Issue - meetings

The Head of Business Transformation and the Transformation Manager gave a brief presentation on Systems Thinking and reminded Cabinet of the approach which had been taken to improving services.

It was stressed that the approach supported the review of services as a whole rather than specific functions. Systems thinking would be the basis for all future service reviews and improvements to the Council’s services. It was vital to understand what Customers required from the service and to gain understanding of how the service works at present and to redesign changes based on this knowledge.

It was felt that it was very important that Members had a fuller understanding of Systems Thinking and the processes involved in Transformation of services. Portfolio Holders in particular had an important role to play and some Members had already participated in practical sessions and attended update sessions.

There was discussion on how Members could become engaged with the process and it was felt that a range of opportunities would be appropriate as some Members would want to become more involved than others.

In particular it was felt that it would be useful if Members could see how the approach was working in practice and perhaps work through some real life scenarios and processes.

Arising from the discussion the Head of Business Transformation undertook to develop a programme to include a range of opportunities to enable Members to become more aware of and involved in Systems Thinking and Transformation. It was recognised it was important for the Political Group Leaders to take the issue back to their Groups and to encourage Member discussion and participation. 

The Leader thanked the officers for the useful presentation.