The ‘Can you look after a plant?’ Scheme

To save money staff were asked to volunteer to look after the plants in their office by watering them every two weeks. This was introduced in all the offices of the Civic Centre (which is the council’s central offices).

In offices where volunteers were not found the plants would be relocated to offices where there were volunteers. Once volunteers were in place the contract with the external contractor who used to water the plants will be terminated.

(This scheme has just been introduced and we are currently at the stage of recruiting volunteers). The expected results are that the council will save the cost of the external contractor.

The idea is free to implement and is a means of making a small but ongoing financial saving.

Thanks for this example

Reviewing spends corporately rather than by service level

Idea: To review spend on a wider basis than just one service area.

Results: Enabled savings of approx £10K to be made.  As this was previously distributed across many areas.  Centralising made the small under spends in many areas to be converted into a larger overall saving.  Once done in one area this expanded to other scenarios. 

Leadership: Once one area had been done successfully it showed it could be done easily.  Needs backing from all service areas to happen effectively.  

Learning: Simple ideas can lead to effective savings. 

Contact: Nigel Glossop, Head of IT and Business Improvement, South Derbyshire District Council Nigel.Glossop@south-derbys.gov.uk  Tel 01283 595703 

Thank you to Nigel and South Derbyshire District Council for this example

Kent Year of Innovation

Thanks to Kent County Council for making me aware of their many innovation initiaves that they have underway. Further information is available at:

http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/priorities-policies-and-plans/priorities-and-plans/kent-year-innovation/year-of-innovation.htm

Which is well worth a browse. They also publish a 'catalogue of innovations' which is full of useful ideas:

http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/priorities-policies-and-plans/priorities-and-plans/kent-year-innovation/catalogue-innovations.htm

What I get excited about...

... is when people at all levels of an organisation are thinking to themselves 

"let's not do things the same as yesterday - le's try something different - that might just make more of a difference"

For me this indicates a level of professionalism, a concern for the public (both as service users and taxpayers) and pride in one's work that thrills me. For many people - and I include myself - work is very important part of my life (along with family, friends, community etc, of course). If this work is humdrum & repetitive, without any change or improvement, I think this damages us as a whole. 

I think we are all responsible for doing what we can to create, to innovate, to improve what we do - because not only is this better for the people we serve - it is also better for us. And if we have a role as a manager / leader - then this responsibility extends to how develop work places that foster this sense of improvement. We owe this to those whom we work for and with.

 

Waste sacks

Idea: Reduced the number of clear and black sacks sent out when a bin has been missed

Results: Difficult to give actual cashable savings!       

Leadership: Team leader identified too many sacks were being sent out

Thanks to Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council for this example

Concessionary fare scheme #2

Idea: Reduction in venues and cancellation of smaller venues, offering postal option

Results: Saved £750 in 07/08 year     

Leadership: Team leader continually looking for ways to streamline this process

Thanks to Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council for this example

Concessionary fare scheme

Idea: Changes to administration of this scheme by: Reviewing forms required.  Resourcing venues  as per volume of customers expected. Using staff from across Business Unit instead of temps.

Results: Saved £10,000 during 07/08 year     

Leadership: Team leader continually looking for ways to streamline this process

Thanks to Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council for these examples

Visitors signing-in book

Idea: In-house production of new visitor signing sheets and badges

Results: Saved £1,262.76 during 08/09 year  

Leadership: Team leader streamlined the process

Thanks to Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council for this example

Plastic travel tokens - recycling

Idea: Recycling plastic travel tokens

Results: Savings £3,184 during 08/09 year    

Leadership: Team leader investigated ways to recycle

Thanks to Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council for this example

Housing form improvement - shorter & quicker to complete

Idea: Reworking housing application form questions by the design team reduced number of A4 pages from 37 to 23, making form lighter, using less paper and therefore cheaper to post. 

Results: Savings £1,225         

Leadership: Design team always looks at forms to try and redesign making a savings

Thanks to Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council for this example

Government leaflet - reduced pages

Idea: Reworking the design of a leaflet to be mailed to all business rate payers from 3 A4 pages to just 2 saved £42.00 in printing.  Investigation Royal Mail Volume discount mailing saved a further £385 on mailing costs 

Results: Saving of £427          

Leadership: Team leader/staff always looking for ways to reduce paper usage

Thanks to Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council for this example

Rationalising council publications

Camden Council cut expenditure on Council publications by reducing them in number and creating a more useful and cheaper residents magazine

"Your Camden"

http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/content/council-and-democracy/who-represents-you/leader-of-camden-council/the-leaders-statement.en

Thanks for this example from Camden Council

Hot water in Camden

Camden’s new sports centre is being built to a very good sustainability standard. The building will be more eco-friendly and much cheaper to run with natural ventilation and water for the pools coming from two existing bore-holes: 

http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/leisure/sport-and-fitness/sports-centres/kentish-town-sports-centre/

Thanks for this example from Camden Council

Tackling fraud

New Housing Investigation team reveals fraudulent right-to-buy applications and subletting, saving the Council over £1 million in one year

http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/jobs-and-careers/our-ways-of-working/meet-our-staff/

Thanks for this example from Camden Council

Joint tendering

Improvements in the Council’s IT infrastructure provided an opportunity to save money by tendering for a new joint contract for the benefits and revenue service

http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/content/press/2008/july/camden-benefits-service-saves-3-million.en

Thanks for this example from Camden Council

Camden and Islington Councils combine their vehicle pounds:

http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/content/press/2008/september/london-boroughs-combine-the-pounds-to-save-the-pounds.en 

Thanks for this example from Camden Council

Same quantity of paper - but cheaper!

Headed stationery was printed in five colours onto expensive cream paper.  As the planning department used large quantities of headed paper, agreement was obtained to use a cheaper style of stationery, using a monochrome logo and white paper.  This practice was extended to the whole Council in a recent review of corporate branding.  

