Summary
Wigan Council has a population of 305,500 and is situated in Lancashire. In 2007/08 the council spent £432.3 million on all council services. During SR04 the council conducted a review of its back office functions. The review led to the development of an organisational change programme, which should create £3.5 million of back office efficiency gains (1 per cent of spending on all council services in 2007/08) during CSR07.
The situation
Prior to SR04 Wigan Council had separate back office functions and front line services and efficiency savings were retained within individual service budgets. The council focused on delivering efficiencies across all services rather than in specific back office functions.
In 2005 the council appointed a Chief Executive who identified that back office functions at the council required change, to make efficiency savings and create value for money. The council's Executive Cabinet endorsed the Chief Executive's recommendation for a comprehensive review of the council's back office functions called the 'Support Services Review' (SSR).
Approaches used and efficiencies realised
Reviewing back office functions
In April 2006 Wigan Council began the SSR review that examined nine back office functions at the council:
- Administrative services
- Finance
- Information and communications technology (ICT)
- Human resources (HR)
- Policy and performance
- Contracting and procurement
- Training and development
- Legal and democratic services
- Communications and marketing
The SSR was led by a Programme Oversight Board (POB) consisting of the Chief Executive and the Strategic Management Team (SMT), who governed the scope and direction of the review. The board was supported by an external consultant who had experience of conducting and implementing organisational change programmes. The POB established the Programme Management Board (PMB) consisting of council officers, trade union representatives and key local partners including the PCT and housing providers, to coordinate and conduct the review.
The PMB conducted a number of projects to understand the changes that needed to be made to back office functions at Wigan Council. The projects included:
- A benchmarking exercise using data from sources including CIPFA and SOCITM to understand the service performance of back office functions
- The mapping of existing back office functions to understand the support services required for the council in the future
- The examination of how back office functions were structured at other councils
- Review of the council's outsourced property services contract
- 13 focus groups with back office staff and customers to understand the day to day management of back office functions at the council
The projects enabled the PMB to understand a number of key problems about back office functions at the council:
- Back office staff were skilled, committed and experienced at their jobs, however, overlap of roles and responsibilities meant there was duplication of effort and work processes
- There were few standard back office systems and processes
- Back office performance management was not robust
- ICT had not been utilised to change services
- The council did not have a good track record of implementing cultural change around back office functions
Implementing change
The identification of the key problems by the PMB enabled the board to develop an organisational change programme that was agreed by the POB in April 2007. The programme consisted of a number of changes to back office functions at the council:
- Developing joined up back office functions and front line services to develop a 'one council' approach and deliver better services to customers
- Development of better performance management systems
- Restructure of back office functions to support the 'one council' approach and create savings
- Business process improvement (BPI) reviews in back office functions to make efficiencies
- A more strategic approach to property management at the council
The council restructured back office functions into a centralised Chief Executives directorate and a Business Support Services department (including finance, HR and ICT, legal, property and democratic services), which reduced the overlap of staff roles and duplicated work processes. The programme of BPI reviews also created efficiency savings for the council including £78,000 from the reduction of three posts in Environmental Services administration.
Plans for CSR07
Wigan Council is planning to complete the organisational change programme during CSR07. The council predicts that the programme will create £3.5 million of back office efficiency savings (1 per cent of service spend in 2007/08) during CSR07, enabling the council to meet its CSR07 efficiency target.
Learning points
- Wigan Council took a transitional approach to back office efficiency during SR04
- The council conducted a large-scale, systematic review of its back office functions
- The review looked at how to change back office functions at the council using a number of techniques:
- Benchmarking exercise of back office service performance
- Reviewing best practice from other councils to see what worked elsewhere
- Focus groups with back office staff and customers
- A mapping exercise of current back office functions at the council
- The review enabled the council to develop an organisational change programme to make changes to back office functions
- The organisational change programme should enable Wigan Council to take a transformational approach to back office efficiency during CSR07
Questions to consider for your council
- What approach has your council taken to back office efficiency during SR04?
- Transactional
- Transitional
- Transformational
- How might this case study enable you to take a transformational approach to efficiency during CSR07?
- Have you conducted a systematic review of your council's back office functions?
- Have you considered how you can use techniques such as benchmarking and a mapping exercise to review back office functions?