Our Journey towards Excellence:

The West Lothian Story

Martin Armstrong
Director of Customer & Support Services

Jackie Morris
Business Improvement Lead

1
Presentation Content
 Local Government in Scotland in Context

• West
Contents Page
Lothian’s Journey towards Excellence

 Some Tools of the Trade

 Outcomes for the Organisation

 Continuing on our Excellence Journey

1 of 24 2
Overview of West Lothian Council
Where is West Lothian? Just about here

2 of 24 3
Overview of West Lothian Council cont….

 One of 32 Scottish Local Authorities (468 UK-Wide)

 Providing over 100 services

 A population of 164 000 (10th largest in Scotland)

 32 Elected members, operating in multi-member wards

 Employing over 8000 people

 Budget of around £400 million (€575 million)

3 of 24 4
What Does Local Government Do?
 Unitary Authorities, responsible for public service delivery to
specific geographical area (e.g. West Lothian)

 Service delivery includes:

 Registration of Births, Deaths & Marriages
 Primary and Secondary Education
 Environmental Services
 Regulatory Services
 Community Health & Care
 Housing Services

4 of 24 5
What are the Challenges?
 Delivering, and achieving, central government priorities and targets

 Financial pressures and constraints

 Creating efficiencies in the design of local government services

 Exploring the value of shared service provision

 Meeting regulatory requirements

 Increasing expectations of citizens

5 of 24 6
The Culture of Local Government

 Providing Services from the cradle to the grave

 Taking care of people throughout the different stages of life

 Provision wrap-around care

 Provision of home help service

 Home adaptations

 Providing accommodation to homeless people

 Providing support in the community

6 of 24 7
How did we Start our Journey towards Excellence?

 Creating a Vision for the Future

 Sharing a Vision of the Future
 Staff
 Stakeholders
 Customers
 Creating a Culture of Change
 Creating an Environment of Excellence
 Leading not Following
 An Ambition to be Number One!

7 of 24 8
Where did our Leaders come from?

 Leaders are recognised at all levels in the organisation, not

just managers
 Political leadership provided the ability to drive change
 Citizen leadership was established
 People throughout the organisation and community are
empowered to lead change
 Leaders worked on outcomes, not just performance
 Our Leaders are developed in-house

8 of 24 9
What have our Leaders Achieved?

Our Successful Leadership Style:

 Leaders have established values, ethics and a culture of
excellence
 Employees at all levels are highly motivated and have a
desire to improve service delivery
 Customer involvement is central to delivering appropriate
service delivery models
 Development of Bespoke and Off-the-shelf Tools have been
Key to Understanding our Business

9 of 24 10
Citizen Empowerment

 Putting citizens at the heart of

service delivery
 Involving customers in service
reviews
 Providing a menu of options for
involvement
 Increasing legislation and
guidance on how to involve
citizens

10 of 24 11
How did we Structure for Excellence?

Building in Accountability Measures:

 West Lothian Assessment Model (WLAM)

 Initiatives Database

 Covalent Performance Database

 Performance Culture

11 of 24 12
Changing the Landscape

West Lothian Assessment Model (WLAM):

 Bespoke quality framework
 Integrates EFQM Excellence Model, Best
Value, Charter Mark & the Investors in
People Standard
 Recognition from the Scottish Executive &
Audit Scotland in the Best Value report
 WLAM has received accreditation from:
 Cabinet Office
 Quality Scotland
 Investors in People Scotland
 Improvement Service

12 of 24 13
Changing the Landscape

Step 1 Training session

WLAM
L L
Process I I
N N
Overview K Step 2 Assessment team complete K
assessment pre-work
O O
F F
F F
I Step 3 Assessment Day I
C C
E E
R R
Step 4 Step 5
Self-Assessment Improvement Plan

EFQM Charter Investors Best Value Initiatives Covalent Local

Excellence Mark in People System performance Service
Award Application Standard Audit management
Plan
system

13 of 24 14
How do we know we are getting there?

