Suffolk Coastal District Council

What the client said

Oakland were selected as they were the only tenderer who would address the cross-cutting issues between services.
Suffolk Coastal District Council

Background

In support of its objective to deliver performance improvements and cultural changes Suffolk Coastal DC had developed an agenda for radical change – “Moving Forward Together”.

Within this programme of ongoing change projects, Suffolk Coastal DC identified the need to apply business process re-engineering to five primary services as a key enabler in delivering performance improvement and efficiency savings.

Assignment

The five primary services to be re-engineered were:

• Benefits / Council tax / Housing
• Development Control / building control
• Central administration
• Port Health
• Strategic Procurement

In addition Oakland would take a holistic view of the service delivery in order that all major opportunities might be considered.

In common with other change initiatives currently underway, Suffolk Coastal DC wished to use this opportunity to further “active learning” within the organisation. To foster this, the project was delivered in partnership, with knowledge transfer to staff of the authority.

The project consisted of three phases:

Phase 1: The first phase of the project consisted of project initiation, insight and identification of re-engineering opportunities. This phase was broken down into six key steps that together ensured that opportunities for reengineering and their associated impacts had been rigorously interrogated, evaluated and validated. Work consisted of a mix of individual interviews and workshops.

Phase 2: The second phase of the project consisted of the development of detailed process improvements, validation, training, and the development of implementation plans and a benefits tracking process.

Phase 3: The final phase of the project was the implementation of the re-engineered processes.

Achievements

Phase 1 delivered:

• An agreed Project Definition and a Project Plan for stage 1
• ‘As-Is’ high level process maps with base-lined performance and process analysis data, verified by stakeholders for future benchmarking
• Identified opportunities for re-engineering within the 5 nominated activities
• Identified opportunities for re-engineering outside the 5 nominated activities
• An outline “Business Case” with recommendations on prioritised re-engineering opportunities and related costs/benefits
• A Project Plan for phase 2

Phase 2 delivered:

• Detailed designs for the re-engineered Processes
• Results of pilot and process testing activities, including measures of performance and benefits gained
• Trained Suffolk Coastal DC people with supporting materials and skills to tackle the implementation phase
• An Implementation Plan for the Council, incorporating key communication aspects, issues for change and risk management proposals
• Performance measures and benefits tracking process, linked to QPR software capability
• An agreed Project Plan for phase 3

Phase 3 delivered:

Efficiency savings of between £550,000 and £830,000 per annum had been identified in phases 1 and 2. As planned, the up-skilled Suffolk Coastal District Council internal project team were able to deliver these savings with little need for external consultancy support.

To contact one of our performance improvement or local government experts for immediate help or further information please contact us or telephone: +44 (0)113 234 1944