The Council’s Transformation Programme is making good progress whilst ensuring that our services are modern, based on the needs of users and continue to be financially sustainable.
An update has been provided as part of the latest Council Plan progress report, approved by the City Governance Committee on November 17, 2025.
Audit Scotland’s recent Best Value Thematic of Transformation report did not highlight any significant risks and commended the governance approach in place.
As part of the Council’s submission to the inspectorate, case studies in the following areas were provided as evidence of transformation that has been delivered as part of the wider Transformation Programme:
- Building Family Support and Internal Foster Care - costs in this area have reduced and outcomes have improved by reducing the overall number of care experienced children and young people through targeted family support; increased those in Kinship Care through improved identification and support of carers; building local residential capacity; preventing or returning children from external residential care; providing targeted support in schools.
- Granicus – created the capability for the Council to rapidly deploy self service solutions for service users. The system provides a single method for Council front line staff to feed into the solution, therefore allowing for requests and transactions to be work flowed into back-office systems. For example, processing blue badge applications, complaints handling and administering fuel payments for vulnerable and protected groups.
- Property Rationalisation – ensures that the Council’s property portfolio is managed to ensure these assets are used in an efficient manner and aligned with the needs of the Council, services users and staff. An example of this is the Drumgeith Community Campus and Greenfield Academy, which opened in August 2025. The new school replaces the former Braeview Academy and Craigie High School that were no longer fit for purpose. As the largest investment in education, sport and community provision in the city, the flagship Community Campus will bring state-of-the-art facilities and services to the area. Services and community groups/activities are now operating and expanding into the Campus.
- What Matters to You (WM2U) – a good example of how the Council works in a transformational way with communities, focusing on community-based systems change by getting to know families in local communities to explore ways to address what truly matters to them.
The three recommendations from Audit Scotland’s report focus on financial savings associated with transformation, benefits tracking and increasing awareness of the programme for elected members and the public and work is progressing in these areas.
Since the audit was carried out, the Council has since shared its experiences of both transformation and the audit process with other local authorities across Scotland. As part of the overall Transformation Programme, delivery boards have been established with agreed remits for three of the themes i.e. Digital, Property Rationalisation and People. These are intended to provide the right balance of good governance whilst acknowledging the important role of the various boards in delivering transformation at pace.
Furthermore, the Council has updated its approach to service re-design, a methodology that can be adopted across the programme.
The first council Leadership Conference of 2025 focused on “Thinking Strategically Digital”.
The council is making good progress in harnessing technology to improve outcomes for citizens in Dundee.
Increasing the number of online transactions, improved collaboration and data driven decision making are good examples of the progress being made in recent years. The Council recognises the challenges around the pace of change and ensuring all employees have the skills they need now and in the future.
As the Council looks at a different way of delivering services, asking how technology can help is critical. Moving forward, key goals are to further develop a digital culture, embrace innovation, explore the power of Artificial Intelligence and make best use of the tools available to collaborate more effectively.
It is important that the Council continues to identify ways in which it can continue to transform and work has been initiated to look at our service standards and performance against these as well as to consider the implications of the recently published Public Sector Reform Strategy.