Is it possible to offer better services under reduced budgets without slashing staff numbers?
Like many local authorities, one metropolitan borough council was facing cost pressures born out of increasing service demand and reduced income. As a big employer in the local economy, it wanted to explore ways of making efficiencies without cutting the workforce indiscriminately.
TEN LTD used its experience of working with local authorities to help the council to fundamentally assess its core purpose and the portfolio of services it offered to the public. Each service was assigned to one of four categories: statutory and essential; important to strategic plans; discretionary but nice to have; or superfluous in that most citizens didn’t understand why they offered it. Further analysis investigated which services might be provided more efficiently and effectively if they were outsourced and which would be better kept in-house.
By scrutinising operating processes, organisational structures and the nature and characteristics of each job, TEN LTD was able to identify areas of job duplication, assess the middle management roles and reshape the workforce to help the council maintain productivity and engagement and make sure it had the right people in the right jobs for the long term.
"The chief executive wanted a five-year strategic framework that took account of different scenarios and their risks and implications. The trust needed a radically different core purpose, vision, strategic objectives and business model." William Montgomery
"William Montgomery and his team helped the council to fundamentally assess its core purpose and the portfolio of services it offered to the public to see which could be provided more efficiently and effectively." Chief Executive