Insights for Renewal

Insights for
Renewal –
Summary and
Next Steps

Overview
COVID-19 poses one of the biggest challenges for a
generation and together we've delivered rapidly for
our residents.
Camden is a curious council – which seeks to learn,
improve and deliver better for its residents. As we
enter the next stage of the crisis, there is a desire to
create space to reflect, so we can take the right next
steps.
Some of this reflection is underway through this piece
of work, other projects and within teams, and
learning is being put into action. However, there
remain four key, cross-organisational challenges.
1. How do we build on a shared sense of purpose
and urgency for the future?
2. How do we work as staff for the future?
3. How do we work with the strengths of our
residents and partners?
4. How do we better tackle inequalities?
We recommend that these cross-organisational
topics are taken forward and held at CMT level.
These cross-cutting themes will work alongside other
pieces of strategic development shaped by DMT and
CMT such as the Economic Renewal Commission,
Climate Emergency, Adult Social Care transformation and
Education policy.

Meeting the Four Challenges: Highlights of some of the ideas
• Initiate work across SLG to explore how different future scenarios
could present new challenges & opportunities for transformation.
• Finance to work across services to reassess individual MTFS projects.
• Reflect on and refresh existing strategies and embed any new
approaches to service delivery.
• HR to support teams to take a reflective pause and identify the best
approach for working going forward, on a team by team basis.
• Support managers and staff on practical aspects as they embed ways of
working in the medium-term, including on equipment and technology.
• Communications to work creatively and collaboratively to share
insights and build on Camden’s strong commitment to create a shared
endeavour with staff.
• Champion residents’ voice and experience when shaping services
and addressing design challenges, in tune with their aspirations.
• Take a consistent view across all services on how we work with
residents: empowering communities and building resilience.
• Elevate the role of data in designing services for the future.
• Review the emergency response and understand the impact of a
shift to digital provision on different groups of service users.
• Implement the recommendations of Camden's BAME
Inequalities group, identifying how we can extend it to other groups,
including those at risk of poverty.
• Use intelligence and data to understand and address the disproportionate
impact that COVID-19 has had on different groups.
• Empower and support staff from BAME groups, elevating their voices and
providing a safe space to have ongoing open and honest dialogue.
• Listen and implement their recommendations and commit to continuous
organisational review and change.
Challenge 1: How do we have a shared
focus and prioritise to achieve Camden 2025 in a new context?
Challenge 2: How do we work as staff in the future?
Challenge 3: How do we work with the strengths of our
residents and partners?
Challenge 4: How do we better tackle inequalities?

Challenge 1: How do we have a shared focus and
prioritise to achieve Camden 2025 in a new context?
Camden 2025 remains our key strategic framework. Its ambitious calls to action are
now even more important than before, as we know that the pandemic has
exacerbated inequalities in these areas.
However, we also know that Camden 2025 doesn't cover everything. Other challenges,
such as the growing digital divide, have become starker during the crisis and
the pandemic has highlighted, even more than usual, the critical role played by our core
services and their importance to our overall purpose.
Many opportunities have arisen from the services and approaches developed during
the crisis but it has also created new, significant financial pressures for the Council, on
top of those we were already facing. SC/CS DMTs highlighted the tension here between
the need to invest and the financial challenges posed to the Council’s finances by Covid-
19. Linked to this is a consideration of the pace of our response vs. resident cocreation.
This suggests a need (echoed at DMTs) to reconsider and prioritise which issues and
projects we focus on, to ensure they reflect the new context we're working within. PH
DMT was also keen that we shouldn't forget the potential for second waves or local
lockdowns, as we start to look towards recovery.

