If you could change one thing about the council, what would it be?

Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the Time to Change survey.

Your responses will have a direct and lasting impact on how we become the council we need to be – for us, and for our residents alike.  

The survey was not just about gathering data; it was also about hearing your opinions. So we asked the question ‘If you could change one thing about the council, what would it be?’. 2,800 of you made your voices heard, on themes as varied as improving communication and IT, reducing red tape and silo working.  

We’re still going through your responses, and we’ll be sure to keep you updated. Here are some of our answers to your questions and suggestions.

You say: We need to improve the way we communicate.

Nigel Newman, Head of communications and engagement says:

“Absolutely we do. The way we communicate as a council – and as teams, as individuals – has changed massively over recent years, and so have the needs of our audiences and our service areas. I think that’s particularly true in light of the whole transformation projects – it’s vital that we talk to our people better, and encourage their voices, too. The old days of ‘this is who we are, this is what you need to know’ are over.  

We’re exploring new and different ways of telling our shared stories 

“So although there’s still much to do, we’re exploring new and different ways of communicating, particularly internally. We’ve got the new MyPlan site (where you’re reading this!), which really turns The Shropshire Plan into something real for all of us. It gives us the space we’ve always needed for what I’m going to loosely term our ‘corporate’ messages, though I don’t really like the term, but you get my drift: all the news about transformation, The Shropshire Plan, and other things. 

Good communication requires transparency and honesty 

“We’ve really made a commitment to keeping everyone in the know regarding our financial position. That’s really, really important: we’ve got to be transparent and honest, because that’s what our people deserve – they’re the ones working hard, working differently, working better, so we have to keep them illuminated. 

We’re broadening our channels so that we target our messages better 

“Then we’ve got the Amplify Change newsletter, which is a whole new channel dedicated to transformation projects. It’s worth noting that many of these projects have yet to start, so that’ll probably pick up in size and frequency in the future. 

“Plus we’ve got the Amplify Good Newsletter, which is going down really well with staff – a dose of optimism on a Monday morning, because we do have such good stories to tell. We just need to make sure we become better storytellers, and that’s where we need to get to. 

“We’re just about to go live with a series of podcasts that are all about giving our people their voices. We’re calling it Amplify Your Voice, and it’s all part of the wider Amplify Change campaign. We’ve got colleagues from Shropshire Local, from the Theatre, or talking about high street regeneration, or fostering. We’re really excited by these – again, it’s that sense of giving people their voices, so that communication isn’t just this top-down process.  

“We want all colleagues to have a voice and already have Viva Engage (formerly known as Yammer) in place. This is a digital space that gives colleagues somewhere to connect with each other in communities built around interests, job types and departments. 

Our best communication channel is our people 

“But also, communication isn’t just about what Andy says, or some anonymised ‘voice of the organisation’. The very best communicators are our people, and we need to find ways to help team leaders talk to their people. Staff (generally!) trust their managers, which is a great and rare position to be in. So we need to find ways to establish that dialogue, and that’s why we’ve recently launched the Leaders Briefing, so that managers know what’s happening, and can talk about it with their teams.

This is actually a really exciting time for us, and I think that the whole transformation agenda is empowering us to think and work in different ways. So that’s what we’re doing. We might not get everything 100% right first-time round, but we have to keep trying new things.” 

Effective communication needs to be a collaborative process 

“In every organisational survey I’ve seen, improving communication always features near the top. We’re working hard to address this. However, everyone has a part to play in improving communications, whether you’re more actively receiving information, participating in briefing sessions, sharing and discussing with colleagues or giving honest feedback.

We’d always appreciate hearing what you think, whether this is via amplifychange@shropshire.gov.uk or via your team leader/manager. Keep telling us your good news stories Good News submissions (office.com)."

Key points: 

  • New communications channels to support our transformation 

  • Look out for variety on new internal communication methods – MyPlan, Amplify Change  newsletters, Leaders Briefing to support team communication  

  • Everyone has a part to play in improving communication – the information and tools are there for you. You can get involved too! 

  • Staff survey due this autumn  

You say: We need to improve collaboration between teams and directorates.

