2. Why did we want to leave the
County Council?
New Strategic Direction
Direct Payments
Personalisation
Control of our future
Budget Cuts
3. How did we approach “Spinning
Out”
Researching others, SANDWELL CCT, ESSEX CARES.
Innovation Visits by front line managers to encourage
thinking.
Involving the staff teams by discussing ideas
Training and Development
Expert Advice
4. The Process
Divestment Challenge Offered in 2010 under New Strategic
Direction.
Investigation and research to write business plan.
Business Case July 2011 approved.
Model chosen Leading Lives registered November 2011.
Business Plan developed during Gateway process within
SCC.
Interim Board Established Early 2012.
Board work around strategy, Work commenced on Branding
development.
Gateways completed final sign off.
July 1st 2012 Leading Lives began trading.
5. Challenges
When you’re a front runner, you have to set the pace
and determine some of the process.
Our first business plan.
Bringing everyone with us.
Restructure
On Costs getting the financial information.
Public versus Commercial
Media and negative perceptions.
TUPE and working in partnership with Unions.
6. So what's it like on the other
side?
Exciting and Frightening
Finally being the provider not wearing two hats makes
decision making clearer.
Every day brings a new challenge, but we are able to
find solutions more effectively.
Meetings have more clarity as time is money!
Freedom to develop, evolve and change.
Company Pride
7. New Challenges
VAT
Restructure
Developing our own pricing
Being Competitive
Being a strategic partner, what does that mean
Membership for 400 people
Board making the key decisions
First AGM
Growing during a double dip recession
8. Top Tips for anyone taking the
journey
Expect to work harder than you have ever done before.
Find and meet other people who have already done this and form
relationships.
The local authority is not a commercial business so expect your
financial and legal advisors to find issues with how the contracts and
processes work.
Don’t expect everything to go smoothly a few bumps help you learn.
Take time to work with the staff, they will be your greatest asset
and they need to feel safe in your leadership.
What ever you think are your costs, dig and dig more, you will be
surprised at what hidden costs you do have.
Training and Development
Be brave and follow your beliefs, if you don’t believe in what you are
doing no on else will either.
Editor's Notes
TONY TO START:NSD explain how this came about and Andrea Hill, talk about those early sessions she ran and the enabling council principle. You can always relate to NHS and Ccact and how this went some of the way but we still had LD service in house.Dpayments in lieu of a statutory service, we were being encouraged to get people to do things differentlly, being unable to access this so feeling we were missing out on new opportunities.Personalisation pushed this further and with it being a key driver how would we competeHard to adapt and change when part of a huge organisation which often was election focused, decisions often delayed or driven by cabinet. Hard to be in control of what we did, often faced criticism for issues which we had no control over.Services closing how would we meet the massive savings, we had cut back, closed services but the future meant more closures how would we cope, redundancies, peoples futures.
Tony to talk about his visit to Sandwell and being inspired by Jeff.Milly to talk about managers innovation visits and feeding back on what we learned trying to see how others worked and evolved to be more creative.Tony to talk about the first round of information events and presenting the idea we hadMilly to talk about Ruskin CSEM course and the SSE and the learning Tony and Bex did.Tony to talk about The Guild and Sally, mentors from the Hub, Prettys and Ensors, Micheal Moll and Aidan and the team at SCC.
Tony to give an overview of the journey we took, talking about the milestones. Helping the audience get a sense of the timeline.
Tony to talk about SCC developing a process as we went along as it was new.The epic business plan, we could take one to illustrate how huge it was?Milly to talk about taking everyone with us, explaining about board visits, being visible, the communications we had, FAQ.Tony to explain the ruling about restructure and how this is a challenge having to do this the other side and how we ideally would have done this first.Tony to talk about the costings and how Anne had to immerse herself to find out how much things really cost. How we needed a contract and the delays, making the decsion not to move on the first planned date and how hard that was.Milly to talk about the battle in the press and how the libraries became the focus for the press about divestment, but how we managed to divest discretely as a result, but the worry of having at any time during the last weeks of dealing with a media battle.Milly to talk about the consultation, how it felt that we believed we were doing something right and protecting our staff but with the unions polictically opposed to divestment this created huge issues and some challenging meetings.
Tony to describe the final week and the close to the wire, but the sense of “we got there” on 1-7-2012.Tony to talk about our role now and how we can find solutions and make decisions more effectively.Milly to talk about the branding and putting the signs up, feeling this is our company we all made it.
VAT Tony to talk about new world, learning how to manage challenges, getting adviceTony to talk about restructure how the first meeting went and the difficulties we face but how as a board we all made the decisions for the good of the future growth.Tony to talk about how we develop our pricing as a result of restructure leaner, and keener responding to the market.Tony to talk about strategic partnership, sitting round the table with SCC to help them as a partner sharing skills and knowledge for the benefit of the county.Milly to talk about how getting 400 people to become mebers is a challenge the training, the perceptions, process.Milly to talk about as a board member you sometimes disagree with your line manager, (Tony!) and how as a board you have to learn that different role and growing confidence in sound decision making. And then to focus on the future around the staff make the decisions and the interim board could all change, how do we manage an meeting were 400 members could be there, make it feel specialTony to talk about a new company in a recession, the challenges to make a profit to grow reserves in a climate of cuts.
Milly to talk about the long hours especially running up to the dates, and that this was on top of the day job, but we wouldn’t change it because we knew it would be worth it.Tony to reiterate the effect Jeff had on us and Sally and his mentors.Tony to reflect on how different things are and having to play hardballMilly to talk about the change of April to July and how this at the time felt like the end of the world, but the delay was vital and looking back we never would have been ready, but we learned how to be resiliant which is really important as a board.Milly to talk about spending time listening to people, help them get involved, the voting, choosing the name the sense of ownership.Tony to talk about hidden costs and how Annes were often different because she dug hard and found all the things people forgot about.Milly to talk about how without the course and hub we would have not had some of the information so invest in getting people ready to lead.Tony to end by talking about why he got into the work all those years ago and how those reasons and the people we serve and work alongside gave him the resilence to lift his head over the paprpet and be bold,