There are opportunities to be more radical and drive change:
• How can we ensure that changes to our policies and services reflect:
• Political priorities; increased inequalities; and our staff's and
communities' strengths:
• Delivering a balanced budget despite continued pressures;
• The social value of our local organisations, providers and institutions;
• The need to anticipate future scenarios, being able to flex to change
• Where we should lead, collaborate or empower others to lead
• How do we take forward the cross-organisational theme of the digital
divide?
• How do we reprioritise the issues and projects we focus on together, e.g.
new Our Camden Plan
• How do we balance the need to urgently drive change to meet our goals
and our principles of resident involvement?
There are some key practical areas being taken forward or
proposed:
• Many individual teams are already looking at changes to their
strategies or are embedding new approaches to service
delivery into the way they work.
• We suggest assessing potential impacts on individual MTFS
projects, to understand our financial position and help
move forward with individual projects, supported by Finance
• We propose facilitating activity with SLG and Heads of
Service to explore how we anticipate future scenarios and
horizons (building on the Camden-Lambeth CMTs work)
to identify new challenges and opportunities to drive
transformation
Challenge 1: How do we have a shared focus and
prioritise to achieve Camden 2025 in a new context?

Covid-19 has radically changed how we work as staff, presenting both new opportunities
and challenges. Increased remote working, a greater flexibility in roles and increased
working together were all areas people wanted to build on. Improvements in technology
and support from managers were areas to be developed further. However, clear too was
the impact on certain staff groups – including those with caring responsibilities, or with
health needs – and how we adapt to accommodate their needs in this new environment.
We also heard from PH DMT that there is a risk that people are already starting to return
to old ways of working. They identified a need to support people to embed new ways of
working and understand that we can't return to the past, whilst helping people feel secure.
CS DMT highlighted a need to give people opportunities to bring ideas and shape the way
forward, rather than just doing this at higher levels - this may include creating
opportunities for people from any part of the organisation to work together on practical
challenges.

There are some key practical areas being taken forward:
• HR&OD are working with Digital to look at the equipment and
technology needed to support people to work safely.
• HR&OD developing support tools for managers to support staff.
• Work to bring staff back to the office through our service transition
work and COVID-secure, supported by HR&OD, systems thinking and
facilities.
• Supporting teams to take a reflective pause so we can help our
teams reflect on the journey we’re on and improve, supported by
HR&OD.
• We suggest working with Communications to use creative ways to
share these insights with staff as a way for the learning to
stimulate improvement.
• Take forward the recommendations from GOLD on 15 June on
changes to workstreams and reporting.
• What is the future role of our offices if many of us continue to work
more remotely? How can we help remote working feel more
like the office?
• How can we build the connections or structures between teams to
collaborate?
• How could we change the principles of how we work, with the tools and
support to do this. For example, working in the open and
collaboratively, rhythms and working patterns, involving people
in developing ideas and solutions.
• What changes are needed to help managers support staff?
• How can we build on our redeployment hub to better allocate people to
projects that makes the best use of everyone’s skills?

Challenge 3: How do we work with the strengths of
our residents and partners?
There has been a significant impact on the community, residents and partners as a result of COVID-19 – which many services are concerned about. This included a
concern over the digital divide and its impact on residents as more services moved online. This insight work was only intended to focus on understanding the
experience of services. Therefore, we need to work with residents and partners to start from their experiences and motivations on how best to work with them.
It was also noted by DMTs that it is harder for staff to connect to residents and their experience in Camden, as so many do not live in the borough.
The role of data in helping us understand services was highlighted by services and echoed at SP DMT, where it was
felt there was a need to use data more proactively and to improve digital services.
There was concern from some that the pace of the pandemic response meant that services had been developed
without co-creation with residents, which risked creating a dependency on the council and moved away from the
strengths-based approach. This was echoed through conversations at PH and SP DMTs. There was some desire to embed the
strengths-based approach across the council further – for example, Contact Camden highlighted that they had
learnt the benefits of using strengths-based conversations with residents during the pandemic.
Many have also found strengthened partnerships - from Coroners, to Schools, and Public Health. Several services
spoke about the role of the VCS in supporting people during the crisis and a desire to build on this. Though there is
some concern about the wider and financial impact on many of our partners.