Sam Williams, assistant director, workforce, says:

“Making sure we all work together towards one common goal, avoid duplication and, basically, know what we’re all doing – where we can help one another, for example – is absolutely essential to our aim of transforming the council. And that’s exactly what we’ve been doing across a number of projects, and, in the spirit of collaboration, I’d like to go through some of our current initiatives. 

“Most of you will have heard about the Getting Leadership Right (GLR) programme – indeed, many of you will have been on it! So, at its heart, GLR is quite simply about making sure our team leaders and managers have all the skills, training and processes to be the best leaders they can possibly be, so that all staff can do their jobs to the best of their abilities.  

Getting Leadership Right encourages teams from across the council to collaborate 

“But GLR is also about how we work better across teams, directorates, and the wider organisations. So far, we’ve brought together 240 leaders from across the council in 19 cohorts: and by ‘brought together’, I mean that in a physical sense, too: the GLR programme has allowed people to very much come together, understand the challenges of other teams, and think about how we can all pull together: we’ve created ‘buddy groups’, so that one team can draw on the expertise of another. This is networking in action, and I think it’s already making a real difference to how teams work across the council. It’s something we need to do more of: another 100 colleagues will be joining the GLR programme this September. So we’re really keeping that momentum going. 

It’s vital that different teams share and draw on different skills and expertise 

“And that’s not all. Right now, we’ve got many projects in progress across the council directly helping to deliver the savings targets in the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS). Different teams are working together to share and draw on different skills and expertise. 

“Let’s take just one example: we’ve got members of the place directorate working closely with children’s services to improve the offer to foster carers, and help with the recruitment drive to get more foster carers on board. It’s been really successful: we’ve recruited eight new foster carers already this year, with another two awaiting an initial home visit. By comparison, we only had two new foster carers onboard at the same time last year.”

When we collaborate, we reduce duplication, become more efficient, and create new connections 

“We’re bringing together all those working on project and programme management across the council, and will continue to do this. This group has already been able to group projects into programmes where they are complementary or achieving similar outcomes. We have started to reduce duplication, create links between directorates, and identify interdependencies and synergies that would otherwise not readily been noted. This will continue and allow us to co-create how we do project management here, allowing us to be more consistent and give visibility across all our projects.” 

You say: We need more effective IT systems and have the right equipment to do the job.

David Baker, head of automation and technology says:

‘Every company is a tech company’: and so are we 

“The need for more effective systems and having the right equipment to do the job came up in different guises in the recent Time to Change survey. For the past decade, executives and leaders in the commercial space have thrown around the phrase that “every company is a tech company”: in 2023 this statement has never been truer for the council. ICT supports and enables staff to deliver services on a day-to-day basis and many citizens and other customers want to interact with us in digital ways. With people using digital technology more than ever before we need to get the experience right for our staff, our citizens, our members, and anyone else that interacts with us whether this be through digital means or a more traditional manner. 

A healthy organisation needs modern, fit-for-purpose IT 

“Upon joining Shropshire in September 2022 I quickly learnt of the differing levels of IT equipment across the council. During this time colleagues across ICT and Finance have worked hard to see what we can do about this. I’m pleased to tell you that a programme has now been established to replace IT equipment across the organisation, ensuring staff will be working on modern devices with a standard set of supporting peripherals. However, just replacing the IT kit solves the short-term issue and leaves us in a similar position a few years down the road. We are doing things differently; the programme moves away from the ad-hoc equipment purchases of the past and instead builds this into a rolling programme to refresh all IT and desktop devices every three years. A healthy organisation needs to ensure staff have access to modern and fit for purpose IT equipment, the programme will ensure this happens and will improve the digital experience moving forward."

Systems, people and processes all matter equally 

“It will come as no surprise to you that I had already heard of the systems not being effective. Systems or technology are only one piece of the puzzle when looking into operational efficiency and effectiveness, the other two elements are people and processes. People execute tasks, processes improve efficiency, and technology supports the tasks and automates the processes. A good way to think of it is like a three legged stool, each leg of the stool represents one piece of the puzzle; if one of the legs are longer or shorter the stool will fall over, and you will end up on the floor feeling sorry for yourself. When technology changes, the people and processes need to change too."

