Featured slides from the Gandlake, Southwark Council and IRRV event held at Southwark Cathedral on 12th November 2015. Presenters: Dominic Cain, Assistant Director (Revenues, Benefits & Financial Transaction shared services), Southwark Council David Ashmore, Director of Business and Customer Service, Lambeth Council Stephen Hughes, Freelance Financial Adviser (former LGA Executive Director and CEO of Birmingham City Council) Dave Briggs, Head of Digital & Design, Adur and Worthing Councils Karen Michael, Service Development Team Leader, London Borough of Southwark Vivian Davies, Head of Collections and Credit Control, Family Mosaic

1. DIGITAL
BY
DEFAULT

2. WELCOME
#gandlake15

3. David Ashmore
Director of Business and Customer Service

29. QUESTIONS

30. The challenges ahead
and how to tackle them
Stephen Hughes
12 November 2015

31. The challenge
• Up to further 40% funding cut
• Demographic demand increases
• Pressures from National living wage, pension revaluation, ending of NIC
contracting out
• Impact of business rates exceeding central funding, 2017 business rates
revaluation, doubling the risk of appeals following 100% local control

32. The financial challenge

33. And how to save money
whilst delivering services

34. Know what you want
• Massive change in resources so existing pattern of resource allocation
may not be right for 2020
• Think about Council's priorities and test future service levels against them
• Priorities are not a list of activities and projects - they deliver the priorities
• Ensure that business as usual is included!

35. 35
Enjoy a High Quality of Life
Stay Safe in Clean, Green
Neighbourhoods
Be HealthySucceed Economically
Increasing individual’s personal
wealth and reducing relative
poverty within the city
Tailored support and protection
for the most vulnerable people
within the community – in
particular children
Enable people to choose healthy
lifestyles and improve their
wellbeing. Resulting in people
LIVING WELL
Increase public perceptions of
safety and protect vulnerable
people within the city
Reduce health inequalities and
mortality across Birmingham.
Resulting in people LIVING
LONGER
Create a vibrant low carbon, low
waste economy through the best
use of environmental
technologies, and ensure that
Birmingham is prepared for the
impact of climate change.
Increase employment and
economic activity within the city.
Ensuring people have the
education and skills to make the
most of job opportunities
Secure cleaner, greener,
sustainable neighbourhoods
empowering citizens to take
greater responsibility for their
environment
Average wage levels
Inspection Ratings - TBC
Environmental Quality Survey
CO2 equivalent emissions
Overall Employment Rate
Life ExpectancyPerceptions of crime/safety
QALY/Survey
•Strategic Outcome
•Sub-Outcome
•Measures

36. Categories of savings
• Slash and burn (Tax payers alliance strategy)
• Raise more income
• Be efficient (from lean to transformation)
• Have someone else do it (from outsource to volunteers)
• Have less to do (prevention and social investment)
• Do less (cuts but in line with priorities)
36

37. Some under exploited ideas?
• Exploit commercial opportunities more
• Make collaboration work better - strengthened governance
• Move the co-production boundary
• Find working social investment models
• Fundamentally redesign services

38. Increase income
• Still under exploited
• Commercialise Council service streams - like building
control, pest control, advisory services
• Deliver social objectives via commercial vehicles - energy
companies, lending to SMEs, property investment including
housing companies
• Just make money -advertising assets, renting ducts in the
roads, car parking, etc.

39. The imperative of integrated
working
• For example the Better Care Fund: it has to be both about
protecting adult social care and increasing acute capacity
• Troubled families: needs effective multi-agency working
and a transformation strategy
• Two (three) councils but one workforce - e.g. SODC and
Vale of White Horse or Wandsworth and Richmond
• New models needed of:
• Working and culture
• Commissioning
• Governance and public:public contracts
39

40. Big Society?
• Volunteers - issues with Trade Unions if more than
complementary ... to be tested
• Community capacity, representativeness, and need to be
held to account
• Real issues about legislative responsibilities - e.g. health
and safety
• Covers tiny areas of spend
• Often more expensive provision
• Rise of Parishes?
40

41. But ...
• All public services are co-produced (e.g. history of bin collection)
• Moving the boundary can save lots of money
• Need a systematic way of engaging with people to get their consent
• Examples: role of carers, home to school transport, digital channels

42. Have less to do - Prevention
• Economic growth as solution to social problems (a
presentation of its own, but saving money means
getting long term workless jobs)
• Early intervention instead of crisis support
• Tackle underlying issues not just the presenting
problem
• Make the work fit the resource
42