Thanks for this example

Less paper - more 'lightbulbs'!

The lean systems review involved the redesign of back office processes.  These are recorded on large sheets of paper for clarity in discussions.  Instead of writing on the large sheets, the steps in the process are recorded on “Post-it” notes and stuck onto the sheets.  During discussions, the notes can be removed and re-arranged easily on the sheets to see the effect of the re-design.  This potentially saves wastage of the large, expensive sheets of paper.

Thanks for this example

Less paper - more light!

The use of a digital overhead projector at Planning Committee meetings saves the Council and the public the cost of making extra copies to circulate to Members around the table.

Thanks for this example

Sustainability & efficiency in North Norfolk

• Staff energy saving campaign to save electricity and reduce our electricity bills – staff were asked to switch off monitors when going to meetings/lunch, intelli-panels were installed to ensure that when PCs are switched off at the end of the day all peripherals are also turned off, and timer plugs are used on other appliances e.g. printers to ensure they are turned off at evenings and weekends.
  
• A sustainable procurement policy has been adopted to ensure that whole life costs rather than just the initial capital cost is used to judge value for money when procuring goods and services. 
• Members collect their post rather than mailing it out.
  
• Emails are sent to Parish Councils where possible, rather than posting information.
  

Many thanks to North Norfolk District Council for these ideas.

Add your ideas / thoughts / suggestions here!

Everynow and then I will put post like this in - so that you can add your idea directly. Posting is open on this blog - you do not need to register. You can do contribute anonymously or with attribution. 

Thanks!

Reports that are actually books

Sometimes when people respond to my emails enquiring about small creative ideas, they refer me to various documents published on the interweb.  I always take a look and usually (though to be fair not always) I end up being disappointed. 

Why?

I guess it is when I see the digits in the pdf file box which shows the number of pages. If this number goes beyond 6, I sigh, have a quick scroll to see if anything leaps out. It usually does not. Instead - there are pages of words and tables and figures (usually large ones of course!) which leave me cold.

Genuinely - I wonder who reads these documents? Does anyone really read them from end to end apart from the original author, plus maybe his/her boss and an elected member with rather too much time on her/his hands? 

I wonder who gets to compile these books (for that is what they are).  I fear that we have far too many 'strutegies' and not enough 'stractegies' when it comes to improving the public services. By strutegy - I mean the kind of long (and often glossy) document that looks great and is praded proudly around, but where most of the effort has been spent on talking with the printers. On the other hand there are the stractegies which live in activity and people doing things - making a difference - using resources more wisely - delivering more to the public. These people don't have the time to write long and detailed reports.

Moreover, I wonder if these long reports are disempowering? Do they make people think that 'it is all been done then...' - they don't have to worry about making improvements in their area - the people up there on the '7th floor' have got it all in hand. And even if a frontline person has a small creative idea that would make a difference to the lives of (say) the 20 older people that they go and visit each week, or they have spotted a way to save £15k - then this is just insignificant. The megabucks are being found elsewhere. No one is here to listen to, authorise or acknowledge their ideas. 

Without doubt the big changes are necessary. But is it correct to say that ordinary everyday improvements are 'business as usual'.  Often they are not - and the big, grand & heftily reported on improvements may be just be smothering the small creative ideas that could also be making a big difference too.

What do you think?

Sustainable Refreshment

The idea was to stop using plastic cups with the drinking water machines in staff kitchenettes and use glasses/mugs instead 

The result is both an environmental saving to reduce the use of plastic and a financial saving.   The financial savings will depend upon the number of plastic cups being used and how much are being paid for them - in our case we believe there will be a saving of £25 per 1000 cups not used. 

Leadership: The idea came from staff sitting on a cross departmental group called the Culture Change Group, and was taken forward with the leadership of the Facilities Officer who has responsibility for the offices.

Learning: The idea reinforced our belief that good examples come from listening and empowering staff to express suggestions for improvement.

Thanks for this example.

Multi-functional savings

Blaby District Council have put into place 12 multifunctional devices. These are known as MFD’s. An MFD is in essence what you would normally consider to be a photocopier (upgraded) so that it can be used as a printer and connected to the network. It allows employees to print black and white. The MFD’s are located at various points in the building so that large groups of employees have access to the same MFD. 

The initiative behind this is to remove all of the local network printers in individual offices and encourage the staff to either: 

a) Print less or;

b) Use the MFD. 

The MFD’s are only just being rolled out across the Council but it is likely that the roll out will make us more efficient, due to a reduction in toner costs and the fact that it is cheaper to print an MFD than a local network printer. In addition the new initiative requires less maintenance.

Thanks for this example.

More improvements from Wellingborough

• I have been under a trial of new brushes for my sweeper.  These are slightly more expensive but last twice as long saving on cost. 
  
• With the implementation of Agresso the need to print copy invoices should be dramatically reduced, as all invoices can be viewed on screen, will also save time for Accountants as they will no longer need to come to payments to look in files. 
  
• Finedon Bowling Green being fitted with an automatic water system saving time and money. 
  
• New HR/Payroll system to reduce duplication of paper/electronic records and duplication across the two service areas as well as providing cost effective way of users maintaining information. 
  
• Introduction of more on-line facilities - e.g online recruitment applications/elections.
  

Thanks to the Borough Council of Wellingborough for these examples

Amenity Services

Idea: Vehicle tracking in RCV's (Refuse Collection vehicle)

Results: Significant saving in fuel due to decrease in 'idling' time

Leadership: Examination of fuel costs and need to source savings

Learning: Look to large areas of spend to find savings

Thanks to the Borough Council of Wellingborough for this example

Eco homes

Eco homes at Harrold Road, Bozeat, Wellingborough 

This small development of 7 affordable homes is being built on an exception site on land formerly owned by the Duchy of Lancaster.  The site is being developed by Northants Rural Housing Association, in conjunction with the Parish Council, in response to a housing needs survey undertaken in the village of Bozeat. 

