Demonstrating benefits / drawbacks

The demonstration of the benefits of HIA project activities at regularly established meetings provided opportunities for MMs to update elected members. This would subsequently make it easy to gain their commitment at formal meetings. The

following example provided by an interview with a corporate executive demonstrates how the purposeful endeavours of the MM had escalated the intended benefits of the HIA project to the highest levels within the local authority:

I was in a very difficult meeting with the leader, the portfolio holder [political executives] and [the MM responsible for the HIA project]. It was a few months ago where it has been raised at the highest levels of leadership within the authority. The home improvement agency it has got to be the way to make us more

effective and efficient in delivering this service (CE5).

The following sections provide illustrations of how MMs engaged in activities that demonstrated how the streamlining of steps taken to deliver home adaptations at internal meetings.

MMs regularly updated political executives at established meetings in order to keep them updated on issues to sustain their buy-in to the achievements of HIA project activities:

I think it is important there are various forums where those discussions could happen. I think it is keeping our portfolio holders informed and I think this is fundamental to understanding

what we are doing (MM4a).

This example shows that the MM had identified formal meetings as being beneficial vehicles for providing updates and raising the awareness of the successes of HIA project activities towards political executives.

Field note 51: 06/06/13 highlights the need to explain the benefits of the HIA project by simplifying its intentions through the use of plain English and clearly signposted language. This was necessary to emphasise the rationale for local authorities to work in partnership in order to deliver integrated service delivery.

Formal meetings, therefore, provided MMs with an opportunity to utilise

presentations at formal briefings for the championing of HIA activities. These were undertaken with an awareness that there was a requirement to provide evidence relating to its effectiveness. This process was more likely to be successful if it could demonstrate accordance with the strategic objectives of the local authority:

If I went to them [elected members] and said “I’m going to change the culture and it is going to keep the service as it is and it is going to cost you more” they will throw me out of the window. I think even if I went to them and said “it is going to cost you more and the service is going to improve”. I think what they are looking from me is an improved service that won’t cost more. If I went to them and said “it is going to improve the service, it is not going to cost you more it is going to be round about the same”. I think they would not be overjoyed but they would expect me to come back and say “come on sharpen your pencil up there must be a way of doing this”. So the expectations are improve the service, change the

culture and do it for less (MM3a).

The process of briefing members at formal meetings in this example was based on a process of building upon past experiences in order to secure a successful outcome. The MM demonstrated awareness that the provision of information implying additional cost would not be readily accepted by elected members (political executives). Therefore, the message had to be carefully thought out in accordance with the ethos of the local authority attempting to deliver improvements to service- delivery. This needed to demonstrate achieving a positive culture change and the reduction of the overall cost of the service. It was also evident that because the MM was very familiar with the formal procedures for briefing political executives within the local authority, these provided windows of opportunities for gaining a positive result.

Field note 66: 06/06/15 observed MMs considering how best to brief political executives on potential dips in performance arising from taking people out of their usual roles in order to participate in HIA project activities. Another instance of these activities is observed in field note 145: 25/07/14 where MMs discussed the

political executives. This demonstrates how MMs deliberately decided to wait until there was sufficient evidence to prove its viability.

The updating of political executives on project activities via regularly established meetings had to be managed very skilfully in order to sustain their support:

There was no way that members were going for anything more than a case based on resilience and improved services that stage. To put the business case in front of them it complicates the decision-making for them because there are a lot of commitments in there. I think members looking at those commitments

individually would have been comfortable with them. Individually

but not all of them together (MM6b).

This example highlights how MMs were able to pre-empt the key factors of importance as proof that the HIA intervention could demonstrate its resilience and deliver an improvement to services. It was important to maintain the support of political executives before asking them to reach agreement and this would not be achieved if they were expected to agree to numerous obligations. Instead the tactic that was effectively employed by the MM was to break the agreements to individual aspects. The commitment to building up a dedicated association with political executives also paid off because this enabled to MM to pre-empt what was likely to be acceptable.

Field note 32: 31/05/13 observed MMs discussing concerns about how to obtain sign up to the HIA business case without sufficient evidence to prove this to members.

The need to be purposeful in these endeavours was exacerbated by the internal financial difficulties being experienced by local authorities.

In maintaining their commitment to sustain buy-in from political executives MMs ensured that HIA activities were only raised at regular meetings where this was appropriate:

Locally it is still a little bit early. If I went and told members [political executives] what we were doing with the home

improvement agency it would be an ambition rather than a reality. (MM6b).

This example demonstrates how the MM was keen to update political

executives on HIA activities only when there was enough evidence to warrant this intervention.