43. Holistic investment systems
• Early investment in children gives better education
outcomes, better social skills, less anti-social behaviour
and crime
• See in particular Aos and Washington State
• Graham Allen's reports
• More anecdotal evidence that treating the whole
person/family reduces public intervention and costs
• Basis for troubled families programme
• But ...
• Timescales can be long
• How do you find extra investment at time of cuts - therefore PbR etc.
• Governance issues
43

44. 44
SOCIAL INVESTMENT MODEL
Local
Integrated
Service
Trust
Integrators
Improved Social Outcomes
Investo
rs
Investo
rs
Investo
rs
Local
Providers
Local
Providers
Local
Providers
Measured by Independent Assessor
Provide themselves and/or
Procure from market
Private investment, Some
philanthropic
e.g. ‘Big Society Bank’
Advisory
Roles
Public
Agencies
Public
Agencies
Public
Agencies
Reduced Social Cost
SAVINGS
Lo
cal
&
Na
tio
nal
Commissioning
FundingFunding

45. 45
Challenges for Social Investment
– Does evidence exist? If not how do you assess
VFM? Who pays for it?
– Is there a market for social investment (funders,
integrators and skilled service suppliers)?
– Can better outcomes be translated into
predictable cost savings?
– Is there enough savings to pay for investment,
interest, profit and risk?
– Will the Finance Director sign it off? (Risk
assessment)
– Have we made savings already?

46. Make the work fit the resource
• Or stop investing in design and concentrate on
doing it
• Gary Belkin’s work creating mental health teams in
Haiti and West Africa
• Deconstruct tasks so they are allocated to least
expensive of way of doing them
• Quick experiments to reject “dumb” ideas and use
good ones
• Use for: social work, planning, public health,
libraries etc
• Illustrates need for Leadership everywhere in
organisation & empowerment role.
46

47. Conclusion
• Local authorities have done really well so far
• There are going to be new challenges
• There needs to be a step change in innovation
• But it's not easy!!

48. QUESTIONS

50. Digital and Organisational Design
Delivering
‘Council as a platform’
Really transformative digital
Dave Briggs

51. Digital and Organisational Design
1. Developing a digital-age
operating model
• Council as a Platform
• Protecting the front line
• Enabling sustainable transformative
change
• Bringing together digital and OD to create
a single change function

52. Digital and Organisational Design
2. Redesign services with users at
their heart
• Enabling radical rethinking of what we
deliver and how
• Employing service design techniques
throughout the process
• Always meeting a need, of our customers
and of our staff

53. Digital and Organisational Design
3. Use best of breed technology
• End to end digital services – not putting
lipstick on legacy pigs
• Investing in capabilities, not systems
• Evolution, not stagnation, of the existing IT
estate

54. Digital and Organisational Design
4. Support people to deliver change
• Defining the ‘people’ capabilities we need
and delivering them
• Developing a local public service lab for
innovation
• Ensure people have the tools, techniques
and processes to hand to make change
happen

55. Digital and Organisational Design
5. Consume as well as create on our
and others’ platforms
• Becoming system leaders
• Building platforms and capabilities for
everyone to share
• Recognising where others have the lead
and use their platforms and capabilities

56. Digital and Organisational Design
Lessons we’re learning
• Doing things this way is really, really, really
hard
• You need air cover at the very top
• Bag those savings early
• Chuck some tactical bombs
• Don’t stop talking, ever

57. Digital and Organisational Design
Thanks!
Email: dave.briggs@adur-worthing.gov.uk
Twitter: @davebriggs
Blog: http://da.vebrig.gs/

58. QUESTIONS

59. COFFEE BREAK

60. Karen Michael
Service Development Team Leader
Vivian Davies
Head of Collections and Credit Control

61. www.southwark.gov.uk
we can
Digital by Default
Universal Credit - Thinking Digitally

62. www.southwark.gov.uk
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Current Arrangements UC Change / Impact Risks
Housing benefit for all council
tenants, including those placed
in some forms of temporary
accommodation, is paid direct
to the landlord [the Council].
This also includes those tenants
on partial HB
AROUND 23,000 HB CLAIMS
Housing cost support to
any UC claimant will be
paid monthly as part of
single payment
Claimants will have to
wait for at least 5-6
weeks for their first UC
payment
UC will be paid monthly
thereafter
Claimant may not have means to pay
rent during period when they are
waiting for first payment
Change in payment arrangements – for
council tenants in particular – may
present budgeting challenges. Some
may struggle to deal with this change
Where a UC claimant has other debts or
what they perceive to be more pressing
financial commitments, will they
choose not to use their UC payment to
pay their rent?
Where a new claim for HB is
made by a Council tenant, the
waiting time for first payment is
currently 3-4 weeks and a
change of circumstances is 1-2
weeks
Housing benefit is paid weekly,
reflecting the fact that Council
rent is charged weekly
What we do now