Challenge 3: How do we work with the strengths of
our residents and partners?
• Learning from the experiences of our residents to
identify and work on design challenges that address their
aspirations, supported by the Inclusive Innovation Network
and Participation.
• Resident involvement is being further developed within
teams – for example, the Economic Renewal Commission.
• Some teams are also developing their use of data - for
example, Adult Social Care – who are exploring the
evidence and data to inform their next steps.
• Can we look at a day in the lives of our residents, to help us empathise with their
experiences?
• How can we commit to the principle of strength-based conversations across the
council and how could we embed this?
• How can we build on our strengthened partnerships to mobilise the social value of
our providers and partners?
• How can we develop local government as a platform to match needs and
support?
• What is the right balance of face-to-face and digital provision?
• How can we more radically use data to inform our work?

Services across the Council identified the damage that COVID-19 has done to
outcomes for residents across Camden 2025 priorities, including education, health and
financial resilience. Many identified how existing inequalities will be exacerbated by
the crisis.
Despite this, not all services fully considered the disproportionate impact of COVID-19
on some communities, including those with protected characteristics as well as other
groups, nor how their services could or should respond.
In some services, work is already underway to understand how they best serve
residents by tackling inequality – for example, improving digital access, and building
resilience particularly given the risk of a second wave. However, in others, the pace of
delivery meant that these considerations are still to be made.
The resident and staff voice is central as we recover and renew. Certain staff have
been particularly impacted by COVID-19, including those with caring responsibilities,
staff from BAME groups, and those with health conditions. At the same time, other
staff groups continue to work remotely, away from the residents they serve.
SP DMT identified tackling inequality as a priority and called for a resource injection to
help address it.

• Camden's BAME Inequalities and COVID-19 working group has a focus on 8 key areas
and will publish the framework for its action plan the week beginning 22 June.
This includes short-, medium- and long-term action plans to help empower residents
and partners, and to proactively address inequality, including within Camden's
workforce.
• Public Health BAME COVID-19 Health Inequalities work – using intelligence and
analysis of data.
• Work is also being taken forward in some teams, such as Adult Social Care's detailed
analysis on disproportionate impact on residents with protected characteristics
and Education's framework to tackle some impacts on young people and families.
• Reflection sessions with different staff groups – for example, ongoing focus groups
with BAME staff.
•How can we extend the approach taken to the BAME
Disproportionality Project to other groups who are more at
risk of poverty?
•How do we embed assessment of the impact of inequality
and use it as a source of innovation?
•How could we use the collective creativity of our partners to
help us tackle this?
•How could we provide dedicated support to help the
organisation improve our approach in this area?

These challenges also point to principles which have been used and which can be used in our next steps as a council:
• With Camden 2025 as our guiding star, we will need to prioritise what we deliver over the next year, reflecting the strengths &
needs of our residents and our ability to deliver a balanced budget.
• Many of the key opportunities that services think should be amplified were started pre-Covid 19 and can be accelerated.
• We will need to build on the shared sense of purpose and urgency to energise people to work across teams on shared challenges.
• We will need to work together across services to adapt and identify where we are best placed to lead, collaborate, or support
others to lead.
• Our residents face changing needs that can be invisible, we need to better value their creativity and strengths in tackling those.
• We need to empower people closest to the problem to tackle these issues.
• We will need to continue embedding digital into how we work and rethink how we use our physical spaces in this new normal.
• Even though Covid-19 is still with us, there's an opportunity to move from working at the pace of the emergency to work at
the pace of our communities, to involve people in an inclusive way.
Principles

Areas for
discussion
• Are these four areas the
cross-organisational challenges
to tackle at a CMT level?
• If so,
• How can we take these forward in
a collaborative and iterative way?
• How radical do we want to be on
each of these?
• What support does CMT need to
take these forward?
Camden has experience of facilitating collaborative
ways of tackling these types of issues which it could
build on for this (e.g. External Challenges, IIN)

Summary of all report
findings

Areas of focus
We’ve worked with services on the following
areas to:
• Understand the impact of the
pandemic and lessons learned
• Identify challenges and opportunities for
the future
• Identify what they stop, continue or do
differently
We did this through:
• Using new software to allow us to 'tag' the
responses – there were over 110 different
categories and almost 3,000 individual
comments.
• Workshops with those completing
the returns or carrying out connected
work, and the renewal group.
• Feedback and discussion at all 4 DMTs
Impact on
residents and
communities
Working with
partners
Impact on staff
and ways of
working
Impact on our
services so far
Considerations
for reopening
services
Benefits and
opportunities for
recovery and
renewal
Financial
impact

