Agenda of Implementation Advisory Group

Implementation Advisory Group

8 December 2016

Minutes of Implementation Advisory Group Meeting

held at Leichhardt Service Centre on Thursday 10 November 2016

The meeting commenced at 6.30pm

Members: Lucille McKenna OAM

Alex Lofts (Apologies)

Darcy Byrne

Vera-Ann Hannaford

Sam Iskandar

Rosana Tyler

Other Attendees:

Richard Pearson , Administrator

Rik Hart, Interim General Manager

Nellette Kettle, Director Innovation & Strategy

Peter Gainsford, Director Corporate Services

Simone Schwarz, Director Service Delivery

Josephine Bennett, Director Community Services

Katerina Maros, Governance Officer, Leichhardt (Minute taker)

1. Welcome by Administrator

2. Acknowledgement of Country

3. Apologies: Alex Lofts

4. Disclosures of Interest

5. Election of Chairperson

Sam Iskandar was appointed as Chairperson for this meeting.

6. Confirmation of Minutes Tyler/McKenna

That the Minutes of the Implementation Advisory Group held on Monday, 15 August 2016 be confirmed.

IAG1116 Item 1 Innovation and Integration Plan - Update

Recommendation Hannaford/ Tyler

THAT the report be noted.

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

IAG1116 Item 2 Citizen of the Year Program 2017

Recommendation Iskandar/ Byrne

1. THAT IAG note the 2017 category and eligibility recommendations for Inner West Council Citizen of the Year Program 2017.

2. That Council consult with the family of Amy Large about the status of the annual Amy Large Volunteer of the Year Award which was established in 2016.

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

IAG1116 Item 3 STRONGER COMMUNITIES ENGAGEMENT REPORT

Recommendation Iskandar / Tyler

That the verbal report be received and noted.

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

IAG1116 Item 4 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE UPDATE

Recommendation Iskandar / Byrne

That the verbal report be received and noted.

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

IAG1116 Item 5 ICT UPDATE

Recommendation Tyler/ Hannaford

That the verbal report be received and noted.

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

Meeting closed at 7:47pm.

Implementation Advisory Group

8 December 2016

Item No: IAG1216 Item 1

Subject: Integration and Innovation Plan - Monthly Update

File Ref: 16/6012/135655.16

Prepared By: Emma Lannan - Executive Policy Officer, Ashfield

Authorised By: Nellette Kettle - Director, Innovation and Strategy

SUMMARY

This report provides the IAG with a high level summary of progress against the actions in the Integration and Innovation Plan (i-Plan), including progress against seven key strategic areas.

RECOMMENDATION

THAT the report be received and noted and the IAG provide any feedback.

BACKGROUND

The Integration and Innovation Plan (i-Plan) outlines the key projects to establish the Inner West Council in preparation for the return of the elected Council.

CURRENT STATUS

The new organisational structure continues to be implemented with November seeing the appointment and commencement of the Deputy General Managers, as well as a large scale recruitment process completed for the Level 3 Group Managers. The Service Integration Team has continued to engage with Service Units to provide a formal framework to document and plan integration decisions, ready for the appointment of Group Managers. The organisational values project has seen high levels of staff engagement and participation in identifying and refining the new organisational values. Finalisation of the Statement of Vision and Priorities positions the organisation strongly to accelerate planning for the 2017/18 year within a new strategic framework for the Inner West Council.

A status overview against the 89 actions in the i-Plan is provided in Attachment 1. Progress in relation to the seven key strategic areas is highlighted below.

