The requirement placed on councils to develop Productivity Plans has come in the context of increasing demand for services within a challenging funding environment; however, it also comes at a time of great opportunity in Cumberland. Following local government reorganisation and as a newly-formed Cumberland Council we are beginning an ambitious transformation journey.

This plan has been produced in the context of local government reorganisation and focuses on the future and the work to create a new financially sustainable council, transform services and do things differently.

Our transformation opportunity

Cumberland Council was established as a new unitary council on 1 April 2023 replacing three district councils (Allerdale Borough Council, Carlisle City Council and Copeland Borough Council) and a part of Cumbria County Council. 

The local government reorganisation process has seen a significant change programme over the last three years. We have brought together four legacy councils into one organisation whilst maintaining the quality of service delivery to our residents. The complexity of bringing four councils together and disaggregating the former county council has been challenging but provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the way we deliver services and support our communities across Cumberland.

We set out an ambitious vision in our Council Plan that: ‘Cumberland Council takes a fresh approach to the delivery of inclusive services that are shaped by our residents and communities.  By enabling positive outcomes for health and wellbeing, prosperity and the environment we will fulfil the potential of our people and our area.’

Delivery of our vision is being underpinned by our values that are in everything we do. We aim to be compassionate. innovative, empowering, ambitious, and collaborative.

Our broad approach to creating our new council is focused on:

• achieving long-term financial sustainability - realising £80 million financial benefit by 2027 by reducing overspend, avoiding cost and increasing income
• delivering high-performing, quality services that deliver better outcomes for our residents – using data and insight, technology, innovation and efficient processes
• implementing a new operating model for Cumberland – by managing demand, setting a new culture, shifting to a prevention model, early engagement with residents, and focusing on pre-front door and self-service.
   

Our target operating model has been informed by our understanding that we need to invest in transforming services and the way we work to address areas of lower productivity and see the long-term benefits of becoming a single council for Cumberland. This will take some time and significant investment – but is absolutely critical to improving productivity.

Our operating model is designed to enable a common understanding of how we will operate in the future as one combined organisation.

Each layer represents a different area of delivery which ultimately helps to build a stronger and more prosperous community across Cumberland Council.

At its core, the operating model will:

• empower communities - through partnership working and targeted community development, we will seek to strengthen support networks and respond to signs of need early to reduce pressure on public sector services.
• increase self-service - an improved digital offering will allow customers to access services and resolve simple enquiries through self-service. Self-serve can also be used to capture more up-front information for customers that require more complex assessments. Channels such as the website, a customer portal or a customer chatbot can help customers access council services at a time and a place suited to them.
• improve service delivery - a better digital service offer will enable staff to save time on administrative tasks and focus their time to support customers with complex needs or  focus on delivering the service. Similarly, improving the internal support offered to service delivery employees will free up time to focus more on delivery of services and less on back office activities.
• harness technology, data and insight - providing employees with improved digital solutions will be key to transformation. Technologies such as a Customer Relationship Management system, which would be powered by customer data, can provide a single view of all customer interactions with the council. Insights and performance data can also be used to improve performance and prioritise service delivery and resources across the organisation.

During the work to transition from four legacy councils to a new single council over our first year, we have also been developing and beginning to implement an ambitious set of Transformation Programmes and improvement activity. We are clear about the future planned state of the organisation we aim to achieve, which is:

• operate with a balanced budget and financially sustainable Medium Term Financial Plan
• a strong positive culture with harmonised workforce that is proud to work for Cumberland Council, where colleagues feel valued, individuals’ strengths are aligned to appropriate worker roles, absence levels are reduced, and Cumberland Council is an employer of choice
• all services have strong performance against Key Performance Indicators and positive customer feedback, and are excellent in external regulatory assessment, compliance and awards
• a rationalised estate – operating from fewer offices and maximising commercial opportunity from remaining assets
• proactive early engagement with residents which supports managing demand and the implementation of a preventative model
• work effectively with partner organisations
• cloud-based enterprise architecture and forward-looking digital infrastructure that drives performance
• longer-term improvements to health and wellbeing
• improved processes and removal of duplication in service delivery
• an embedded ‘commissioning cycle’ approach in all service areas, including effective contract management and pipeline planning for future alternative delivery models.

Our Transformation Plan is organised within the following themes and projects.

Three key themes have been identified:

• people and culture, including projects - pay and reward review and implementation, agency staff, academy, overseas recruitment, recruitment and vacancy management
• technology and innovation, including projects - enterprise architecture, pre-front door (self-serve), remove duplication, enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management, digitisation and use of AI
• implementing the operating model, including projects - delivery of operating model, waste service review, review of Cumberland care, robust project gatekeeping, governance, policy, training and contract review.