1. Impact on
residents &
communities
• There has been a significant impact on the community as a result of COVID-19
and the government’s response to this.
• There is concern across services about the damage being done to outcomes
across Camden 2025 priorities including education, climate change, health and
financial resilience and the likelihood that existing inequalities will worsen.
• These new impacts have significantly altered the context for how we may
achieve Camden 2025.
• Residents have adapted quickly to changes in services over the past few
months.
• There is concern that the pandemic could result in greater socio-economic
need in our communities, raising questions around the shape and offer of
services especially at the front door in the future.
• This included concern over an increasing digital divide
• There is concern that in the medium term the pandemic could result in a greater
demand for services beyond the resources available to us.
• Some reflected on the need to think carefully about our role within a wider state
and system–and the importance of empowering residents and building on
assets and strengths in our communities rather than focus on deficits and risk
unintentionally creating dependency on services

1. Impact on residents &
communities
"Closing of schools has significant cross
cutting implications for Camden 2025
and especially for protected groups […]
gap between outcomes and experience
that reflect socioeconomic difference. A
Supporting People team
"COVID-19 will have a long-lasting impact
on our residents and communities both in
terms of our current understanding of needs
and ensuring we factor in some of the new
implications as we deliver outcomes of
Camden 2025 and our Camden Plan.
[…] residents' needs are changing bringing
with it added complexity. We believe that by
working with people and using data we can
design personalised services to meet these
more complex needs" A Corporate
Services team
"Local markets and street markets
increasingly becoming community hubs.
Increased take-up of recycling too
and helping local places keep clean. A
greater emphasis to be placed on good
growth at local level. Residents have
become `rule-takers' following guidance
with greater amounts of recycling" A
Supporting Communities team
“The digital divide is even bigger, since many
services have had to move online since
lockdown. Our libraries already provided services
for those who could not access Universal Credit
and council housing online. People with no
digital access are having to access banking,
schooling, shopping, jobs and UC online” -
A Supporting Communities Team
Risk we undo progress made embedding
strengths-based approaches and embedding
asset-based community development, and that
our council emergency response draws more
people into the system and recreates
a dependency culture” A Supporting People
team
“One key learning is around how we move from
transactional customer service to strength-based
conversations. Many of our residents (included
the Shielded) are capable of supporting
themselves with the right guidance and
signposting from Camden" A Corporate Services
team

Camden 2025 Current priorities surfaced from services
Homes and housing Reducing homelessness, landlord & estate services,
organisational approach to asset management, CIP,
resident safety charter
Strong growth
&access to jobs
Renewal Commission: transition to a zero-carbon
economy, good work for all, welfare that works
for people, thriving local economy, commercial portfolio
Safe, strong and open
communities
Community safety, cohesion and disproportionality,
sustainability of VCS and mobilising volunteers,
tackling the digital divide, educational attainment,
domestic violence, youth safety
Clean, vibrant
&sustainable places
Increasing walking and cycling, re-opening place-
based services and physical and open spaces, climate
emergency
Healthy, independent
lives
Strengths-based practice, assistive technology, adults
neighbourhood working, older people’s housing,
extra care, support and safeguarding, contact and trace

2. Working
with
partners
• Relationships have been strengthened across directorates with
shared objectives and mutual understanding – regionally, with health
partners, the VCS, and in some cases with government.
• The role of Camden’s VCS was highlighted by many in providing
vital services, with opportunities to work together in the future
• Some identified Camden's position as a system leader in touch with
residents and the voluntary sector, but recognising when to let others
take the lead or to signpost to additional support.
• Improved perception of the credibility and influence of the Council –
taken a lead on lobbying.
• Some have benefited from increased communication and new
approaches to working –including a move away from emails towards
more conversations and video calling.
• Recognition of a changing environment with funding challenges are
likely to impact our partners going forward

