Planning For Business Change

Background

East Lothian Council (ELC) is responsible for a population of more than 90,000 and delivers an extremely diverse range of services through a network of facilities within the area.  Headquartered in Haddington, ELC has over 4,600 employees and is by far the biggest employer in the locale.

Sopra Group has worked closely with ELC for a number of years providing various consultancy services within several Council Departments and Business Units including Responsive Repairs, Community Housing and Property Management, Benefits, Personnel Services, Finance & IT and Policy and Business Management.

The assignments carried out in the Community Housing and Property Management Division form part of the continuous improvement programme underway at ELC and build on an internal Best Value Peer Review and an external assessment by Communities Scotland.

Solution

The study followed the Sopra Group Business Change Methodology.  Using this advanced approach to tackling business change projects, Sopra Group consultants assisted the Community Housing and Property Management Division to align their business objectives with legislation and strategy ensuring that their operational activities and processes fit with the objectives and duties of the Council.

An essential element to this process was ensuring buy-in from the staff right from the beginning.  This was achieved by continuous inclusion and consultation of staff, preventing uncertainty and doubt on their part, which can often lead to obstruction and failure when implementing new initiatives.  Key members of staff were identified and took an active role in the project.

The Consultancy Study Was Undertaken In Several Stages:

To begin, the consultants had to establish an understanding of the current situation within the Division.  Then using the information gathered they were able to identify where failures and waste occurred – i.e. identifying processes that didn't contribute to meeting the business objectives and identifying those business objectives that were not supported by operational activities.

Next began the process re-engineering for improvement, the consultants developed a transformation plan that included recommended future processes and details of implementation projects, which when executed would move the Division to the new efficient and effective processes.

Using Nimbus Control-ES technology, the consultants mapped the existing and potential business processes and then continued to use this technology to support costing and resourcing requirements.  A Framework of Strategic Objectives (FOSO) was developed early in the study detailing the objectives of the organisation and the dependency relationships between objectives. 

The FOSO is used as a communication tool and formed the basis of the East Lothian Council, Community Housing and Property Management Department Planning for Business Change Performance Management Framework (PMF).  The PMF provided an objective focussed series of indicators to monitor the performance of the Division and demonstrate the success of the planned implementation projects.

These deliverables have now been taken over by the ELC implementation teams and are being used to manage the business change programme.  There are currently eleven major projects running with the majority being human resource and process change driven.

Benefits

Sopra Group has given the Community Housing and Property Management Division a realistic roadmap which will enable them to deliver more efficient and effective services to the people of East Lothian while maintaining compliance with guidance and legislation.

Alan Forsyth, Head of Community Housing & Property Management said, "The work carried out by Sopra Group consultants has made a real difference in the ability of the Division to deliver improved and effective services to all our customers."

With a wealth of expertise in the public sector the consultants from Sopra Group were able to fully understand the issues facing ELC and consequently were able to hit the ground running by quickly identifying areas for improvement.