Agenda Transformation 1 sdf Innovation · 2019. 5. 27. · transformation agenda in local government is, understandably, focused on how authorities can change the way they commission,

xx Month 2010 Local Government Chronicle xxlgcplus.com?? Local Government Chronicle 25 March 2010 lgcplus.com

Agenda sdf 1

Research

Innovation

Transformation

Shaping the local authority of the future

New direction for legal departments p24

The call for automated servicesp22

The challenge facing leaders p6

A word on the first transformation summit p8

Scarborough reaps overhaul rewards p20

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‘‘ Councils will need to become more agile, more responsive and less siloed; it will need to be more than trying to transform individual services here and therePage 8

Contents

In these times of austerity, councils are turning to various forms of entrepreneurship to generate extra revenues, reports GoRdoN CaRsoN

Leading whole system change in the face of resistance is the challenging task facing council heads of transformation, writes PhiL swaNN

LGC’s transformation summit sparked lively and frank discussion among delegates, as well as a reality check of where local government is at, reports NiC PatoN

A joint social care model created by four south-west councils provides a compelling case for investment, say PhiL NoRRey and ChaRLes UzzeLL

Bexley LBC has taken a strategic approach to transform transport for children with special educational needs, explains MiKe eLLsMoRe

Lawyers, audit and legal services increasingly have a massive role to play in helping local authorities set up and provide shared services, says Robb haNN

An automated, self-service revenues and benefits service is enabling Sandwell MBC to better handle and prioritise customer enquiries, says iaN hUbbaLL

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Nic patoNSupplemeNt editor

‘‘ The models and solutions required by councils may be different but the challenges they face are often similar

The council of the future, as LGC’s transformation ‘summiteers’ discovered in October (see page 8), remains worryingly opaque. The shape, form, function, even the role, of the transformed, ‘future-proof’ local authority is still very much up for debate.

Yet, somewhat counter-intuitively, this uncertainty is reassuring. As Joanna Ruffle, head of HR and communications at Southend-on-Sea BC, recognised in the wake of our transformation summit, the fact there is no ‘silver bullet’ means local authorities are, to an extent, all in the same boat.

What is clear is that councils are continuing to innovate and experiment when it comes to change and transformation. Whether they are doing this – as we highlight in this supplement – by becoming ever more commercial and entrepreneurial, by using technology to transform access and communication, by developing innovative social enterprise and collaborative models or by pioneering new approaches to transport or legal services, councils are refusing to retreat before the assault that is austerity.

Difficult decisions still have to be taken, but the efficiency and ‘value for public money’ mentality that has long been the hallmark of local government has proved a boon since 2010. On top of

this, the willingness of council officers and executives to embrace new models of commissioning, procurement, collaboration and delivery has been remarkable.

Yet – as both our survey at the summit and the views of those attending showed – if anything, local government is still puffing up the foothills of transformation. The landscape beyond the next comprehensive spending review is a worry for many in local government.

That’s why networking and knowledge-sharing – whether through a supplement such as this or through ‘face time’ with peers at events such as our transformation summit – can be so important. Councils need to recognise they are not alone; the models and solutions required may be different but the challenges are often similar.

Transformation will, therefore, need to be as much about learning as about process or implementation: learning how others have embedded and sustained change, understanding what ‘success’ looks and feels like, even being prepared to recognise the value of facing up to and discussing failure. All this may not help us unlock the answers to an uncertain future. But it may reinforce – as this government loves to remind us – that we are, at least, all in it together.

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Much of the transformation agenda in local government is, understandably, focused on how authorities can change the way they commission, procure or deliver services to help meet the challenges posed by the government’s efficiency agenda.

But another side to this agenda is the way councils are increasingly becoming active revenue generators and business stimulators, in essence becoming more entrepreneurial.

In a report on municipal entrepreneurship in August, for example, the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) highlighted how more and more councils are not only working to make savings but also focusing on generating income through adopting a more commercial mindset.

In September, too, the New Local Government Network (NLGN) coined the phrase ‘creative commerciality’ in a report More Light, More Power: Reimagining Public Asset Management that examined how councils could invest in specific assets, such as estates management and energy generation.

Just as the need for efficiency and transformation within local government was not created in 2010, the notion of councils developing more of an entrepreneurial mindset is not new either, and certainly predates

Local authorities get down to businessCouncils around the UK are turning to various forms of entrepreneurship to alleviate the effects of austerity. Gordon Carson reports

sponsorship of, or support for, assets such as galleries and museums (Guildford BC), bicycle trails (Bristol City Council) and even things such as car parks and boundary signs (Cheltenham BC).

When it comes to embedding an entrepreneurial mindset, APSE’s report identified four key roles or categories of employees that can help: those of catalysts, stewards, mediators, and deliverers.

APSE chief executive Paul O’Brien says the role of mediator can be particularly important in resolving disputes between different stakeholders, and that councils should put in place strategies that say “these are the things we are up for having a go at and these are no-go areas”.

He adds that councils do not necessarily have to go out to the private sector to find individuals with the right commercial skills. They may already have them in-house.

“Local government has been through things such as compulsory competitive tendering,” he says, “and many people in front-line services have well-developed commercial skills.”

Adrian Harvey, head of research at NLGN, agrees that whatever approach councils take to entrepreneurship, “it has to deliver a social benefit”.

He adds: “The policy objectives have to be about what you want the area to be like rather than simply being a trading body. It has to be a trading body with a purpose that shouldn’t crowd out local businesses. If anything, it should create an environment for local

austerity. Hertsmere BC, for example, was a pioneer of this approach as far back as 1996, when it bought Elstree Studios in Borehamwood.

Financial breathing spaceBut the attraction for councils of creating financial breathing space through entrepreneurial initiatives has been gaining pace. Councils are increasingly recognising the potential of, say, selling advertising space on employee payslips (Leeds City Council) or on their websites (Highland Council).

We are also seeing more councils looking to attract revenue through corporate

tThe transformation agenda

businesses to thrive in.”This approach has been

taken by Northamptonshire CC, which won the top prize this year in the Enterprising Britain Awards run by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, thanks partly to its support for the Silverstone motorsport circuit and related industries.

Northamptonshire chief executive Paul Blantern says there are two sides to its entrepreneurial strategy: how it helps to grow the county’s economy, and how it makes it own service provision more entrepreneurial.

Its focus on the latter includes “looking at the best vehicle to improve supply-side productivity and cost reduction”. One example is its establishment of a wholly owned subsidiary, Olympus Care Services, to provide adult social care services including domiciliary care and care homes.

Northamptonshire’s

‘‘ If we have a healthy economy, which is skilled and has higher wages, demand on the public sector will go down Paul Blantern, chief executive, northamptonshire CC

Leeds Council wants to make better use of its land-holdings

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Local authorities get down to businessMr Blantern. “They are being asked why they are funding Formula 1, for example.”

Therefore, it is important for councils to communicate the impact of their entrepreneurial strategies on outcomes, he says. “People want their lives to be easier and wellbeing improved.”

It is also important to make a clear connection between prosperity and public service delivery. “If we have a healthy economy which is highly skilled and has higher wages than average, demand on the public sector will go down,” says Mr Blantern.

Civic enterpriseLeeds City Council, meanwhile, is emphasising the importance of ‘civic enterprise’. This concept was at the heart of the Commission on the Future of Local Government, which was led by Leeds and aimed to identify opportunities for new ways of working between the public, private and third sectors.

As with Northamptonshire, Leeds is developing closer relationships with the private sector, including shaping its own commercial strategy. It has worked with Asda, which has its headquarters in the city, to tap into the retailer’s expertise in procurement. Tom Riordan, the council’s chief executive, says a more commercial approach has contributed to savings of around £50m in procurement.

