How can I be sure the answers I give are anonymous?
The purpose of the survey is to give us an overview of where we can be doing things more effectively as a whole council or in different service areas, not as individuals.
The answers that you provide to the survey are only visible to our transformation partners, PwC. They will put all of the information together and share it with us soon as council-wide data but will not share any individual responses with us. This is to protect your anonymity.
Each person was given a unique link to the survey so that they are able to save their progress and come back to complete it at a later time if they need to. This might be helpful if you need to find more information or if you don’t have time to complete the survey in one sitting.
You can hear my full answer to this question in the video at 5m42s.
There is a question in the survey asking for one thing that we would like to change at Shropshire Council. What if there is more than one thing we would like to change?
We asked you for one thing that you could change so that we could see what is the most important change for most of our colleagues. This information will help us to prioritise and make the most effective changes first.
We are encouraging people to share ideas for change with their line managers, who can act as a line of communication with the wider organisation. You are the experts in your role so, if you see something that could be changed to make improvements, please do speak up.
We are committed to providing a voice for all of our Shropshire Council colleagues and our internal communications is changing to reflect this. This will give everybody the chance to shape our organisation as we transform to become the council we need to be. Watch this space as the new Shropshire Plan intranet site develops, with more information on how colleagues can make their voices and experience part of the transformation.
You can hear my full answer to this question in the video at 23m 29s.
When will we know the results of the survey and how will this information be used?
We are hoping to have some feedback from the survey by the end of July and we will share it with colleagues as soon as we can, as well as how it will shape the next steps of our transformation.
This will help us to pinpoint areas where we can improve ways of working, remove barriers and improve our efficiency to make us the healthy organisation that we must become.
You can hear my full answer to this question in the video at 08m 53s.
Is this a way to use data to make redundancies?
I can understand why people have concerns about this and it can seem like the elephant in the room when we talk about making spending reductions. I want to reassure people that making lots of redundancies or cutting large-scales areas of service are not in our plan.
I imagine that the size of the organisation will reduce but we have a lot of flexibility to achieve this in other ways. For example, we have a significant vacancy rate of posts that are currently not filled and in many cases it may be possible to shift these roles around so that they can be deleted and make a contribution to our savings reductions.
As another example, we currently use a large number of agency staff to deliver services, which comes with a considerable cost. Part of our plan is to re-examine these roles and see if they can be delivered in a more cost-effective way.
The individuals who make Shropshire Council what it is are our most valuable asset. This survey is about making it easier for them to do what they do best; improving the lives of residents in Shropshire.
You can hear my full answer to this question in the video at 13m 41s.
At a time of local and national challenges, what does Shropshire Council consider its priorities to be?
As a council, our main priority is always to deliver the best possible services that we can to improve the lives of the people in our communities. As we work towards the Shropshire Plan, the focus of this is to have a healthy population and delivering services that support this.
The priorities for the transformation of Shropshire Council are known as 'transformation projects’. These are the first initiatives that will help us to deliver the savings that we need to make, including improving reablement services and reducing agency staff.
What are your thoughts on the council utilising AI (artificial intelligence) in the workplace to assist with repetitive tasks, and how will this affect people’s jobs?
There is a lot to consider in that question but the simple answer is yes, I think we should take full advantage of any tech advances that make it simpler for people to reach the information or resolutions that they need to improve outcomes, reduce costs and increase our capacity.
Technology is advancing rapidly and we, Shropshire Council, do not operate in a vacuum. It is important that we are up to date with the changes that are happening in the rest of the world, in industry and in both the public and private sector.
This is by no means as a replacement for any of the people who make Shropshire Council what it is, but could be a way to make the most of the talents and skills that our colleagues have, taking away the monotonous tasks that take up so much time.
You can hear my full answer to this question in the video at 18m04s.
Are there any plans in place to tackle the levels of staff turnover by addressing some of the temporary contracts, as many staff are worried about where they will be when approaching end-of-contract and look elsewhere, losing valuable staff?
It's been a challenging time for recruitment in the public sector, with many pressures adding to the difficulty. We do recognise, however, that we need to make Shropshire Council an attractive place to work and that begins with looking after the experienced colleagues we already have and who add so much value to the roles that they fulfil. There are projects in the plan to address this issue and I want to offer assurance to colleagues that we are considering the technicalities around that.
You can hear my full answer to this question in the video at 37m 12s.
What is in place to look after colleague’s health and wellbeing during the transformation?
Whilst there are some people who really relish change and really look forward to it, we recognise that change isn’t comfortable for the majority of people. For many people it can be quite a nervous time and we are committed to making sure that our communication is consistent, transparent and accessible to everyone. We hope that this will give colleagues the clarity and certainty to guide us through this process together, as a healthy organisation.
Remember, you can always access mental health resources, such as social prescribing on the intranet health and wellbeing pages.