Strategic Procurement Partnership for Oxfordshire

The purpose of the Strategic Procurement Partnership for Oxfordshire (SPPO) is to facilitate the development of strategic and collaborative procurement for the benefit of the citizens in Oxfordshire.

The practical working arrangements enable all of the partners to opt in or out of any joint project as best fits the needs of their organisation.

SPPO is not a legal partnership but an agreement of the following authorities:

• Cherwell District Council
• Oxford City Council
• Oxfordshire County Council
• South Oxfordshire District Council
• Vale of White Horse District Council
• West Oxfordshire District Council

ICT Partnership

Summary

In March 2009, we entered into a partnership arrangement with Oxfordshire County Council for the provision of our Information and Communication Technology (ICT) service. This partnership was part of a wider Transformation Programme and aimed to put into place robust, highly skilled and innovative ICT services from 2009/10 onwards.

The problems and how we tackled them

In 2008, our Information and Communication Technology (ICT) service did not meet all our needs for frontline or corporate services or our need to support Council-wide business transformation.

A project was undertaken to evaluate the way forward. It established a set of objectives and criteria by which to judge the appropriateness of each ICT option and carried out a series of workshops to carefully review and evaluate each option.

Following several rounds of evaluation we concluded that provision of the ICT services function in partnership with Oxfordshire County Council was the best way forward, in terms of:

• Value for money
• Quality of service
• Staff employment prospects
• Ease and cost of implementation

The decision to enter into a partnership arrangement with Oxfordshire County Council for the provision of our ICT service was formally made in January 2009, with the new service available from April 2009.

Outcomes and impact

As well as making annual savings of over £200,000 through economies of scale and stronger purchasing power, we are being supported by a more sustainable service with increased capacity, staff with a wider range of skills and knowledge and continued investment in ICT equipment.

A strong support service like ICT is essential for a Council to be managed well and this partnership will ensure services continue to be provided effectively.

Customer Relationship Management

Summary

On the 1st June 2009, we launched the first phase of a customer relationship management (CRM) approach that is changing the way we interact with our customers. As part of our transformation agenda, this initiative will deliver improved efficiencies together with improved customer service. Since June 2009, we have successfully completed two more phases and CRM is now live in Oxford City Homes, City Works and Customers Services, covering our three main telephone contact centres and 66% of calls.

The problems and how we tackled them

We previously had a large number of customer databases with limited integration. This led to:

• Multiple inputs of basic customer data;
• Inconsistent data quality;
• Front line staff not having access to all the data relating to customers' contact with the Council so unable to deal with all their queries;
• Customers having to tell us several times about a change in their circumstances and being passed from one service area to another;
• Basic processes within one service area being unknown to staff in other service areas reducing the quality of customer advice;
• Inconsistent service due to lack of knowledge and one way of serving customers.

Experience elsewhere showed how a customer relationship management (CRM) approach and system would address some of these issues and enable a transformational shift in how we interact with our customers. We agreed to run a phased implementation of CRM, starting with Oxford City Homes, where we handle large numbers of customer interactions and therefore where the greatest benefits for quality and efficiency in handling customer interactions could be realised.

Our approach was recognised in November 2009, as the Project Manager for CRM won the BCS/Computing UK IT Industry Awards 2009 award for 'APM Group Project Manager of the Year'.

Outcomes and impact

Oxford City Council is now providing an improved customer service experience and better value for money. In particular, the following improvements have been noted:

• More calls are being handled per agent - the contact centre is now taking up to 72% more calls with only 25% more staff;
• We have an increased understanding of our customer base. As a result, more customers are being targeted with additional services, including gas servicing and shortly the decent homes survey;
• Customers are now able to self-service using online forms;
• Ongoing savings of £50,000 per annum have been achieved from phase 1 alone, by a reduction of two posts.

The following further benefits are expected to be realised over the coming year:

• Increase in the percentage of contact resolved at first point, reducing avoidable contact;
• Reduce telephone abandonment rates;
• Increase overall customer satisfaction;
• Return on investment - it is anticipated that the full rollout of CRM will achieve further savings of over £400,000 within five years. This will support our overall target of saving 10% on our 2007-8 budget by 2011-12.