Leeds is also looking at how it can make better commercial use of its assets. It remains the biggest land-holder in the city, while Mr Riordan says the council “has assets that we didn’t know

● Useful links:

aPsE Municipal Entrepreneurship report – www.apse.org.uk/research.html

nLGn More Light, More Power: reimagining Public asset Management – www.nlgn.org.uk/public/2012/more-light-more-power-reimagining-public-asset-management/

Commission on the Future of Local Government - http://civicenterpriseuk.org/

backing for Silverstone shows the value it places on supporting particular segments of the local economy. As well as being home to the Formula 1 British Grand Prix, Silverstone is the focus of a large motorsport industry; 21,000 people in the county work on related activities, and these contribute £2bn to the local economy.

Northamptonshire agreed a £10m loan in 2010 to Silverstone and a further £1.5m over five years to support the delivery of the Silverstone Circuit Masterplan, which will create about 8,400 permanent jobs. This initiative includes the opening in 2013 of the Silverstone University Technical College, which will focus on motorsport high-performance technology and events management.

“All of this costs money, and it’s not easy for politicians [to justify],” says

CASE STUDY: HERTSMERE BC

Hertsmere BC’s continuing ownership and proposed expansion of Elstree Studios shows the commercial and community value that local assets can provide in a tough financial climate.

The studios, which were used in the production of The King’s Speech, generate £1.1m in annual rent for the council, which is in the south of Hertfordshire. This is roughly the same amount that it lost in funding from central government in 2011-12.

The studios also employ more than 1,000 people and bring in £17m to the Hertfordshire economy.

Council leader Morris Bright (pictured, above) says it plans to bring into use a large portion of the studio’s site, equivalent to a quarter of its total area, which is a spoil heap comprising the remains of previous buildings. By adding this space, he says there is “every reason to believe that we can improve revenues to the council to £2m a year”.

Dancing on Ice and Big Brother are among the television programmes filmed at Elstree and, from January, it will host BBC productions for two-and-a-half years as the corporation refurbishes its White City studios.

Not all local authorities will have the good fortune to have a world-renowned commercial asset within their boundaries. However, Cllr Bright has advice for other councils considering taking a more commercial approach.

“Bring in a competition element to procurement, and don’t just go to one person,” he says. “Residents also have expertise – they are likely to be business people or business employees. Be adventurous and be creative. But I will not take risks with taxpayers’ money.”

steven spielberg is among the directors to film at Elstree

were assets”. For example, it plans to hire out street furniture in Leeds city centre by the end of 2012 to support free, superfast Wi-Fi. It is also selling advertising space on its employees’ payslips.

“We don’t think that will ever take over the core purpose of what we do, but every £20,000 to £25,000 we can generate in revenue saves a job,” says Mr Riordan. “That’s the equation that tends to drive the way we think. It’s something everyone can unite behind.”


An important by-product of the current challenges facing councils is the emergence of a new breed of local government officer. This much was clear from LGC’s first transformation summit in October.

The 70-plus people attending came from a variety of backgrounds but what many of them had in common was responsibility for leading the transformation process in their councils.

These are never going to be easy roles. Participants said they needed courage, strength resilience and tenacity. They spoke about being “exposed” and “putting their heads above the parapet”.

Resistance to changeAt the heart of this is the challenge of dealing with the inevitable resistance to change, particularly when it is manifest in the actions of senior officers who support change in principle but waver when it relates to their own areas of responsibility.

One of the questions explored at the event was whether there are any big prizes left when it comes to transformation. Underlying this question, of course, was an assumption that they have already all been taken.

But what emerged in discussion is that it is, rather, the easy prizes that have been won. The really big prizes are still to be secured,

Leading the way to the really big prizesCouncil heads of transformation face the challenge of leading whole system change in the face of resistance, reports PhiL Swann

savings and service improvement are going to come from was seen to hinge on being clear about the role of the council of the future, including the balance between service delivery, political leadership and the representation of local communities.

Another theme that reverberated strongly was complexity. Were there lessons for local councils from the natural world, for example, in which complex systems, such as coral reefs, thrive in stable environments, but simpler ecosystems are more appropriate in harsher, less predictable times?

A further popular workshop topic was: “How to make pan-public sector partnerships work?”

This is an area steeped in complexity. While not wishing away the inevitable complexity that is a necessary part of local governance, there was a view that focusing on bite-sized chunks was part of the recipe for successful transformation. In other words, it is about keeping it clear even if it is not simple.

and in this lies the core task facing council heads of transformation: leading whole system change and transformation.

Overleaf thoughts and feedback from local government attendees will be considered. But the summit was also notable for being attended by a number of summit business partners – PwC, Newton Europe, Capita Consulting and Civica, all specialists within their local government field – which were able to share their knowledge and insight with those battling at the local government front line.

As James Bowman, senior manager at PwC, says: “Participants had a clear understanding that things are going to get even tougher. So the question that was worrying people is: ‘What do we do next?’”

For Steven Phillips, business manager with Newton Europe, part of the answer lies in the here and now. “It will be important to build on the positive discussions to explore how to extract efficiencies in the short term, but ensure these are planned in such a way as to prepare for the longer term transformation,” he argues.

Participants were in no doubt the use of language – including the use of the word transformation in the summit’s title – was not hyperbole. Working out where the next tranche of financial

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Effective leadershipEffective leadership was seen as another essential ingredient in the transformation cook book. This, it was clear, must be part of the transformation lead’s skill-set. Moreover, effective leadership from a council’s chief executive and corporate management team must be part of the response to the feeling of exposure that many delegates felt.

Although no politicians were invited to the event they were very much in the minds of delegates – aided by an

Delegates attending the summit were

taking a leap of faith


Leading the way to the really big prizes

‘‘ It is important that suppliers are involved as early as possible and that they are prepared to engage with the client’s early thinking neil Polson, business development director, Civica

As Ben Eggleston, director of Capita Consulting, puts it: “Maybe the political realities of local government mean that an element of incrementalism will always be important, but not at the expense of clearly articulating the entire journey.”

If the challenges of the next few years mean councils have to work in new ways, one of the over-arching conclusions from the summit is that the same applies to the companies that work with them.“It is important that suppliers are involved as early as possible and that they are prepared to engage with the client’s early thinking,” says Civica’s business development director Neil Polson.

Indeed, it is arguable even the design of the summit represented clear evidence of the start of this new relationship, what with the fact that participants from councils and LGC’s business partners were working together in harmony on these issues.

More open sharing of ideas and experience was seen as being crucial, with an appetite

for real-time access to good and emerging practice at the point when a council is deciding what to do.

Sharing lessons from failure as well as success was seen as being important. In a sign that transformation leads are prepared to practise what they preach some participants used the final session to highlight some initiatives that may have failed but from which there was a lot to be learnt.

A final important theme was the challenge of gaining and sustaining momentum: momentum in the context of individual change and transformation programmes, of embedding and sharing the learnings people took away with them and momentum in the context of supporting and building on the new community a summit such as this can create.

This, inevitably, was a question that had to be left open-ended and unanswered; transformation after all can be a long game. Hopefully, however, it is something that can be addressed at future LGC events, especially if it gives

empty chair that was permanently reserved for them. Reference was made to the tension between the short-term political cycle and the longer transformation journey. A clue to addressing this may lie in the decision of one group to abandon one question:“How can we take politicians with us?” in favour of another: “How can politicians set a direction of travel?”

