Overview

Organisations are increasingly realising the benefits of integrating their various management systems into one, and local authorities are no exception. Northumberland County Council is seeking to learn from the experiences of its Operational Services Directorate in the introduction of its integrated management system.

First | Previous | Next | Last

Introduction to Northumberland County Council

Northumberland County Council (NCC) is adopting an integrated approach to management system standards in order to develop a culture of change and continuous improvement, and to bring clarity and consistency to its approach to customers, people and processes.

Working with LRQA, the council’s Operational Services Directorate has already successfully implemented an integrated management system (IMS) that comprises ISO 9001:2000, ISO 14001, and OHSAS 18001.

The Directorate employs 2,350 people, and comprises three disparate divisions – Highways, Transport, Facilities (comprising Janitorial, Grounds and Catering) and Property – and is the first local authority to achieve such a high level of management systems integration with certification from LRQA.

Like the Directorate, NCC itself is now using the EFQM Excellence Model as a framework to introduce an IMS across the whole authority. Its objectives include:

• Creating an environment whereby NCC is consistently measuring and challenging the quality of services that it provides
• Creating a sound basis for training, staff development and induction
• Increasing the chances of NCC being recognised as standard bearers for the provision of excellent services
• Ensuring consistency of the standard of service provision across NCC
• Giving NCC increased assurance when deciding upon corporate priorities
• Enabling external inspectorates to see that NCC is focused on achieving excellence and continuous improvement
• Establishing a continued focus on meeting the needs of the 300,000 people of Northumberland

The rationale behind NCC’s decision to implement a comprehensive IMS is detailed in its ‘Corporate Quality Standards Strategy’ that was adopted by the council in 2003 which aims ‘to ensure that the county council operates a sound coordinated approach to corporately achieving recognised quality standards and continually driving up performance’.

This strategy forms a vital part of the authority’s objectives for the future - its ‘Vision and Values.’ These state: “The council will ensure that by 2010 Northumberland enjoys a prosperous economy supported by high quality services tailored to meet the particular needs of all the diverse communities of the County. Our communities will be vibrant and sustainable and everyone living here will have the opportunity to achieve their full potential.”

First | Previous | Next | Last

Starting the journey

“Our previous quality management system tended to stagnate. Things were just ticking over. It was helping us with tenders, but we needed added value. LRQA were able to provide us with the resources to do this.”

Liz Pringle, Quality Development Officer, Operational Services Directorate, Northumberland County Council

Northumberland is the sixth largest county in England by size with a land area of 500,000 hectares but one of the smallest by population with 310,000 people, including 50,000 children who attend Northumberland’s schools. Over 50% of the population lives in less than 5% of the area, giving an urban concentration in the south east corner of the county and a very low population density in the rural north and west. Operational Services Directorate faces major challenges due to both the diversity of the county and the size and scope of its responsibilities: for instance, it manages 5,000 kilometres of highways none of which is motorway, and supplies a wide range of services to 212 schools and 600 other premises.

The Directorate has a combined turnover of £50 million, and makes a financial return to the county council. Operating on a commercial basis, it has to compete to win business, and has done so since being formed in 1992 in response to the introduction of compulsory competitive tendering (CCT).

At that stage its management realised a competitive edge was required, and sought ISO 9000. A quality manager was employed, and 1,500 staff were trained in customer care, including part-time workers such as cleaners and school dinner ladies. The objective was to achieve certification for all its services by 1994, and its Grounds division was the first in 1992.

“In 1992 the whole quality idea was a new concept to the public sector, but certification to the standard ISO 9000 was something you had to have in order to tender for work,” said Liz Pringle, the Directorate’s quality development officer. “People bought into it because staff realised that, under CCT, if we did not have certification we would not win the tenders and we would not have jobs.”

With strong leadership and full management commitment to the process – together with a significant investment in training – all divisions achieved certification to ISO 9001 and ISO 9002.