Pre-application planning advice project

Summary

Oxford City Council offers pre-application advice for customers to discuss plans before a planning application is formally submitted. As part of a major shape up of the service in which key improvements have been made, the Council has introduced charges for pre-application planning advice.

The problems and how we tackled them

The Council previously provided pre-application advice to potential applicants and their agents free of charge at meetings, over the phone or in writing. Duty officers were available to provide advice to visitors at the planning reception and to callers on the phone, normally dealing with the more straightforward enquiries. The larger and/or the more sensitive proposals often resulted in numerous meetings involving a number of officers. There was a high demand for pre-application advice which officers were struggling to meet.

Following a consultation exercise with local planning agents, it was found that although the service provided was valued, the level of service was inconsistent and very much depended on other priorities. Providing significant improvements were made, feedback was that clients would be prepared to pay a fee for pre-application advice.

Improvements were made to the pre-application process, procedure and practice in mid-March and a charging protocol and fees were introduced on 5th May 2009, which will allow these improvements to be sustained.

Outcomes and impact

This project has required a culture change in the wider Planning Service. Customers are now better informed about information requirements, as outlined in the charging protocol, and customers have more choice in terms of the advice provided.

Customer take up has been satisfactory. Early teething problems were resolved on a case by case basis. Customer feedback is being sought through structured discussion with local planning agents.

It is still early days to assess the impact of charging for pre-application advice on the application submissions that follow. However the expectation is that for those cases, the Council will see a reduction in the number of invalid applications, an improved planning application performance, as measured by NI157, and a reduction in the number of appeals.

This project represents a building block in the improvements taking place within the Planning, Conservation and Building Control Services, and indeed the Council's wider transformation journey. This success will therefore pave the way for further improvements being introduced via various mechanisms, such as business process improvement.

Using BPI to Improve Development Control Processes

Summary

In November 2009, Oxford City Council introduced a number of significant improvements to the way householder planning applications are processed. Using a business process improvement (BPI) approach, staff within the service are improving the service to the customer by reducing the time taken to process a simple application from 8 weeks in many straight forward cases down to 5-6 weeks, while also allowing applicants the opportunity to amend their proposals within the 8 week period.

The problems and how we tackled them

Previously, Development Control received a substantial number of invalid applications and standard practice gave rise to avoidable contact with customers. Processes and procedures had been developed over recent years in response to various circumstances without always having regard to customers' needs or the principles of effectiveness and efficiency. Furthermore, these processes and procedures were not fully documented leading to inconsistencies in practice. This resulted in the need for a comprehensive overhaul of our existing processes to provide a more effective, efficient and customer focused service.

A number of distinct areas of Development Control were identified to undergo BPI reviews, which were prioritised and scheduled in sequence. The processing of householder planning applications, which includes house extensions, was the first area under review. Using the Council's agreed BPI methodology, workshops took place to scope the 'as is' processes. This involved staff mapping the current processes and identifying strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. Processing and start to finish times were then calculated to identify the baseline information. This was followed by visioning and mapping the 'to be' processes to identify the level of improvement that could be made. These processes were captured using iGrafx, a process mapping tool available to all staff together with procedures. The redesigned householder process was implemented across the service in November 2009.

Outcomes and impact

Development Control is now using a more efficient process for its householder applications, resulting in a reduction in the time taken to process a proportion of simple application from 8 weeks in many straight forward cases down to 5-6 weeks, while also allowing applicants the opportunity to amend their proposals within the 8 week period if appropriate. In turn, this has supported the Council's NI157 target to increase the speed of decision making. Other improvements already realised include:

• More efficient processes
• Reduced paperwork
• Clearer letters and reports
• Improved induction for new staff
• Improved consistency
• Support efficiency savings of £30,000

The service anticipates a reduction in avoidable contact, invalid applications and also an increase in customer satisfaction.