Reporting on progress at top management meetings

Reporting the outcomes of professional service-delivery achieved by MMs within their service area was a well-established activity. The main method of reporting used by MMs was to report back at top management team meetings:

Generally speaking we are up at a senior enough level within our organizations to be able to keep it going. It is unlikely that you are going to have [corporate executives] saying stop doing that and part of the greater mitigation against the chances of that

happening are people will be doing as I am doing which is going to the corporate management team and providing updates all the time regularly along the lines of “this is going well, this our

improvement so to some extent we have got our own responsibility

to drive this forward” (MM1b).

It was evident from this example that while MMs had been given the overall autonomy to decide how the HIA service should operate it was also necessary to sustain the internal support of the corporate executives. This was achieved by presenting positive reports to prove its ongoing progress to the top

management team meetings, which were a well-established mechanism for providing information that supported progress. MMs were also aware of the purpose of their activities in ensuring that the HIA project was driven forward as part of the overall strategic activity within their local authority.

Field note 54: 06/06/13 observed the importance MMs placed on being committed to demonstrating what was being delivered by HIA activities. These activities were assisted through the development of in depth knowledge of supporting data in order to challenge the status quo.

In order to be effective the activity of reporting successes and achievements was identified by MMs as a process that needed to be continuously maintained:

Obviously I use my influence here at my extended management team meetings, the [corporate executive] here chairs that meeting he will then go to his chief executive meetings and then it all just feeds through. So it is almost drip drip drip drip isn’t it?

Constantly saying this is what we are doing and this is what we could do better if we worked at it differently … but I am sure at a local level anyway that is starting to change anyway. That people know that the home improvement agency is there and that they can

feed into it (MM8b).

This example demonstrates how the MM was using extended management team meetings to continuously update the corporate executives on the activities of the HIA project team. It was also evident that the success of this activity relied upon the steadfastness of the MM in persisting with this process to provide proof of the successful activities of the HIA project team.

Field note 24: 26/04/13 observed how MMs emphasised the need to highlight how the HIA project made the best use of scarce resources through an integrated service delivery model. It was very important for MMs to emphasise that this had been derived through an effective partnership with other local authorities. Key benefits included reducing confusion and duplication with the intention of demonstrating a seamless customer journey assisted by identifying and minimising costly

bottlenecks.

MMs were also determined in their efforts to take advantage of regularly established meetings to champion HIA activities within the regulatory framework of their individual local authority. The success of this activity was reliant on the ability of the MM to ensure that the profile of the HIA initiative was maintained:

You would play it accordingly so I might take it to my group leadership team with the [corporate executive] there so that we could reach agreement and all be happy with the model. If we

were not it might need to go to cabinet[requiring approval from

political executives] (MM 5b).

This example illustrates how the MM had carefully thought out which meetings would provide the appropriate opportunity to raise the profile of the HIA initiative with corporate and political executives. The process of gaining endorsement from corporate and political executives by raising the profile of activities undertaken was also subject to its own process of escalation where cabinet meetings could be utilised to gain the ultimate sanction of approval when this was necessary.

Field note 120: 28/03/14 observed MMs discussing the importance of making a case for HIA project activities and proving outcomes in terms of improved use of funding and benefits to service users.

MMs also provided regular updates on the progress of the HIA project activities at meetings that were convened to review activities in service areas. This involved the MM purposefully pitching the successes of HIA project activities against other projects that were competing for funding:

You have to constantly review the situation and prove that your service [the HIA project] is worth its weight against other services (MM 8b)

This process could be seen to follow a regular pattern as part of services review meetings within the annual planning cycle:

What can we do to be better between us as [6 local authorities] and articulate this to our joint teams [corporate and political executives]? How do they fit into the business model? What is their role? All of these things are things that affect that and might indicate whether or not that is working quite as well as it should be (MM5a).

This provides a good example of how the MM had gauged an awareness of the business-planning process and how it could be orchestrated to demonstrate the ways in which the HIA project could best meet the needs of the corporate business model. This would then lead to improvements that would demonstrate the value of the HIA project to corporate and political executives and sustain their support.

Field note 130: 28/03/14 observed MMs discussing the importance of skills necessary to pitch the HIA project specification in order to sustain its viability.

MMs were also motivated to supplement their activities of gaining the support of corporate executives through informal meetings:

What we do with regard to the [corporate executives] I think that relationship is then less formal on an individual basis and more formal in our normal corporate management team meetings. So I keep our [corporate executives] up-to-date outside our corporate

This example demonstrates how the MM had made the conscious decision to hold informal meetings outside the formal ones in order to prove the successful

performance of the HIA’s activities. This process was driven by intent to demonstrate why it was important to gain support for aspects of the project as it moved forward.