In praise of....back-office staff
The latest set of performance-indicator statistics for Cornwall Council give us some insight into what happens when headcount reduces and workload stays the same. Average number of days taken to process claims for housing benefit and council tax benefit; percentage of telephone calls answered in less than 20 seconds, average number of days lost to long-term sickness and the average number of days lost to sickness per member of staff - all getting worse, and all now much worse than target. Homelessness is also getting worse. A report to next week's Cabinet says:
"There has been an increase in new Homeless presentations, particularly in the mid area of the county. This is in part due to increased demand which may be due to the economic climate, and also issues with staff shortages, due to both sickness and vacant posts, which has left our teams with less capacity to undertake early interventions to prevent cases becoming emergencies (and therefore needing temporary accommodation). To address this we are moving resources within the service and are also working with HR to manage our sickness and also work through the recruitment issues."I wonder what "work through the recruitment issues" means in standard English. Keep Calm and Carry On?
I'm 大象传媒 Radio Devon鈥檚 Graham Smith, blogging on news, views and some fresh insights into West Country life, particularly the way government works locally and nationally.
Comment number 1.
At 7th Oct 2010, P_Trembath wrote:As usual, those who need the help most will be the ones to suffer.
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Comment number 2.
At 7th Oct 2010, Peter Tregantle wrote:Homelessness is also getting worse.
It does not take Doris Stokes to work that out or that it is about to get much worse. Looking at the news on pensions I feel a winter of considerable discontent approaches
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Comment number 3.
At 7th Oct 2010, P_Trembath wrote:Unfortunately, you are correct, it is going to get much worse.
What do you suggest we do to make it better, to alleviate the problem?
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Comment number 4.
At 7th Oct 2010, Andrew Jacks wrote:Sounds like they should have sent in time and motion years ago
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Comment number 5.
At 7th Oct 2010, John Macloud wrote:The solution that the administration of Cornwall Council may come up with is to outsource (i.e. privatise) back office services, a move already undertaken by a number of councils. The broad strategy appears to already be in place.
Cornwall Council's business plan says "We will become a commissioning Council, specifying the services we want and finding the most effective means of providing them for our communities. Services could be delivered by arms length management companies, trusts, joint ventures, partnerships and commercial arrangements as well as by in-house teams". The plan makes clear there will be many less people directly employed by the Council.
The Local Enterprise Partnership bid document talks about reducing the percentage of people working in the public sector, and 鈥渞e-balancing the economy鈥 towards the private sector. Councillor Dick Cole asked what this meant at a Council meeting and received no meaningful response.
The draft Cornwall Strategy 2010-2030 going to the Council鈥檚 Cabinet next week talks about 鈥淎n enhanced role for the private and voluntary sectors鈥.
Watch out then in the 鈥渃uts debate鈥 for talk about 鈥渟trategic partnerships鈥 with the private sector, "shared services鈥 proposals and 鈥渘ew models of service delivery鈥 all euphemisms for outsourcing/privatisation in one guise or another.
I imagine the private sector players in the local government support services and infrastructure market, the likes of Serco, Capita, Enterprise, Balfour Beatty etc are already queuing up to provide solutions.
Will there be a proper public debate in the Council about what these strategy statements really mean? Or will a privatisation plan be unfolded and bounced through justified on the back of the Government鈥檚 Comprehensive Spending review and Cornwall鈥檚 鈥渇inancial crisis鈥.
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Comment number 6.
At 8th Oct 2010, Peter Tregantle wrote:If you are going to do that why not go the whole nine yards
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Comment number 7.
At 8th Oct 2010, John Macloud wrote:Fascinating article. Only in America you might think? Closer to home Suffolk County Council are proposing to outsource virtually all their services.
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Comment number 8.
At 8th Oct 2010, Andrew Jacks wrote:I like the idea of running the councils on a no frill approach akin to budget airlines, but I also like the initiative of the public voting for people and\or contractor to run the services as they do in some places in the states. Am I creeping a little bit to near to being a democracy with such radical thoughts?
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