitudes that help orhinder a situation, recognising the source ofaggressive behaviour, how to chose appropriatebehaviour, the importance of staying calm, when to
call for help and personal safety. Whilst ‘Advanced callhandling’ addresses; questioning techniques, accents& listening skills, how to gain control of the call,calming emotional callers, managing requests forinformation and customer service standards, amongstother important areas.
The providers who are well known andrecommended in the area said;
‘We just wanted to say how pleased we are to beinvolved in the Pathfinder project. As many of you willalready be aware both of us are enthusiastic supportersof partnership working - so it is a delight to be there atthe start of such an interesting programme.
The joint training of staff from all councils raisesawareness of the different services provided and helpssupport the ‘no wrong door’ principle which all councilsin Hertfordshire are working towards.For further information please [email protected] or 01438 843372.
St Albans City and District has been selected as one of only nine areas in thecountry to participate in the government-backed pilot programme
Joint Customer Access training is underway acrossall the tiers for the benefit of our customers
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7www.hertsdirect.org/pathfinder
Taking Pathfinder forward into 2010/11
By 2012/13Chief Executives to agree the
end state vision –
What do Chief Executives wantservices in Herts to look and feel like in 2012
and beyond?
Chief Executives are currentlyreviewing the way forward andthis magazine tells you moreabout the steps we are taking
for this and next year.
By 2010/11Begin implementation sharedservices/roll out expert hubarrangements/publicise
achievements
Streamline project managementaround themes; supportservices/customeraccess/community
impact and empowerment
Aim to identify £16m totalefficiencies from collaborations
Roll out customer access improvements/multi-tier access
pilots
Secure external funding andprogramme management
infrastructure
Others to be set by ChiefExecutives depending on the
end state…
By 2009/10Agreeing shared service/expert
hub arrangements forlegal/audit/HR/procurement/finance/ICT/Revs and Bens
Aiming to identify £12m in total (£4m x 3years) efficiencies from
collaborations
Offering seamless access toservices across multi-
tiers/channels/face to face pilots
Identifying and delivering a set ofpilot projects as best practicecase studies in the region and
wider
Identifying phase 2 services forattention – asset
management/regulatory/property/scrutiny others etc.
(as in the Bid)
Attaining external funding forsupport and provide evidence of
innovation
Setting up more formalPathfinder website and run
events and briefings
In 2008/09 we…Identified and agreed priorities
for success
Saved £6.9m (agreedmethodology)
Undertook awarenessevents/training/publicity/
set up Ezine
Set direction and vision andbedded them in through
briefings
Set up working groups on keyissues such as customer access
Traffic light reportingestablished
Agreed the need for outlinebusiness cases 8 top areas
Attained external funding
In 2009/10 we…Saved £11m in total over twoyears and established options
for shared services
2007/08/09 2009/10 we are 2010/11 we will 2011/12 we will
John Wood, Director ofEnvironment andCommercial Services,Herts County Council
Leaders and Chief Executives
PEP – Public Engagem
ent
Partnership
Herts Chief Finance Officers
and HCFOs Sub Group
Legal Officers
Hertfor
dshire A
uditors
HR Partnership Group
Procurement Partnership Group
Revenues and Benefits groups
Hertslink and IC
T Task
and Finish Group
Property an
d Asset
Managers’ g
roups
Herts Chief Technical Officers
Regulatory Partnership groups
Commun
ication
Officers
’ Group
Corporate management teamsfrom each of the councils
Key officers from
Police and Health
Association of Town
and Parish Councils
Custom
er Access G
roup
Who is directly involved?
And manymore…
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‘Think Family’ project agreedHertfordshire’s countywide Local
Strategic Partnership,Hertfordshire Forward has agreed toinvest in a ‘Think Family’ pilot projectfunded with the LAA performancereward grant. Through ‘ThinkFamily’, Hertfordshire Forward,under the auspices of the ChildrenTrust Partnership, is seeking toachieve the following –• Identify marginalised families through the needs of children and young people.• Break the cycle of dependency and disadvantage. • Improve the outcomes for children, families and communities by dealing with the issues in a cross agency problem solving manner.• Enhance interagency cooperation. Create a new operating culture and develop better ways of working together.• Develop and evaluate a template for better service delivery which
can endure and be transferable to the whole County.• Drive down inefficiencies in current cross agency working and reinvest the savings in better front end service.
The project will bring togetherinto multi agency teams a number ofkey organisations who will improvethe life chances of vulnerable and atrisk children.
Each of the four locations willhave approximately £130,000 a year,for three years, available tocommission specialist services.
