Council stepping up to the transformation challenge

Date published: 27/06/2008

After news broke last week that Rochdale Council has appointed a new Transformation Programme Director, staff at the council's communcations team have written a feature in which they interview the Council's new Director.

In an era when overall satisfaction with public services is falling, and more and more pressure is being put on the public purse, ‘transformation’ is the buzz word on everybody’s lips.

“The spending review and the continuing drive for efficiency are key drivers of the change agenda,” admits the new Transformation Programme Director at Rochdale Council, Mark Widdup. “But it’s got to be about more than that. Yes, we have new national indicators, including NI 14, about reducing avoidable contact and NI 179, looking at value for money, but first and foremost any transformation we do has got to be about our customers.”

Putting customers first is a priority for Rochdale and last year it launched a comprehensive council wide internal change programme, Stepping Up. The programme, divided into three streams – customer focus, value for money and staff development – is designed to underpin the wider transformation agenda and to ensure that the council has the vision, the skills and the people it needs to deliver efficient and effective services well into the future.

“The challenge facing local authorities at the moment can’t be underestimated,” says Mark. “We don’t have the budgets of the private sector, yet we provide significantly more services - and the public expects the same level of quality and delivery from us that they get from banks, supermarkets and the other providers they come into contact with on a daily basis.”

“That said, I firmly believe that what’s being asked of us is possible - and we are certainly up for the challenge. By working together with our partners locally and by looking at ways to share services across the wider public sector, there are some significant benefits to be had - both in terms of service improvement and in terms of efficiency.”

Rochdale Council has now set up a new programme office to help meet these challenges, bringing together programme and project managers, change managers and business analysts. The office will oversee the internal change programme and other major transformational workstreams within the organisation.

“The new office centralises the key skills that we need to effect change quickly. Its overarching aim is to ensure the effective delivery of our transformation objectives, but the additional benefits include reduced scope for duplication and the elimination of any potential gaps in addressing the key initiatives. It will also enable us to make the most effective use of skills and enable the council to become self sufficient in programme and project management support,” explains Mark.

“Using ICT as an enabler, our key focus over the next few years is on designing services around our customers and releasing efficiencies by standardisation, simplification and sharing."

And in Rochdale it’s not only the culture of the organisation that’s changing. The physical landscape of the area is about to undergo a seismic shift too. As well as benefiting from the government’s proposed £3 billion investment in public transport across Greater Manchester, within the next few years, Rochdale town centre will undergo major regeneration and re-development to re-position itself as a significant shopping and leisure destination on the fringes of the world class city of Manchester.

As part of this, new council offices will be built to provide accommodation for more than 2,000 staff. The programme office will oversee this move, pitched as an exciting opportunity to accelerate the change programme and cultural shift within the organisation.

"Things are changing - and they're changing fast," says Mark. "We've got a lot of work to do, but with strong and effective leadership, excellent communication and significant investment in both our service infrastructure and our people, we are heading in the right direction."

“It's an exciting time to be part of Rochdale’s journey of transformation. Not only are we demonstrating our ambition to improve the way we do things for customers and our staff, we are finding innovative and creative ways of working that ultimately play a part in making Rochdale a better place where people want to live, work, visit and do business – a place in which we can all take pride."