The Community, Cultural, and Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee reviewed the council's Transformation Portfolio. Councillor David Dwyer, Cabinet Member for Data, Technology, Customer and Efficiency, highlighted that approximately £30 million of the council's £60 million savings target for 2025/26 is embedded within the transformation portfolio, with two-thirds of these savings currently on track.

Transformation Portfolio

The committee received an overview of Lancashire County Council's Transformation Portfolio, which has been in place for approximately 12 months. This portfolio consolidates around 15 significant programmes of work designed to address complex, large-scale challenges and opportunities facing the council. The report highlighted the portfolio's role in driving strategic change, improving service delivery, and ensuring financial resilience.

Key areas within the portfolio include:

• Adult Services: Focuses on enhancing care pathways and operations to manage demand and promote independent living, alongside developing a new market shaping strategy for care provision to improve value and outcomes. Progress includes reduced waiting times for assessments and identified cost avoidance.
• Education and Children's Services (ECS): Encompasses programmes for Where Our Children Live (WOCL), aiming to increase the provision of children's homes operated by the council and support foster carers. It also addresses the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system, with efforts to stabilise it and redesign a sustainable support system. Significant additional budget has been allocated to tackle the SEND assessment backlog.
• Growth, Environment, Transport, and Health (GETH): Includes work on waste management, with a new county-wide strategy drafted in partnership with district councils and exploration of anaerobic digestion plants. Highways and Transport programmes are focused on home-to-school transport, aiming for savings and improved assessments for children with special educational needs.
• Resources and Cross-Cutting Initiatives: This area includes Digital by Design, which aims to enhance user journeys through digital technologies and has identified significant financial benefits. The Data programme is focused on making the council more insight-led by improving data quality and developing a new data strategy, which is crucial for many other transformation projects. Other initiatives include a review of the property portfolio to improve efficiency and a redesign of business support services.

The presentation emphasised a structured methodology for managing transformation programmes, moving through stages of define, discover, design, deliver, and realise. The council is also embedding enablers such as digital innovation, data insight, workforce development, and partnerships to maximise the likelihood of successful outcomes.

Discussions during the meeting touched upon the challenges of cross-cutting initiatives, the importance of empowering directorates, and the need to reshape programmes when necessary, as demonstrated by the Adult Services Improvement Programme.

Constitution, Membership and Terms of Reference

The committee considered its work programme for the 2024/25 municipal year and an update on actions and assurances. The minutes of the previous meeting held on 9 December 2024 were confirmed as an accurate record.

Community, Cultural and Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee Work Programme 2025/26

The committee reviewed its draft work programme for the 2025/26 municipal year. The programme details planned scrutiny activities across areas such as cultural services, community services, crime and disorder, and corporate services. Key items for future meetings include the delivery of the Digital Strategy and workforce planning. The committee also discussed the importance of ensuring adequate scrutiny of the Leader's portfolio and other broad areas of responsibility.