(WLAM):

 Electronic

 Interactive

 Team/ Service/
Council-wide

14 of 24 15
What does it tell us?
The Initiatives System:
 Bespoke initiatives monitoring tool
 Integrates initiatives derived from
WLAM, Legislation or other sources.
 Recognition from the Scottish
Executive & Audit Scotland in the
Best Value report
 Recognition from Scottish Fire
Service in the Audit of Fire Services
in West Lothian.
 The initiatives system received an
award from COSLA (The Convention
of Scottish Local Authorities) for
innovative use of technology

15 of 24 16
How do we check?
Covalent System:
 Off the Shelf Tool
 Recognition from the Scottish
Executive & Audit Scotland in the
Best Value report.

16 of 24 17
A culture of Performance Leadership

A Corporate Approach to:

 Continuous Improvement
 Managing Initiatives
 Managing Performance
 Individual performance accountability
 Monthly performance assessment
 Performance targets
 Clear responsibility for Leaders
 Political ‘performance committee’

 Achieving Outcomes for the Organisation

17 of 24 18
Outcomes for the Organisation

2001, 2004 & 2007

Investors in People

18 of 24 19
Outcomes for the Organisation

2001, 2004 & 2007

Investors in People

2006
UK Council of the Year

18 of 24 20
Outcomes for the Organisation

2001, 2004 & 2007

Investors in People

2006
UK Council of the Year

2007
Corporate Charter Mark

18 of 24 21
Outcomes for the Organisation

2001, 2004 & 2007

Investors in People

2006
UK Council of the Year

2007
Corporate Charter Mark

2001 & 2007

Leadership Award

18 of 24 22
Outcomes for the Organisation

2001, 2004 & 2007

Investors in People

2006
UK Council of the Year

2007
Corporate Charter Mark

2001 & 2007

Leadership Award In addition: 68 Service Charter Marks
121 Individual Service Awards

18 of 24 23
Milestones in our Excellence Journey

1996-1997 Developing New Vision / Process Review / Restructure

1998-2000 Quality Improvement Teams / Charter Mark – Local Service
Delivery / Charter Mark – Housing Repairs / Service Awards
2000-2002 Self Assessment Tool / Tenant Involvement Structure / Learning &
Development Partnership / Charter Mark – Tenant Participation /
Leadership Award / Service Awards
2003-2005 West Lothian Assessment Model / Service Awards / EFQM –
Recognised for Excellence in Europe / Excellent Best Value
Review
2005-2007 Excellent Audit Outcomes for Service areas / Service Awards /
Quality Scotland Scottish Awards for Business Excellence – Award
Winner & Prize Winner (People Development) / EFQM Excellence
Award Finalist / Leadership Award

19 of 24 24
Continuing our Journey towards Excellence

Our National Agenda:

 Best Value:
continuous improvement in the performance of functions by public service
organisations
 Customer First:
greater focus on the citizen, convenience and effectiveness of service delivery
 Modernising Government:
focus on modernising services to meet the needs of the 21st century
 Efficient Government:
focus on improving service delivery at the front end and finding
efficiencies
 Sustainability:
focus on climate change and policies to help sustain the environment

20 of 24 25
Continuing our Journey towards Excellence

Our Philosophy:
The customer is never in the wrong place!

We will change services to:

 Provide responsive services around the needs of our customers

 Nurture and develop a single ‘commitment culture’

 Use tools to create effective tracking and feedback to customers

 Ensure empowerment of ‘first point resolution’

 Create informed customer feedback

21 of 24 26
Continuing our Journey towards Excellence
In Summary:
 Do  Don’t
 Innovative leadership
 Empower staff
 Involve customers/citizens
 Encourage partnerships
 Promote corporate culture
and ethos
 Embrace challenges
 Introduce robust
performance management
 Assure financial governance
22 of 24
 Settle for 2nd best
 Underestimate the length of
the excellence journey
 Hide from failure
 Be afraid to fail
 Ignore the culture of the
organisation
 Close the door to opportunity
 'Muppet' shuffle
 Avoid difficult decisions
27
Continuing our Journey towards Excellence

“The future is not a place we are going

but one we are creating…

the paths to it are not found but made…

and the activity of making them changes
both the makers and the destinations.”

23 of 24 28
Thank You for Listening

24 of 24 29