Council family renewal programme

What is it?

Since March 2020 the council family has been responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to implement a range of measures to slow the spread of the virus. 

Our response was underpinned by the need to maintain critical functions and continue to deliver essential frontline services - to support our vulnerable citizens, residents and businesses. It was also to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all our council family staff.

As we move out of the immediate emergency response phase and transition towards recovery and renewal we know that the pandemic will in some ways have a profound and long-lasting impact on Glasgow and we want to make sure we do all that we can to minimise this impact on our citizens. 

As we shift our focus to how we recover, we have developed a renewal programme to bring together our current operational situation, challenges, opportunities and aspirations to support this transition to a new normal and longer-term plan. 

This renewal phase will see us reintroduce services using our experience and learning during this period to help shape and adapt them for the future benefit of the city. It provides us with the opportunity to think differently - whilst supporting sustainable economic recovery and social renewal.

Our priorities continue to be to safeguard the health and wellbeing of those who live, work and do business in the city, including our staff.  

Renewal Programme Strategy and Governance Framework

Read our Renewal Programme Strategy and Governance Framework which sets out our vision, objectives and governance arrangements to support delivery of our Renewal Programme.

Service Renewal Plans

The council is taking a long-term, phased approach, to recovery and renewal.  There are four broad phases:  response, unlock, renew and sustain. The unlocking of our services will be guided by the Scottish Government's route map.

Council services ALEOs have completed Renewal Plans to identify key changes that were made to their services and functions in response to the pandemic and what future approach might be taken in respect of 'unlocking' or restarting them, for instance revert to pre-COVID ways of working; keep changes; consider further innovation and new services, from here action plans based on this review work will be developed, to progress in line with the workstreams' aims and priorities.

Help Shape our Renewal Plan for the City

Life has been very different for most of us during this pandemic. The impact of the pandemic has resulted in some council family services either being reduced or stopped altogether, with some staff being asked to work differently, perhaps to work from home or carry out a different job to their normal one in a different area of the organisation.

We want to understand more about how these changes have affected you personally and at work, as well as understanding the levels of confidence you have in using council services, going out in the city and in returning to the workplace in some capacity. Of course, some of the questions will mean you'll need to think about life without some of the current restrictions in place.

Although we're still very much in the midst of dealing with this crisis on a day-to-day basis, we also want to plan for the time when restrictions are gradually being eased and our focus can shift to how we recover, reintroduce services and adapt, based on our learning and experience gained during this period and how the people of Glasgow can benefit.

The renewal programme has been developed to bring together our current operational situation, challenges, opportunities and aspirations to support this transition to a new normal and longer-term plan.

Take the Survey

The survey will take around 10 minutes to complete. You can help to shape our renewal plans by completing the Survey Online here.

The survey is anonymous. The closing date for responses is 18 December.
 
Sharing the Findings

The main findings from this survey will be reported back to the City Renewal Working Group in January who are planning Glasgow's route back to some kind of normality. The findings will help inform any decisions that may be taken moving forward. We will also share the findings and any action plans with you.

More Information

If you require any additional information about this survey or would like this document in an alternative format or community language, please contact: consultationqueries@glasgow.gov.uk.

The council is required to process personal information in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).  For more information about this go the website here.

Renewal Programme Projects

Covid-19 Renewal Programme Projects

Since March 2020 the council family has been responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to implement a range of measures to slow the spread of the virus. 

Our response was underpinned by the need to maintain critical functions and continue to deliver essential frontline services - to support our vulnerable citizens, residents and businesses. It was also to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all our council family staff

As we move beyond restrictions and start to live with this virus, we will all be thinking about what recovery means for us personally and at work, including what things we'd like to keep or change as life moves into another phase.

The council's Renewal Programme Board has also been considering projects that will continue to make changes now and beyond the pandemic for the benefit of city.

The renewal programme brings together our current operational situation, challenges, opportunities and aspirations to support this transition to a new normal and longer-term plan. 

The following projects have been approved for delivery and officers across the council family are putting plans in place to deliver the aims.

1.    Enabling the workforce - future ways of working

We are piloting hybrid working arrangements in line with the current government advice on a phased and planned return to the workplace combined with homeworking.

The council family operates a diverse range of services and decisions about hybrid working must remain with services to make sure that the best outcomes are achieved for the city; balancing the need to support health and wellbeing of our staff and the delivery of our services.