The investment and savings we aim to achieve over the next three years through delivery of our portfolio of Transformation Programmes.

Transformation portfolios – investment and savings over the next three years

Adults Services transformation

• investment 2023 to 2024 - £250,000
• investment 2024 to 2025 - £2.500 million
• investment 2025 to 2026 - £2.350 million
• savings 2024 to 2025 - £6.125 million
• savings 2025 to 2026 - £2.000 million
• savings 2026 to 2027 - £400,000

Children's Services transformation

• investment 2023 to 2024 - £800,000
• investment 2024 to 2025 - £3.500 million
• investment 2025 to 2026 - £1.200 million
• savings 2024 to 2025 - £9.900 million
• savings 2025 to 2026 - £8.050 million
• savings 2026 to 2027 - £2.750 million

People, Resources and reducing agency/EPW

• investment 2023 to 2024 - £1.100 million
• investment 2024 to 2025 - £4.000 million
• investment 2025 to 2026 - £4.000 million
• savings 2024 to 2025 - £1.000 million
• savings 2025 to 2026 - £4.000 million
• savings 2026 to 2027 - £5.000 million

Assets and Fleet Management

• investment 2024 to 2025 - £500,000
• savings 2024 to 2025 - £475,000
• savings 2025 to 2026 - £3.750 million
• savings 2026 to 2027 - £3.500 million

Customer and pre-front door

• investment 2023 to 2024 - £250,000
• investment 2024 to 2025 - £2.750 million
• savings 2024 to 2025 - £1.000 million
• savings 2025 to 2026 - £2.000 million
• savings 2026 to 2027 - £2.000 million

Commissioning and Commercialisation

• investment 2023 to 2024 - £450,000
• investment 2024 to 2025 - £200,000
• savings 2024 to 2025 - £1.242 million
• savings 2025 to 2026 - £1.150 million

ICT - foundation systems

• investment 2024 to 2025 - £5.850 million
• investment 2025 to 2026 - £3.000 million
• savings 2025 to 2026 - £500,000
• savings 2026 to 2027 - £2.500 million

Improvement and efficiency

• savings 2024 to 2025 - £510,000

Totals

• investment 2023 to 2024 - £2.850 million
• investment 2024 to 2025 - £19.300 million
• investment 2025 to 2026 - £10.550 million
• savings 2024 to 2025 - £20.252 million
• savings 2025 to 2026 - £21.450 million
• savings 2026 to 2027 - £16.150 million

Year 1 priorities

Within this financial year, 2024/25, we aim to achieve savings of £37,610 million which is equivalent to approximately 11% of the Council’s 2024/25 Net Service Expenditure budget. These will be achieved through:

• delivery of the Transformation Plan - £20.252 million
• service reviews and budget pressure mitigation - £15.598 million
• contract and service reviews (non-recurring savings) -  £1.759 million

In developing our Transformation Plan we have identified and prioritised projects with the highest level of opportunity – resulting in the following breakdown of transformation activity in Year 1:

• £9.912 million of savings to be achieved in Children’s Services
• £11.532 million of savings to be achieved in services for Adults
• £7.773 million of savings to be achieved by better use of resources across the council

Service reviews

We have begun a series of service reviews which incorporate a deep-dive into how each service is currently delivered and how that service could be redesigned to increase efficiency and improve outcomes. Some of these reviews are part of the council’s Transformation Plan and some are being carried out as part of our strategic planning processes. The outputs of these reviews will then drive further improvement activities over the coming months.

Additional review activity is also underway. For example, fees and charges income had broadly been less in the legacy councils than their statistical neighbouring authorities, Recognising that those benchmarking comparisons are now unhelpful following local government reorganisation, the council has now harmonised policies in respect of fees and charges and moved to a full cost recovery of care model relating to in-house adult social care service delivery. Further work to assess the council’s position in relation to comparable authorities is to be carried out.

Governance

We have established a robust governance structure to enable effective decision-making, assurance, and risk and performance management. This includes quarterly budget and performance reporting in public to the council’s Executive, the scrutiny function which includes the Business and Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee with a specific responsibility for scrutiny of budget and performance, and the Audit Committee (including an independent person within its membership) with responsibility for providing independent assurance of the adequacy of the risk management framework and the associated control environment and independent scrutiny of the Council’s financial and non-financial performance. 