Whether it is possible to work to a five- to 10-year vision in these circumstances was a moot point for many.

some of our original attendees an opportunity to come back together and appraise the progress that has been made.

How the summit workedThere is always a degree of risk in any transformation initiative and the delegates who attended the summit were certainly taking a leap a faith.

There was a clearly stated task – to exchange views and experiences of leading transformation in local government – but the only fixed elements on the two-day programme were a presentation from a Department for Communities & Local Government official and a pre-dinner speech by the Financial Times’ Tim Harford.

The aim of the event was to provide participants with space to talk about what they wanted to talk about, not what LGC thought they should want to talk about.

Within 90 minutes of LGC editor Emma Maier opening the event the delegates had, with some gentle facilitation, agreed on 15 questions to discuss in smaller groups.

There were no report back sessions – instead the walls of the main room became a gallery for findings and conclusions from the groups and examples of interesting practice.

Feedback is really important. The most striking theme was that the event was a ‘breath of fresh air’ – not a bad definition of transformation itself.Phil Swann is a director of consultancy Shared intelligence and facilitated the LGC transformation summit


Driving back down the motorway after LGC’s intensive two-day

transformation ‘summit’ in October, Joanna Ruffle, head of HR and communications at Southend-on-Sea BC, felt enthused, inspired but also, at one level, disappointed.

“I had turned up hoping someone was going to be able to tell me ‘this is what the council of the future is going to look like’, but that of course did not happen,” she laughs.

“Yet, almost perversely, that sense of disappointment was also reassuring, because it was clear no one knew; no one had a definitive answer.

Not alone“The overwhelming sense I felt afterwards was that we are not in this on our own. We may all be working with different models but we all face similar challenges; we are in the same boat with slightly different versions of the same challenges,” she adds.

As Phil Swann has highlighted previously overleaf, the summit at Wyboston Lakes in Bedfordshire attracted more than 70 participants, predominantly senior local government officers but also experts from corporate organisations specialising in local government transformation. The event was largely split between plenaries and workshops,

A meeting of mindsDelegates to the first LGC transformation summit threw themselves into lively debate and discussion. NiC PatoN reports

“I came to the summit primarily for its networking potential and simply to find out more about the kinds of issues other people were dealing with or initiatives they were trying,” echoes Alex Reeks, assistant chief executive of West Lindsey DC.

Own agenda“The fact we were able to set our own agenda was really good and I felt really comfortable talking to people

meaning, as Keith Aubrey, strategic director at Melton BC, points out, attendees were forced to engage and throw themselves into the debate and discussion.

“It was definitely useful. The format was good and it was quite challenging – you couldn’t just sit back. It was useful, too, in creating networks and getting to hear other people who have been on a transformation journey,” he says.

In a challenging climate such knowledge sharing and networking can be a vital adjunct to the transformation process – not least in terms of sharing best practice and ensuring your council is not ‘reinventing the wheel’.

As Martin Calleja, lead programme manager, performance, policy and delivery at London Borough of Hackney, highlights: “It was interesting to hear how some councils are working, for instance, in setting up trading companies for purchasing occupational therapy equipment. There was quite a focus, in fact, on adult social care because of the scale of the budgets there and the demographic challenges we all face.”

“It was a chance to gather with like-minded people in a very ‘safe’ environment. You did not feel you had to be careful about what you were saying, so people were very open and positive and felt able to share,” agrees Ms Ruffle.

tTransformation summit

about the challenges they were seeing coming through,” he adds.

One clear theme that emerged is that council officers are looking ahead to the next comprehensive spending review with a growing sense of unease and trepidation.

“The thing that came through to me was the anxiety and concern about what is ahead of us, for everybody. Are we doing the


To what extent do you agree with the statement: ‘My council’s transformation programme is primarily driven by securing savings’?

To what extent is your transformation programme about efficiency?

To what extent is your transformation programme about improving services?

To what extent is your transformation programme about delivering better outcomes?

To what extent is your transformation programme about stopping services?

answered questions 32skipped questions 2

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Neither agree or disagree

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Significantly

Mostly

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Mostly

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Mostly

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LGC/PwC transformation surveyResponse

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A meeting of minds

‘‘ You did not feel you had to be careful about what you were saying, so people were very open and positive and felt able to share Joanna Ruffle, head of HR and communications, Southend-on-Sea BC

right things, are we missing something, someone’s silver bullet or magic solution?” explains Ms Ruffle.

This sense of future uncertainty came out, too, in the LGC/PwC poll of ‘summiteers’ carried out at the event.

Among the findings, as our accompanying panels show, this clarified, first, just how much the government’s efficiency agenda is driving


‘‘ The crucial challenge for councils will be to avoid slipping back into short-term plans focused exclusively on cuts rather than taking a longer-term, transformational, perspectiveJames Bowman, senior manager, PwC

transformational change within local government.

Asked, for example: ‘to what extent do you agree with the statement “my council’s transformation programme is primarily driven by securing savings”’, a candid half (53.1%) agreed and a quarter strongly agreed. It was the same picture when it came to the extent efficiency was the driving factor, with three quarters replying ‘significantly’ and more than a fifth (21.9%) saying ‘mostly’.

Opportunities in adversityYet to assume therefore that transformation is solely being driven by an increasingly pressing need to square competing austerity circles would be misguided. Councils do genuinely see transformational opportunities within adversity. Nearly three quarters (62.5%), for example, said transformation was ‘significantly’ about improving services, with a further 6.3% saying it was ‘mostly’ about this.

A similar high percentage (65.6%) said it was ‘significantly’ about delivering better outcomes, while just 9.4% said it was ‘significantly’ about stopping services (although 65.6% conceded it was ‘a little’ about this).

Tellingly, there was broad consensus that, while things may have been tough since

2010, the future is going to be tougher still. Asked ‘how do you see the future for your transformation programme?’, 40.6% predicted ‘tougher to achieve what’s needed’, with a further 31.3% even more grimly forecasting it will be ‘much tougher’. By comparison, 15.6% suggested it would be ‘about the same’, and just a lucky 3.1% argued it would be ‘easier than before’.

James Bowman, senior manager at PwC, suggests that what this all shows is there will be a need for authorities increasingly to adopt a council-wide approach to transformation.

“Councils will need to become more agile, more responsive and less siloed; it will need to be more than trying to transform individual services here and there. It also needs to be about reducing complexity and duplication across the board; people, for example, collect masses of data but often do not use it,” he explains.

“The crucial challenge for councils will be to avoid slipping back into short-term plans focused exclusively on cuts rather than taking a longer term, transformational, perspective. It is important councils take forward and realise a vision for the longer- term future of their areas,” he adds.

Hackney’s Mr Calleja, for one, came away with his own interpretation of this same argument. “One interesting question that many delegates posed was: do we as councils have to have a flagship corporate ‘transformation agenda’? Can we, instead, implement a set of carefully selected transformation initiatives, such as our Hackney model for transforming children and families’ services, which will get us to where we want to be?” he says.

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‘‘ One important message I took away was the necessity to learn from each other’s mistakes, rather than 300 or 400 councils all making the same mistake alex Reeks, assistant chief executive, West Lindsey DC

“Pioneers such as Lambeth and its co-operative council, Barnet’s ‘easyCouncil’ and the Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea’s ‘Tri-Borough’ initiative are certainly in the zone of radical transformation but it’s too early to conclude whether they offer compelling business cases for all authorities,” says Mr Callegja.

Reality check“The summit was a very powerful reality check of where local government is when it comes to transformation. The general conclusion, I feel, was that local government is poised for much more radical transformation, building on the sector’s achievements over the past few years. Local government has successfully led the public sector in showing how we can provide better value for money since 2010. The big question for us is how far and how quickly further transformation can take us when set against the scale and pace of further budget cuts.