"Constructive & positive
engagement and collaboration
with providers has been essential.
Their involvement and
engagement has been fantastic
and close working should be
maintained. […] [We] can build
on this for future integration and
keeping people out of hospital."
A Supporting People team
"New connections with
colleagues across [North
London Councils] has opened
doors and increased the
ability to influence decision
making beyond the council"
"Embracing what our external contractors can
bring beyond what is contractually available.
We have been able to repurpose our main
contractor's staff to a number of roles and they
have really benefitted from gaining an insight
to the borough in which they work and
speaking with residents they would not
normally meet. [We should] increase [the] social
value element in future contracts." A
Supporting Communities team
"Rapid design and delivery of integrated wrap
around service provision between services,
agencies and VCS to support vulnerable population
groups […] a focus on what is possible rather
than impossible, united around a shared urgent
mission." Public Health
"We are going to have to
recognise that whole
sectors we work with
[...] will now operate in
a different way. In
helping our clients
respond [we must]
ensure we learn from
and share experience
of other councils and
agencies, rather than
working in a silo."
A Corporate Services
team
"VCS provide a wide range of key services to the
community, especially to parts of the community
no one else reaches. Many of these
organisations are running at reduced capacity
and have seen significant decreases in
income/funding and their ability to deliver these
key services now and in the future is reduced […]
In response to the new patterns of
vulnerability, the community itself has started
organising, with Mutual Aid groups and informal
community groups alike." A Supporting
Communities team

3. Impact on
staff and
ways of
working
• Coronavirus has had a large impact on our staff –from the impact in
people’s personal lives and how they are feeling, to shifts in ways of
working together.
• Staff are doing okay –given the context of the pandemic –though this is
different for some groups.
• There is a need for further work on supporting staff - whilst we have
some great examples of supporting staff, some responses did not talk
about this issue and others felt that COVID-19 gave us the opportunity to
focus on staff wellbeing even more.
• We have also learnt a lot about our employees’ skills, their ability to be
flexible, as well as identifying where we may have some gaps.
• There is a strong desire to work more together across the council and
teams
• The radical digital transformation in ways of working through remote
working has presented both opportunities and challenges.
• During sessions where people have reflected on the initial findings,
people have highlighted how this radical transformation has had a
significant impact on staff and the need to create space to support staff
to reflect on changes and start to think about the future as no longer a
return to the past structure.

“Since the lockdown we have
behaved and acted more like the
One Camden.”
With a focus on action and
shared goals a lot of the barriers
that have been in the system for
a long time have been
overcome. E.g. response for rough
sleeping and the need to put in
place systems to support people
into accommodation and wrap
around care.” Public Health
“Continuation of regular contacts with
providers [has ensured] they remain
supported and are able to raise
concerns. This has led to
mutual understanding and
improved working relationships. It
is likely to have a positive impact
on quality of care and responsiveness to
the council.”
On a human level there has been a very
real impact on staff. Staff that live alone,
have childcare needs, or are vulnerable or
worried about vulnerable relatives have had a
difficult time. It is worth thinking through how we
can best support staff through these issues in
the future.” A Supporting Communities team
“We have also learned that we need
to check in with each other far
more to make sure we are looking
after ourselves. We do not do this as
an organisation enough and we
need to be more honest about that.”
A Corporate Services team
“most people welcome the
significant ICT adaptations that
have been brought forward to
support remote working and would
want to continue to have the
flexibility to work from home in the
future.” Public Health
“Whilst everyone has coped brilliantly well with the
move to remote working, it's clear we need
significant time and energy to spend thinking about
culture and thoughtful org design. Our current ways
of working remotely are in response to a crisis-we must
understand what is working and what isn't. A
Corporate Services team