Homes and Communities Agency funding has been secured for the project, together with an additional £70,000 from the Borough Council of Wellingborough to enable the scheme to reach Level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes.  This means that additional eco measures have been included in the development, such as extra insulation and air source heat pumps, which will not only reduce the carbon footprint and CO2 emissions of the houses but also reduce resident’s fuel bills. 

The Housing Strategy Team had identified a need for a pot of money which could be used to provide 'extras' on affordable housing schemes such as additional eco measures, building in stone in villages and conservation areas, retaining historical features etc.  This was agreed by the Council's Resources Committee and there is now a rolling programme of funds for these items.  Registered Social Landlords are encouraged to access this pot of money for small scale developments where a limited amount of money can make a substantial difference to the scheme produced.

Thanks to the Borough Council of Wellingborough for this example

Revenue services: Improving postage efficiency

Idea: Use TNT for Council Tax billing postage

Results: Bills were delivered with equal efficiency to Royal Mail and a Gershon saving of approx £3,800 was achieved.

Leadership: Office practice improvement session.

Learning: To keep questioning established procedures.

Thanks to the Borough Council of Wellingborough for this example

Inter-generational benefits

Some of the inter-generational work, such as Windsor Boys School volunteers teaching older people in the day centres how to use mobile phones, computers etc are quite good as examples of social support and bridging the generation gap

Thanks to the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead for this example

Pool car savings

Instead of Borough employees claiming expenses for using their own cars on business. The council  has a few Pool Cars that can be booked for visits, thus reducing costs and encouraging staff to travel together.

Thanks to the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead for this example

Preventing falls - with volunteers

The Falls Project using older volunteers as peer mentors for health promotion messages, again increasing effectiveness of the message and not being an expensive resource.  

Thanks to the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead for this example

Combining services - safety & consultation

The first is the linking with the Safe at Home / Hotstreets project.  

As the fire service were checking the home fire risk anyway, it was the ideal opportunity to expand their role and get more information on a range of services that they were being asked about on a regular basis, reaching more people at very little extra resource.

Thanks to the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead for this example

WC's without the W

We have installed waterless urinals in a number of low use toilets. 

Thanks to the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead for this example

Let a 1000 flowers bloom - some more!

We offer free daffodil bulbs to community groups , this encourages a sense of community  ownership of the area , the bulbs are planted where local people want them planted and saves money on planting the bulbs

Thanks to the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead for this example

FoI - process improvement

Due to effective process control 100% of Freedom Of Information requests have been processed with the 20 working day timeframe.

Thanks to the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead for this example

Bite sized training

Instead of having external training we now hold internal bite size training events for staff, that are filmed and put on the internal internet site so that staff can view at any time.

Thanks to the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead for this example

Tourist Information Centre staffing

The Area Office now  provides Tourist Information Services. Now both services can be provided by the same office it saves the cost of employing a Tourist Information Centre assistant during the busy summer period.

Saving £9,900 

Thanks for this example

Mystery Shopping collaboration

An arrangement has been made with a neighbouring authority to mystery shop the other authority’s services.  Previously both authorities employed external companies to carry out this service but by now providing this service for each other saves the cost of employing the external company.

Saving £5,599 

Thanks for this example.

(I wonder what more could be done along similar lines....)

Aptitude tests done inhouse

Aptitude tests for recruitment are now carried in house. These were  previously undertaken by external companies at a cost of £250 per session. Personnel staff have been trained to provide the tests saving the costs of employing external companies to do the tests on our behalf.

Saving: £4,500 

Thanks for this example

New microphones in committee rooms

A saving of staff time has been made as the result of a new microphone system that has been installed in the committee rooms. Previously the caretakers spent time putting out the microphones each time a meeting was taking place and now the new system takes less time to get ready.

Saving £3,600 (non-cashable) 

Thanks for this example

Purchase of hand dryers

Hand dryers in the staff toilets have now been purchased outright saving the rental payments and maintenance charges that were previously paid on them. It is more cost effective to pay for servicing and any maintenance when it is required .

Saving £3,105 

Thanks for this example

Closure of chemical store at Council Contract Services.

The Chemical store that was provided by the Contract Services Department has been closed so the licence that was required for the store has now been cancelled achieving a saving 

The Chemical disposal service was only used very occasionally and it is cheaper to pay external companies to dispose of the chemicals and not having to pay the licence fee.

Saving £3,000 

Thanks for this example

Internal Training Courses

Some staff training courses which were previously run by external providers are now carried out internally using the existing skills and training of the personnel staff  It was more efficient to train up one or two members of staff to provide training than to run all the courses with external trainers.

Saving £7,500 

Thanks for this example

Allpay cards not automatically issued

The procedures for issuing Allpay cards to Council Tax payers and Business ratepayers has been changed so that cards are not automatically replaced or issued now. When a person is registered for Council Tax or Business rates an Allpay payment card is not issued automatically issued as it was in the past, and cards are only now issued upon request.

Saving:£2,855 

Thanks for this example

DR-IVE

St Edmundsbury Borough Council have a process called "Dynamic Review – Innovation, Value and Enterprise" which they describe as

"Approach to budgeting: The commitment given to the public that Council Tax rises should be kept to a minimum, but service standards and levels be maintained or improved, led to the 2005 adoption of the DR-IVE (Dynamic Review – Innovation, Value and Enterprise) process to identify efficiency savings. The council is now in the fifth year of this approach to budgeting. The approach is supported by a councillor led process"

http://www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk/sebc/live/documents/reports/Z541%20Budget%20and%20Council%20Tax%20Setting%202009-2010.pdf - for more information. 

There is a good summary report of recent results at: http://www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk/sebc/live/documents/reports/Z457%20-%20Delivering%20a%20Sustainable%20Budget%202009-2010%20Update.pdf

Thanks to St Edmundsbury Borough Council for these links.

