Rose Crozier, Head of ISB, Belfast City Council

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Rose Crozier, Head of ISB, Belfast City Council

• ICT and the Modernisation Agenda in Belfast

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Outline

• Belfast a changing city
• The Review of Public Administration and what this
  means for Local Government and Belfast
• How Belfast City Council is using ICT to
  transform itself and improve service delivery

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BELFAST A changing city...
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Belfasts History

• Settlement at Béal Feirste
• since at least 1177
• Became a true city in late Victoria era
• International achievements shipyard, the port,
  rope works, linen mills, tobacco, whiskey, etc.
• Slump post World War I
• Relative prosperity post World War II but
• increasing tensions between two traditions
• Belfast population peaked at 450,00
• in 1960s

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Recent History of the City

• The outbreak of the Troubles in late 1960s
• Acceleration of urban depopulation - flight to
  suburbs and surrounding towns
• 1970s economic downturn
• Unemployment
• Increased social problems
• Sectarian interfaces

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Belfast Today.

• Capital City Regional driver of Northern
  Ireland
• Population of 271,600 BMAP area 650,000
• Massive regeneration and investment in
• the past decade Gasworks, Laganside
• Recently declared as the best town in
• Ireland to visit by the influential
• Lonely Planet Guide which also
• cited it as boom town

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Regeneration Laganside
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Changes in NI Government

• Government in Northern Ireland is fractured
• Direct rule from 1972
• Experiments in devolution - NI Assembly - now in
• suspension
• Eleven Central Government Departments with
  regional
• not city remits
• 26 Local Authorities with limited powers
• Over 150 public bodies and other organisations
• Functions spread across a range of agencies
• Different boundaries for the local authorities
• and other public bodies
• Segregation and fractured neighbourhoods

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• What is happening
• in the RPA?

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The RPA Process

• Most comprehensive reform of the public sector in
  Northern Ireland for 30 years
• Future of Local Government, Health, Education and
  Public Bodies were all considered
• Launched in June 2002
• First Consultation Oct 2003 Feb 2004
• Further Consultation March 2005 Sept 2005
• Decisions on Health, Education and Local
• Government taken in Nov 2005
• Decisions on Public Bodies taken in March
• 2006
• Implementation due to take place
• through to 2011

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How does Belfast realise the opportunities?

• Council Improvement Board
• Improvement Agenda - Governance
  arrangements- Resource allocation and
  planning- Performance management- Customer
  Focus
• - Improved Corporate (back office) services
• - External relationships
• Benchmark against IDeA Ideal Local Authority
• Involvement in Local Government Taskforce and
• Working Groups
• Developing the infrastructure and
• relationships to Community Plan

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Council Improvement Programme

• What does it mean?
• Joining up services in the Council and across the
  city for the benefit of citizens, neighbourhoods
  and the city as a whole.

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Barriers to Change

• Silos between and within organisations
• Lack of integration of budgets and planning
• Lack of shared outcomes and performance
  frameworks
• Lack of strategic management
• Different accountability mechanisms

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More Barriers.

• Legacies cultures, structure, governance
  arrangements, systems, processes and outdated
  working agreements
• Lack of customer-centricity

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First Steps.Drivers for Change

• IDeA Review
• Rating Reform
• Water Charges
• Review of Public Administration
• Political Pressure
• Fit for Purpose

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VCM Belfast City Council
The Council takes a leading
r
ole in
i
mproving
q
uality of
l
ife now and for
f
uture
g
enerations for the
p
eople of Belfast by
making the
c
ity a better
p
lace to
l
ive in,
w
ork in,
i
nvest in and
v
isit
Providing leadership and strategic direction
Meeting the needs of local people through
for
shaping
,
developing
and managing the city
the
e
ffective
d
elivery of
quality and
customer
-
centric
s
ervices
Continuous
Develop and maintain
i
mprovement and
relationships with
k
ey
Image / Reputation
i
nnovation of
s
ervice
s
takeholders
d
elivery
Effective
communication
Quality advice and
(internally and
evidence based
externally)
decision making
Happy and
dedicated
Developing
our
Open
performance
employees
and
knowledge, skills,
and
driven culture
councillors
expertise
Strategic
Strategic Human Resource
Strategic Information Management
Financial Planning
Management
Ó
Bernard Marr (2006)
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A Council View
Local Council Strategy
Measurements
Service Plans
Efficiency Plan
Delivering Best Value
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The Transformation and Improvement Programme
Ongoing programme management
Business unit improvement projects
IT Infrastructure enablement
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How can IT help to make the savings?

• A number of ways, including
• Improving and adopting new ways of working
• Adopting e-Government national project outcomes
• Automating routine processes
• Helping with procurement

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Procurement

• Creating centres of excellence
• Improved contract management
• Partnerships aggregating demand
• e-Tendering
• e-Auctions
• e-Marketplaces
• Purchasing Cards
• National procurement strategy
• Increased professionalisation of the
• procurement function

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Corporate services
Corporate services as change a agent

• Simplifying and standardizing work processes in
  Finance, HR and IT
• A single view of customer a customer advocacy
  role?
• Agreeing benchmarks for performance
• Supporting all corporate services in delivering
  efficiency
• Improving partnership working
• Working with the private sector

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Productive time

• Increase in flexible working practices
• Reducing costs of property portfolio
• Review of business processes and staff management
• Improved absence management

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Transactional services

• BPR
• On-line services
• Channel switching
• Joint working with voluntary sector
• Rationalising websites

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CRM a Maturing Technology?
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Harnessing Customer Knowledge

• Opportunities to segment and exploit customer
  information
• Push services to customer groups
• Use customer interests to engage in shaping
  services

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The future

• Moving to a shared services culture, releasing
  efficiencies through standardisation,
  simplification and sharing
• Bridging fragmentation
• Supporting evidence based decision making and
  performance management

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BELFAST 2008


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Pro Tanto Quid Retribuamus For so much, what
shall we give in return
Questions?