The Municipality of Heeze-Leende has thoroughly reviewed and improved its Permitting, Supervision and Enforcement (VTH ) processes. The project was supported by Möbius.
Permitting, Supervision and Enforcement (VTH) is a core responsibility of local authorities, covering everything from issuing building permits to monitoring compliance with regulations and enforcing them where necessary. Heeze-Leende, a municipality with more than 17,000 inhabitants to the south-east of Eindhoven, faced the challenge of organising these responsibilities more effectively.
Data was not entered consistently, making reliable reporting difficult to achieve. There was insufficient insight into processing times, backlogs and the status of applications. Processes were fragmented and responsibilities unclear, meaning it was not always evident who was accountable for what.
Möbius was commissioned to bring structure to these activities by standardising and streamlining processes, improving data quality and ensuring that services better met the needs of residents and internal stakeholders.
From awareness to structure
The project was carried out in two phases. The first phase focused on raising awareness of data quality. Through workshops, staff discussed the risks associated with incorrect data entry, the main barriers to improvement and the measures needed to achieve lasting change.
This resulted in a series of practical agreements: working from a single system, simplifying the application set-up in collaboration with functional management, introducing regular training sessions and formalising the key-user role as the department's first point of contact.
Staff also began to hold one another accountable for incorrect data entry – a cultural shift that may seem small but has a significant impact on the quality of management information.
Ten processes under review
The second phase focused on analysing and optimising ten processes within the VTH domain. Each process followed a structured two-session approach. During the first session, Möbius and the relevant stakeholders mapped the existing way of working through brown paper workshops, after which bottlenecks were analysed and validated.
The second session defined the desired way of working and translated it into a practical action plan with step-by-step implementation measures.
The result is a VTH domain with greater control: standardised processes, clear responsibilities and improved management information for both the executive board and senior management. Reporting has been aligned with the information needs of management and the municipal executive, ensuring that relevant steering information is readily available.
This article was taken from consultancy.nl