“There is a critical mass of initiatives coming through and new thinking that will need to be had. In some ways it is still too early to tell exactly how local government is going to look and what sorts of pathways, including

those led at a national level, that are going to need to be put in place,” he adds.

“One important message I took away was the necessity to learn from each other’s mistakes, rather than 300 or 400 councils all making the same mistake. Another was just how key data will be in the future,” says West Lindsey’s Mr Reeks.

“Councils are no longer going to be able to put money into things just because they like the idea or they feel it is the right thing to do. It is going to be vital for transparency and probity to be able to show why it is the right investment decision to be making,” he adds.

“The key theme, for me, was the worry about the future landscape of local government, how hard the next phase of transformation is likely to be,” agrees Melton’s Mr Aubrey.

“I didn’t feel as if I came away with any firm answers – and it probably would have been surprising if I had – but what the summit did do was reinforce some of the things people are doing.

“It was an opportunity to focus on what the future, harder, transformation might look like. I think there is no doubt people are going to have to really focus on some fairly radical new ways of delivering services,” he adds.

How do you see the future for your transformation programme?


Easier than before

About the same

Tougher to achieve what’s needed

Much tougher to achieve what’s needed

Other(please specify)

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FOREWORDBeThaN eVaNs, senior partner at Bevan Brittan

Local authorities have always been adept at finding ways to deliver local leadership, services and assets to their communities in the teeth of budget constraints, ever increasing demand and often hostile policy frameworks. The need for creativity and innovation has never been so great, and the sector faces some of its greatest challenges.

Unrelenting financial pressures, coupled with continued increased demand for services, are now the norm and look to be with us for some years to come. But it is clear local government is responding by finding new ways to continue to thrive and, increasingly, is being recognised for its success in doing so.

This supplement features several councils with which we work, and showcases examples of innovation and radical new ways of thinking.

It is interesting that over the recent months in my capacity as senior partner in what is one of the leading public service specialist law firms, I have been at several events where local government’s response to the need to transform itself has been cited with admiration and respect by other sectors. Other parts of the public sector have recognised that local authorities in many cases are getting on with finding new ways of working, and in doing so are offering exemplar schemes for others to follow.

The silver lining to much of the current financial picture is the increased freedoms and flexibilities, in both the legal and financial sense, which authorities can now take advantage of. As lawyers working across the country with many authorities, we are seeing several themes emerge in innovative projects – many of which are explored in the case studies overleaf – including:• moves to early intervention or prevention, based on the growing evidential base supporting this as a cost-effective solution, particularly to cross-sector or intractable problems;• options for funding this approach through social investment or social impact bonds and payment by results contracts;• using procurement to drive social and economic objectives and values;• fundamental exploration of the role of the council – commissioner, provider, strategic leader, how best to use its trusted brand, community leadership – leading to new models for delivery;• flexibilities and incremental approaches being built in to ensure that a solution is sustainable, whatever changes and challenges emerge for the authority; and• how it remains essential, in projects contemplating innovative and cutting-edge ideas, to get the right internal and external support and resource to deliver solutions.

There has never been a more important time for authorities to learn from each other, pool resources and share successes and best practice. We are very pleased to support this supplement.

Greater freedom gives rise to creative thinking

It was back in 2011 that we first became aware of the potential of social funding and, specifically,

social impact bonds (SIBs). They were being tested as a future funding model by Peterborough Prison, and it quickly became apparent to us that they could have a significant impact on the procurement and delivery of social care services.

One of the issues we had always had with social care funding is the way the traditional ‘on demand’ model limits what is achievable – you have to support adults and children in need, but that often means money has to be targeted away from early intervention that may, in fact, mitigate the need for more expensive interventions further down the line.

Effective therapyTo give a good example, there is a lot of evidence to show that multi-systemic therapy and functional family therapy can be very effective in terms of helping children on the margins of care avoid having to take that step. Yet that sort of therapy involves a significant upfront investment. This means it just does not happen, which in turn means councils become locked into dealing with children and adults on demand because they are unable to invest in these sorts of alternatives.

But a social investment

Investment model tops the listJoint working is enabling four councils to move to early intervention for children on the margins of care, say PhiL Norrey and CharLes UzzeLL

model using SIBs – in effect, a payment-by-result contract in which the investor makes a commitment to pay for improved social outcomes as well as taking on an element of the risk of the contract – can give you extra flexibility and enable you to be more proactive.

To an extent, this is simply demand management. It is about reducing demand for crisis services by better use of preventative work. What you

CoLUMN sPoNsoreD aND sUPPLieD By WWW.BeVaNBriTTaN.CoM

▼Financial management


FOTO

LIA

Investment model tops the listJoint working is enabling four councils to move to early intervention for children on the margins of care, say PhiL Norrey and CharLes UzzeLL

are doing is creating a virtuous circle where you are achieving better outcomes, because your service is less reactive and more focused on early intervention, with lower resources.

SIBs do not provide all the answers – and there will still always be demand that needs to be supported – but they can reduce the burden on the public purse while improving the lives of those who are affected by these issues.

However, for a single local government commissioner to use stand-alone SIBs can be expensive, which is why Torbay Council, Devon CC, Cornwall Council and Plymouth CC have joined forces to explore and create a new local integrated services trust (LIST), a legal model conceived by Bevan Brittan but developed in conjunction with the four authorities.

The model, in effect, gives us economies of scale while also creating a huge opportunity for service improvement across the south-west, and at the same time makes us more attractive as a proposition to social investors.

The LIST – which is a corporate entity owned and managed by the local commissioners – acts in three primary ways: as a conduit for social investment; as a broker between the local commissioners to ensure budgets are integrated and transformation in service delivery is achieved; and to provide an effective governance structure, one that also encourages community engagement.

The LIST project has required each of the four authorities to complete a viability plan, setting out its detailed structure, functions and early priorities. The LIST also requires there to be formal legal relations between the four councils and, to that end, legal advice and support – through Bevan

‘‘SIBS can reduce the burden on the public purse while improving the lives of those who are affected by these issues

Brittan – was vital in ensuring all the Is were dotted and Ts crossed. In fact, it was through working with Bevan Brittan that we were able to put together a compelling case for social investment and take it forward as an idea.

Innovation recognisedThe innovation we are promoting through the LIST model was last month recognised by the Big Lottery Fund, which awarded us £927,000 under its Next Steps programme – the highest amount that can be awarded by the programme.

Over the next nine to 12 months, we shall be carrying out a thorough analysis of how social investment as a model of public sector commissioning can work for us, focusing on children at the edge of care – and we are confident this will show that it will indeed work – and then aim to share it with the rest of the local government community.

There is still a lot of work to be done. But we are excited about the potential that SIBs and our LIST structure offer. The LIST will also, over time, turn its attention to adult social care and the improved management and detection

of long-term conditions. In time, it is arguable that these sorts of models could even help us to reinvent what the local authority is for, without having to go down the Total Place model.

As local authorities, we will all increasingly need to identify effective ways to manage demand for a whole range of high-cost services. The challenge is about rethinking public services, and shifting the thought processes behind commissioning to work in a more holistic, lateral way, rather than simply always just reacting to demand.

We believe that an SIB provides one way of enabling us to bring about significant transformation in the way we deal with demand. Local authorities, however big or small, need to be investigating these sorts of social investment models.