Collaboration on surveys

The Council is required to undertake a survey of local residents every two years called the Place Survey. The Place Survey is a national survey set by Government, with a set of questions which all Councils have to ask. Dartford therefore set up a consortium of six Kent Councils, which obtained a 10% discount from the supplier saving the Council £1,200 

Thanks to Dartford Council for this example

Efficiency Review of Cemetery Services

Idea: The service as a whole was subject to the Efficiency Review process however it was evident that the service had to respond to the requirements of the HSE Memorial Safety Inspection scheme within existing resources. 

Results: As a newly commissioned piece of work robust process were designed to ensure compliance with HSE requirements.

The review of the current Cemeteries provision identified that the procurement of a software application to record and manage administrative tasks would release 12 hours per week, from the existing Cemeteries Officer to be utilised to support the physical inspection process.

During the current economic downturn additional assistance to complete the inspection process has been secured in the form of Officer time and support by our Building Control service.  14 officer hours have been made available, per week, to provide this support.

The inspection process is yet to commence. 

Leadership: The Parks & Open spaces team identified the need for additional capacity to fulfil the MSI programme as part of the Efficiency review process.

Learning: We learnt that staff have skills which are transferrable and can be utilised across the organisation. 

Further information: Businessefficiency@fenland.gov.uk

Thanks for this example.

Efficiency Review of Democratic Services

Idea: The service as a whole was reviewed however staff identified that the majority of information circulated to elected members was in the form of hard copy documents. They therefore specifically asked the Business Efficiency Team to devise more efficient effect ways for circulating information. 

Results: The result was a redesign of processes for sharing information with elected members including implementing a member hotline, introducing a dedicated IT trainer for elected members therefore enabling documents and information to be circulated electronically, ensuring the timely receipt of key data. 

All calls from elected members requiring information were filtered through a central group of staff, rather than being received via diverse services with differing published response timescales. These centralised staff had undergone specific training and had a great understanding of the Council and its functions. In addition all enquiries are logged on a central system and any resulting frequently asked questions are identified and published on the intranet therefore diversifying the channels for members to access information whilst also reducing the volume of potential avoidable contacts. 

The introduction of the dedicated IT trainer for elected members has helped to ensure that all members have access to electronic information and are familiar with the processes for access information in this manner. 

The financial results are still being measured however we set a target of 30% cashable savings in relation to a reduction in printing and paper. 

We also identified in the region of 8 staff hours could be saved, via centralising the members’ hotline, per month. 

Leadership: The Democratic Services staff identified the requirement for improvements to sharing information via the initial Efficiency Review workshop. 

Learning: We learnt that staff are extremely keen to try new ideas and new ways of working when the benefits are clear and explicit. 

Further information: Businessefficiency@fenland.gov.uk

Thanks for this example

Leisure Services withdrawal of cheque payments

Idea: The three Leisure Centre sites across the District Council withdrew the ability of customers to pay for membership or classes via cheque payments and instead more widely publicised the ability to pay on line or via direct debits. The later initiatives were introduced as a direct result of customer feedback. 

Results: The results to date have been cashable savings in the region of £1,500 saved from a reduction in staff processes time, therefore not only has a cashable saving been achieved but processes are smarter and better reflect customers needs and requirements.

Leadership: Service staff identified this initiative as a result of analysing customer feedback and informal comments.

Learning: Providing a more efficient way of handling payments resulted in higher customer satisfaction levels.  Through providing value for money and tailoring services to customer requirements we found that customer experience was improved.  This is further endorsed by all three of our leisure centres being Quest accredited – recognition of our continuous improvement in service delivery and standards.  

Further information: Businessefficiency@fenland.gov.uk

Thanks for this example.

Providing Choice in Adult Social Care

Bexley Council is committed to moving towards self-directed support, providing service users with greater choice and control.These principles have been recently applied to the Council’s Meals on Wheels Service.The in-house service has been discontinued and private suppliers now provide high quality meals to residents. These meals are then heated by service users or carers. Service users enjoy a greater choice of meals while the Council has benefited from an ongoing saving of £100,000 each year.

One client, Mrs JoanWall, who is registered blind, says: “The old service was good but I think the new one is even better because I can choose at short notice what I want to eat.The carer is very pleasant and she sits and chats with me whilst the meal is being heated. “When its ready, she tells me where the food is on the plate.This is really helpful as I then know what I am putting in my mouth and I enjoy my meal more.”

An example of the improvements at Bexley - thanks for this example.

VfM in Bexley

Throughout the last year the London Borough of Bexley continued its finance-led Value for Money (VfM) Programme.The programme comprises a number of ambitious projects which have a dual purpose. 

1. To contain Council Tax rises

2. To provide high performing, customer focussed services.

The programme places great emphasis on ensuring that service delivery standards are not compromised to achieve savings. In fact where possible, through back office re-engineering and pushing resources towards the front line, many services have actually improved. Partnership working has always been high on Bexley’s agenda and work on the Value for Money programme is no exception. For a number of projects within the Value for Money Programme, Bexley has benefited from a Performance Partnership with Northgate Kendric Ash where council officers work together with Northgate Kendric Ash Managers to deliver significant financial efficiencies whilst driving improvements in service delivery for residents. During 2007/08 the partnership delivered savings of £1.63 million and it is expected to deliver £2 million per annum ongoing. The VfM programme is supported by a strong governance structure.

Further information: Mike.ellsmore@bexley.gov.uk

Thanks for this - a few post to follow with examples.

Add your ideas here!

Everynow and then I will put post like this in - so that you can add your idea directly. Posting is open on this blog - you do not need to register. You can do contribute anonymously or with attribution. 

Thanks!

Sustainability improvements

In response to my enquiry, Hampshire County Council advised me of their site which lists several small (and large) innovations. Here is the link:

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/sustainability/environment-sustainability-whatishantsdoing.htm

It is worth a browse.

Thanks to Hampshire County Council for pointing me in this direction.