Service integration and review	· The Service Integration Team is expanding to meet the resourcing required to support the organisation. In November, Andrea Tattam was appointed to the Service Integration Manager role and recruitment commenced for two Business Analysts. · A dedicated resource has been provided by the Finance Service Unit to partner with the Integration Team to support Service Units as they integrate their draft budgets and fees and charges for 2017/18. · Integration workshops have continued throughout November, including follow up sessions to chart progress. As of 30 November, 23 workshops have been held to support 13 Service Units to commence their integration work. · Internal communications on integration work have been formalised this month with a dedicated section on the Council intranets and a regular integration newsletter.
Contemporary local democracy	· Establishing a suite of Strategic Reference Groups is underway. The Assessment Panel met on 4 November to determine applications. All applicants were notified of the success of their application in mid-November. The process of confirming membership is nearing completion. The first meeting of each group is planned for February 2017. · A governance framework for coordinating the Reference Groups will be developed in December to ensure a consistent and efficient approach to supporting the groups. · The results of extensive community engagement in recent months have supported the completion of two key deliverables for the new Council, the Statement of Vision and Priorities and the Stronger Communities Major Projects Fund ($14m) allocations.
Integrated planning	· The final round of feedback was undertaken with LRAC on 8 November to finalise the Statement of Vision and Priorities, which will be presented to Council on 6 December 2016. · The Vision and Priorities will guide Council’s corporate planning over the next 12-18 months, pending the development and adoption of a new Inner West Community Strategic Plan. · The 2017/18 budget timetable has been determined and communicated to managers. Preparing an integrated budget for 2017/18 will be a priority for incoming Group Managers from December 2016. · Early work has begun to support integrated operational planning under the new organisational structure. The Statement of Vision and Priorities will provide a strategic direction moving forwards. · The scoping process for the Community Strategic Plan development has commenced and will be on the LRAC agenda in early 2017.
Equipping and supporting Council staff to be resilient through change	· Communicating key dates and integration progress is essential to supporting staff during transition. Dedicated sections on all three intranets and a regular internal newsletter have been established to outline the integration framework, work to date and key dates. · Service integration workshops have facilitated face-to-face engagement with a much broader cross-section of the organisation. The workshops to date have provided a forum to ask questions, raise concerns and provide consistent information about integration and change. · An organisation-wide staff survey was open during November. Staff were encouraged to participate and share their views on the performance and culture of the organisation. The survey has been facilitated by an independent third party to ensure staff confidence in the confidentiality of the survey and data analysis. The survey will provide a benchmark for staff engagement. · Training continues to be offered across the organisation, including Code of Conduct, Applying for jobs, Resume workshop, Workplace Ethics, Tough Talks, Monitoring and Evaluation. · The development of the organisational values has been undertaken using a bottom up approach, with multiple opportunities for all staff to participate. This process has created an important avenue to connect all staff to the change process and to facilitate their involvement in building a successful new Council.
Organisational re-design	· The three Deputy General Managers commenced their roles in November. · Level 3 Group Manager positions were advertised and closed on 9 November. Interviews have been held during the last two weeks of November, with appointments expected in early December. · Consultation with staff about the Level 4 structure will begin with the appointment of Group Managers and continue through early 2017.
Systems integration and transformation	· Project scope for TechnologyOne is in development, with ongoing engagement of key staff continuing through November. A detailed process design is proposed for February 2017. · Dark fibre, providing connectivity between three legacy systems, has been installed and activated. Testing phase is in progress. · Work to consolidate the domain and active directory/email has continued during November. High level design is close to completion and detailed design is expected to be commissioned in early December. This project is on track to deliver a new domain, active directory and email environment by March 2017. · Opportunities to fast track the domain/active directory/email project, and subsequent data migration, are being investigated. · Options for process mapping systems are under investigation. Process mapping software will support the service integration program and future business improvements.
Organisational development	· The Organisational Values project commenced in late October with over 330 staff identifying an initial suite of values through a series of creative workshops. On 9 November, a working group of staff from across the organisation reviewed the outputs from the initial workshops to prepare a shortlist of potential values. This list included Innovation, Integrity, Creativity, Bold, Fun, Flexibility, Team Spirit, Respect, Accountability, Collaboration and Diversity. · An engagement process opened on 29 November to encourage staff to ‘vote’ for their top three values. Mobile voting stations were rolled out at all sites, including Depots, Libraries and Aquatic Centres, with over 400 staff participating in the first day. Following the completion of this process, the final suite of values will be presented to staff in early 2017, after consultation with the Leadership Group. · Training in key skills to support the integration and organisational development processes have been planned for early 2017. Facilitation has been identified as a core skill to support integration, with training scheduled for early February 2017. Training in the Australian Business Excellence Framework is planned for late February 2017. All training will be targeted to critical staff to support their roles in integration and business improvement implementation.

