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East Hampshire District Council

The Decision Conferencing process has transformed the way the Council does business... I would encourage all organisations to consider using the process

Will Godfrey, Chief Executive

Situation

East Hampshire District Council faces the same challenges that all District Councils face – the need to balance a budget with an ever growing need to deliver both statutory services and meet the expectations of the local population.

Will Godfrey, Chief Executive, wanted to improve the corporate planning process, ensuring that the manifesto of any incoming council, elected by the people of East Hampshire, could be adequately reflected in the strategic planning process and priorities set accordingly.

Vision

East Hampshire wanted a decision making process that could support their business and financial planning while fully engaging both elected members and council managers. The process should be transparent and provide a clear framework in which councillors could be in control.

How Catalyze helped

Having designed an overall process that clearly identified the objectives of the Council, identified a range of options for achieving those objectives and the criteria by which these objectives could be evaluated, Will Godfrey, supported by Ferris Cowper, Leader of East Hampshire District Council, asked Catalyze to facilitate a two-day Decision Conference to allow councillors to prioritise the options. Equity3 was used to capture the scoring and weighting of the projects and subsequent analysis of the model.

At an initial planning meeting the format of the two days was agreed; the first day was to be open for any member of the Council to attend while the second would be restricted to the Cabinet.

Participants in the decision conference considered 26 possible projects that could contribute to one or more of the Council’s strategic objectives. The projects had originated from various Service Groups; Environmental Services, Community, Planning Policy, Information Technology, Human Resources, Housing & Property and Facilities.

Costs, which included capital costs, one-off revenue costs and on-going revenue costs, had been assessed prior to the Decision Conference. In the meeting, participants provided scores of the added values expected from the projects on four benefit criteria: Community, Environment, Economy and Confidence that the benefits would be delivered. A weighting process enabled the benefit scores to be combined into a single overall benefit score. The ratio formed by dividing that benefit score by cost profile of each project provided a priority index for each project.

Several findings emerged from this exploration. Examination of the individual benefit-cost curves, some of which rise gently, while others show steep initial rises, indicates that some projects could provide substantial added value at relatively low cost. Separate lists were created that separated the various type of cost incurred and the model was used to examine each project based upon its overall position.

The benefit-cost prioritisation provided by the model together with these segregated cost lists allowed for a more focused discussion by the Cabinet on their overall priorities.

Outcome

This process resulted in a number of projects being supported as proposed, some rejected, others amended to take advantage of changes in funding and some referred back to the Service Groups with recommendations for review and resubmission.

Ferris Cowper, Leader of East Hampshire District Council

Will Godfrey, Chief Executive, East Hampshire District Council