Case study

Wokingham Borough Council

The challenge

Ignite were commissioned by Wokingham to design and then lead the implementation of a new operating model for the entire Council, which covers more than 1000FTE and over £40M of staff costs. Two key challenges in Phase 1 of the programme were:

 

  • Wokingham needed to deliver a 20% efficiency on Business Services and change their offering to be customer focused and responsive to the business needs
  • Strategic assessments were required on key areas of delivery to recommend the best delivery model for each including internal delivery, shared service, outsourced and new venture

The result

Ignite developed a close working relationship with Wokingham to achieve the following early outcomes:

  • Annual general fund savings of over £1.5m in Phase 1 (business services, strategy and commissioning), plus further savings to other funding models
  • New working practices underpinned by a new organisational model
Processes in Business Services:

79% of processes were redesigned

24% had significant process steps eliminated

9% have been completely automated

65% have introduced significant self service

The strategic assessments resulted in a Council decision to create a new venture in one area, propose a new commercially focussed internal business unit for another and radically change the approach to a blended supply between the Council and suppliers for the third

What made it successful

  • Engaging a wide range of staff using design sessions – context, data and insight exercises gave staff the opportunity to be a part of the solution or decision
  • Tailoring a TOM specific to Business Services. Relationship Managers were involved during consultation in developing a key communication vehicle which enabled staff to understand how activity would be structured and the new ways of working
  • Engaging customers throughout using workshops to generate genuinely customer centric processes – providing quality journeys for both the customer and user
  • Prioritisation – working with the leadership team to agree process review priorities for service areas, e.g. Highways, Countryside
  • Benchmarking – and best practice from other councils and the private sector was used to stretch thinking
  • Modelling a range of options for commercial growth of services and associated the risk and reward