COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, February 09, 2009

MOTION NO.2

MOTION: Councillor T. McDermott

That SDCC appoint an Area Manager to each of the administrative areas within the county.  A primary function of this manager would be to co-ordinate the functions of the various internal departments to ensure that works are planned and delivered as a project - with consistent and predictable levels of quality and service. This person would be a single point of contact for work-in-progress within that area.

REPORT:

The Council’s functions are divided over twelve functional departments as shown in the slide attached.

To achieve maximum integration, efficiency and co-ordination of effort, these twelve departments are further structured into three Cluster Groups which include the relevant Heads of Function / Directors of Services and other senior administrative and professional staff. The broad objectives of the Cluster Groups are as follows:  

Cluster 1 – Managing Organisational Change

Engaged in an accelerated process of change management to ensure optimum use of staff, finance and information as key corporate resources in achieving corporate strategy and delivering maximum efficiency, effectiveness and quality outcomes for external stakeholders.  

Staff costs reduced from 33% of budget in 2005 to 26% in 2007 while absorbing the costs of benchmarking and the servicing of an ever expanding population and increased demands for service provision. (2008 figures are not yet available) Team and partnership working arrangements and close co-operation between staff and elected members are vital links in ensuring the successful operation of SDCC.

Cluster 2 - Planning and delivery of the County’s Built Environment

Cluster 2 group’s purpose is to ensure that the county’s infrastructure develops to the maximum benefit of people who live, work in or visit the county. To work with all Departments that contribute to the development of infrastructure in the county and to build up a reservoir of up-to-date information on current and future developments and use this information to generate new concepts and ideas for the development of the county, socially, culturally and economically.

Identified short medium and long term projects in the built environment and developed a methodology to fast track the life cycles of each project through a web-based, in-house developed project management programme. Rolling three-year capital infrastructural programme increased from €1.3bn for 2006/08 to €1.7bn for 2007/09  - one of the most extensive and far-reaching in the State.

Concentration on improving traffic mobility, delivering sustainable spatial planning, social / affordable housing, recreational facilities and infrastructural improvements to sustain economic competitiveness. SDCC adopts a pro-active role in encouraging inward foreign investment of the highest caliber into the county through the successful management and promotion of Grange Castle International Business Park

Cluster 3 - Quality of Life  

This Cluster group deals primarily with improving the quality of life of people living and working in the county. The focus is on environmental issues such as waste management, recycling, Inclusion, tackling disadvantage and developing safe neighbourhoods to enhance the life experience of all who live, work and do business in our area.  Through the Council’s leadership role in the CDB, a great deal of inter-agency co-operation and working has been fostered by SDCC, particularly in the area of tackling disadvantage. SDCC is taking a leading role in much innovative collaboration such as the new Children’s Services Committee, the Joint Policing Committee and its continuing development of inter-agency supports for the Travelling community. 

The above structure has served the county well in the development of a coherent policy platform through the Strategic Policy Committees and the County Council and in the implementation of such policies on the ground, as overseen by the Council’s three Area Committees.  Notwithstanding this, in the current economic downturn senior management of the Council are curently examining all aspects of the Council's operations including the existing clusters, with special focus on income generating streams, debt collecion, public realm and budgetary control. 

A core aim of South Dublin County Council is to provide citizens and customers with the highest quality service in an economic, efficient, effective and equitable manner. Since the setting up of our Customer Care Centre at County Hall in 2004, which was the first of its kind in local authority service, and the opening of a second Customer Care Centre at our Clondalkin Civic Office in 2007,  approx. 1,000 personal callers are served per week with an additional 1,400 telephone calls taken an a daily basis.  More recently new Call Centre Telephony was introduced which provides service departments with highest volumes of customer phone interactions with "real time" reporting to enable improved management of service delivery.  Our Customer Contact System and our Membersreps systems record and track queries / complaints from customers and elected members from receipt to conclusion within set timeframes and allows for monitoring and measuring our services from our customers point of view, as well as providing a tool for the more effective and effecient management of our work schedules and service delivery.   In order to continually improve our services we are constantly looking at ways to meet the ongoing needs and concerns of our customers and are always open to suggestions and feedback. 

The overall systems in place has been an efficient and cost-effective method of achieving the necessary levels of consistent service provision across such a large organization handling such a diverse range of service areas.  While the system is in constant review as outlined above it is felt that the introduction of an additional Area Manager for each of the three committee areas as proposed in the motion would be inconsistent with the current management structure, would lead to duplication of duties and would not be feasible nor desirable in the current economic climate. 

For some time now it has been the practice of assigning a co-ordination role to a specific Director of Service for each of the six monthly area committee meetings. As part of a corporate review of the Area Committee administration function which has recently been initiated it is intended to reinforce this role to ensure observation and monitoring of the efficient administrative handling of committee business. This role also includes identification of areas where greater coordination / pooling of departmental resources are desirable in order to achieve overall organizational aims and is a standing item of business on each management team meeting.