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E-enabling change

Five years ago, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC) made a commitment to modernise the way it works, improve the efficiency and quality of its services, and put the customer at the centre of all its activities.

E-enablement of council services, internally and externally, was key to achieving these ambitions. However, this required a major investment in new technology and, like many local authorities, Rotherham faced considerable financial constraints.

The council looked to the private sector for support and in 2003 launched a joint-venture company called RBT (Connect) Ltd. in partnership with BT. Public-private partnerships represent a new way of modernising councils, improving services and cutting costs and work well where a council has the political will to drive through the changes. A number of local authorities have engaged partners to help them achieve performance improvements in this way – as well as to help them cut out unnecessary bureaucracy and move to a customer-centric ethos – using systems designed around the user rather than around the traditions of the organisation.

Joint venture partnerships are often preferred to outsourcing arrangements because staff remain as council employees and can use their local knowledge and experience. This maintains and improves service standards, while increasing efficiency through the use of technology. As well as reducing costs, such partnerships can also become profit centres by running services for other authorities.

During the 12 year life of the RBT partnership, BT is investing £30m in leading-edge technology, new business practices, training and better ways of working. The partnership’s overriding objective is to achieve more for less and, as a result, the council is set to benefit from £50m of efficiency savings. Rotherham will also see an improvement in service quality since much of this money is reinvested into citizen services.

RMBC is already well ahead of Government efficiency targets and in October 2005 was ranked second in the country in an ODPM league table of local authorities which have made cashable savings. In December 2005, Rotherham was ranked first of the Metropolitan authorities.

Many core functions, such as HR, payroll and benefits, now operate more effectively with smaller teams in place, allowing staff to be redeployed into areas with greater resource requirements.

What’s more, savings have already been returned to the council for reinvestment into citizen services, benefiting customers in a range of areas, including improved access to services, cleaner streets, cutting edge technology in schools, and trail-blazing improvements in the benefits service. A new customer service centre has opened in the town centre, another one has opened in the districts and four more are planned across the borough.

Modernised ICT

Underpinning many aspects of this transformation is Rotherham’s ICT infrastructure, which provides the backbone of the organisation. Two years ago it was under capacity, lacking investment and becoming fragile, but a major refreshment programme has improved computer access, increased storage capacity and boosted e-Government potential.

New technology, both at council offices and in employees’ homes, also supports an award winning flexible working scheme which is boosting recruitment and retention at the council.

Rotherham Connect

One of the greatest priorities for any local authority is providing speedy and easy access to services and information and, in Rotherham, a new telephone contact centre now deals with calls from the public, 12 hours a day, five days a week. Developed following consultation with local citizens, the contact centre plays a key role in providing access to services and driving positive engagement between the council and local community.

Rotherham Connect supports enquiries about a whole range of services from council tax through to parking. It has also enabled the launch of Streetpride, one of the biggest environmental projects in the country, which allows residents to contact one hotline number to report litter, graffiti, fly tipping, broken street lights etc. In this way, the contact centre is actively helping to improve the local environment in Rotherham.

Rotherham Grid for Learning

Education in Rotherham is also benefiting from e-Enablement projects. The Rotherham Grid for Learning provides fast, secure broadband Internet access and e-mail to schools. Developed by RBT, the network connects all the borough’s schools enabling pupils and teachers to share resources and access digital tools available through initiatives such as the National Education Network. Looking to the future, businesses, libraries, museums, youth clubs and community groups will also be connected.

Power of collaboration

For many years, more joint working between local government and health has been advocated as a sensible way forward and is being strongly encouraged by national Government.

It has also been on the agenda in Rotherham for some time. In fact, talks about joint working between Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and the health community in Rotherham began more than a decade ago. An information sharing system was seen as vital for improving care, particularly for the most vulnerable members of society. But there were major stumbling blocks over confidentiality of information and the stringent regulations in place, particularly on the NHS side.

When the Council and BT set up RBT, it provided extra technical expertise and know how. A solutions architect put together a technical business case (based on Virtual Private Network technology) for the information sharing project, which was approved by the NHS information authority.

An initial small pilot scheme on part of a hospital site proved a success and has been expanded to a number of other sites. Now, vital information giving a complete picture about a client is available through one network.

A major beneficiary is the accident and emergency department at Rotherham District General Hospital. Previously, the child protection register held by social services was only available in paper form, which quickly got out of date. Now the register is available electronically for designated staff in A&E, with shifts organised to make sure a designated member of staff is always on duty. This has major implications if an at risk child is brought in.