4. Impact on
services so
far
• Services acted fast in responding to the stark operational challenges posed by Covid-19 and
many services managed to maintain (or even enhance) service levels, even if this meant
working in a different way and or with a slightly different focus.
• Given the unprecedented challenges caused by the pandemic, there were also some
services that had to close due to social distancing, with libraries, leisure centres and in
person day centres being some of the higher-profile examples.
• New services set up fast – frontline presence team, redeployment hub, Covid-19 phone line.
• Impact on some workforce levels - significant impact on service delivery in some areas due
to high staff absence (e.g. adult social care), and challenges around PPE.
• Impact on services’ capacity - e.g. adult social care and housing management.
Feedback on how governance and the emergency structure has supported ways
of working and the lessons we should take from this.
• Some services have also seen a large increase for demand and back logs of work – for
example delays in court work

"Service delivery of street cleansing,
waste collection and recycling has
proved fairly resilient." A Supporting
Communities Team
"Home care providers have experienced
significant impact on a day-to-day basis
as they manage care provisions with
fluctuating staff levels of sickness and
worker anxiety." A Supporting People
team
"Caretakers are currently working
reduced hours to mitigate exposure
risks; full working hours will need to be
brought back"
A Supporting Communities team
"All Information & Records
Management services have continued
- a temporary reduction in service in
some cases."
"Work has continued but the service has had to
prioritise external works to adhere to social
distancing guidelines. Works such as window
replacements... have had to be put on hold."
A Supporting Communities team
A number of new teams have been established

5. Considerations
for reopening
services
• Some services are reliant upon political decisions to be made
as to when they should restart their service, and in what way.
This also includes decisions around when to restart charging
and collecting money, for example council tax and business
rates, and how we will pursue this.
• A number of services are dependent on decisions outside the
Council's control
• How the virus progress including a 2nd wave
• How the economy reacts and progresses
• What regional and national bodies and government
decide.
• There were also a number of key internal dependencies
• When the office is COVID- secure and safe for staff to
return
• When staff who have been redeployed return.
• From this, many anticipated a resource need.

“[…] we will carry out a further review
of our transformation programme - to
make decisions on priority projects
which need to continue and/or
restart, those which may need to be
stopped or be re-thought.” A
"Financial impact will depend on
external factors which we need to
anticipate & prepare for such how
long the virus will last and what
decisions the government will
make on extending/reducing their
financial support to councils, and
[...] business rates" A Corporate
Services team
"Much relies on
political decision
making, at national
and local level, before
any decisions can be
made within the
service." A
Corporate Services
team
"A key message for
ASC is that the health
crisis is not over. We
expect there could be
a second wave. And
as a frontline service
we need to carefully
manage implications
on residents and on
the workforce."
A Supporting People
team
"Stopping some of the
activities in particular projects
where there might be different
views on prioritisation could
be challenging, it would be
helpful to approach this from
organisational perspective
to ensure short-, medium-
and long- term objectives
remain aligned across
departments and
services" A Corporate
Services team
“Running committee meetings
remotely takes considerably more
staff resource than running physical
meetings […] If remote meetings
continue, serious consideration needs
to be given to either reducing the
number of meetings […] or increasing
the staff
resource available.” A Corporate
Services team
"How we continue working to
support those with no local
connection and NRPF will be an
MHCLG decision but critical
that there are clear guidance
from government re: funding /
changing the criteria so that we
can plan for immediate and long
term recovery and renewal" A

6. Benefits &
opportunities
for recovery
and renewal
• A theme throughout responses was that pre-COVID-19 business as usual strategies, service reviews
and restructures may need to be reconsidered.
• Conflicting views on new services/delivery models which people want to keep - large numbers of
new approaches that people want to keep e.g. food, redeployment pool, beacon, frontline presence
team. However, others were concerned that these services may increase dependency.
• Extended hours - some services have seen benefits from operating extended hours e.g. expanded
CAMHS crisis response, ASC & monitoring social media
• There was a clear sense that the crisis had accelerated moves already well underway towards
digital transformation across the organisation. Many felt that this is something we need to invest in
and focus on as more work is needed.
• There are opportunities from this to understand how we can transform our services – from leaving
behind ways of working we no longer need, making the most of opportunities like digital
transformation and supporting new services.

