Introduction and background

Our 2024 Productivity Plan has been developed in accordance with the guidance issued by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). The Plan will have two audiences – our residents via our website and the Long-Term Sustainability Panel who will review these plans nationally.

Our Plan is set in the context of our 2022/27 Corporate Plan and the wide range of supporting strategies, plans and policies that make up our ‘golden thread’. In the Plan, we aim to articulate our continuous improvement journey and our ambitions for the next few years. We support the view that “productivity means how well public services use resources to achieve relevant outputs and outcomes[1]” and “a broader conceptualisation of public sector productivity needs to be developed that considers three key components – budgetary efficiency (for how much?), organisational productivity (how?), and effectiveness (why?)”.[2]

Oldham Council context

Since 2002 Oldham’s population has increased by 11.7% and in 2022, was 243,912 (48.9% males: 51.1% female). Main growth factors are higher birth rates in our South Asian groups; internal and international migration; and improved life expectancy due to improvements in public health, nutrition and medicine. These factors will continue to influence an increase in our population - estimated at 261,018 by 2041 (+10%). Population growth will increase demand for universal services but will also bring opportunities for economies of scale and increased funding. We expect the number of older people (65+) in our population to grow by 30% in the next 20 years - bringing major challenges for adult social care and health provision.

Since 2011, Oldham’s Core Spending Power has decreased in real terms by 12% - in 2011 our net budget was £235m (population 219k) but in 2024 our net budget was £299m (population 242k); so, over the period Consumer Price Index has increased by 45%. In this same period, the Council has also acquired new statutory duties and responsibilities and has supported its residents through the COVID pandemic and the Cost-of-Living crisis whilst maintaining its wide range of local services. As a result of efficiencies and funding reductions, we have reduced our employee numbers significantly - in 2011 we had 4308 employees, and as of Jan 2024, we had 2687 (circa 38% reduction).

Strategic Assurance Frameworks 

Oldham Council has a strategic management framework founded upon the Oldham Plan and 2022/27 Corporate Plan, which establish our vision for the borough and set corporate priorities in conjunction with our Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) and annual budgeting process. Compliance with the CIPFA Financial Management Code is reported by the Director of Finance to the Audit Committee annually and for 2023/24 the report from the Head of Internal Audit confirmed strong financial management practice during the year.

In November 2023, a Local Government Association (LGA) Corporate Peer Challenge evaluated Oldham Council across five key themes: local priorities and outcomes, organisational and place leadership, governance and culture, financial planning and management, and capacity for improvement. The review acknowledged several improvements since the previous Peer Challenge in 2020, and the recommendations provided are aimed at building on these strengths to enhance the Council's effectiveness and impact.

Monitoring Mechanisms for the Productivity Plan

Our Performance Management Framework supports directorates and services to produce annual business plans in response to the Corporate Plan priorities - at this level, operational, tactical and strategic / transformation projects are developed and delivered in the context of the services’ financial, risk, business continuity and resource management needs. As the Council already has governance processes set up for all the projects and programmes outlined in its Productivity Plan, in the interest of efficiency, it is proposed that no additional reporting mechanisms be established to monitor progress against the Productivity Plan. However, a focused report will be produced to provide assurance as required.

Theme 1: Transformation

How we are transforming services to make better use of our resources

To remain financially resilient, within the context of reducing budgets and unprecedented demand for services, the Council has developed an organisational-wide programme of cross-cutting and inter-connected change initiatives underpinned by its Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS). This programme of ‘Cases for Change’ uses relevant metrics and key performance indicators to effectively monitor whether the transformation projects are being implemented and if the anticipated benefits are achieved.

Place-Based Integration (PBI) – as part of our resident focus approach, we have committed to deliver more services closer to home and giving more choices about where to access services. Residents want services closer to home and tailored to the specific needs of their community, so while some services need to be delivered centrally, we aim to deliver more and more locally, across the Oldham five-district footprints by establishing the right partnerships, policies, incentives and processes to support practitioners and local organisations to work together to help people live healthier, more independent, and aspirational lives.