Each team will comprise corerepresentatives, from Police,Children Schools and Families (CSF),Adult Care Services (ACS) andHealth ( PCT). Other agencies suchas Housing providers, Probation, thethird sector and the Learning andSkills Council will contribute inaccord with assessed demand.
The teams will use a twin trackapproach. This will include help for
families to address those factorsthat place children at risk,accompanied with supervision and,if necessary, enforcement. Eachfamily will be allocated a leadprofessional whose responsibility itis to coordinate the multi agencyresponse to the family, to ensurethe delivery of a sustainable joinedup response.
Cost benefit, and remodelling arecomplex and long term, and havepossibilities within the ‘total place’concept. Think Family is an excellentexample of multi agency Pathfindercollaboration at work – linkingpolicies and officers for betteroutcomes for communities inHertfordshire.
For more information pleasecontact Christopher Miller [email protected],Ann Domeney on 01992 555755 [email protected] orKeith Shephard on 01992 555368 [email protected]
Watford & Three Rivers Shared Services Programme
Watford Borough Council andThree Rivers District Council
have embarked on a challengingprogramme to enable the sharing ofHR, ICT, Finance and Revenues andBenefits services and expect todeliver £1.6 million operationalsavings.
Each of the services has madesignificant progress on transformingtheir processes and systems.
HR have procured an integratedHR & payroll system and outsourcedpayroll provision to NorthgateArinso.Revenues & Benefits are on track toharmonise their systems toAcademy. Finance have procuredCedar Open Accounts and the
project is on track for go-live in April2010. The provision of internal auditto Three Rivers will be delivered in-house from April 2010 when thecurrent external contract ends,delivering a further £29K savings. ITwill bring back in-house theprovision of infrastructure and helpdesk services.
The latest budget updatesindicate that overall theimplementation costs will remainwithin budget and the savings willbe delivered as per the businesscase.
Three Rivers payroll went live inJuly and Watford payroll went live inSeptember.
For more information on theprogramme please contact LaxmiCurwen on 01923 278191 [email protected]
9www.hertsdirect.org/pathfinder
HertfordshireWorks
Last year the government gave county andsingle-tier authorities an additional duty to
lead the economic development of theircommunities.
With the recession already having a notableimpact on the county, Hertfordshire has beenquick to respond. The county and districtcouncils joined forces with other expert agenciesincluding Herts Chamber of Commerce,Business Link, the Enterprise Agency, the VCS,Job Centre Plus, Herts Career Services,Business Link, FE colleges and HertfordshireUniversity, to form a new Economic Partnership,Hertfordshire Works.
The partnership needed to hit the groundrunning, quickly developing and implementing aneffective response to the recession. Within amatter of weeks, the new partnership, had puttogether task groups to take forward actions inkey areas such as skills and economicparticipation, inward investment, vibrant townsand ways of combating the effects of therecession.
The partnership has only been going for sixmonths, but already a great deal of ground hasbeen covered. The list below outlines just someof the work going on –• A new economic development strategy for the county is being developed.• New apprenticeships for young people.• A programme to mentor people out of work to develop their self esteem and skills through volunteer placements.• Employee Volunteering Schemes.• Developing projects to support town centres, shopping parades and businesses, and promote a ‘Shop Local’ scheme. • Making it easier for Hertfordshire businesses to bid for public sector contracts.• £1.3m secured from the Government’s Future Jobs Fund to support 200 work placements for 18-25 year olds.
If you would like any further information aboutHertfordshire Works, and the work it is doing,contact David Hughes on 01992 555210.
Hertfordshire Works – a partnership that creates and sustains opportunities for all
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Communicating Progresswww.hertsdirect.org/pathfinder
Pathfinder communication is nowfully upgraded and this
ePathfinder is part of a drive toimprove how messages arecirculated about our progressacross the range of programmesand themes.
We are working hard toestablish extranet space for thevarious groups and as soon as thatis available that will be signpostedfor all.
Also available is a case studybooklet and DVD on Managementof Change produced to coincidewith our exhibition at the SOLACEconference “ChallengingBehaviours” 20 – 22 October 2009Brighton and our East of EnglandExhibition at the Leadership of
Place Event in November.The booklet contains useful
information on the groups and howthey are working and how the ChiefExecutives are getting involved andtaking the groups forward.
The booklet also containsinformation on shared supportservices ideas coming forward.Please refer to the booklet if youwould like more details on thesupport services discussions orcontact Helen Style direct.
We also have a community ofpractice set up atwww.idea.gov.uk.