Caravan park and more!

"A significant amount of efficiency savings have been and will be generated from major projects such as depot rationalisation, restructuring and mobile working. As savings become more difficult to identify, members of staff in team meetings are increasingly being asked to provide ideas. Some ideas that may fit the criteria for “bite-sized” ideas are as follows: 

• Scanning of invoices to reduce costs of storage and improve accessibility to records.
  
• Sale of unused/obsolete items.
  
• Light sensors to reduce energy costs.
  
• Rationalisation of mobile phone policy.
  
• Establishing a touring caravan park.
  
• Providing a MOT and inspection service for local Taxis.
  
• All internal printing to be done through photocopiers and getting rid of all printers."
  

Thank you for these

It is interesting to note from this contribution that many of the 'major' savings have been had - and now attention is shifting to finding all the small ideas for moving forward 

Systems thinking & suggestions for improvement

The Council has recently embarked on a programme of "systems thinking" (lean management) throughout the Council.  The first stage was to put together a team of "lean" champions who underwent a programme of training provided by external consultants to enable them to carry out lean reviews throughout the Council. 

Awareness sessions have been held for all staff and members and as part of these awareness sessions staff have been invited to put forward suggestions where systems could be improved by the application of lean thinking.  To date 35 suggestions have been received and these are due to be considered by the "Lean Board" at their next meeting.

2 specific projects have been selected from a number considered at the outset of the programme and these are due to commence within the next month and are expected to have been completed by quarter 3 of this financial year.  All systems thinking material will be available on the Council's intranet and when projects have been completed and their success assessed they will be placed on the intranet and possibly the internet to open up the concept and learning to a wider audience.

Thank you to Arun District Council for this example.

E-publishing

Savings through electronic publishing and in-house printing of the 2007/08 BVPP.  Most recipients are now in receipt of email therefore instead of procuring the printing a relatively modest number (still at high cost due to the set-up costs of the print run even if paper use is low) we have produced a high quality .pdf format for circulation and have printed a limited number of copies in house for where paper copies are required.  Further copies can be printed if required but there will be no wastage.

Thanks for this example.

Joint Road Safety Communications Group

"We have a Joint Road Safety Communications Group which co-ordinates communications in partnership across the county, resulting in more focus and stronger joint  campaigns, rather than smaller campaigns with less impact. 

The partners are Surrey County Council, Surrey Police, the Safety Camera Partnership and Surrey Fire & Rescue. 

The campaigns include motorcyclist awareness, drink driving and speeding. By working in partnership and combining budgets to reach a wider audience there is a significant financial saving although we do not have figures for this."

Thanks to Surrey County Council for this example

External Advertising on In-house Passenger Carrying Vehicles

Idea: External Advertising on In-house Passenger Carrying Vehicles (Leicestershire CC Fleet minibuses) - To use the available external spaces around the vehicles to promote messages from the local authority.

Results: Helped to keep advertising expenditure within the local authority, it also provided a new advertising medium to deliver the authority's messages, and also helped the Passenger Transport Unit to achieve savings targets that are required by Central Government.

Leadership Help: Came about through a brainstorming session to identify and develop efficiency initiatives.

Learnt: Advertising on in-house vehicle resources is a cost efficient and effective means to display useful public messages to local communities.

Thanks for this

Some ideas from Leicestershire County Council

• An idea for speeding up the manual and electronic timesheet process for LCC employees so that staff can text in start and finish times for work 
  
• An idea for using the room booking system to know where staff are when they are off site 
  
• An idea to make use of the payslip system to notify staff when expenses have been paid rather than sending out a separate 'slip' and envelope
  

Thanks for these examples

Birmingham Establishments compete to be BEST BAR NONE 2009

Best Bar None

The Best Bar None scheme is a recognised scheme, supported by the Home Office, aimed at promoting reponsible management and operation of alcohol-licensed premises. The scheme encourages social responsibility among licensees by rewarding good management for discouraging binge-drinking and helping prevent alcohol related crime. This year’s Best Bar None Birmingham awards will be presented at a ceremony, sponsored by Bacardi Brown-Forman, at the International Convention Centre on Thursday, 10th September 2009.   Birmingham pubs, clubs, bars and hotels will be assessed on criteria such as door and security policies, first aid, how they deal with abusive customers and what systems they have in place to deal with alcohol related crime. As well as an overall winner – Best Bar None – there will be winners and finalists in seven categories:-  

• best city centre pub 
  
• best city centre 
  
• bar best suburban pub 
  
• best suburban bar 
  
• best nightclub best hotel bar 
  
• best independent venue    
  

Those venues achieving accreditation to the scheme will receive a Best Bar None certificate to display in the premises.   Bruce Ray, Director of External Affairs for Bacardi, said: “When Birmingham City Council and its partners approached us last year to be sponsors we were impressed with their commitment and passion towards their city and improving standards within the trade. We look forward to being part of another successful award event in 2009, rewarding those licensees who go ‘above and beyond’ in areas of responsible retailing.”

Thanks for this example

Reconfiguring Arts services in Birmingham

Saving / income opportunity  title: To reconfigure the Constituency Community Arts provision. 

Brief description of saving / income opportunity: To absorb the majority of the duties and responsibilities of the Community Arts Worker into the wider Community Development Team and to supplement that arrangement with a limited amount of sessional staffing to cover peaks in workload, thereby enabling the deletion of the post.

Evaluation of viability of the saving / income opportunity:  The Arts Officer post of 18.5 hours per week at SO1 is classed as desirable rather than essential.  The post holder left the service in February 2007 and the vacancy is being covered at the present time by one of the community development trainees in the Constituency. With the Community Development team now fully established with two FTE trainees built into the structure, the Team is confident that it can absorb the additional work, albeit, supplemented with a small budget to support the employment of sessional staff as and when needed on specific projects.

