PAPER B
REOURCES SELECT COMMITTEE – 20 NOVEMBER 2003 UPDATE ON GREAT ACCESS TO GREAT SERVICES REPORT OF THE HEAD OF ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT |
1.
This paper provides a summary update of progress on the Great Access to
Great Services (GAGS) agenda prepared at the request of the Committee.
ACTION REQUIRED BY THE SELECT COMMITTEE That the report be noted. |
BACKGROUND
2.
The overall objective of the GAGS agenda is to deliver
an outstanding, customer centred local authority. The project aims to bring
this about by:
·
Separating out customer facing and technical
specialist services
·
Challenging and changing the way we work
·
Using new technology to support the new ways of
working
·
Developing a can-do, customer centred culture
3.
This is underpinned by four key objectives:
4.
The GAGS agenda was first approved by Full Council in
February 2003. More recently, GAGS has been discussed by the Resources Select
Committee, the Executive and by Full Council and over the past couple of months
all have supported the proposed way forward.
5.
At Full Council’s request, the project won’t be
committing any expenditure for future years until next year’s budget is known
in February / March.
6.
As previously announced, the council is planning to
establish a telephone contact centre for the council, and in the longer term,
potentially for other island organisations. This is now on hold whilst next
year’s budget is being sorted but it is still intended to progress this part of
the project and the project team is ready to begin implementation as soon as
the money is released.
7.
If the go-ahead is given in March, it is currently
expected that the first phase of the contact centre will be up and running by
the end of August.
8.
Other work on the GAGS project is continuing in the
meantime. The council has just started implementing its new document imaging /
electronic document management system (DIP) and the plan is to use this as the
vehicle for implementing GAGS until we can progress the contact centre.
9.
We will be working with staff in each area to:
10.
Work on this has already started in Planning,
Registrars and Highways and the next part of the roll-out will be decided once
this work has been completed.
11.
In addition to the above, we are developing plans to
build wider understanding and commitment to the GAGS agenda amongst staff and
Members. This is likely to include road shows and workshops across the
organisation and the aim will be to build a shared vision of what we want the
organisation to look like in the future. As part of this, we want to build a
shared level of ambition about how quickly we can bring such change around.
12.
In parallel with the above, we will be rolling out the
in-house contact management system to Customer Services and to those services
where DIP is being installed. This will allow us to begin recording customer
activity in detail and to support the introduction of front office / back
office working with appropriate technology.
13.
The national target for e-government is to provide all
services electronically by 2005. The definition of what this means in practice
has been extended since the target was first introduced and now includes things
like electronic voting and smart cards.
14.
Following the delay to the contact centre, we intend
to make all services available on-line by providing electronic forms and
similar features via the internet and we will progress as many of the other
things on the list as fast as we can within the resources available.
15.
The changes required to turn the organisation into an
outstanding, customer centred authority are challenging and the organisation
may not be able to manage on its own. Work is in progress to see how commercial
partner may be able to help with this and a report on this matter is due by
Christmas.
1.
Great Access to Great Services (February 2003)
2.
Business Case for Document Image Processing Project
(August, 2003)
Contact
Point: David
Price, Head of Organisational Development
Telephone
01983 823502
Email: [email protected]