Next steps

Within Development Control, work is now underway to use BPI to identify and implement improvements to enforcement. An action plan has been compiled and the actions are currently being developed. New service improvements arising from the action plan and the scrutiny committee review will be implemented from July 2010. A third tranche has commenced involving a review of minors and others applications, which is looking into the pre-application, application and post-application stages. It will seek to take on board lessons learnt from the earlier reviews and will inform the subsequent tranche on majors.

Transforming Oxford City Council

Summary

Oxford City Council has been implementing a Business Transformation Programme since April 2008 that is fundamentally changing the way the Council works to achieve improved value for money and improved services for its 150,000 citizens and nine million annual visitors. This is an ambitious four year programme, delivered via an innovative new cross-Council organisation. £3.5m worth of benefits were delivered during 2008-9 with a further £5.6m ongoing savings identified over the next three years.

The problems and how we tackled them

The Council's Transformation Programme was initiated with the development of a Business Transformation Strategy, which served to properly establish the programme so that it would be possible to effectively co-ordinate its component projects and deliver the programme's objectives. This defined approach was based on a review of good practice structures and lessons learnt by others to best deliver the benefits required. As such, this document acts as the programme mandate and provides guidance on the benefits expected, prioritisation of the programme including a high level roadmap, key principles and the future state of the organisation.

The Transformation Programme has been focused on 13 key benefits and seven key areas of change, including:

• Customers first
• Future working
• Fundamental service reviews
• Modern corporate services
• Improved local decision making and involvement
• Offices for the future
• Carbon management

Each programme area consists of interdependent projects which are coordinated and managed to realise common benefits. All projects are managed using the Council's agreed project management framework. But with a focus on benefits, rather than just project outputs, the Council uses a good practice approach that oversees projects from idea to benefit realisation.

Outcomes and impact

The citizens of Oxford expect value for money and excellent services for the council tax they pay. This has become increasingly important in the current financial climate and the Council has already successfully achieved savings of £3.5m during 2008-9 alone. The Council has set a further ambitious target to achieve £5.6m savings by March 2012, reducing our base budget by 10%. These savings are on par with and in some cases exceeding those authorities currently considered to be providing 'best' practice.

In addition, the following achievements can be noted to date:

• the Council has moved to a level 2 use of resources assessment (from level 1);
• the Council was awarded runner-up in Improvement and South East's Council of the Year, recognises our commitment to improve and make savings to avoid being knocked off financial course by the banking crisis, the recession and other external issues. The Council was also highly commended in the 'working together' category for its procurement hub, an initiative between four of the Oxfordshire districts to leverage better deals with suppliers;
• the Transformation Programme was a finalist in the APM Programme of the Year Award - the only local authority to be shortlisted for the APM Awards during 2009/10;
• the Project Manager for the first phase of the Council's new customer relationship management (CRM) system and approach won the 2009 BCS and Computing UK IT Industry Award for Project Manager of the Year;
• the Council's carbon management programme has been cited by the Carbon Trust as an excellent example of best practice.

Much of the work we are implementing is putting us at the forefront of transformation in local government. As well as our ambitious financial and non-financial targets, the Council has also kept pace with the latest approaches and technologies to deliver services, including CRM and mobile working. But it is perhaps the scale and pace of change that sets Oxford City Council apart. With a significant drop in government settlement forecast for future years, Oxford City Council is making the necessary changes now.

Next steps

Since January 2010, the Council has embedded its corporate programme management arrangements, in recognition of the fact that transformation is an ongoing agenda affecting all areas of the Council. As such, transformation programmes are being managed within services and coordinated centrally by the Business Transformation Team. Within these new arrangements, further projects to support the Council's transformational objectives include more flexible working arrangements, linked to a wider review of the Council's office accommodation, the move to a 'one' number contact centre for customers, options for administration rationalisation and the continued roll out of CRM. The Council has therefore set an additional target to create £1m of efficiency savings by March 2015 to ensure the Council is prepared for the ongoing financial pressures ahead.