But there were problems. It became clear that at this time, the standard was ‘very regimented’, and costs were high because the certification body at the time wanted to assess each of the 212 catering and cleaning sites on an individual basis.

“At this point, our certification seemed to offer little or no value and was simply a means to an end,” said Liz Pringle. “We did not seem to be making any improvements to our management system and things were really just ticking over. It was helping us with tenders, but we needed added value.”

Operational Services decided to consider alternative certification bodies, at the same time as reorganising. Many of the functions of another Directorate of NCC - Technical Services – which included services such as property maintenance, highway network management and design services were brought into Operational Services to create a bigger Directorate.

This provoked a re-think on quality, and the Directorate decided to move towards EFQM and ISO 14001. LRQA were among the certification bodies to be considered and was the only one proposing to use a unique sampling method. This has seen LRQA assessors visit sites on a sample basis while being able to provide the expertise and resource to help the organisation achieve an integrated management system (IMS) that would also include ISO 9001:2000 and OHSAS 18001.

First | Previous | Next | Last

Integration

“We used to have manuals that were referenced to all items in the standard – and people just lost interest. This changed significantly when we took the step towards integrating our systems.”

Liz Pringle

When the Operational Services Directorate of Northumberland County Council decided to introduce ISO 14001, it took the opportunity to upgrade from the 1994 version to ISO 9001:2000 and include its existing Investors in People (IIP) and Chartermark awards in an integrated management system. Its catering division would also act as a pilot for the introduction of OHSAS 18001 and all the systems would be brought together.

The first challenge was to reduce the amount of paperwork involved: a need that was clear in the catering division where there was precious little administration time available to handle the additional OHSAS 18001 documentation.

“LRQA started the process by making us think,” said Liz Pringle. “We needed to reduce the amount of paperwork, and if we integrated the management systems it would make this easier.”

The 250-page catering operations manual was shortened to reduce the bureaucracy, and as a result paperwork was reduced by half. One example was that rather than each person signing that individual kitchen areas were cleaned daily or weekly, the staff only needed to demonstrate that the kitchen was clean (i.e. demonstrating that the outcome of the process had been achieved), with one person taking ownership and responsibility for ensuring that the kitchen areas were cleaned satisfactorily.

The catering operations manual was reduced to 50 pages, and is reissued every 2 years, which as Liz explains is a great improvement. “People no longer need to insert pages as they go, but to ensure we comply with document control requirements changes are sent through circular letters which are controlled and form a part of the overall catering integrated management system. This has removed a lot of administration. People can now concentrate on just doing their jobs.”

“We told LRQA that this was what we wanted to do, and they said ‘that’s fine’. Everyone bought into it. If people on-site do not buy into the process, they will not adapt to it. We had to make it as easy as we could. When we delivered the training for OHSAS 18001 to our catering unit managers, we told them ‘you do not need to do these activities any more, and why they were not required in this new integrated management system. Staff were delighted with the reduction in paper work.”

Following the success of this approach in the catering division, the directorate adopted it for all divisions, encouraging staff to think about what they needed, rather than ticking boxes to show they complied with the standard.

Different divisions – from architectural services to school cleaners – had different needs, and the quality team worked with each division to help them define their processes and write procedures.

“They told us what they did, we put together the systems, and made sure they were happy,” said Liz Pringle. “The procedures are now something they can refer to for clarification – where people can go for help if they need it. We sold this idea to them like that, rather than testing them on how it related to the standard.”

The merger between Technical Services and Operational Services meant combining their two management systems, and common areas such as tendering have been integrated at directorate level, leaving each division with its own IMS, that includes improvement targets and performance indicators.

“The introduction of the IMS has been a lot of hard work, but there was full commitment from management, and it has been very rewarding because we can now demonstrate to people that quality is important.

“We knew at the outset that it would not work unless we made radical change, but we introduced these manuals so people think about what they do. That change has worked.”

First | Previous | Next | Last

Communication

“We do not talk about non-conformances. We tell people how good they are, and then agree an action plan for where they are not so good. Our audits are health checks that result in action plans, and this year divisions have started to come to us to ask if they can have audits carried out.”

