APPENDI 1 - Relevance Assessment Template Directorate: Service: Function being assessed: Is this a proposed or existing function? Children & Families (C&F) Business Support Business Support Existing Function Officer responsible for assessment: Lead manager responsible for assessment: Date of Relevance Assessment: Date of Sign Off: Nicola Thompson Nicky Parker 13/1/2015 1. Purpose of the Analysis 1.1 The purpose of this relevance assessment is to analyse the information gathered on existing business support function, to test it for potential relevance to equality. A relevance ranking of high, medium or low will be applied. 2. About the Service Please use this section to provide a concise overview of your service, its key delivery objectives and its desired outcomes: The service delivers business support functions in support of C&F operations. The term Business Support is used to describe all functions and roles that are known variously as administration, PA, secretarial and business support across C&F. The remit of the service is wide but focuses on a set of core business support activities such as, financial administration, management support, customer and business information and information management. The majority of activities that business support currently undertake are sustaining in that they are valuable and directly support the delivery of social care services. However, analysis indicates that both the balance of work undertaken is wrong, in that more time is spent on switchboard rather than inputting customer information for example; and within each tasks there is a varying amount of non-value adding activity as a result of duplication, rework and poor process design. There are numerous different job titles, covering the range of business support activity, ranging from Grade 1 to Grade 8 and all the grades in between. Approximately half of the business support posts, are managed within services in which business support complete the activities for, this includes Corporate Parenting, MEAP, Homelessness etc. They are directly line managed within that business area s own structure 1
and have no direct relationship with the main business support management structure. Services are delivered through over numerous sites across the city. The remaining business support staff are centrally managed through a business support management structure. The need to look again at business support functions across C&F has arisen out of the response to the 2013/15 funding settlement for Manchester City Council announced by government in December 2012. Phase 1 was linked to 441k savings which was achieved through the deletion of vacant posts. Phase 2 again is linked to savings of 400k which will be achieved through reductions in business support as a result of service redesigns, deletion of vacant posts and the redesign of the 1 st tier management structure. Phase 2 will include further savings of 1.454m and also deliver a new business support model which aims to be simple and very flexible with the ability to adapt to changes as the council integrates with more partners, growing and shrinking as required, taking in other areas. The future to-be model will be designed to deliver, in a series of sustainable steps, a more efficient operating model that is able to support the rapidly changing needs of directorates and customers. It will take into consideration the lessons learnt from previous business support redesigns within C&F and builds upon good practices already in the service. The proposal is for a hub model offering generic, service specific and embedded business support across the city. Once the move to one integrated directorate has been designed and there is access to modern technology and working environments it may be possible to further reconfigure business support functions to better support operational service delivery by further improving efficiency and value for money. The objectives of the project are as follows: - Design a new business support model for the delivery of business support functions and roles across C&F, which will inform a restructure of business support services to release 1.454m savings by March 2015 Redefine the service offer for business support, ensuring business support functions and roles are consistent across the city, and add greater value to service delivery than has previously been the case The new business support model should also have the ability to adapt to changes as the Council and Directorate integrates with more partners, grow and shrink as required and undertake other areas of work. The areas that the model has been specifically developed to deliver are: - A consistent, modernised business support offer across the city, which can react flexibly to meet fluctuations in demand. Clear and aspirational career paths for business support officers, A streamlined and more easily managed business support job family, New ways of working that support the integration of services taking into consideration the digital opportunities for new ways of working 2
and the requirements for a cultural shift towards self reliance, Greater resilience across directorates through the provision of consolidated teams of multi skilled staff Enhance the talent and development of our staff. Deliver synergies and similarities between specialist services provided to various teams Removal of duplication of work between business support teams, Free up resources to focus on front-line services Improved feedback from internal and external customers, Achieve higher skill base 1.454m savings by March 2015, resulting from a restructure of business support functions. The desired outcomes from this service redesigned is that the revised business support model will be based on a consistent approach to the delivery of business support functions. As part of the model, the business support service offer will be redefined and communicated to the Directorates. From the hub itself, each locality will be offered both generic and service specific support. All business support staff will be trained to deliver the generic offer