Park and Ride Transfer

Summary

In 2008, we transferred the management of our three Park and Ride sites to Oxfordshire County Council. The aim of this was to provide an improved service to our service users and provide better value for money by achieving £250,000 per year efficiency savings.

The problems and how we tackled them

Previously, we operated three Park and Ride sites. These sites charged for parking providing income to cover their costs. However, this left us no additional money to fund repairs or improvements.

Following a comparison to the commercial market, the decision was made to provide the service under a single management structure with the County Park and Rides, which would create £250,000 annual savings through economies of scale and provide free parking for users.

The transfer took place on the 1 October 2008, under a 10 year agreement with reviews planned in year three and seven.

Outcomes and impact

• All five of Oxford's Park and Ride sites are now managed by Oxfordshire County Council, providing coordinated management and service provision.
• All Park and Ride sites within the city now offer free parking and improved facilities for service users.
• The arrangement has saved the City Council £250,000 per year for the duration of the contract as the costs of providing the service are now borne by taxpayers across the County, not just those in the city.
• All staff were transferred so no job losses were made - all affected staff were transferred via the TUPE process and good relations with staff and trade unions have been maintained.
• Both the City Council and County Council have benefitted from positive PR through joint branding and a stronger working relationship.

Next steps

Since the transfer of its Park and Ride sites, the City Council has since completed a market test for its Leisure services, which are now managed by Fusion Lifestyle as of the 30 March 2009, saving the council over £1m per year.

The Council's wider Transformation Programme will run until March 2012 and will continue to develop further projects that achieve improved services for our customers and better value for money.

Corporate Approach to Project Management

Summary

In 2008, we introduced a corporate approach to managing projects to support the successful delivery of our Transformation Programme and provide a consistent and robust framework to manage all projects across the Council.

The problems and how we tackled them

Although we had experience of managing projects and programmes which were being managed well in some areas, we lacked a consistent approach.

This meant that lessons learnt were not being shared more widely and some areas were experiencing common issues such as project slippage.

As a result, a project was identified early on in the Transformation Programme to develop a pool of project management resource and introduce a consistent and robust approach that could be rolled out across the Council.

Outcomes and impact

Of those staff who have been trained in project management, 92% are currently managing a project or programme.

Since completing the project, we have yet to see any instances of project failure from those projects being managed by this pool of project managers and all planned benefits to date have been realised.

As many of these benefits are cashable savings, this has meant that further funding is available for further transformation projects, allowing scarce resources to be used in the most effective way.

Next steps

The Oxford City Project Management approach is now being developed into a format that can be used as the basis for an internal training course in project management at Oxford City Council.

This will sit within a wider management development programme that all managers will complete, plus further training for Councillors and team members as appropriate.

We will also be developing a corporate approach to managing programmes. Like the approach taken here, this will involve training a select number of staff in a recognised programme management methodology and developing our own internal approach.

Cemeteries Administration Software

Summary

Oxford City Cemeteries Service is responsible for four cemeteries, and 11 closed churchyards, with a total of around 400 burials per annum. The Service is administered by two people, the Cemeteries Manager/Registrar and the Deputy Cemeteries Manager.

In January 2009, we introduced a new digital system for the administration of our Cemeteries Service to replace the previous paper based system. As well as reducing the amount of paper in use, the installation of a digital system for recording interments has greatly enhanced the quality of the service and saved the time it takes to write up the various registers associated with each interment.

The problems and how we tackled them

The previous manual system, whilst effective, was somewhat inefficient and almost wholly paper based with records that date back to 1894. In some cases the records were illegible and all were deteriorating with age.

By storing the records digitally using specialist software, the risk of losing the records would be reduced and records could be found more quickly, thus enhancing the quality of service.

Several companies were invited to submit proposals to provide a software solution. Clear Skies Software was chosen as the provider that offered most of what was needed for the best value for money including a significant element of data entry.