But social investment is rarely something that individual authorities can do on their own – hence our move to LIST. We all need to be looking beyond our own boundaries.Phil Norrey is chief executive of Devon CC and Charles Uzzell is director of place and resources at Torbay Council

Family therapy early on can prevent later crises

LGCplus.com14 Local Government Chronicle 6 December 2012

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ToWer haMLeTs LBCIsabella Freeman, assistant chief executive (legal services) at Tower Hamlets LBC, is confident that local residents got a good deal when it hired Agilisys as an IT partner earlier this year.

The partnership, which started in May and is called the Future Sourcing Project, aims to save about £29m over the next seven years and has seen the IT specialist firm take over the council’s 65-strong IT team and start work on projects to improve the council’s HR and finance computer systems.

In return, the council sets a series of targets for the company to meet and any profit made from the work is agreed to be shared between them on each project. Through the deal, in which Bevan Brittan advised the council, Agilisys has also agreed to train 4,000 local people in basic IT skills, offer NVQ level three training for 1,050 local people and offer 250 apprenticeship places as well as set up an ‘Apprenticeship Institute’.

Ms Freeman says: “Where a lot of other councils have fallen down is in not having a clear set of performance indicators in place. We wanted to ensure that if Agilisys does well the council and local people benefit, and if targets are not met then they are not unfairly rewarded.”

An example of a strict target agreed is in reducing

Transformation projects ranging from IT to Green Deal implementation have benefited from strong legal back-up, writes Joe LePPer

the number of unresolved priority IT incidents within four hours. At the start of the contract, three-quarters of such incidents had to be resolved, but this will rise to 90% 18 months into the contract.

“If these performance indicators are not reached, penalties can be imposed in the form of deductions from the monthly service charge,” says Ms Freeman.

As part of the deal, Agilisys will also be able to put forward business cases for

CASE STUDIES: SUPPORT FOR INNOVATION

further IT work over the next seven years. But importantly, the council ensures best value for money by retaining the right to select another IT firm should Agilisys be unable to show value for money for a particular project.

Ms Freeman says: “While we have a very solid partnership with Agilisys, retaining the flexibility to go elsewhere ensures best value for money. We wanted a contract that focused on individual projects.”● For further information contact isabella Freeman, assistant chief executive (legal services), Tower hamlets LBC, 020 7364 4801, [email protected]

shroPshire CoUNCiLShropshire Council is looking to transform the delivery of back-office services, such as catering, cleaning and IT, to help slash £86m from its overall budget over the next three years.

But Claire Porter, the council’s corporate head of legal and democratic services, says councillors were reluctant to simply tender out the work to a private sector partner.

“They wanted to develop something which created opportunities for staff and more investment for Shropshire,” she says.

With support from Bevan Brittan, the council found this could be best achieved through creating a separate

‘‘ We ensure that if Agilisys does well the council and local people benefi t, and if targets are not met then they are not unfairly rewarded isabella Freeman, assistant chief executive (legal services), Tower hamlets LBC

company that is 100% owned by the council.

Called IP&E, the company has appointed a managing director and it should be operating from next year.

Advice from Bevan Brittan has focused on loan finance, corporate governance, procurement procedures and minimising risk to the council.

Financial management

Protecting jobs was a priority at shropshire CC

Claire Porter: never say ‘never’

6 December 2012 Local Government Chronicle 15LGCplus.com

starting the search for a partner before the Energy Act was fully implemented.

He says: “We needed to act quickly to get a partner in place before January 2013. This meant starting our search a month before the act received Royal Assent in October 2011, and also before secondary legislation had been implemented.”

This meant the procurement process and negotiations with the successful partner, which was

named this year as Carillion Energy Services, needed to be flexible to deal with any legal changes.

“Because some aspects were unclear, we had to focus on broad themes and outcomes,” says Mr Allport.

Key outcomes included:● using local firms and organisations, such as the social enterprise Groundwork (which is headquartered in the city and will help promote energy efficiency); and● ensuring that residents in deprived areas benefit from the increased economic activity in the city.

The parties also agreed that Carillion would cover the costs of the council’s monitoring of Carillion’s performance against the requirements of the contract.

Among areas of uncertainty the contract needed to take into account was the availability of initial funding to Carillion to pay local suppliers.

The government has set up a Green Deal finance company to provide support, and the council has made up to £75m available as a loan to Carillion if it is needed.

Mr Allport adds: “What we have in place is a public-private partnership that ensures the risks and costs to the council are low.”● For further information contact Dave allport, programme manager, Birmingham energy savers, [email protected]

CASE STUDIES: SUPPORT FOR INNOVATION

Initially, the company will work primarily for Shropshire Council, but long-term it is hoped it can secure work from other local authorities. Any profit made will be ploughed back into services.

Procurement procedures have been a key legal area to address in setting up the company.

“Because initially it will be wholly owned by, and will work work essentially for Shropshire Council, there is no need for a competitive tendering process,” says Ms Porter.

The Bevan Brittan legal team is advising the council on employment law, as potentially some council employees will move over to the new company. Issues being looked at include pension arrangements and staff consultation. The legal team is also looking at the issues involved in moving services from the council to the company.

Ms Porter says: “Services such as catering, cleaning and facilities management already operate along business lines, but for regulated areas such as legal services it is more complicated. But we never say ‘never’, and will explore all possibilities.”● For further information contact Claire Porter, corporate head of legal and democratic services, shropshire Council, 01743 252763, [email protected]

BirMiNGhaM CiTy CoUNCiLBevan Brittan has been assisting Birmingham City Council tackle the legal challenges involved in implementing the government’s Green Deal energy efficiency scheme, which launches this January.

The Birmingham scheme, created through the 2011 Energy Act, will see £1.5bn worth of improvements, such as loft insulation, carried out to properties and homes nationally and paid for through energy bills.

To ensure 60,000 homes and properties can benefit and that council costs and risks are low, the council looked to appoint a partner to manage the scheme. Dave Allport, programme manager for the local scheme, which is called Birmingham Energy Savers, says a key legal challenge to overcome was

‘‘ Because some aspects were unclear, we focused on broad themes and outcomes Dave allport, programme manager, Birmingham energy savers

Birmingham City Council needed to keep costs and risks low ALAM

Y

Sponsored by Bevan Brittan. Bevan Brittan is dedicated to providing commercial legal advice to clients in the public, private and third sectors. It acts for more than a third of all local authorities in England and Wales and is

ranked by independent legal directories in the top tier of legal advisors to local government. The case studies were agreed in partnership with LGC, which independently commissioned and edited the report.


Public sector leaders will be bracing themselves for a wave of further change as the dust settles after the chancellor’s autumn statement. The government’s mission to balance the UK’s books and achieve stretching fiscal targets by 2015-16 looks increasingly challenging, and there is no doubt there will be further pain along the way for authorities up and down the country.

A recent Audit Commission survey – which indicated that a quarter of organisations may struggle to manage their budgets in this spending review period – shows the scale of the current problem. Very few people would now underestimate the enormity of the country’s deficit situation, and the financial impact this is having on local service delivery.

That is why efficiency and lean procurement have never been in the spotlight as much as they are today. Public sector construction has been singled out by government as one of the major priority areas, which is why the Construction Strategy is aiming to achieve a 20% saving by 2015.

But it has been

Creating the intelligent client of the futureMark robinson discusses the vision for Scape Consult and some of the wider change management problems that the UK public sector is facing

and a fast pace of response in order to maintain a high level of service and achieve organisational goals.

But that cannot happen without effective leaders who have the strategic vision to deliver with fewer resources while still meeting ever increasing client expectations. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has shown that the success or failure in implementing transformation plans goes hand in hand with how well public sector professionals are managed on a daily basis.