We’re undertaking a review of all our systems 

“It’s very tempting to get attracted to shiny new systems: too often companies make huge investments in the latest systems, expecting real changes and efficiencies but don’t think about the people and processes. Then as an afterthought they try to fit the people and processes into this new system, but this doesn’t work and won’t bring about the best outcomes and, in many cases, you end up in a worse situation. The systems are nothing without the right people following the right processes to support it. Systems alone will not solve our problems, we need to understand what it is we are trying to achieve, clearly define or redesign our processes, and train people to leverage technology to its fullest.  Ultimately, we will be undertaking a review of all systems, there is a systems review of the ERP currently underway."

Fast service reviews mean we can make quick changes 

“That’s great”, I hear you say, "But what about now? Things need changing quickly". A ’squad’ is being created to make sure we have the right people with the right skills to undertake fast service reviews. These fast service reviews will allow us to make quick changes to processes where feasible, to make them simple and effective for both staff and citizens, automating where possible, reducing unnecessary admin and enhancing the overall experience for everyone. 

There is some exciting work we are doing in relation to the customer journey project and how citizens and customers will interact with us in the near future, how the recent advances in Artificial Intelligence can be used and how we can make your lives easier, but more on these in a future update.” 

You say: We need to get better at understanding the needs of our customers.

Rachel Robinson, executive director of health and programme sponsor says:

“We weren’t surprised that this featured strongly in your Time to Change survey comments. In order to meet our customers' needs in the most appropriate way it is important that we understand our residents needs and preferences to develop a tailored approach to customer contact."

Too many first points of contact across the council 

“We currently have multiple first points of contact across the council; they’re not co-ordinated, consistent or systematically monitored. While our main customer contact is split over three main Customer Service Centres (CSCs), there are also separate single contact points through individual service areas."

We need different approaches that better meet customer needs 

“The basic problem is that we have high volumes of contact which could be avoided by using different approaches that better meet customer needs; what I mean by that is residents calling or emailing us, which takes a lot of time and effort to resolve, when many have said they do this because they don’t have another way to contact us; or failure demand – that is, people chasing responses and updates, so one email quickly becomes two, three, and four – or because residents can’t do what they need to do digitally, so it’s unsurprising they choose to call or email.  

You will be pleased to hear that change is already underway to improve things via our ‘channel shift - customer journey’ programme which sets out to improve our customers' experience of the council."

Change is already happening 

“The first significant change has already happened, with the change to the opening hours of our Customer Service Centre. You can read much about it here but basically, the change means that our CSC teams will have more time to focus on vulnerable people who need our help. During the pandemic, we learned that making targeted, outbound calls to vulnerable residents make a real, positive difference to their lives, and as a council, that’s what we’re here for. The changes also mean that the team will have more time to help and encourage more people to do business with us online, whilst recognising that a telephone service is still essential for those residents unable to transact online."

Improving our service is good for the council, and good for our residents 

“By doing this, we intend to reduce our spend, whilst also giving our residents a better service: whether that means contacting vulnerable residents directly, or giving more digital-savvy residents the chance to do their transactions quickly and easily on-line: this saves time for our residents, and helps us save money.

Further work is underway to inform the rest of the Customer Journey Programme this includes mapping customers’ needs and preferences."

Key points: 

Work has now started on the ‘Channel Shift – Customer Journey’ Programme with high level plans in place and scoping and mapping workshops with stakeholders underway.  We are putting customers and their needs at the heart of what we do, including central to this work, and once delivered, this programme will:  

  • Provide customers with the right support at the right time at the right place  

  • Enable and empower our customers to help themselves by providing them with effective and accessible information and advice  

  • Increase the choice to enable our customers to interact with us digitally  

  • Make best use of our staff skills and time, focusing them on the contacts that drive positive impacts  

  • Deliver proactive customer service which keeps our customers informed at all stages  

  • Reduce avoidable demand, increasing efficiency and decreasing costs