For more information about hybrid working go to our frequently asked questions or managers section at staff updates.

The pilot arrangements will be reviewed by the end of the year and considering the opinions of our staff, operational requirements and in consultation with our trade unions before any permanent changes are made.

The recent future ways of working survey will also help us to gather staff opinions.

There are no contractual changes as part of this pilot.

We want to make our training, development and policies accessible to all and we will continue to look at ways for our staff to access this support, regardless of their job, including new digital channels introduced during the pandemic.

We will also continue to make best use of our property and technology to support new ways working and for the benefit of the city.

2.    Review of printing and mail project

Building on some of the good practices developed during the pandemic, the aim of the project is to review all our printing and mail processes, improving as many as possible in line with our Digital Glasgow Strategy and Customer Strategy.

The outcomes we expect to achieve are: better customer journeys, improved information security, more flexibility for our workforce and more efficient processes to save both time and money.

These changes will also support the council's commitment to become carbon neutral by 2030 by reducing the amount of paper we use.

3.    Customer Strategy

It is more important than ever that the council continues to provide high-quality and consistent customer experiences and that it keeps up with new ways in which customers want to contact us and access services.

A new customer strategy is being developed for 2022 to 2027 to underpin our customer vision - to understand our customers by listening and responding to them, keeping them informed, make it easy for them to interact with us, and encourage them to be active participants in what we do.

Our new customer strategy will support us to realise this vision and achieve the outcomes below:

• Improve the customer experience with more efficient, quick and easy to use services, including personalised citizen accounts where possible
• Accessible services to all who need them, available across a variety of channels and meeting the Accessibility Regulations
• Support our customers to be more digitally enabled but maintaining telephone and face to face channels for our customers who cannot engage with us digitally
• Use our data to improve services, address problems before they arise and promote services that our customers are eligible to receive
• Communicate with our customers in a clear and consistent way so that they are well informed, and they perceive us as an open and transparent organisation
• Design our services in partnership with our customers, by understanding what they need and want, listening to their feedback and involve them in the design and implementation of new services.

The customer strategy applies to all parts of the council family and their services that are initiated, resolved or delivered through any contact channel.

A framework for all customer facing projects to align to will be developed to support the implementation of this strategy.

4.    People Make Glasgow's Communities

The aim of project is to identify new opportunities to support the city's social recovery programme and to find radical and creative approaches to community empowerment.

Glaswegians, community groups, organisations and entrepreneurs have the chance to take greater roles in helping take over the delivery of local services and the management of local buildings and facilities, to better meet the changing needs of their neighbourhoods, as part of Glasgow's mission to empower communities.

"People Make Glasgow's Communities" will involve more of the people who know, use and are passionate about these local resources to make them more relevant and accessible to everyone in the local community.

Buildings and the services they host, sports pitches and community facilities are among the options that people across the city can now become more involved in operating and managing.

The enduring impact of the covid-19 pandemic will mean organisations which manage or own venues and deliver services local communities rely on will not have the financial resources or income to restart everything. 

5.    Glasgow Helps

Glasgow Helps is partnership approach involving many public and voluntary organisations whose shared aim is to help our citizens to connect with the right support networks/services at the right time to enrich their lives.

This can be better achieved with improved partnership working to create a more joined up understanding of the needs of our citizens, so we can secure and manage better support pathways together.

The Glasgow Helps service was established during the pandemic to make sure that citizens got the help they needed at this very difficult time. This service will continue and expand to support the city's recovery.

In practice, Glasgow Helps will build relationships and trust with citizens to jointly understand their needs and agree appropriate actions and support.  This will be achieved through a series of conversations and proactive case management will be in place to ensure the delivery of services whilst simultaneously working with citizens to build their confidence and resilience.

The long-term goal is to support our citizens to develop the necessary skills to take control of their own lives and participate in society to the best of their ability.  We will use data and insights to understand trends and impacts to develop the services on offer as the citizens' needs change.

Alongside securing improved outcomes for our citizens, Glasgow Helps will reshape how we deliver services across the city.  It will drive organisational change in line with the Christie Principles to ensure that we make the best use of our collective city resources.

You can find out more information at www.glasgowhelps.org/

Future ways of working survey - the results are in

In July over 2800 office staff, including those who have been predominately working from home, completed the survey relating to health and wellbeing during the pandemic, impacts of working from home, and views on future ways of working.  You can read the results of the survey, and our response here.