Member accountability and review in relation to the Transformation Plan sits with the council’s Executive, Overview and Scrutiny and full Council ensuring strategic decision-making, monitoring and review of this vital work is carried out with transparency and public accountability. Our Senior Leadership Team is the Strategic Programme Panel providing officer-level strategic oversight and decision-making for the delivery of our ambitious Transformation Plan. The work to deliver transformation is carried out by staff from across the organisation (and in some cases from partner organisations) through a range of Programme Boards and Project Delivery Groups, supported by a well-resourced Programme Management Office and underpinned by robust programme and project management methodologies.

Our Transformation Plan incorporates invest to save approaches with the investment required for each Programme to realise the intended benefits outlined in the table above. A new capital investment strategy is now in place to support delivery of these approaches and programmes.

Workforce planning

Our workforce is our greatest asset. Through our strategic planning processes and delivery of our Transformation Plan we are working to ensure our workforce, our assets and our finances are focused fully on delivering our priorities.

Our workforce and recruitment challenges include difficulties in recruitment and retention of staff in some service areas which results in use of externally provided workforce (for example - agency staff), often at high cost to the council. Reducing the number of externally provided workforce used by us and ensuring we have the permanent workforce in place to deliver our services is a priority project within our Transformation Plan.

Significant progress has already been made to lower in increasing levels of the permanent workforce in Children’s Services.

Our workforce challenges include high levels of long-term sickness in some parts of the council. We are using a range of interventions to reduce these levels, investing substantially where we need to address these issues and support people back into work, to achieve productivity gains in the future.

We are developing a robust understanding of the capacity we will need to deliver transformation plans over the coming years and are using externally-commissioned specialist services where we need to in order to achieve savings and deliver on our objectives. 

Engaging with our workforce is a vital part of creating our new council for Cumberland and to delivering our transformation plans. An empowered, skilled and motivated workforce is critical to future productivity. We are using a range of ways to engage with our staff and support them through change. Effective engagement with Trade Unions is an important element of our work in this area. The proportion of the council’s pay bill spent on Trade Union Facility Time in 2023/24 was 0.1559%. The expectation in our medium term financial planning is that this proportion will reduce by 2026/27.

Performance Management

We have a Performance Management Framework in place which sets out how we manage performance. This includes quarterly performance and finance reports made to the Executive on the current position – including progress against the Medium Term Financial Plan, Key Performance Indicators and activity milestones aligned to the programmes of work set out in the Council Plan and Council Plan Delivery Plan.

Latest performance reports.

Addressing inequalities

Improving the health and wellbeing of our residents is the central aim of our vision for Cumberland as set out in our Council Plan. This is supported by four strategic priorities which are key to making an impact on the factors that affect health and wellbeing:

• addressing inequalities
• local economies that work for local people
• environmental resilience and the climate emergenc
• delivering excellent public services.

Addressing inequalities is integral to the delivery of our Vision for Cumberland and is mainstreamed throughout the whole council – through policy, processes, transformation programmes and delivery activity. We have agreed our Equality Objectives for the next four years and are currently developing an implementation plan which will be delivered through existing or planned programmes of activity across the council. 

Meaningful engagement with all our communities is central to our vision and we have put a community engagement framework in place to embed the importance of engagement across all services. The council currently provides two small grants of £1,250 a year to two local infrastructure groups to support engagement with people with specific protected characteristics.

Equalities training is one of a number of mandatory online training packages for all staff to be completed at a time of their choosing through our online learning portal. We also have a number of staff networks across the organisation as part of our staff engagement approach.

Barriers to increasing productivity

We have ambitious plans for transforming services and creating a single, integrated Cumberland Council fit for the future. This is a long-term plan requiring long-term investment and long-term decision-making.

To do this we need the government to provide certainty – certainty of funding and certainty of reform – including:

• the certainty of multi-year funding settlements which enables us to make long-term investment decisions in order to realise significant improvements in productivity and enables us to plan service improvement resulting in better outcomes for our residents
• the certainty of long-term investment in local place with a shift away from multiple bidding rounds for multiple funding streams towards strategic investment in a place, and increased flexibility of use of ring-fenced grants
• the certainty of a devolution approach which enables flexibility of local governance arrangements to meet local need rather than the current prescriptive mayoral model to secure the most significant devolution deals
• clarity of SEND reform recognising increasing demand – fully funding councils so that they can ensure the needs of those eligible can be fully met
• clarity of home-to-school transport entitlement and funding arrangements recognising increased costs – to ensure affordability for councils
• clarity of adult social care reforms and funding arrangements recognising ageing populations and increasing complexity of demand – to ensure sustainability of support for some of the most vulnerable in our communities
• action across government departments, including DWP in particular, to ensure better data-sharing with councils to enable more automated and better support for residents, including those on benefits.