Liz Pringle

Communicating change was essential to ensure the success of integrated management systems within the Operational Services Directorate of Northumberland County Council.

When the health and safety element was introduced to the directorate, 500 staff were trained in just four weeks on the basis that it was good practice.

“We talked about the benefits of having the system, and they bought into it. Only at the end did we say that we were going for OHSAS 18001 certification. We wanted people to concentrate on the benefits, not the certification, and it really worked,” comments Liz.

This approach is carried through to the audit process which is designed to be as user-friendly as possible.

“Our audits are health checks that result in action plans. We do not give any non-conformances; the term is negative. In the past it was not about how good you are … it was about where you were going wrong. Now we agree an action plan for where they are not so good which has taken the stress out of the process. This year, divisions have started to come to us and ask if they can have audits carried out.”

Liz Pringle believes this holistic approach also benefits divisional managers because it helps them to see the big picture – how to improve their business – rather than focusing on individual items on an audit report.

“At the end of the day people do not need to know about the standards; all they need to know is that they comply,” she said. “Our manual says ‘this is what we do’. It does not matter whether it is quality, environmental or safety. It pulls everything together for the people. That is how we have chosen to do it, and it is how the county council are approaching their move toward integrated management systems.”

First | Previous | Next | Last

Relationship with LRQA

“LRQA encouraged us to think what was relevant to our business, rather than just complying with the standard. This was a new concept for us. It had not occurred to us before, because we had not had that interaction with our previous assessment body.”

Liz Pringle

LRQA were unique in being able to offer the Operational Services Directorate of Northumberland County Council the expertise and resources to achieve their objectives.

LRQA’s brief was to help the organisation upgrade from the 1994 standard to ISO 9001:2000 at the same time as beginning to introduce ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 – all within an integrated management system. Three specialist assessors were appointed to undertake the task, and training courses in each required standard were made available to help each division move forward with its IMS.

Flexibility was important, particularly in assessing the 212 school catering and cleaning sites. “LRQA’s approach was really good,” said Liz Pringle. “Our previous certification body would have wanted to go to each school, however this simply wasn’t the most appropriate option.”

In line with the Directorate’s communications policy, necessary actions resulting from LRQA reports are included in individual action plans for improvement.

In an unusual development, internal auditors take photographs of both good and bad practice on sites, and these are published on the Directorate’s intranet. Hyperlinks can be emailed to interested parties, and also enable the LRQA assessor to see easily what improvements have been made between visits.

During the early stages of the relationship with LRQA, the Directorate chose to integrate quality and environmental audits and combine visits into a period of four-to-five days to improve efficiency and achieve economy.

“LRQA were happy to work in this way, although when we introduced health and safety we thought this would be better combined with environmental audits because the two work better in harmony than quality and environmental. Again, LRQA had the flexibility and resource to help us do this.”

First | Previous | Next | Last

The future

“We are trying to get an integrated approach across the council, and we are talking to LRQA about how best to achieve this. There is a logic and rationale behind it. ISO 9001:2000 talks about business objectives, and we are looking at a whole host of different quality standards, including ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 and Lexcel – in fact, anything that will get people focusing on what they are doing.”

David Willis, Quality Standards Manager, Northumberland County Council

In 2001 the Operational Services Directorate of Northumberland County Council won the North East Excellence award for its use of the Business Excellence Model – coming first in the Public and Voluntary Sector Award Category and scooping the prize for Overall Winner. It was also a finalist in the TNT ‘Modernising Government Partnership Awards’ for the second year running.

This achievement acknowledges the success of the organisation’s quality policy – something which the county council itself is now adopting.

In a series of pilot projects, every directorate is introducing something: ISO 14001 is about to commence in the Environmental Services Directorate, and there are six ISO 9001:2000 projects including internal audit, democratic services, planning and environmental control.

First | Previous | Next | Last