and selected staff will be trained to provide the service specific elements. There will also be an embedded offer, where staff are physically located with a team in a satellite location, rather than in the hub. The hubs will support any embedded staff at satellite offices, who will deliver onsite service specific activities along with the generic offer. Embedded staff will be operationally managed by the service manager on a day to day base and will work on either a short or long term placement basis. The redefined service offer will be a streamlined version of the current provision with non-value added activities stopped in order to start ones that are value adding for the customer. It will be designed to better support operational service delivery with functions divided into the generic and service specific categories. Additionally, the new model will provide: A consistency of quality across the business support provision, Define the relationship between business support and the services they support Improvements in practices moving to value added activities for the customer, A link to current and future service redesigns, Alignment of business support to the locality and collocation model, Address the issues identified during the as-is work including removing single points of failure and duplication of effort. 3. Evidence and Engagement 3
Please use this section to detail the information that you have considered to assess the service for its relevance to equality. Please include data, research, engagement etc: Reviewed the Equality Impact Assessment undertaken for the Business Support Review in 2010/2011 and signed off in May 2011, which was agreed by All Adults staff, HR, Trade Unions, Corporate HR & Directorate of Transformation this review / redesign has followed the same processes etc in respect to relevance to equality. Oct - Dec 2013: Benchmarking activity from Newcastle, Leeds Nottinghamshire, Peterborough City Council and Swindon Borough Council to inform the future redesign. October December 2013 Review Meetings and workshops held with Senior management and operational managers to feedback High Level design and influence detailed design. January-February 2014 Consultation with Union representatives to brief on high level design. February March 2014 - Skills analysis followed by the development of a Workforce Development Plan identifying training requirements. 4. Relevance assessment findings 4.1 If your assessment has identified a relevance to equality, you will be required to undertake an equality analysis (EIA). Please complete the following tables. 4.2 This analysis has demonstrated relevance to equality with regard to: Protected Characteristics Please check relevant boxes Age Disability Race Gender (includes gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity) Sexuality Religion or Belief (or lack of) Marriage or Civil Partnership 4
Aims of the Equality Duty (with relevance measures) Please check relevant boxes Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act (i.e. the function removes or minimises disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics) Advance equality of opportunity between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not (i.e. the function takes steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people) Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not (i.e. the function encourages people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low) 4.3 If your assessment has identified no relevance to equality, please detail below your rationale and how the information that you have used supports this conclusion. A full EIA is irrelevant as it is not changing the employment rights of any individual regardless of equality grouping will remain consistent to the agreed standards of Manchester City Councils HR department. The Business Support Review / Redesign will off additional opportunities for employees regardless of race and ethnicity. Impact on disability equality any adaptive / special equipment that staff had in their previous locations will be move to new locations. We will ensure that staff are located to building are accessible for staff using wheelchairs etc via lift and disabled parking is available on site. The Business Support Review will offer additional opportunities for employees regardless of disability. We will safeguard the positive impact on disability equality by promoting equality of opportunity for disabled staff and positive attitudes towards disabled people within the workplace. We will also encourage participation by disabled people. The Business Support Review / Redesign will offer additional opportunities for employees regardless of age, sexual orientation and regardless of religion and belief or lack of religion or belief. 5. Conclusions 5
5.1 Relevance Ranking Please identify in this section the degree to which the function has been assessed as relevant to equality. This should be one of (please mark the applicable box): Ranking description High The function shows a high degree of relevance to one or more protected characteristic and / or one or more aim of the general equality duty Moderate The function shows a moderate degree of relevance to one or more protected characteristic and / or one or more aim of the general equality duty None The function is not relevant to any protected characteristic and / or any aim of the general equality duty 5.2 Further Analysis - Please identify here whether your analysis demonstrates the need for further equality analysis (please mark the applicable box): Description The relevance assessment has identified a high or medium relevance ranking and a Stage 2 Equality Analysis (Equality Impact Assessment) is required The relevance assessment has identified a low relevance ranking, and in consideration of the evidence above, a Stage 2 Equality Analysis process is not required 6. Director-level Sign Off Name: Michael Houghton-Evans Directorate: Children and Families Date: 5 th February 2015 Signat ure: NB: Sign-off must be in the form of an actual signature; not an emailed authorisation. 6