Adult Social Care Change and Improvement Programme - will deliver a refocused and transformed adult social care service, built around statutory principles, that ensures the provision and delivery of high performing services which safeguard vulnerable adults and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Designed to deliver transformational change to manage increasing demand whilst realising budget savings, the programme is built around four key objectives: 

1. Target Operating Model - to deliver the Adult Social Care strategy and embed strength-based working
2. Workforce – a sustainable workforce model for Adult Social Care in Oldham
3. Digital and Technology – digital solutions, systems, and enhanced Care Technology offer, to support the delivery of strength-based, preventative and resident-focused services
4. Compliance, Quality and Assurance – activities to ensure financial sustainability, CQC assurance and the development of a sustainable operating model for Oldham Total Care (OTC)

Children’s Transformation and Sustainability Plan

Delivering key objectives over the next 3-5 years: 

1. Quality Support at the Earliest Opportunity - focused on demand reduction through a strength-based integrated family help model, based around family hubs and schools
2. Home For Every Child - programme to expand our internal residential provision; includes creating our own Council run Residential homes as well as working alongside other GM LAs and GMCA (Project Skyline) to develop registered children’s homes across GM and increase the number of foster carers 
3. Workforce Stability - our ambition is to be the best borough for the staff and services that work with children and young people. 

Business Insight, Performance and Strategy (BIPS) – this change programme facilitates our ambition to utilise our data and insight, performance and strategy capability to enable, support and accelerate the management of demand whilst delivering our customer and business objectives and ambitions. By improving our analytical capability and the management of data we will create a fit-for-purpose, quality data management and analytical system; and develop the people capability to enable the provision of business insight and wisdom to support better decision-making and efficiencies.

‘Creating a Better Place’ programme - lays out the plan for the changes taking shape within the town centre. This programme is unlocking nearly £300 million pounds of investment which includes, but is not limited to, creating a neighbourhood of 2,000 homes and a new park, a redeveloped culture quarter: thereby creating an estimated 1,000 new jobs and 100 apprenticeships and significantly reshaping the town centre of Oldham.

Oldham Council is also integral to several regional reforms that aim to deliver high-quality public services and improve sustainability and resilience. 

The Greater Manchester (GM) Strategy is currently being refreshed and aims to create a greener, fairer, and more prosperous city region by focusing on key priorities and aligning actions across various sectors. It will outline several core objectives and commitments to be achieved by 2031, with an emphasis on inclusivity, innovation, and sustainability and a focus on collaboration among local authorities, businesses, and communities to deliver these goals. It will also include a performance framework to track progress and a delivery plan detailing specific actions and milestones.

Oldham has been awarded £20 million from the Levelling Up Fund to support projects aimed at boosting sustainability, connectivity, and job opportunities in the borough. These investments are designed to stimulate local economies, create jobs, and reduce long-term social costs by improving community infrastructure and services across GM.

GM secured £1.8 million from the Green Recovery Challenge Fund to support environmental projects. This initiative aims to restore habitats, manage natural flood risks, and enhance green spaces, ultimately creating 37 new jobs, including 12 traineeships; the project not only benefits the environment but also reduces future costs associated with environmental degradation and unemployment.

GMCA established a comprehensive Cost-of-Living Response group to tackle the crisis affecting residents across the city region. This initiative includes various projects and support systems to alleviate financial pressures on individuals and families, including providing warm spaces for vulnerable residents; expanding the A Bed Every Night scheme; and promoting the Pension Top-Up Campaign.

The TfGM bus franchising network, the Bee Network, represents a significant transformation in public transport for the region, aiming to bring bus services under local control for the first time in nearly 40 years, allowing for coordinated planning, service standards, and fare structures.