The Community Arts Worker post currently reports to one of the Senior Community Development Workers.  It is entirely feasible for the full range of duties and responsibilities to pass to that officer (Linda Kelly) who will oversee all the activities contained in the JD, supported on a day to day basis by one of the trainees.

Whenever possible, staff from central teams will be utilised to support Arts Projects and, additionally, a special appeal will be made for constituency colleagues to attend SWAT meetings and take on the odd task. 

Where professional expertise is required on specific projects, resources will be needed to buy them in. This makes more efficient use of resources to buy in expertise only when specifically needed, rather than having it on tap 52 weeks a year via the CAW.  A budget will, however, need to be established for the purchase of sessional staff.  An initial estimate is that 360 hours of sessional time should be adequate per financial year, but we would wish to review that estimate after the first full year of operation in case it needs adjusting upwards or downwards in the light of experience. 

Recommendation to SMT: Delete the Community Arts Worker post (currently vacant), and use roughly 25% of the salary budget to purchase sessional workers on specific projects. 

Saving / Income potential in £’s: Saving current post = (P/T 0.5 FTE) SO1 @ scp 29 = £11,587 plus oncosts of £2,433 amounting to £14,020. 

Expenditure on 360 hours of sessional staffing at S01 i.e. £12.21 per hour = £4,395.60 plus oncosts of £923 amounting to £5,318.67

Overall saving is £8,701.33   

Resources required to implement recommendation (if any): 360 hours of sessional staffing per annum at approx £5,318

Thanks for this example

The BEST for Birmingham

Birmingham City Council are promoting their Best Programme see details below. This programme enables staff to put forward idea's that could benefit the Council and its customers.                                                                            

"The name BEST comes from ‘Belief’, ‘Excellence’, ‘Success’ and ‘Trust’ – the Council's four core  values that were identified by staff from right across the council that give us a really clear picture of how we want everyone to behave and feel about the work they do for the council:                                                     

• Belief - We believe in ourselves and what  we do. We are determined to do a good job.
  
• Excellence - Our initiative to find new  and better ways of doing things. 
  
• Success - We take responsibility for getting results today.  
  
• Trust - We value everyone's contribution.  We treat colleagues, partners and  customers with respect.                                                                    
  

 How will BEST help us?                                                                            

 BEST will help us to:                                                                            

•        Work better as a team                                                                      
  
•        Improve the service we provide                                                              
  
•        Make it a good day at work                                                                 
  

BEST will be about every team getting together in a workshop to make some changes and to follow these changes through."

Thanks for this example

Housing Improvements

Southend Borough Council forwarded these examples on from their ALMO (Arms Length Management Organisation) - South Essex Homes:

• In April 2008 we started to use PCOL (Posession Claim On Line) to pay court fees, saving time previously used to produce and deliver cheques to the court. We estimate that this new method will deliver considerable efficiencies of time and money.
• Our caretaking team regularly carry out cleaning and inspections of communal areas in our low and high rise blocks of flats. It was decided that as part of the routine caretaking duties that our Caretakers should carry out monitoring and removal of pirate radio aerials. This produced savings of against the cost of an independent contractor.
• Our Caretakers also agreed to hand-deliver Resident Guides. After calculating the extra costs in staff time, we saved a large amount of money in postage costs. Additionally the Caretaking team are looking to undertake inspection of community play areas at general needs properties, and plant care at Sheltered Housing units and we believe this will present further savings. 
• We have started to remove pay phones from the communal areas in Sheltered Housing properties, saving on rental costs. Instead we are installing broadband and recycled PCs, which not only offers saving on costs, but also offers access to a PC and internet for residents.
• We have also found a cost efficient way of producing our magazine for our Residents, which involved buying a Mac computer to carry out the design in-house instead of paying an external designer. After the cost of the computer is deducted from the costs of the designer, there are still financial savings even in the first year, which will increase in subsequent years.
• Any time or financial savings maid by South Essex Homes can be re-invested into services for our Residents.

Thank you for these examples.

Lots of efficiency ideas

Canterbury City Council is currently undertaking efficiency reviews on all of our services over a three-year period.  We are currently in the third year of the review program.  The main objective of these reviews is to improve the level of service we give to customers and increasing the value for money. Staff play a key role in these reviews and have contributed to 90% of all ideas around improvement.  Many of these have been small ideas that collectively have allowed us to improve the service in these challenging economic times. 

There have been many small ideas, but we have categorised these into areas that will be monitored through our action plan process so they deliver their objectives: 

• Reduction in staff movement through the use of technology
  
• Increased use of customers self serving
  
• More service being delivered through our Contact Centre
  
• Greater use of internal functions to provide service
  
• Improved use of DMS systems to remove paper
  
• Use of CRM system to share information across departments
  
• Clean mail
  
• Improvements in service failure
  
• Reducing the level of double handling 
  

There have been many other ideas across all the departments; these ideas have allowed staff to engage fully with the review program and have improved the services that have undertaken these reviews.  It is hoped that this approach will become part of a rolling program of improvement. 

Further information - please contact: Paul Bartlett, Business Improvement Officer, Canterbury City Council, 01227 862000 

Thank you for this

Customer Journey Mapping

At Stoke-on-Trent City Council, the Best Practice and Service Review Team have developed their own Customer Journey Mapping methodology and toolkit for use across the authority. This was created in line with guidance from the Cabinet Office and through liaison with other local authorities.

This toolkit can help the authority to:

• Understand the experiences, thoughts and feelings of customers as they encounter a council service or set of services
  
• Deliver information, messages and services at the most appropriate time.
  
• Deliver a seamless, streamlined experience that cuts across council departments by recognising where and when it is appropriate to join things up for the customer.
  
• Get it right when it really matters e.g. when emotions are highest or when the need is greatest.
  
• Compare the current situation with the 'ideal' side-by-side, giving a chance to genuinely redesign the customer journey.

This can benefit the organization by:

• Helping to bring customers' stories to life. This can challenge preconceptions surrounding service delivery.
  