Outcomes and impact

Once all 56,000 records are uploaded onto the new system, we will see the following benefits:

• Much better security of data - document registers are no longer vulnerable to loss of deterioration;
• Improved ease and speed that data can be accessed, allowing faster response to general enquiries from the public and for genealogy searches;
• Reduced paper storage space;
• Reduced administrative time on manual entries, allowing other enhancements to the service;
• Better and more easily produced reports;
• Integration of Memorial Inspection details that are already electronically held;
• Better overall management of cemetery data;
• Better identification of trends and future needs.

Next steps

Work is now underway to upload all 56,000 records to the new digital system and archive the document registers. Once complete, the possibility of making the database selectively searchable through a web-based client such as Deceased Online can be considered, as well as providing a stand-alone searchable database for clients to use during visits to the Cemeteries Service office.

Approach to the Management of Council Owned Land project

Summary

In February 2009, Oxford City Council installed an enhancement to its mapping system (ArcGis) which has allowed the Council to manage land usage within the City more effectively and improve service for residents.

The problems and how we tackled them

The Council was looking for a way to improve its database of ownership and usage of land within the City, which was out of date. In particular, green spaces such as shrub beds and verges were not properly quantified and a number of alleyways did not appear on any work schedules. This is core data to enable the Council to respond effectively to customer enquiries, properly maintain the external environment and understand its labour and other resource needs.

The Council's current mapping system is ArcGis (Uniform), which has a module called Local View. By enhancing this module as part of a wider system upgrade, the Council is now able to use Local View as a web browser based application that offers staff and customers access to the mapping system via the Internet. Data can now be gathered and loaded into ArcGis Local View from mobile devices and the existing Council ArcGis system, as well as other survey sources. Officers are now able to produce maps of the City which clearly show ownership by the City Council by Service area such as Housing, Leisure, etc., and also other owners such as the County Council and NHS.

Outcomes and impact

Key benefits achieved to date include:

• Increase in the amount of land usage and ownership identified (99% of the City now mapped out)
• Information available in one place
• Ability to plan work programmes e.g. cutting regimes more effectively.

The following benefits will be realised over the remainder of the financial year:

• Improved access to information for customers - customers able to access information themselves online
• Reduced number of site visits associated with establishing land usage, resulting in more efficient use of staff time
• Better management of resources - increase in the amount of scenario planning of different maintenance regimes
• Reduced carbon emissions
• Increase in the number of areas that are 'blitzed'
• Reduction in avoidable contact (NI14)
• Improved targets for litter collection

Next steps

With the new system now in place, it will be rolled out to the whole of the City Council service areas by March 2010 and the ongoing benefits from the new system will be monitored as part of business as usual.

Using BPI for the Successful Implementation of New Systems

Summary

Business Process Improvement (BPI) is a fundamental part of systems implementation at Oxford City Council. Over the past 18 months, BPI has successfully enabled a number of major projects, including the implementation of customer relationship management (CRM), a new operational system for the Council's waste and recycling service, and a council-wide organisational restructure. This is in addition to specific process improvements being made on a service by service basis, such as improvements to the householder planning process.

The problems and how we tackled them

Experience has shown that where attempts to implement new systems have been unsuccessful, a common cause has been a failure to improve and standardise internal processes up front, for example, failing to reengineer processes before putting them into a new ICT system. A commitment was therefore made up front to invest in BPI as part of the Council's major transformation projects, where this involved introducing new ICT system(s).

The first stage was to identify teams that would be involved in reviewing and improving their existing processes. It was crucial that these were stakeholders that actually used the processes on a daily basis. This also included the identification of process leads or 'champions'. With teams in place, the next step was to provide training in the Council's corporate approach to BPI to ensure all staff were using an agreed, common framework. More recently, the Council has invested in a process mapping and analysis tool, iGrafx (www.igrafx.com), and training has therefore included use of this tool.

As defined by the corporate BPI approach, teams started by mapping existing processes and redesigning them using a process mapping tool and workshops. The teams then produced an opportunity matrix which identified both the short and longer term improvements that could be made. For example, improvements in the way the ICT system would handle a process, front and back office improvements and incorporating/writing new processes into an ICT program.

