It is thin client time for local authorities as their BMI reduces - The new operating model for Local Authorities- it was our idea!

Suffolk council plans to outsource virtually all services

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/sep/22/suffolk-county-council-outsource-services


In the early winter of 2007 I was sitting in a pub connected to a hotel adjacent to Newcastle Race Course drinking a very pleasant of Black Sheep when I saw the light.  I was sitting discussing our days work with WSP Group's head of UK Local Government Consultancy John Nicholson.  Myself and John had been commissioned to work with North Tyneside Council to review its Highways and Open Spaces Services.  The project had a joint remit, the first being a best value review of the services and two a proposal and indication of the willingness of the private sector to undertake these services.  The reason I share this story with you is that it is the first time I really understood the concept of a local authority being a "thin client"

In our work we have determined that North Tyneside (NT) wanted to get themselves into a position whereby they became a true representative of the Customer (Resident, Business or Tourist).  With our proposal we were able to get the Council, Elected mayor and workforce to a position whereby NT would purely become a commissioning agent, "a thin client" NT would outsource the services, set challenging targets, qualitative output measures and reduce cost and improve service delivery.

This was the first time I had proposed a "thin client" the Customer representative in this case being NT being the commissioning agent.

It therefore came as no suprise when I read this morning that Suffolk County Council had seen the light and was looking to become a professional commissioning agent outsourcing many services.  As someone who has trawled through badly written local authority contracts whose outputs measures were limited and mainly quantitative and the contractor was running rings around the local authority I understand the concerns that many of the merchants of doom bring forward at this time.

The key to delivering a professional service via outsourcing is to get the contract right.  You do not need to have the brain of Carol Voderman to understand that the private and charity sector can deliver services at a fraction of the cost.  Whilst they can deliver services cheaper than "in house/DLO" type operations unless the contract is right, clearly specified and managed the customer experience will suffer.

The secret to good commissioning is ensure that the customer focus remains and one contract service outcome that should be included within every contract is to ensure "that every outsourced service provider ensures that their services spends more time with the customer"   This measure will ensure that by spending more time with the customer that customer experience and perception will increase.

The notion of the "this client" is one every organisation that has a high management overhead should look very carefully at.  The "low hanging fruit" which many claim does not exist in the public sector does exist.  This includes most of the transactional business on the front line.  I have advised many local authorities that this transactional business is best done elsewhere and retain the real skill in house if you have any doubt on the ability of the service to deliver.

One such example is Housing Benefits. Lets call this a 4 stage process (1) Customer Advice, (2)Data/Doc Collection (3) Assessment of the Claim and (4) Payment - It is clear that stages 1,2 and 4 are transactional some engineers would call this a commoditised element.  Looking at this four stage process it is fair to say that Council's area of expertise is the assessment and may wish to retain this process in house whilst they outsource the other stages.  Stick to your CORE service and expertise and outsource the rest!

Whilst I am on the subject of housing benefits there is massive scope for improvement is service and cost savings here as each English district council enforces a system which is generic against a set of rules which are generic regardless of where you live.  Its time for Housing Benefits services to be joined up!

The success of the outsourced National Pandemic Flu Service where the Department of Health was the "thin client" and private sector delivered the service proves that where competition exists amongst suppliers then outsourcing really does deliver.