"Many services have implemented
“digital signatures” by residents and
officers, saving unnecessary
journeys by residents and staff and
speeding up processes."
"Contact Camden agreed with
SignVideo to extend the Deaf
Interpreting Contract from
daytime only to 24/7 (at no
cost)" A Corporate Services
team
"The work on food should result
in the council committing to a
mission around ending food
poverty." A Supporting
Communities team
"Alongside our impacts analysis
work, we will carry out a further
review of our [ASC]
transformation programme - to
make decisions on priority
projects... " A Supporting People
team
"Online platforms such as Time to
Spare and Beacon will be helpful in
both our role as a convener of
services as well as with data
collection" A Supporting
Communities team
"Different parts of the organisation [are] creating
a dependency model (i.e. shielding &
vulnerability) while others [are] creating a model
to improve independency (i.e. what matters)"

• Suggestions services have made on what new opportunities from
the pandemic they continue with:
• Suggestions for further digital transformation include:
• New delivery and transport services set up to support people
during the crisis, including food deliveries.
• The 7-day SPA for hospital discharge.
• Quicker and easier access to safe accommodation for Camden
Safety Net.
• The Logistics Hub, Redeployment Hub and Frontline Presence
Teams.
• New delivery models within public health, Contact tracing and
Public Health advice team.
• The multi-disciplinary healthcare team (MDT).
• The volunteer brokerage scheme established though Time to
Spare.
• Online platforms such as Time to Spare and Beacon will be helpful
in both our role as a convener of services, as well as with data
collection.
• Strengthening the ability of the Council’s network/ICT support to
function optimally with high volumes of home working.
• Encouraging channel shifts for the many services that are still
heavily reliant on paper-based inbound post.
• Introducing a scanning solution for inbound post where this can’t
be changed.
• Ensuring that those council services that are still reliant on cheque
payments move over to using Direct Debits Services.
• Establish an internal standard and archive protocol to make it easier
to learn from what we have been doing and to retrieve information
in future.
• Keeping Beacon and continuing to develop this.
• Improving the libraries' digital options.
• Use Facetime, WhatsApp and video calls within children’s
safeguarding and social work where appropriate, for those young
people who prefer it.

7. Financial
impact
• COVID-19 has had a large impact on income
generation
• Changing attitudes towards regeneration
• Impact of COVID-19 on businesses and commercial
tenants
• Reductions in HRA
• Impact of maintaining temporary measures
if they lead to permanent change or demand
continues at current levels
• Uncertainty around whether there is a
continued need to achieve current MTFS
savings targets
• Perceived need to make savings/threat of cuts
in all areas versus potential opportunities

"Can we afford to keep doing what we were
doing? Some financial and strategic decisions
have been taken driven by the need for an
emergency response. We need to review and
reconsider new approaches to ensure that we
do not adopt or continue a way of working that
is not evidence based." A Supporting People
team
"Businesses and individuals that have been negatively affected financially
by Covid. They are liable for the debt and Camden needs the funds to
support the Camden Plan. Recovery from estates where the person has
died due to Covid. Deceased accounts are challenging at any time, but this
will be particularly sensitive. Starting to bill again when people are just
returning to work after the effect of Covid (such as Street Trading) when
they are just re-building their income which may take time." A Corporate
Services team
"Will MTFS savings be required of
the service still?" A Supporting
People team
"The next 18 months will see little commercial
business which in turn will potentially cause a
negative feeling within the team who rely on traded
income and income maximisation for service
delivery. Lack of income will cause a strain on the
service and potentially a strain on individual team
members who understand the importance of income
and reaching targets. Long term this may be
demoralising as indeed it can lead to job security
and restructure." A Supporting Communities team
"Opportunity to consider whether some of the
innovations in service delivery during COVID that we
carry into the future, enable more cost-effective
service delivery models e.g. lower service
overheads/estate costs, different skills mix
etc" Public Health:

Annexes
• Annex 1 – SLG recovery and
renewal findings report
• Annex 2 – Trends & Scenario
Analysis
• Annex 3 – full DMT feedback

Insights for Renewal

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Editor's Notes