Theme 2: Data and technology

How we aim to take advantage of technology and make better use of our data to improve decision-making, service design and use of resources

Alongside the Business Insight, Performance and Strategy (BIPS) programme acting as a lever to an organisational-wide change, the Council has continued to build on the lessons learnt by the efficient and timely handling of support during the COVID pandemic. The swift introduction of process design and a back-office system facilitated relevant information being available to staff to provide timely and appropriate support and simple reporting to Government. Ongoing developments include:

1. Housing Register – improvements to the application process including delivery of a new back-office system for Housing Options and process improvement work 
2. Council Tax – increased automation to back-office processes to reduce the volume of manual interactions (74% of forms auto-completed) and allow officers capacity to deal with more complex cases; we continue to refine the business rules and the overall process to increase the percentage 
3. Revenues – implementation of the Ascendant solution Apply4online with Hive Reporting Software to assist the Business Rates team in the detection and prevention of inappropriate registrations and relief awards at first point of contact
4. Contact Centre – introduction of an automated switchboard deflecting 85% of calls to self-serve. 

As part of the BIPS programme barriers from legacy systems are being resolved and costly systems such as CorVu and Business Objects are being decommissioned.

As our capabilities improve so will our capacity for data sharing with partners such as GMP, Health, VCSE.

Theme 3: Barriers to Action

What are the barriers preventing our progress that the Government could help to reduce or remove

In keeping with many local authorities, Oldham Council believes that our most significant barriers to progress relate to the lack of review of local government finance.

Like many councils we are unable to put resources into driving productivity gains because we are overwhelmed by demand pressures due to structural underfunding and a system that no longer reflects local needs.

We advocate the SIGOMA proposals for reforming local government finance that include:

Short term – stabilisation 

• Multi-year settlements to enable effective budgeting
• Greater grant flexibilities 
• Changes to the Adult Social Care Precept 
• Reset business rates baseline 
• Review the council tax referendum principles 
• Increase the quantum of local government funding 
• Regulate the children’s social care market 
• Removing bid-based funding
• More local flexibility about the use of funding
• Reduction in onerous M&E requirements on small grants
• Whilst Government Grants are welcome, quite often the process to bid for them is very lengthy and time-consuming
• Viability challenges acting as a barrier to physical regeneration
• Remove barriers such as data sharing to support more joint working with the health system

Medium term – fairer distribution 

• Detach business rates from local government funding 
• Fair Funding Review 
• Independent grant allocations. 
• Reform of social care funding 
• Move away from local taxation 

Long term – sustainability

• Independent academic review 
• Review and reform Council Tax 

Theme 4: Specified expenditure

Plans to reduce ‘wasteful’ spend within our organisation and systems

Oldham Council’s approach is to improve how we use our resources to achieve relevant outputs and outcomes and increase budgetary efficiency, organisational productivity and effectiveness.

Like many other authorities, we consider the terminology ‘wasteful spend’ unhelpful.

As part of the budget setting process, all Cabinet Members were required to review all expenditure areas within their portfolios to identify where savings could be delivered: either through efficiencies or through the cessation of non-statutory services. 

This process has identified savings of £20m to support the 2023/24 budget, £19.8m for 2025/26 and a further £11.1m for 2026/27. Achievement of these savings is monitored through a Delivery Board chaired by the Leader of the Council.

Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is a key element of our People Strategy and is a golden thread through all our services and work programmes; consequently, there is no specific corporate EDI budget allocation. We ensure compliance with the Equality Duty through our equality Impact Assessment (IA) process and provide guidance and support to officers across the authority who have responsibility for completing IAs as part of a decision-making report.

Agency and Consultancy staffing is overseen by the corporate Management Board and authorised at Director level, with spending reported and monitored by finance and HR; expenditure currently makes up 13% of the total payroll budget.

The Council works with the Trade Unions to address corporate and policy matters and deliver change and resolve issues. The percentage of pay spent on facility time: 0.07%; the total cost of TU activities is £227k.