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES TO SEPTEMBER 2017

As the organisation integrates and matures following the merger, we continue to undertake an iterative process of reviewing and refining our organisational priorities. This helps to give staff a sense of direction and clarity about what is important during a time of significant change and activity.

Attachment 2 provides a shorter, more focused set of strategic priorities to guide staff over the coming 10 months, with the goal of creating an integrated and high performing Council in preparation for the return of the elected Council in September 2017.

The strategic goals are articulated in the following areas:

· Community satisfaction

· Community infrastructure

· Strategic influence and capacity

· Community engagement and local democracy

· Value for money

· Governance

· Corporate infrastructure and business excellence

· Staff and culture

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

A draft budget for the merger implementation has been developed.

OTHER STAFF COMMENTS

Relevant staff have contributed status comments for their actions items.

PUBLIC CONSULTATION

This status report is published on the Council website.

CONCLUSION

Significant progress continues to be made in establishing the Inner West Council as outlined in the report.

ATTACHMENTS

1.⇩	Attachment 1 - I-Plan Actions Update - 30 November 2016
2.⇩	Attachment 2 - Merger implementation strategic goals

Implementation Advisory Group

8 December 2016

Item No: IAG1216 Item 2

Subject: 17-18 Budget - Process and Timetable

File Ref: 16/6012/137628.16

Prepared By: David Murray - Manager Finance, Leichhardt

Authorised By: Michael Tzimoulas - DGM, Chief Financial & Administration Officer

SUMMARY

The Inner West Council’s Leadership Team has commenced its budget process for the 2017/18 financial year with a view of delivering a fully funded, realistic budget (both Operating and Capital) by the end of March 2017. The purpose of this report is to advise IAG of the top level process and key milestones of the budget process to ensure the deliverables are met.

RECOMMENDATION

THAT the report be received and noted

BACKGROUND

The former Ashfield, Leichhardt and Marrickville Councils were amalgamated into the Inner West Council on 12 May 2016. The amalgamation proclamation requires the Inner West Council to provide an Operational Plan for 2017/18 financial year that includes a Fees and Charges schedule and a funded Operating and Capital budget as well as an Operational Plan.

DISCUSSION

The construction of the 2017/18 budget commenced in late October with a view of having a final budget to present to Council by the end of March 2017. The underlying principle of the 2017/18 budget is to ensure that all operational and capital budgets are resourced adequately with an expectation that there will be minimal unspent budget carry forwards into the 2018/19 financial year.

In starting the 2017/18 budget, a review of the current year’s budget is underway to determine if there is capacity to deliver the nominated programs (both operating and capital) by 30 June 2017. There is an expectation that there may need to be adjustments to the Capital Budget which will be recorded through the Quarterly Budget Review process and incorporated into the 2017/18 budget.

Below are the milestones that need to be achieved in order to deliver the 2017/18:

2017/18 Budget Milestones

· Week commencing 5 December 16 - Draft Labour budgets, for the new IWC structure, are being distributed to Group Managers for review.

· Week commencing 5 December 16 - Draft Operational and Capital Budgets are being distributed to Group Managers for review.

· 22 December 16 - Draft budget documents to be returned to Finance.

· 20 January 17 - Draft Fees and Charges will be returned to Finance.

· Early February 17 - Draft Budget considered by Leadership Group.

· February – discussion with LRAC.

· March 17 onwards – consultation and presentation of Draft Budget to Council and Public Exhibition.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

A balanced IWC budget is proposed for 2017-18.

OTHER STAFF COMMENTS

Nil.

PUBLIC CONSULTATION

Only internal stakeholder engagement performed to date

CONCLUSION

Nil.

ATTACHMENTS

Nil.