Organisational Arrangements and Capacity

Organisational structure and culture

Councils need to identify and address the following:

• Ensure consistency between the management arrangements and the underpinning culture of the organisation. If there is a very centralist management structure then the established culture of the organisation needs to be one which reflects this approach where the power to make important decisions will be vested in relatively few individuals. Alternatively, if a decentralised model is preferred, the culture will need to be one of giving responsibility to individuals at different levels in the organisation and holding them to account for performance. A lack of consistency will give rise to tensions within the organisation and confusion about accountability. For example:
• in a centralised culture, senior managers may inappropriately expect more junior staff to be accountable for the financial decisions they have made and blame them when budgets overspend.
• in a decentralised structure senior managers may make decisions about spending priorities and wonder why they are not delivered by budget managers lower in the organisation.
• Determine how best to organise and manage the finance function. This may be line managed within Social Services or be part of the corporate team in the finance department. Whichever approach is preferred there are a number of considerations:
• Finance support staff will have dual accountability; first to the council's Director of Finance for professional standards, financial probity, and other corporate requirements (such as meeting budget preparation and reporting timescales and ensuring the requirements of the council's standing orders and financial regulations are met); second, to the Director of Social Services for the quality and timeliness of the financial information and advice to managers throughout the organisation.
• Whoever has the direct line management responsibility will need to ensure that both sets of accountabilities are being delivered satisfactorily (ideally by engaging effectively with the other Director), and to recognise the potentially inbuilt tensions for the finance staff of having this dual accountability.
• Whoever has direct line management responsibility will need to ensure that the staff are sufficiently skilled and developed to deliver both sets of accountabilities.
• The need for a 'common language' so that finance staff understand the service area they are working with, and that staff in those service areas understand financial terminology and expectations.

The underpinning accountabilities that need to be in place to make the arrangements work well are much more significant than the management arrangements. The following examples from Joint Reviews illustrate this:

Decision-making structures

Clear decision-making structures need to be identified which include decisions about casework, agreeing care plans, the commissioning of services to deliver care plans, and approving expenditure (including the allocation of resources) to meet the cost of the services. These are normally outlined in a 'scheme of delegation' which will apply to the authority as a whole or specifically to the social services function - Good Practice Example: Lincolnshire County Council - Changing roles in financial reporting - Good Practice Example: Lincolnshire County Council - Clarifying Management Roles.

Staffing - knowledge and skill base

Sound financial management requires skilled and competent staff at all levels of the organisation. Too frequently expectations of staff are not made clear, nor do they have the skills to perform these vital roles (read more).

The following need to be in place to ensure that the staff are effective:

• Job specifications need to be precise about accountabilities for financial planning and budget management. Generalised statements such as "responsible for managing the care budget for the team" are not sufficiently clear about expectations.
• The competencies expected of post holders to enable them to perform the tasks outlined in the specification need to be clearly articulated.
• The specifications and competencies of finance staff and social services managers should complement each other. This needs to include a broad understanding of each other's roles and the context in which they work. For example, managers need to have an understanding of accounting practice, financial forecasting, and corporate expectations for financial planning, budget setting, budget reporting, financial regulations etc. Finance support staff need to have a broad understanding of national priorities for social services, current performance against these in the authority, local priorities for service change and development and anticipated changes in demand patterns for services.
• A training plan which addresses the training needs of social services managers and finance support staff to ensure they have the 'competencies' to fulfil their roles effectively. This must include being able to respond quickly to the needs of staff who are new to these roles. Read more Wigan Social Services has developed a modular training and awareness programme to support staff managing devolved budgets.
• A performance system which monitors the effectiveness of staff in delivering the tasks outlined in the job specifications in ways which are measurable, and reports regularly. For example (relating to finance support staff), whether budget reporting timescales have been met, whether the information to support budget management is accurate and timely, and whether budget managers have been engaged in confirming budget forecasts.
• A performance appraisal system which systematically gathers information about performance outcomes and addresses issues about the skills of staff to undertake the tasks identified in the job specifications and 'core competencies' on a regular basis (at least annually).
• A system to link the outcomes from the staff appraisal process back into the development of the training plan and training programmes.