Authority #7 |
Northern Unitary |
7 Areas of Improvement |
6 months |
A slightly different case study as we had one of our senior consultants embedded in this authority as an interim corporate director, in charge of 2500 staff and controlling a £200M budget.
1. Beyond Excellence |
In six months we led the directorate to: Reduce sickness by 40%, reduce all complaints by 60%, reduce net costs by £3.5M with no redundancies, reduce reply times to MP’s and Members from 13 days to under 3 days, initiate strategic linkages with the Police, Fire and major RSL’s, leading to a directorate across multiple organisations delivering 'seamless' working.
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2. Waste Services |
Previously unidentified recycling losses were halted, reducing disposal costs, with no operational increase requirements. Workshops identified waste activities between four divisions. Improved communication links to the GIS and Call Centre services reduced fly-tipping and landlord disposal abuses, reducing the costs of cleansing while reducing all complaints by 60% for the whole directorate.
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3. Anti Social Behaviour (ASB) |
ASB was fueled from a number of issues and gaps between service providers and alarmist messages promoted by the media. A new multi-organisation ‘Strategy’ hung from a simple affinity diagram to ‘Reduce the perception of the fear of crime’. Light duty officers worked from the CCTV room, enabling action on 800 leads per month. We enabled area based working to be aligned across Council, Police and major RSL, using Police plan without objection. Multi organisation initiatives started pro-actively dealing with problem families. This was an anchor point of the new multi-organisation directorate!
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4. ASB (2) |
Extended licencing hours saw urine, trash, and vomit issues reported to 04:30. The target was to have such issues resolved prior to 8:00 in preparation for early shoppers. Licence management was strengthened; linkages with the probation service and police ensured repeat offenders were utilised to clean-up at 5:30 on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
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5. City Centre Cleansing |
A fast food concordat was introduced with a view to getting sponsorship for litter bins and litter collectors, with all sellers of ‘food on the go’ very strongly encouraged to meet their obligations under the EPA creating a win-win. With a ban on A Boards, sponsored litter bins were in considerable demand.
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6. Carbon Reduction |
A report to take action on CO2 had been rejected three times by the cabinet, a simple redrafting enabled a clear financial message to save considerable in year revenue, with a self funding capability to carry out phases of work. We delivered a robust plan which addressed 'most benefit' aspects first, then continually improved there-after. This was approved without any concerns, and once implemented, saved over £300K in year one, increasing by >£150K per annum there-after.
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7. Closed loop Thinking |
We initiated sessions across the whole directorate for ‘Income Generation’ (and into another directorate) leading to increased activity in our managed woodland, setting up a visitors center and wood chipping service, to create bio-fuel and it's transportation, to fuel special hi-tech boilers fitted to the Town Hall, Police HQ and a new shopping center. This saved millions, created employment and reduced the CO2 demands.
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