Staff working in health and in Rotherham’s new Children and Young People’s Service can also access all the information available on a client. This means they have the full picture at their fingertips, and can base decisions on full, up to date information. The end result is better care for local residents, many of whom affected by this are the most vulnerable in the community. The joint working initiative is now set for a major expansion across the borough.

e-Procurement

In line with targets outlined in the Gershon review, a major focus for RBT has been to improve the efficiency of internal processes within the council. One award winning example of its success in this area is the implementation of a new procurement strategy.

Before responsibility for procurement was taken over by RBT, the function was not centralised. The council has a 15,000 strong workforce on a large number of different sites spread across the borough and previously each department handled its own buying, resulting in a fragmented and disjointed procurement system. The bottom line was that, despite spending £85m a year procuring goods and services, RMBC was simply not maximising its spending power, or operating with an efficient system.

Drawing on the combined skills of the council and BT, RBT developed a tailor made procurement system, combining leading edge strategic sourcing and a council wide e-procurement system. This was implemented over a period of two and a half years.

The implementation of the custom built e-procurement system means that the vast majority of council goods and services are now selected, ordered and paid for online without a single piece of paper being generated. The council has automated around 70,000 to 80,000 end to end procurement processes a year, buying a huge range of goods and services. Its catalogue now has more than 44,000 items which can be ordered on line.

The cost savings generated by the new procurement system are impressive. In the first year it saved £1m and is on target to save £2.5m this year. Over the 12 year life of the partnership between the council and BT, procurement savings of more than £30m are anticipated.

Beyond south Yorkshire, Rotherham’s progress with procurement and e-Procurement in particular has also been nationally recognised, with the Council securing Beacon Status for procurement for its work in this area. Most recently, RBT was named an e-Government national awards winner for its e-Procurement initiative.

Revenues & benefits

Rotherham’s benefits service also illustrates the radical overhaul of processes which the joint venture partnership has delivered. With benefits totalling more than £60m being paid out annually, prevention of benefit fraud, together with quick and efficient payment of benefits to all those who are entitled to them, is vital to both the council and the local community.

Yet, prior to the creation of RBT, the council’s benefits service had received critical BFI reports in 1999 and 2002 and was struggling to manage demand.

The RBT partnership has provided the council’s revenues and benefits section with a clear strategic purpose and the necessary investment to modernise its IT systems so it provides a more effective service to its customers. RBT has worked with revenues and benefits to modernise back office processes, and improve front office customer service. A modern integrated benefits system now automatically interfaces with the housing rent account, council tax, document imaging, debtors and general ledger IT systems. A fraud management system is also supporting counter fraud investigations.

Following this radical overhaul of internal processes and the modernisation of IT, the council has jumped to a four star CPA rating, even with 20 fewer people on the team. Rotherham is also the lead authority on the national e-Benefits project and is piloting a new e-Benefits system, which allows customers to check their eligibility against all 57 welfare benefits, irrespective of which department or agency is ultimately responsible for administering it. Once an assessment is made by council staff, a single intelligent electronic form is automatically transferred to the council’s back office benefits system, allowing the claim to be processed without delay.

Managing payroll

Efficiency benefits in Rotherham also extend to council employees. For example, the council has launched one of the first local government implementations of a “self-service” HR system, allowing employees to keep personal information updated on a secure part of the council intranet.

The HR intranet site (HRP-i) has been completely overhauled and is being expanded, reducing the number of calls to the service centre and stimulating demand for more added value information to be made available. It is now the second most popular page on the council’s intranet, after the telephone directory. Staff can check on their sickness records and pay details, giving them more control and creating a more accurate HR and payroll database to further improve efficiency.

Moving the partnership forward

RBT is helping Rotherham deliver its e-government strategy and achieve its corporate vision of making the district ‘a prosperous, inclusive and attractive borough where people choose to live, learn and work’. It has already made great strides in improving internal processes and efficiencies. Most importantly, the creation of Rotherham Connect, the launch of new initiatives such as Streetpride and greater collaboration with local education and health organisations are enabling vital improvements in local public services.

Looking to the future, RBT will continue to drive the transformation of Rotherham MBC. Increasingly it is also being called upon to share its experience and expertise to ensure that other local authorities can develop similar examples of best practice throughout the UK.

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