Local Authorities

The BPG ‘Optimise’ Method is evidenced from over 500 complex supplier relationships. It shows there are 8 characteristics present in every successful complex relationship. We can help you successfully implement these quickly to improve service innovation, supplier relationships and drive down BAU costs.

Click here to see how the ‘Optimise’ process can help you drive maximum value in your strategic supplier relationships.

We’ve dealt with optimising over 500 complex supplier relationships. More than 50% of complex supplier relationships experience misunderstandings between client and supplier over your requirements and expectations.

If the right foundations are not in place to drive maximum value, you may experience:

• Additional charges and costs for ‘misunderstood expectations’
• A lack of understanding of contractual roles and responsibilities
• Governance and performance escalation not clearly delineated
• Senior client executives not being clear on their expectations and dynamics of the relationship
• Not enough investment by senior executives in the resourcing or skills of the client supplier management team
• Loss of key in-house expertise to the supplier (inadvertent staff poaching)
• Employee resistance to new working methods from the supplier
• Clashes of culture between client and supplier staff and so forth.

Local authorities are in the single largest financial crisis in their history. Budgets are continuing to reduce in cash as well as in real terms, demand and expectations on services are growing, and there continues to be significant financial pressure to improve outcomes and reduce inequalities across the population.

Responses to these challenges are continuing to be fairly well defined: improving productivity and impact through shared services, a ‘shift to prevention’ and more effective joint working with other public agencies, with the third sector and with communities. Also noted are that these changes are occurring against the backdrop of a fall in local government employment by 25% (800,000 employees) over the last 7 years, and an increase in net borrowing (£8.6bn in over the last two years). The key issues being faced include:

• An ageing population (the pension-age population is forecast to rise by close to a third [34%] and the number of over-75s in the population is set to grow by 89% over the next 20 years).
• Fragmented families
• Housing affordability
• Increasing pressure on social care and health services
• Higher expectations of public service quality and convenience
• Localised environmental risks around flooding and air pollution are expected to heighten
• Greater fiscal devolution (will present opportunities to councils to ‘control their destiny’ as well as risks around the resilience of their local tax bases).

Advances in External Service Delivery

To support local authorities in their financial challenges of having to keep ahead and deal with the issues above, IT and technological innovations are being made to accelerate the move to digital self service for many of these services. In addition, strategic service partners in outsourcing services or providing shared services (whether public or private sector providers) are improving their approach to be more flexible and increasing the innovation quotient to improve external service delivery to help local authorities deal with these challenges.