Their research highlights that strong leadership, robust people management and careful change management are essential in any cost-cutting programme. Without

acknowledged in an All-Party Report that one of the major hurdles in reaching this goal is the lack of expertise and complexity of multi-stakeholder clients across the public sector. This often makes it difficult to agree the project brief and effectively commission and manage the delivery process.

Scape, a local authority-controlled company that delivers cost and time savings to public sector construction schemes across the UK, is responding to this issue. It is soon to launch Scape Consult, which is designed to apply recognised behavioural change and business management techniques to all transformational projects – not just those construction related. Here chief executive officer Mark Robinson talks about the proposition for Scape Consult…

Transformation challengeTransformation and the intelligent client are buzzwords that we keep hearing in the big debate about local government reforms. We all know that change is essential to address the current economic challenges, and that it requires different thinking

tThought leadership in association with Scape

these key ingredients, it is nigh on impossible to drive efficiencies and more effective working practices.

A report from PwC also reinforces this point. Many public sector organisations are worried they lack the management capacity and skilled resources to deliver the changes required. And more than 40% are concerned they have not yet identified solutions to fill their funding gap to 2015.

Vision for the future That’s why we have decided to bring Scape Consult to the market. This is a new service, designed by the public sector for the public sector, which will apply proven management techniques to help senior executives resolve ‘‘

Scape Consult is a new service, designed by the public sector for the public sector, which will apply proven management techniques to help senior executives resolve their business challenges

LGCplus.com 6 December 2012 Local Government Chronicle 17

Creating the intelligent client of the future

their business challenges.Some may ask why an

organisation like Scape is best placed to deliver this support. It is because we have extensive experience in delivering lean procurement and efficiency saving solutions. Yes, our focus has in the past been on public sector construction.

But the principles are the same and can be applied across all transformation schemes. That is in part because any public sector change management programme will inevitably contain an estates or facilities challenge, due to the fact that around 20% of government revenue expenditure is on buildings.

Scape is in a unique position to offer its expertise

because we understand the complexities of public bodies from an operational, political and cultural perspective. That’s why we are at the forefront of strategic partnering arrangements in the UK. For the 200 public sector clients we already work with, Scape is seen as a trusted partner with the credibility to offer constructive and realistic support.

And with the gap created by the Audit Commission’s demise, the climate is right to step into the breach. There appears to be no further resolution as to how local authorities will be inspected for service delivery in future. This has opened the way for Scape to deliver a supportive, peer review-driven service to help organisations improve their effectiveness and efficiency.

Delivering better outcomes The vision for Scape Consult is to add value through

strategic advice and knowledge. The package of support on offer will help senior management teams to step outside of the box. It is all about making them refocus on the difficult issues in hand by dedicating essential thinking time so that creative solutions can be developed.

Our team of experts will work collaboratively to help organisations identify styles and behaviours that are barriers to performance. The objective is to empower them to take action and identify achievable solutions.

There are four major areas which form part of our offer. Firstly, an integrated thinking and organisational diagnostic exercise will be carried out in partnership with leadership teams. This will generate a business case and supporting action plan, which will then determine the additional levels of support required.

In this second phase of activity, the focus will be on

delivering appropriate project and technical advisory services or learning and development courses. Combined, this approach will offer a comprehensive suite of strategic and operational support – in areas such as procurement, risk and cost management, business case writing or project excellence delivery – to help organisations adopt new business models and promote change.

The intelligent client But this is not a one-size-fits-all service. Scape Consult is demand-led, and will be tailored to suit specific organisational challenges. The overall emphasis is very much on developing capability and up-skilling teams to maximise resource efficiency and increase overall return on investment by enhancing the value of specific projects.

Part of our approach at the outset will be to agree a set of objectives so that we can measure impact and outcomes. These will focus on delivering results that reflect a continuous sustained improvement and maximise social benefits for the communities we serve.

Despite all the challenges, it is an exciting time for public sector reform. It will not be possible to transform the sector overnight. But by drawing on our own expertise and on proven business practices, we will be able to help organisations solve their problems more creatively, and inject new thinking into the approach to ultimately redesign services to drive more value for all stakeholders.

‘‘ We understand the complexities of public bodies from an operational, political and cultural perspective. That’s why we’re at the forefront of strategic partnering arrangements in the UK Mark robinson, chief executive officer, scape


FOREWORDMarTiN CYMBaL, transformation director, Northgate Public Services

Local authorities across England and Wales spend more than £3bn a year on local transport. It’s a huge amount of money that surprises many. However, with demand for local transport provision on the increase and funding set to fall, many councils have an immediate need to improve passenger transport, fleet management and fuel use, while also protecting and developing services.

At Northgate , we commonly come across five key problems:

Smarter working for streamlined transport

Efficiency improvement and transformation were priorities for local government long before the arrival of the coalition government in 2010. Our contract with Northgate Public Services, for example, was agreed back in 2006. But the agenda since the comprehensive spending review of 2010 has been challenging, and has driven and focused a lot of activity and innovation.

One of the key elements of the Northgate contract for us was its transport transformation programme, which focused on our transport of children with special educational needs. Transport had long been something of a ‘Cinderella’ service within the authority, with different departments doing their own thing. We had certainly had an issue with our SEN transport for some time; it had a record of overspending its budget and insatiable demand.

So our priorities were to bring some structure and control to the budget and to pull back the overspend, but at the same time continue to deliver what was, and is, a vital service to our community.

One of the benefits Northgate was able to bring was that the contract encompassed procurement and customer services as well as transport. We were able, as a result, to take a more

A helping hand on the journeyTransport for children with special educational needs has been transformed at Bexley LBC. MiKE ELLSMorE explains how it happened

strategic approach to all three areas. Within procurement, for example, an internal procurement board was established to strengthen governance, a new ‘contract register’ was developed and more use was made of electronic sourcing, procurement and payment methods.

In addition, a joint procurement agreement was put in place with a neighbouring council, Bromley LBC, and our supplier base was reduced from 40,000 to 1,000, with more local suppliers being brought in where possible.

Similarly, within customer www.NorThGaTE-iS.CoM/PuBLiCSErviCES

Transport at Bexley LBC previously had a record of overspending

PRoBLeM aCtions

Transport and fleet management are not seen as a strategic function: senior management don’t appreciate the full costs and what’s involved in running an effective transport function.

Raise the strategic profile of transport across the organisation. Create a detailed analysis of what’s actually happening and who’s spending what.

Transport is organised in silos and not seen as a corporate resource: each group views problems in isolation and the big picture gets missed.

Establish clear leadership of transport across the whole organisation. Generally this involves consolidating activity around an integrated transport hub.

a lack of internal capacity and expertise: many local authorities do not have enough people able to manage and influence multiple stakeholders and suppliers.

Create robust improvement service and financial plans aligned to the present and future needs of the business. Focus primary activity on eliminating waste and under-utilisation of vehicles.

Transport teams struggle to manage the issues without senior management support: talented people in ‘blue collar’ transport functions are often undervalued.

Raise the profile of the service alongside other strategic functions. Work with staff to ensure an effective skills transfer, whilst providing clear leadership and direction of travel.

major national initiatives, ie personalisation, can create inertia: senior management can get bogged down debating and overworking policy and theory.

Establish transparent ‘fit for purpose’ policies andcompliance arrangements. Then focus on making it happen.

Our experience suggests that as much as £500m could be saved by smarter working and collaboration. It’s an opportunity that shouldn’t be missed.

tService provision


alam

y

A helping hand on the journey

services, several departments were integrated into a central call centre, and we put in place better systems for mapping demand and performance monitoring, and more training and development for agents.