63. www.southwark.gov.uk
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We need to talk ……..
• ‘LA’ s share their data across departments’ – They don’t!
– Joined up approach to welfare reform and targeted work has been key
With who
Others areas to engage - where do people present themselves?
• Good working relationship with JCP is crucial
• Other departments and key Council Members:
– Adult and Children’s services: Care leavers, Troubled Families
– Housing: Temporary/Supported Accommodation, TRAs, TMOs, Resident services
– Local Economy: Employment opportunities and support
– Community Engagement: VCS/3rd Sector
– CCG/PH: Mental Health teams, Family Nursing Practice, GP’s
– Commissioning: Commissioning support providers/delivery partners
– Legal: Assistance with Delivery Partnership agreements with DWP
• VCS/3rd Sector, community groups, community councils
• RSL’s, Private Landlords, ALMOs’ – your Housing providers
• Schools

64. www.southwark.gov.uk
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Learning from DPDP
KNOW YOUR TENANTS!
• Data
• Focused intervention and close monitoring of rent accounts
– Nearly half of the total arrears were accrued in the first month/4 week period
following migration
• Collection and escalation policies
• Consider UC payment cycle to rent payment cycle
– Currently 50% of UC digital claims are made on smart phone/tablet
• Advice and support
• Financial capability
– Opening and operating a bank account
– Mis-handling of direct debits
• Switchback process and Data sharing
– Landlord and LA close relationship vital to good process operation – (echoed
from JCP in live running!) Will DWP have the same relationship?
– Not enough known about switch backs in UC live/digital running

65. www.southwark.gov.uk
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Some good news 
• Positive outcomes tenants reported from DP
– it had made them better at money management
– it had made them more likely to look for work, hold down a job or
increase their hours
– some reported they now had a better standing with their bank
(such as improved credit ratings)
Supporting tenants achieve these positive
outcomes will no doubt have a positive
impact on rent income collection, as well as
promoting greater financial inclusion and
financial confidence

66. www.southwark.gov.uk
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Preparation and testing
• GIS mapping – using data sources
• Engaging relevant stakeholders and
partner organisations
• Triage where people present
– USdl trial – Co-location cold hand off
doesn’t work
• Target groups to test and trial
interventions that work
– Hardship fund and Emergency Support
Scheme applicants
– Outreach work (GP’s, monthly events,
home visits etc)

67. www.southwark.gov.uk
ENGAGEMENT
What’s the hook?
l

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HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOUR
TENANTS?

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How good is
our data?
Out of 10…
6

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Need to know
Household Composition

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Preparation & Risk Management
Transition
Timetable???
HB Direct
in line with DWP UC
rollout timetable
Preparation
Re-engage with
our customer

72. www.southwark.gov.uk
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73. www.southwark.gov.uk
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UC - what do we know?
• Inconsistencies exist
• Timing
• Arrears spike
• APAs

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Rent payment history
=
Positive rating
=
Access to credit / contracts
The Rental Exchange Experian
/ Big Issue

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Risk Profiling - Experian
Customer Management
Service
• Changes in payment behaviour
• Recent credit applications
• Loans paid down

Targeted activity
Different strategies
Improved efficiency
Pace, low level interventions

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Staff Skills
Customer Focus
Negotiating Skills
Commerciality
Training

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THANK YOU - QUESTIONS

78. www.southwark.gov.uk
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DID YOU KNOW….
• UC monthly payment - including housing cost element - will always be
calculated based on claimant’s household’s circumstances on date seven days
before payment is due – this includes the first payment
• Where a UC claim is made on-line the claimant is required to contact DWP by
phone to make an appointment to attend jobcentre within seven days of claim.
Failure to do so will result in their claim being closed
• When a UC claim is made on-line the claimant is required to set up an on-line
account. The claimant will then be responsible for reporting all changes in their
circumstances using their on-line account – including, for example, any change
of address, or changes to rent
• Post Office Card Accounts (POCA), known to be used by significant numbers of
Southwark residents will not suffice for this purpose
• Where a claim for housing benefit is made late the claim may be backdated for
a period of up to three months where the claimant requests this in writing and is
able to demonstrate “good cause” for not claiming in time - NB. Decision to
limit HB backdating to one month was announced in July 2015 budget and will
take effect from April 2016
• Thinking about changing your online offerings to support your UC rollout –
taking into account how and where your roll out will happen
• CTR – good relationship with JCP would support this, even if you have not
opted to deliver support for UC through a DPA

79. QUESTIONS

80. PANEL QUESTIONS

81. THANK YOU