• Helping to shape strategy and policy, leading to better customer experiences and more efficient government.
  
• Helping deliver efficiency savings in many areas, including in line with NI14 (Reducing avoidable contact).
  
• Leading to more satisfied customers, which are cheaper to serve and easier to deal with. Good customer understanding is also good business.

We are more than happy to share this methodology with any local authorities that are considering developing their own approach to Customer Journey Mapping.

Further information: Sue Craig (sue.m.craig@Stoke.Gov.Uk)

Thanks for this.

UPDATE!

Customer Journey Mapping Workshop

In response to all the feedback we've had about our blog posting about our Customer Journey Mapping model we've decided to hold a half day workshop.

The workshop will be held in Stoke-on-Trent at our Civic Centre on the morning of the 4 November. The workshop will be £95 per person for public sector employees including lunch. If anyone is interested in finding out more or coming along to our workshop please contact will.haywood@stoke.gov.uk or telephone Will on 01782 237610. We'll be providing more information about our workshop soon.

UPDATE 2! More information now available at:

http://www.stoke.gov.uk/ccm/content/ce/bestvalue/customer-journey-mapping.en

UPDATE 3! I have blogged about this whole issue on my other blog here - concerning attendance allowance and the need to see the process from the viewpoint of the claimant.

UPDATE 4!: It is my understanding that this team has now been disbanded.

Co-location - Co-learning - Co-support

Administrators that sat within 'business services' (IT, Business Change and HR) were co-located into a central area providing a more coordinated administrative support.The support provided by this centralised administrative support was enhanced with administrative support working as a team naturally supported each other with phone calls, absence cover, addressing strengths and weaknesses i.e. use of SAP. 
The support, buddying and mentoring within the administrative support team has allowed individuals to augment their skills and working together as a team to support the services also means less reliance on costly temporary staff.

Thanks to West Sussex County Council for this example.

Bubbling...

As noted before - some organisations get back to me saying that they have searched for some examples but have not found any. This may be because I suggested an arbitrary limit of £10K and nothing fell below this threshold. It also because they 'don't have a record' of such innovations. Or it may be that the 'suggestions forum' on the intranet is empty...

Whatever is the case - I hope that the people and organisations who visit this blog will be inspired by the examples - above and below. And I hope that you will inspired enough to consider what more you might do to have some of these ideas bubbling around your organisations!

Now it's Friday, it's a warm & sunny early Spring evening and time for a cup of tea!

The power of one percent

Excellent article in which Tessa Simpson and Tony Bray show how a change as small as 1% can make a significant difference in the workplace.

http://www.accaglobal.com/pubs/members/publications/sector_magazines/public_eye/archive/2008/66/one_percent.pdf

Legal Services: Development and refinement of the management processes

Essentially these recommendations concern improvements that will enhance services to clients across the full range of legal services and produce savings among the fee earning resources. 

• Improve work allocation – direct work to most appropriate resource. Employ lower cost resources produces a saving. 
  
• Case performance management -  enhanced capability to manage cases. 
  
• Use of electronic communication and document management 
  
• Validation of new cases – all new cases to be supplied with all relevant information to save checking and chasing. A simple check list to be employed. 
  

Debtors: 

• Improve the web site for making electronic debtors payments
  

o    Clear branding

o    direct link to e-payments pages

o    payment information written under A-Z

o    improve search functions

o    e-forms shown clearly

o    Receipt generated in printable format

• Email invoices and reminders to external customers
  
• Removing waste activities from the current process
  

o    Introduction of super users

o    Design and upload of new invoice template – channel customers direct to the service

o    Invoices for green wheelie bins at Maidstone

o    Generation of credit notes

o    Change service originators access level

Creditors 

• Introduction of super users – as above
  
• Emailing purchase orders and remittance advices to suppliers – as above
  
• Removing waste activities from the current process
  

o    Finance clerks being able to mark orders as in dispute

o    Print a report of all large payments to be authorised, rather than doing them individually

Planning 

• Buying a stamp that does date and reference number in one go which saves 3.5 hours a day
  
• Changing standard letters to put them into plain English which cut calls by 50%
  

Thanks to Maidstone Borough Council for this example - further details from Alasdair Robertson AlasdairRobertson@maidstone.gov.uk

Additional Improvements from Maidstone

1. Training on technology so that it is better used
   
2. Logging correspondence electronically (i.e. the post book) so that it is stored centrally and can be easily accessed by all users
   
3. Longer living herby shrubs and trees – less maintenance required than twice annual planting
   
4. Getting the contractor to do the design of the beds
   
5. Co-location of staff carrying out similar types of work
   
6. Simple improvements to communication; for example – by taking and post code and ensuring that adequate details are gather from the customer first time around, numerous missed visits can be prevented
   
7. Cut out checking and chasing – job details logged correctly the first time around
   
8. Missed bins – cut out the middle man
   

Thanks to Maidstone Borough Council for these examples - further details from Alasdair Robertson AlasdairRobertson@maidstone.gov.uk

Contact Monitoring

Idea: Improve the web site for customer with interaction to services Result: Increasing take-up of the websites through improved interactions based around what the customer wants 

Idea: Review levels of monitoring. Result: Challenging existing assumptions on the benefits of monitoring contractors 

Idea: Remove non value adding activities from current process Results:

• Cut out doubling up on instruction issuing – instructions issued electronically only (unless a call needed for a specific purpose) which will cut out unnecessary phone calls
  
• Also remove double-checking or counting where two sections are involved. Customer services not always carrying out tasks often leads to admin support person checking this also
  
• Remove unnecessary inspections; or get the contractor to do them
  
• Staff issuing the instructions should be able to access the IT system locally. In one example, tickets were logged by the contact centre onto the system, but were then printed off at the authority’s depot and had to be faxed across to the appropriate section where they were based in another building
  

Thanks to Maidstone Borough Council for these examples - further details from Alasdair Robertson AlasdairRobertson@maidstone.gov.uk

Let a thousand flowers bloom!