With the SEN transport issue specifically, one of the keys to its success was Northgate’s decision to carry out a software-based route optimisation evaluation. It was clear we had a lot of overlap, with different vehicles often picking children up from nearly the same spots or delivering to destinations almost on top of each other. Our partnership

with Bromley LBC was another important element in helping us to rationalise routes without compromising on service.

As a result, we have gone from a position of having a budget overspend to one where we have been seeing ongoing annual savings of 25% as well as journey times being reduced. Inevitably, there needed to be a lot of dialogue when it came to changing routes; it was vital to clearly communicate the benefits of the changes we were making. But what helped was that people were seeing real improvements in their travel times – a very tangible benefit.

Clear strategyThe key to success in any transformation project, in my view, is to have a clear strategy and stick to it; don’t be knocked off-course. All too often, people set something in motion and then find a reason to get diverted. Consultation and communication are also imperative; you have to

‘‘Working with Northgate has enabled us to develop our own business transformation skills, leaving us better placed to drive through change

work with all stakeholders and carry internal staff along with you.

When it comes to identifying and choosing a partner in this context, while they need to have the relevant skills and expertise to deliver on the contract, it is also important they can demonstrate empathy with what it is you are trying to achieve as a local authority. They also have to ‘get’ what the end user is going to want.

With Northgate, for example, the contract we had was a risk-reward partnership – so there was a certain amount of sharing of risk, which is important, too – and there was a learning curve for both of us, especially early on. There can sometimes be tension in the partnership relationship, so constant communication with and understanding of each other are vital.

Working with Northgate has also enabled us to develop our own business transformation skills, leaving us much better placed to drive through change.

Looking forward, channel

shift is going to be a big transformation issue for us. We are also looking to drive out further savings in transport by working with a range of other partners, including in the voluntary sector.

We have already achieved a lot – we have taken out £35m from a £170m revenue spend – but there is going to be more to do; the next comprehensive spending review is unlikely to be any easier for local government than the 2010 round.

So for local authorities it will be a case of continuing to look at ways to free front-line staff to get on with what is most important: the delivery of services to the community.

Ultimately, when it comes to successful transformation and improvement, set targets and don’t be deflected. But it is important, too, to build in flexibility so that you can respond effectively to changing needs and circumstances.Mike Ellsmore is director of finance and resources at Bexley LBC


t

NEwhaM LBCMeasures taken by Newham LBC to improve the operational efficiency of its transport for adults and children with special needs have resulted in savings of about £5m in three years.

After appointing Northgate Public Services in 2009, the council conducted a full review of the service, which takes children to and from schools and adults to day care services in the borough.

Where possible, the council replanned existing routes to reduce journey times, which led to a decrease in the number of vehicles used. It also reduced the use of taxis and ensured that for each route the most suitable mode of transport was being used for the needs of the customers.

Steve Moore, the council’s director of environmental services, says: “We have not compromised on quality. We have profiled [the needs] of customers and mapped out a more efficient way of delivering the service.”

He adds: “We were looking at how we can support individuals so that they can be more independent. For example, if a child’s needs are not so severe, they may just need someone to accompany them to school on a daily basis and don’t have to be picked up. This not only benefits the child, but it is also beneficial from a financial point of view.”

To get a true picture of

Both a transport service boost and a cross-department overhaul have benefited from external support, says NiCoLa SuLLivaN

what its fleet was costing, the council invested in fleet management software to establish vehicles’ whole-life costs.

Whole-life cost calculations look at figures for items including purchase price, insurance, maintenance and servicing costs. Fuel efficiency, and the amount the car will be taxed, are also taken into account. In addition to this, transport staff were provided with training in how to take care of the vehicle and drive more fuel efficiency.

As part of efforts to create jobs for local people, the council reduced its use of agency staff.

Mr Moore says: “We want a steady and stable workforce, and want people on the same terms and conditions.

“Having a two-tier

Case studies: oiLinG the wheeLs

arrangement for terms and conditions is not very good. The council needs to be in a position where we are creating local jobs for local people,” he adds.

According to Mr Moore thorough consultation with staff and service users has been key to the success of the project.

He says: “When you are looking to do things differently, you must have the ability to consult and communicate. Getting buy-in from staff has been important.

“It is about making sure that everyone buys into the concept and understands why you are doing something.”

Councils that think laterally will find that savings can be made in unexpected places and therefore will

stand the greatest chance of reducing the cost of services in ways that benefit the communities they serve, Mr Moore advises. l For more information contact [email protected] SCarBorouGh BCWhile transport is one area ripe for transformation, in the current economic climate transforming and improving services is a tough call for local authorities in many other areas, too. To be successful, councils need to balance their communities’ demands for efficient and far-reaching services with the pressing fiscal need to slash budgets, reduce workforces and restructure departments.

Scarborough BC strove to improve the efficiency and quality of its services at a time when austerity measures and

Service provision

‘‘ We have profiled customers’ needs and mapped out a more efficient way of delivering the service Steve Moore, director of environmental services, Newham LBC

6 December 2012 Local Government Chronicle 21LGCplus.com

passed through a ‘back office’ process.

In the revenues department, the team have achieved the best collection rates for years, despite a reduction in staffing resources, with 97.6% council tax collection for the year ending March 2012.

Hilary Jones, the council’s strategic director, says: “Our revenues team had the best collection rates that they had since 1993. That is fantastic when you look at the economic environment we are working in.”

Performance management has been a focus for the council across all service areas. It worked with Northgate to introduce ‘performance zones’ and ‘dashboards’, which provide real-time information on the performance of every department.

The council can also calculate how well teams and

individuals have performed against set targets.

“Performance can be looked at on a weekly, monthly or annual basis. You can drill down to understand what makes up that performance in terms of customer workflow, but also in terms of how individual officers are managing their workforce,” says Ms Jones.

As part of the efficiency programme designed to save £5m by the end of 2013, unit managers were given tools to help them manage departmental budgets more effectively, making the procurement and ordering of goods much easier and more efficient.

The approach also makes it easier for managers to forecast budget spend and to identify if they are over or above budget for different projects.l For more information, contact [email protected]

Case studies: oiLinG the wheeLs

government spending cuts were forcing it to shrink budgets and cut jobs.

It achieved this by introducing an extensive transformation programme, in conjunction with Northgate Public Services, which overhauled processes and systems in: customer service; local taxation and benefits; ICT; finance; and corporate and democratic services.

A key challenge for the programme, which kicked off in January 2011, was to strengthen and reorganise the council’s customer service function, which fields enquiries that relate to anything from bin collections and parking to benefits claims and council tax.

One of the main areas of focus for the council was to improve the performance of the contact centre and to bring together all service calls into one operation. The revenue and benefits phone teams, which handled a large volume of calls and suffered from slow response rates, were brought into the contact centre, where more than 85% of calls are now answered in less than 20 seconds – a dramatic improvement.

After a thorough review of its customer services department, the council took several measures to make it more efficient, including new staff shift patterns designed to reflect the peaks and

troughs of calls, and a bespoke training course for advisors.

The council also introduced a grading structure, allowing customer service staff to see a clear career path from an entry-level job to team leader. Individual performance is also measured, and efforts have been made to provide positive feedback for a job well done and to improve training. It is expected that the changes made to the council’s revenues, benefits and customer service function will deliver savings of more than £2m by the end of next year.

In the benefits department, users of the service were provided with instant face-to-face access to a benefits specialist or expert. Benefits claimants with the correct documentation can now be dealt with straight away, instead of being

‘‘ Our revenues team had [to march] the best collection rates since 1993. That is fantastic when you look at the economic environment we are working in hilary Jones, strategic director, Scarborough BC

Sponsored by Northgate Public Services. Northgate Public Services delivers solutions and services to every local authority, every regional police force and in every NHS hospital, as well as

to many other public service agencies and departments in the UK and internationally. The case studies were agreed in partnership with LGC, which independently commissioned and edited the report.


