The Nomad Support Service - We can help!

In response to growing numbers of requests from individual councils Nomad is now able to make available its considerable expertise and experience through the Nomad Support Service.

Every council is at a different point in trying to consider and then implement a strategic approach to the use of mobile and flexible working. Almost all councils have introduced some pilot work, but when the move towards wholesale adoption needs to be looked at, the scale and scope of the programme can be difficult to envision.  To turn any vision into a robust programme, to make the relevant decisions and to produce a business case, you may find that Nomad's unique position of having information and experience from all over the UK to be very helpful.

What sort of help can Nomad offer?

• Often there is a need to create the common vision amongst local politicians, senior management teams and key operational leaders.
  
• Having agreed on the way forward, creating a compelling business case that frequently draws resources from across both corporate and operational service parts of the organisation can be challenging.
  
• Determining the real benefits and efficiencies, putting a cost to the investment and factoring in the value of improved services is far from trivial and may require information and guidance that is not easily to hand within the council.
  
• Working through the production of the necessary policy frameworks in HR, ICT and finance might include trying to categorise the way staff and jobs will plug into the overall scheme.
  
• Supporting the culture change processes that need to underpin these new ways of working is critical and requires thorough planning and delivery.

Each of these areas can imply significant work and often authorities, because they are unique, invest large quantities of resource in creating their own unique solution. Often, with its breadth of experience, Nomad can help avoid much of this work by using existing collateral and pointing to solutions that are already working for other councils.

Nomad has recently worked with local authorities in the following settings:

• A County Council seeking to adopt best practice policies to support home based working without spending long time researching and writing their own.
  
• A Borough Council that needed a workshop to help their senior management team agree on a vision, reveal and discuss their concerns about flexible working and begin to formulate the business case.
  
• A Borough Council that wanted a presentation and input to its members scrutiny process as they sought to determine their strategic direction and requirement for workspace.
  
• A London Borough seeking to share the mobile working experience of one directorate with corporate colleagues in order to create an organisation wide programme.
  
• A Borough Council where the creation of the business case for flexible working and the categorising of the workforce were major steps on the road to a strategic implementation.

Nomad (hosted and owned by Cambridgeshire County Council) uses its own staff to resource this bespoke Support Service and can call on colleagues from other authorities if appropriate. Nomad is often seen as helpful as it stands outside the individual council and its incumbent suppliers yet has local authority credibility and a strictly neutral stance to suppliers of the enabling technologies.

If you would like to discuss a possible commission please contact Nomad by emailing us at nomad@cambridgeshire.gov.uk . We will be pleased to talk to you about your requirement and shape a proposal to meet your need. With a compact organisation, the ability to be very adaptable and a charging structure based on cost recovery the Nomad Support and Advice Service could be just what you need.

We look forward to hearing from you.
Ian Laughton
Nomad Director
nomad@cambridgeshire.gov.uk