Council to become very model of a modern local authority

“We mustn’t return to our old ways of working”, that it the message from the leader of Wrexham Council as the local authority looks to further modernise its services in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Like many organisations Wrexham Council saw a shift towards home working at the start of the pandemic as it looked to focus its attention on providing certain services during lockdown.

This has included the direct business rates payments to businesses, remote court attendances for children’s services, virtual recruitment, procuring personal protective equipment and finding accommodation for rough sleepers in Wrexham.

During a virtual meeting next week executive board members are set to back a report outlining how the council will continue modernising its services during and hopefully after the pandemic.

The reports notes that during the pandemic “new ways of working have been both tested and accelerated” within the council, particularly in terms of using technology – an area that has seen councillors themselves battle with the modern world sometimes resisting use of iPads instead of paper, being scared of YouTube and webcasting, and taking until 2013 to allow text based updates from inside a meeting.

It adds that going forward “new ways of working must continue to be embraced and embedded in order to ensure a modern and resilient council that can deliver effective public services of the future.”

Leader of Wrexham Council, councillor Mark Pritchard said: “We mustn’t slip back to the old ways of working, we mustn’t.

“It would be so easy to do so but we have to be proactive and we need to be pushing this for everything it’s worth.”

Chief Executive Ian Bancroft added: “We set out six priorities this year that we confirmed as being the priorities that we’re going to focus on. One of those was about being modern council.”

“I think that prioritisation a while ago was really important. We have just had a letter from our regulator Audit Wales saying that we have used COVID-19 in a way that has helped us accelerate the changes that we were making about being modern and resilient.”

“COVID has lots of negativities but I think one of the positives for us as a council is because we were already focusing on being modern and resilient, we’ve been able to really during this period of difficulty and change our ways of working very quickly.”

Some of the changes include a blend of home working and office work, which can depend on individual circumstances such as childcare requirements or whether the task at hand requires being in the council buildings – and space being “allocated to activities, not individuals, and not on the basis of seniority”.

It is also acknowledged that some roles will require being based in the office with a team or on site.

Mr Bancroft said: “I think we lay out this principle initially that everybody should expect that it’s not going to be all of one or all of the other, it’s going to be a mix.

“We then look at the job they do in terms of what does it suit best given the complexity of the job. Is it home or is it office and then we look at personal needs as well.

“I offered all staff a zoom meeting before the end of July to lay out to vision for the autumn and we will do return to work conversations with every member of staff working through those principles and also how to best meet their individual needs.

“That will be done in an individual way with each member of staff in line with those principles.”

In the background information to the wider report councillors are given a long list of ‘innovative changes’ that have already taken place, including:

• Development of systems to make fast payments to bank accounts
• Key appointments via virtual interviews to increase headcounts
• Click and Collect brought in at Library facilities
• Increase Zoom, Teams and Skype for Business capabilities
• Major expansion of network capacity and resilience
• Increase of e-learning by employees and Members experienced
• Remote processing and approval of payroll, payments, Treasury
• Democratic processes conducted in a virtual Zoom plenary
• Track Trace staff provided with softphone technology
• Approval arrangements now using remote signatory

Last month Wrexham.com reported that Crown Buildings is set to undergo a large scale modernisation and refurbishment under new plans submitted on behalf of the local authority.

As part of the plans the upper floors of the building would be “refurbished to provide flexible office accommodation with open plan areas, individual offices, meeting rooms and break out spaces, designed to accommodate modern working methods.”

The ground floor will also undergo renovation and will be used as a new centre for the social services.

Externally a number of changes are proposed, including the creation of a new main entrance to the building. This would be located at the north of the site and accessed from the Waterworld car park.

Asked if the refurb of Crown Buildings was part of the “old world” and whether such large volumes of office space will still be required, Cllr Pritchard said it will be modern offer that will also support the town centre economy.

He said: “I’m really pleased that we decided to keep it because there was a discussion in the past to demolish it. I think it will be with us for a long time.

“We’re future proofing our office accommodation now in the town centre and with any office accommodation on the fringes or outside, we’ll continue to look at whether we need to bring them into the town.

“I think we have to be flexible and I think we have to modernise.

“I hope the Welsh Government really need to put pressure on all the 22 authorities and make sure that people go don’t go back to the old ways of working. I hope that ministers Look at that and grasp this opportunity to postures to modernise.

“We will push ourselves up, obviously, but there will be some authorities will want to go back to the old ways, and we can’t accept it shouldn’t accept it. I hope the Welsh Government are dynamic in pushing that agenda.”

Office accommodation is referenced in the report, with “a full Office Accommodation Review” focussed on the town centre to take place, with the council looking to dispose of buildings no longer required and “improving the buildings which we are retaining” to create “modern, clean working environments”.

Top pic: One of the many vivid pictures scattered throughout the report, showing a meeting table so modern it does not even have legs.