FOREWORDPETER WARE, head of the government and infrastructure team, Browne Jacobson

The concept of shared services has been around for several years now. Indeed our company, for one, published a report on the state of shared services back in 2008.

At that stage, it was recognised that, if authorities were going to meet the changing demands and financial pressures put upon them, reconfiguring their services by means of joint enterprise with other public bodies would be an important tool for them.

Large numbers of authorities – 220 at the most recent, conservative estimate – are now viewing shared services arrangements as a key option in reducing costs and maintaining service delivery. The Local Government Association, in its report published in September, Services Shared: Costs Spared?, identified significant benefits that could be achieved when local authorities and other public bodies come together to share the delivery of services.

The inevitable rationalisation of management structures, and the resulting reduction in duplication, have been shown to significantly reduce costs. The larger groupings also provide opportunities for those bodies to benefit from greater economies of scale.

However, what are the less tangible benefits? And how can a shared services project be used genuinely to transform the delivery of services for the public sector?

Shared services projects offer the chance to take stock and look at how, why and by whom work is actually being done.

Increasingly, those bodies coming together see shared services as an opportunity to begin a transformation programme that they would not be able to undertake on their own.

Organisational structures have to be looked at as part of any joining up of service delivery. But the process is also an opportunity to look at how culture and practice can be changed to improve outcomes.

The creation of a shared service provides new opportunities for staff, which must not be underplayed.

Such new arrangements can provide a critical mass and resilience that the constituent organisations on their own cannot have. This mass gives security to staff. A larger organisation has the ability to attract and retain better-quality people, who can see the benefits of working within an enlarged organisation in the public sector and the greater potential for their growth and development that this brings.

Where shared services work, there is a sense of identity and a genuine wish by all those involved to improve outcomes and the quality of services. What must underpin any successful shared service is the willingness to do things differently, with elected members, senior officers, middle managers and employees all buying into the desire to change and deliver better services to the public.

Take the shared route to transformation

This time last year, the Local Government Association published a thought-provoking ‘map’ of shared services. It highlighted how as many as 220 local authorities were now sharing services, with such collaborations delivering £165m of savings to taxpayers (go to www.local.gov.uk and look for it under ‘national map of shared services’).

This map clearly illustrated the sheer number of projects being worked on by local authorities, and the scale and depth of transformation happening within local government.

Just as the nature of how services such as waste and recycling, payroll, HR and others are delivered is being changed by sharing and collaboration, so local authority legal services are beginning to become a part of this shared services environment.

Local authorities are having to look long and hard at how they can best deliver services at the same time as how they can become more efficient, with no area of activity barred from scrutiny. One of the first things to consider in this agenda is the potential for working more closely with ‘the neighbours’. If they are doing things better or differently, can we do something together?

Yet, when it comes to the sharing of legal or similar

Signs that law will follow trendLegal and audit departments will increasingly become areas where councils will seek to set up shared services, says ROB HANN

services, there has historically been something of a natural reluctance among many local authorities to explore joint legal services. Councils will always need to be able to call on high-quality, independent legal advice, especially if an issue of conflict or a dispute has arisen between two councils.

But, gradually, more local government lawyers are convincing themselves that such disputes tend to be relatively rare, that when they do happen processes can be put in place to deal with them – such as ring-fencing certain

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Signs that law will follow trend

areas – and that therefore the benefits of such joint working should be considered. In fact, we are seeing almost an explosion in the development of new shared legal service models.

The East Midlands LawShare Partnership – a legal services consortium for public bodies based in and around the East Midlands – is a good example of innovative thinking in this area, not least because it also provides training and continuing professional development for internal lawyers working in local government.

Others, such as Kent CC, have gone even further and looked to sell legal services to other public bodies to generate income for the council. That is a radical solution and not one that will to work for everyone.

Nevertheless, a significant strand of local government legal work nowadays is helping local authorities make efficiencies and work more closely together, both of which lead directly into the shared services arena. Council lawyers have a hugely important role in helping public bodies to gauge the feasibility of, or address any dangers posed by, the potential new opportunities that are out there.

For legal services departments – as well as council leadership teams – transformation by sharing or joining services is about dipping toes into the water and gauging the temperature.

In addition to legal, audit services, too, are exploring new delivery options. An example of this is the South

West Audit Partnership, which has been successfully sharing internal audit and related services between an array of councils in Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Devon since 2005.

There will always be serious questions that need to be considered on the structure of any partnership or collaboration, and even whether there is scope to spin it off as a limited company. It also mustn’t be something done through rose-tinted glasses, and must at all times be closely tied to the supply of the service.

The aspiration for most councils is that a shared service of this nature must still feel, look and smell like a valued and efficient in-house service. Often, as with all shared services, it will come down to the cultural ‘fit’ between the various parties as much as anything else.

What is clear is that legal departments, as with so many other areas of local government, are becoming more entrepreneurial and open to new thinking and

new ways of working. I suspect, too, we will see more sharing of legal services across the public sector, not just between local authorities. So there could be more shared service arrangements involving the NHS, police and fire services along with local government, and more co-location of services.

As the local government efficiency agenda evolves, lawyers, audit and legal services are going to have a massive role to play in helping local authorities work in more joined-up ways. Along the way, local authority legal services, perhaps with the LGA and Local Partnerships’ help, will need to develop templates and process maps of how they can get from ‘ground zero’ to where they want to be in this new environment.Rob Hann is director, legal services at Local Partnerships LLP (a joint venture between HM Treasury and the Local Government Association set up to help local public bodies deliver major projects)

‘‘legal departments, as with so many other areas of local government, are becoming more entrepreneurial and open to new ways of working Robb Hann, director, legal services, Local Partnerships LLP

Sponsored by Browne Jacobson LLP. Browne Jacobson has a dedicated public sector team of more than 100 lawyers based in Birmingham, Nottingham,

London, Manchester and Exeter, providing a wide range of advice across all practice areas. Our client-base includes non-departmental public bodies, local authorities, fire services and health trusts. The chapter was agreed in partnership with LGC, which independently commissioned and edited the report.


FOREWORDCHrIS oWenChief executive, Inform Communications Plc

The words ‘self service’ and ‘automation’ may be synonymous with highly cost-effective, 24/7 web-based customer service delivery, but research has shown that for eight out of 10 customers the telephone remains the preferred communications channel.

This, of course, poses a challenge to councils and means that, when it comes to looking at channel shift as a solution to drive efficiency, improve service delivery and gather data, there is always going to be an important communication, education and inclusion agenda to address. The reality is that, while many councils are now using simple automation on switchboards to route callers, their use of automation stops there. Most still use – or, more accurately, misuse – skilled agents to answer large volumes of repetitive calls and emails.

This can mean vulnerable callers or those with urgent or complex enquiries risk getting caught up in the delays, in turn often causing waiting times and abandonment rates to more than double.

The good news is increasing numbers of councils are recognising the transformational potential of channel shift to provide residents with round-the-clock access to information, not just via websites but across multiple channels, meaning queuing and/or waiting for responses can be minimised or even eradicated. Communication and access channels, simply, become much better aligned to need, as well as more cost-effective.

The longer-term challenge is how councils can continue to drive forward this technologi

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Agenda Transformation 1 sdf Innovation · 2019. 5. 27. · transformation agenda in local government is, understandably, focused on how authorities can change the way they commission,