To see the previous PathfinderInsight ezine edition please seehttp://insight.tfhost.co.uk
National Meetings and Exhibitions 2009
During the summer, HertsPathfinder held a joint exhibition
at the LGA annual conference andagain produced a joint brochure whichis available to download at thehertsdirect address above.
The exhibition attracted hundredsof visitors from a range of councils andregional and central government andwe have had many follow-up requestsfor information about the sharedservice models in particular.
If you have collaboration casestudy information you would like us toshare on your behalf at these majorevents – please do let us know and wewill ensure it is highlighted andincluded and attracts nationalattention!
Caroline Tapster, Chief ExecutiveHertfordshire County Council recently
attended the Government’s “LGRAdvisory Group” at Communities andLocal Government that is advisingPaul Rowsell (of CLG) on thecomparative evaluation of new unitaryand two tier pathfinders.
Similarly there are meetingsunderway with other Pathfinders andtwo tier models to test our thinkingand share ideas and progress.
Helen Style, Programme Director Pathfinder, supporting behindthe scenes
Caroline Tapster, Chief Executive HertfordshireCounty Council and Sharon Taylor, LeaderStevenage Borough Council and CountyCouncillor at the Pathfinder Stand.
Caroline TapsterChief Executive Hertfordshire County Council
11www.hertsdirect.org/pathfinder
Improving the logo and visual identity
letterheadliterature
Examples shows how the logo and
supporting graphic elements can be
used to create an interesting layout.
Please use a minimum size of
11 point text.
literature/powerpoint
Presentation headingSubtitle text to appear here
Slide heading to go here• Bullet point• More bullet points• Some more bullet points
4 August 2009
20mm
Align dateand firstaddressbaseline
Typesize:
11/13ptArial MT
stationery
Faded boxgraphic
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz123456789Arial MT Bold
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ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz123456789Helvetica Rounded Bold
The recommended typeface for use in all communications is Arial.
For main headings Helvetica Rounded Bold can be used.
typefaces
Do not change the proportion or alter the logo in anyway. Only use the official logo artwork.
White out version may be used on
dark backgrounds, but only if no
other solution available.
Minimum size
Common sense should be used when using the logo on backgrounds. Avoid using on strong
colours and dark areas within photographs, where this cannot be avoided use the white version.
Pantone 370CMYK: C56% Y100% K27%
RGB: R107 G150 B3Web: 6B9503
Pantone:BLACK
CMYK:K100
Exclusion zone:Width of arrow ‘r’.
25mm
logo
Visual Identity Guide
During the summer we produced a visual identity guide(VIG) to help a wide range of officers use a Pathfinder
logo in a more local setting. The VIG is summarised here inpart and is fully available from Emily Whittenham whosedetails follow below. If you would like a copy in full pleaselet us know or contact your local communications officerwho will have a copy. PowerPoint templates etc are alsoavailable for presentations.
The Pathfinder brand does have real significanceregionally and at CLG and it is important to use it toindicate how important partnership is to us in Hertfordshire. Please let us know your views [email protected]@hertscc.gov.uk
Planning ahead – diary datesWhen What Where
21st January 2010 Chief Executives’ Coordinating Group
TBC
3rd February 2010 Hertfordshire Leaders’ Group TBC
6th - 8th July 2010 National Pathfinders’ exhibiting atLocal Government AssociationConference
Bournemouth
Hertfordshire PathfinderBroxbourne Borough Council www.broxbourne.gov.ukDacorum Borough Council www.dacorum.gov.ukEast Herts District Council www.eastherts.gov.ukHertfordshire County Council www.hertsdirect.orgHertfordshire Police Authority www.hertspa.orgHertsmere Borough Council www.hertsmere.gov.ukNorth Herts District Council www.north-herts.gov.ukSt Albans District Council www.stalbans.gov.ukStevenage Borough Council www.stevenage.gov.ukThree Rivers District Council www.threerivers.gov.ukWatford Borough Council www.watford.gov.ukWelwyn Hatfield Borough Council www.welhat.gov.uk
The following pan Herts groups generally meet every four to six weeks. Please contact the chair if you wish tofind out more about the work of that particular group.
Group Meeting dates 2010 Chair person
Herts Legal Service Group 5th February [email protected]
Herts Procurement Forum 5th February, 9th April, 28th May [email protected]
Hertfordshire Chief FinanceOfficers Group
4th February, 4th March, 1st April [email protected]
Customer Access Group 20th January, 24th February, 11th March, 7th April
HertsLink Group TBC [email protected]
Audit Officers Group TBC chair person rotates
HR Partnership Group 11th March, 20th May [email protected]