"Our approach is largely driven by the ‘Accumulation of Marginal Gains’ in the same way as the British Cycling team… in other words we’ve found it far more productive to save £10k on 10 small, easy, straight forward steps than a single £100k project. The later we find involves more complexity and therefore risk. As a good example we spent many thousands of pounds of man hours to remove 30-40 hours of calls/ week from a service and relocate them to (cheaper) contact centre staff. I doubt this has a pay back time of less than 5 years but in those days we didn’t measure the costs accurately enough. Learning from this we removed a further 50% of calls by making the letters easier for customers to read. Similarly we’ve reviewed the use of our websites with real customers and determined that the most cost effective way to encourage greater uptake is not developing new services but simply making sure the existing site is clear enough to use and we take all opportunities to publicise it!

Some more information can be seen on our case study (http://www.southeastiep.gov.uk/case3.asp?PageRef=118&CaseStudyRef=73)."

Thank you to Alasdair Robertson   Head of Business Improvement Maidstone Borough Council for this - and more (see later postings) - contribution. He can be contacted on AlasdairRobertson@maidstone.gov.uk

This blog is not alone!!

This blog can make you laugh!

Just recieved an 'out of the blue' email (via Linked-In) from a Spanish procurement executive who said my posting on the 13 guidelines for procuring leadership development suppliers made him smile and laugh! (http://smallcreativeideas.blogspot.com/2009/02/procurement-hrummph.html)

That's good then! 

:-)

Waste Reduction and Collection

The idea: A block of small business units owned by the Council produced a range of waste items which required a number of skips to be emptied.  The idea was to minimise waste produced and to reduce the number of skips and skip emptying

Results: the review resulted in a reduction in waste and in skips and skip emptying.  It produced an initial saving of £8,000 per annum.

Leadership: Best value undertook a review of waste produced. The ISP (Internal service provider) offered a cheaper service than the private contractor and reviewed the overall number of skips used.

Lessons: Private companies will support the Council’s efforts especially when savings are made.

Contact: D. Hibbert david.hibbert@chesterfield.gov.uk

Thanks to Chesterfield Borough Council for this example.

Integration of separate ISO9000 Quality Management System (QMS).

The idea: The Council had implemented separate ISO9000 QMS into many service areas.  The idea was to integrate these, previously separate, Quality Management Systems into one.

Results: The outcome was a saving in external inspection fees of £12,000 per annum.  In addition the integration enabled a more effective QMS to be provided by eliminating duplication, reducing the number of inspections and focusing more on continuous improvement measures.

Leadership: the Leadership provided an essential co-ordinating role which enabled the disparate service areas to be drawn together and progressed as one system.

Lessons: The importance of regularly reviewing existing systems/arrangements.

Contact: Mr. Mark Evans 01246 345292 or email:  mark.evans@chesterfield.gov.uk

Thanks to Chesterfield Borough Council for this example.

Governance and Democratic Services

A review of the printing and publication costs within Democratic Services has led to a change whereby more documents are sent out electronically and publication costs are reduced by sharing, this will save WBC £8k p.a

Thanks to Wokingham Borough Council for this example.

Increase income through traded services to schools

WBC produces a Schools Traded Services brochure. This initiative is to ensure that the charges are increased by inflation plus any extra requirements in specific service areas when the brochure is produced.

These changes need to be made in the autumn prior to taking effect the following April and in addition we have begun charging for assistance with Head Teacher appointments. We are looking to generate an extra £5k with this.

Thanks to Wokingham Borough Council for this example

Sports Development

The idea is that by promoting our sports opportunities better and by developing new courses,  especially to cater for a wider age range (i.e the Adult and Senior age group) then there is an opportunity to make this service cost neutral,  an increase in income of £8k would achieve this.

Thanks to Wokingham Borough Council for this example

New innovation hub

“We will shortly be launching our online innovation hub which is aimed at encouraging staff to come up with the small ideas and for other staff in the organisation to assess them.  This ensures that there is transparency and individual managers cannot hide or block staff ideas” 

This innovation was just sent to me from a council. On their suggestion – I will go back to them in the Summer when the ideas will have begun to roll in!

Join up with your Public Sector Partners to produce a joint Newsletter

We produce our public newsletter Our City with our partners from the police, health service and the fire and rescue service. So instead of the public getting four newsletters they just get the one from all of us. Obviously this results in lots of savings for the public sector as a whole and other benefits. As a result Our City won Council Publication of the Year at the 2008 Good Communication Awards

It costs £36k each edition which is sent out six times a year.

By sharing our newsletter we:

• stop duplication of any information
  
• save paper - its great for the environment as we reduce our carbon footprint as a city
  
• save money on postage and print -  we're using our resources far more effectively as each organisation doesn’t have the expense of producing their own newsletter
  
• build better partnership links and work together on initiative that perhaps before Our City we would not have known anything about and share good practice
  
• offer information to customers on partnership and citywide initiatives in one publication
  

 Thank you to Stoke City Council for this contribution - for further information please contact fay.boulton@stoke.gov.uk

AES Extracts

One council kindly sent me these examples from their Annual Efficiency Statement - all of which have saved the organisation at least £10K

• Procurement cards instead of official purchase orders used for small purchases

• Negotiating a reduction in software purchases and resulting maintenance charges

• Additional licensing fee Income collected with no increase in staff resource
  

Thank you

Council newspaper/magazine

Idea: To substitute a hard copy biannual magazine with a quarterly ezine to registered residents.

Result: Savings of around £9,000 pa 

Leadership and follow up: Driven by the need for cost savings and a realisation that not all residents bother to read the magazine. So residents were given the opportunity six months in advance of the change to register to receive the magazine via e-mail.  If residents are unable to receive e-mail they can still request a hard copy

Thanks for this example