Transformation

IEWM has allocated funding for transformational change and shared services activities to all local and fire authorities across the West Midlands supplemented by extensive hands-on support. In addition, IEWM has set up a BPI/Lean/ Systems Thinking Framework Agreement which promotes skills transfer into the public sector.

Take up of the contract has been widespread with considerable savings to authorities in contract administration as a result of using the agreement. Due to the success of this OGC buyingsolutions have now developed a follow on national framework agreement based on the skills transfer principles which underpin our approach.

The estimated return on investment from the IEWM transformation programme is c£30m over the next five years, coupled with a strong emphasis on sustainable change and customer focused service improvements.

Some examples of the results to date include:

•  In the Staffordshire Moorlands/High Peak Alliance the in house systems thinking methodology is now being used to combine and improve services across the Alliance to deliver savings of £1.7m per annum over three years;
• Warwick District Council has redesigned two services on an end-to-end basis. Iin Housing Benefits there has been a reduction in the average time taken to process new claims from 19 days to an average of just 49 minutes while Housing Repair times have dropped from 20 to 2.8 days;
• In Telford & Wrekin a review of the transport system has identified savings of around £1.2m over the next three years and £0.9m per annum thereafter;
• In Stratford-on-Avon planning officers have redesigned their approach to dealing with planning applications resulting in a reduction in processing times for householder applications from 123 to 31 days on average; a saving of 92 days per application;
• A review of Disabled Facilities Grants in Newcastle Borough Council and Staffordshire County Council has identified the potential to reduce the completion of associated works (walk-in showers and stairlifts) from 484 days to 56 days on average (these activities make up 90% of grants);
• Highway repairs in Stoke-on-Trent City Council – a reduction in the average time to repair defects from 38 days to 1.1 days and a corresponding £140k savings per annum.