Outcomes and impact

In June 2009, the Council went live with the first phase of its CRM system and approach. BPI was used early on in this project initially to identify processes before script writing could commence and thereafter to improve the processes themselves. For example, in Customer Services, the team identified 140 processes which were then improved and simplified, and then incorporated into the CRM scripts. CRM is now being rolled out across the Council on a phased basis and with support from BPI, will help achieve return on investment within five years.

In January 2010, the Council introduced a new operational system for the management of its waste and recycling service, City Works. In March 2009, the City Works teams mapped out their current and future state processes, which identified significant improvement opportunities. However, all were reliant on ICT to deliver the improvements. The process maps were handed to the ICT provider and the improved processes will be issued with the next version of the software for Oxford City Council to use and realise the benefits from. This will include improved allocation of resources, reduced number of missed bins, reduced maintenance costs and effective integration with CRM.

Next steps

BPI is continuing to be used as an enabler for the Council's major transformation projects, including the continued roll-out of CRM, the move to a 'one number' approach and the introduction of a new HR/Payroll system in June 2010. In addition, further BPI initiatives are being managed as part of a council-wide improvement programme by a dedicated BPI Manager. This includes improvements to the Council's Planning processes and the corporate complaints, comments and compliments procedures which will be going live as part of CRM in April 2010. These initiatives are being agreed on an 'Invest to save' principle and BPI will continue to be used to support the Council's ongoing annual efficiency savings.

Providing Leisure Services in Partnership

Summary

In February 2009, Oxford City Council signed a 10-year management contract with a non-profit organisation, Fusion Lifestyle, for the management of its leisure centres. This new partnership arrangement will deliver improvements to the centres and reduce the overall cost of the service resulting in better value for money for the people of Oxford.

The problems and how we tackled them

A market testing exercise was set-up to test the capacity of the in-house service against that of external providers for developing world class leisure facilities, significantly reducing costs whilst protecting the jobs and pensions of all employed staff and the accessibility of services.

Market testing was conducted in line with procurement regulations and using a competitive dialogue approach. Competitive dialogue is an intensive process but provides the best route to understand and develop the in-house service and establish Council requirements against the offer from the market place. This also strengthens the Council's position in the event of transfer or partnership management resulting. This was the first competitive dialogue carried out by Oxford City Council and against an aggressive timetable.

Market testing was carried out based on the objectives outlined in a report to the City Executive Board (the Cabinet) and completed by February 2009. A few months delay incurred but just within tolerance to permit achievement of transfer and savings.

The outcome of the market testing exercise was a recommendation that value for money world class leisure services could best be provided by transferring the management of leisure to Fusion Lifestyle with the development of a partnership board to monitor and provide strategic direction. The benefit of completing this transfer before the commencement of the new financial year left a very aggressive timetable to implement the contract so the market testing project team remained in place to carry this out.

Since the 30th March 2009, Oxford City Council's leisure centres, (Barton Pool, Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre, Blackbird Leys Pool, Ferry Sports Centre, Hinksey Pool, Oxford Ice Rink, and Temple Cowley Pool & Fitness Centre) have been managed by the Fusion partnership, whilst ownership remains with the City Council.

Outcomes and impact

Key benefits achieved to date include:

• Annual budget savings in excess of £670,000
• Improved operational standards (cleanliness of facilities etc.) and associated monitoring in place
• Vacation of Northway offices in support of the Council's office rationalisation plans
• No staff redundancies
• Improved marketing capacity with agreed guidelines in place
• Maintenance backlog programme of works and funding in place from supplier
• Project to develop future facilities underway.

Whilst these short-term gains indicate a success to date, this is a long term partnership for improvement with the following benefits to be realised over the next three years:

• Increased investment within facilities
• Increased staff satisfaction
• Reduced absenteeism
• Greater energy efficiencies and reduced carbon emissions
• Increased participation in adult sport and amongst target groups

Next steps

Fusion and Oxford City Council will also be working together to develop longer term improvement proposals for the City's facilities and will start consultations with the local community and users over the next few months.

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