Sweeping changes will be made to the management structure of Cheshire East Council in response to the findings of the independent investigation into the causes of the failure of the Lyme Green development project.
In December the formal report into the Lyme Green fiasco, which has cost tax payers over £800,000, revealed serious weaknesses in the organisational culture of Cheshire East Council and serious management failings.
As a result of these findings a complete review of management roles and responsibilities will be carried out and the number of management positions will be reduced by at least 25% over the coming months.
Whilst the independent report will remain confidential the Council's Chief Executive, Kim Ryley, will shortly publish a report which will tackle the serious management failings identified by the investigator, by announcing bold and extensive changes to the Council's management structures and ways of working.
Leader of the Council, Michael Jones, said "Lyme Green has exposed serious weaknesses in our organisational culture, which are a product of the separate professional silos in our current management structure. These have caused confusion and inefficiency and have led to poor decisions by some senior staff, because it was not clear who had authority to act and who was ultimately accountable for the success or failure of the Lyme Green development project.
"The lack of proper communication between different Council services, together with uncertain lines of reporting up the management hierarchy, has led to poor management of the risks involved. As a result, public confidence in the Council has been dented and we must act swiftly to restore this.
"The investigator's report reveals a culture amongst some managers where, regrettably, there was no clarity about what was required to ensure a successful outcome at Lyme Green, and a lack of care over important parts of the process involved, such as early consultation with the local residents affected by the project.
"Lyme Green required staff from a range of different services to work together as a team, but relationships between the different professionals involved were sometimes strained. For this reason, necessary advice was sometimes neither sought nor taken at key stages in the project and, therefore, wrong assumptions were made as a result. This approach also meant there was insufficient challenge over key decisions and judgements, with staff not having the confidence to question these or being too reactive.
"To cure these failings quickly, I asked our interim Chief Executive, Kim Ryley, to bring forward proposals for sweeping changes to the Council's current management arrangements. These are designed to make us more effective in the future, by reducing management costs and overheads, whilst improving service performance accountability for outcomes. This will give the public better value for money."
The Council's Chief Executive, Kim Ryley, clarified that "As Head of Paid Service, I have a statutory role to advise elected Members of the Council on the best form of organisational structure, and on the numbers and types of posts needed to carry out the Council's functions, within the resources available to us. It is clear from the Lyme Green report, and from other major changes affecting us now and over the next few years, that we need to boldly rethink how the organisation is led and managed, from top to bottom.
"My proposals will seek to break down outdated professional silos, so that the Council works as a single team, with greater clarity over shared objectives and the desired outcomes to improve quality of life for local people. This has meant that a thorough and complete review of management roles and responsibilities at all levels is needed, and that necessary changes and improvements need to be put in place quickly over the coming months.
"The revised management arrangements will reduce the numbers of tiers of management, and will increase spans of responsibility to reduce the overall number of management posts by at least a quarter. As well as reducing costs to protect frontline jobs and services, the proposed changes will clarify managers' personal accountabilities and change working methods to strengthen integrated team effort and solutions across the organisation as a whole, so that everyone involved is clear of their role and responsibilities.
"The new structure will separate those whose job it is to design and purchase services for local people from those who are responsible for delivering services to them. It will bring together related functions and types of expertise to provide a more seamless, joined up approach to our wide range of activities. This will also have the benefit of making it easier for our local partners in the Police, Health, and Fire and Rescue Services – as well as for the public – to do business with us in the future.
"Recently, some interim changes have been made which already move the council in this direction, and our managers are keen to have an opportunity to show that it is unfair to judge the council on the basis of past failings. I believe that this approach will be supported by our staff and the trade unions, by our local partner organisations, and by councillors, given the obvious benefits involved.
"Once the proposals have been agreed by Councillors, the first phase of the new structure affecting the Council's top 40 staff will be in place by Easter, with the full management review being completed by the Summer. The approach will be designed to keep and develop the skills and experience of our most talented managers, and to retain enough capacity to carry out the major programme of service changes and improvements the Council has planned over the next few years."
Council Leader, Michael Jones, added "Although the Investigator's report must remain confidential, this report by the Chief Executive will provide the transparency that local people want about the causes of the Lyme Green project's failure, and will demonstrate that we have acted swiftly and decisively on the lessons learned about the need for more effective management of such important projects in future."
Following completion of the confidential report by the Designated Independent Person, two out of the three senior officers whose actions were investigated in relation to the Council's proposal to build a recycling station at Lyme Green Depot in Macclesfield resigned.
John Nicholson, Strategic Director Places and Organisational Capacity, and Caroline Elwood, Borough Solicitor, both resigned on December 13th 2012.
As reported yesterday, Councillor Rod Menlove, Environment Portfolio Holder and ward councillor for Wilmslow East, resigned this week over the Lyme Green debacle.
Click on the Lyme Green tag below to read previous articles relating to the failed project.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
'Silos'
"a tall cylindrical tower used for storing grain, animal feed, or other material, or for making silage"
or are they correct in relating to this terminology with the current management structure?
Of course there are other skeletons in the old Cheshire Council cupboard not yet probed to this depth.
Serious concerns from a number of local Sports Clubs I know on how £1 million was granted to one Junior sports club leaving nothing for others in Cheshire. Perhaps time to raise this one with Kim Ryley?
If i'm correct, how abusive do these councils get towards us all before we do something ?
Why should the independent report be kept a secret? I agree with Graham Hall - these people have created a disgraceful mess, and now they seek to hide the facts from those who have paid for it. They identified a single investigator of their own choice, kept his report secret and now expect the taxpayers of Cheshire East to walk blindly into a future of the Council's own creation.
Is it possible that some of those involved in the waste transfer matter should be investigated for the offence of Misuse of Public Office? Well, maybe but, because of the decision by the few to keep the facts secret and retain control in their hands, it's probable that the rest of us will never know.
Trust and respect, as we all know, have to be earned. Do you feel that the officers and Councillors of Cheshire East Council have earned your trust and respect?
How dare they indicate that we may see it, eventually ?
We, the Taxpayers, paid for this report so we, the Taxpayers, should see it immediately !
After all, £800,000 is a massive amount of money to literally throw away !!!
We DEMAND to see this report and I'm sure many many others want to see it as well ?
The regular gainsayers are out in force airing their views, but few of them put in the effort of our elected representatives.
I guess you're something to do with the council as you are so alone in supporting them.
Are our "elected representatives" paid to work or do they do this purely voluntarily ?
If they are paid to work, they earn their money under false pretences.
If they are not paid to do this work, maybe they should stay at home and take up knitting.
Look me up on the electoral role
I comment on this site because I take an interest in what's happening in Alderley Edge.
You obviously don't know how the human mind works yet, because we ALL think we can do a better job than those elected into Government or local Councils, and many probably can !
Anyone can say what they want in this country, within reason, as it's not yet a Communist State.
Criticism ? Criticism ? ........... its like water off a duck's back to me !
The alternative to NOT commenting on this site would probably end up with alderleyedge.com closing down due to the lack of interest.
As it is, I'm sure there are many thousands of local citizens reading comments on here every day, but very few take the opportunity to comment.
The subject of this article is all about Cheshire East Council making many of their employees redundant, probably due to the Lyme Green £800,000 loss fiasco, so if that isn't enough to make locals angry about our wasted Taxes, I don't know what is ?
I guess you're something to do with the council as you are so alone in supporting them.
Yes keep to the subjest