Dr Andrew Larner - Maintaining & Improving Services in a time of Austerity

Improvement andEfficiency

South East

Andrew LarnerManaging Director

Improvement and Efficiency South East

Maintaining and Improving Services in a time of Austerity



What know the financial picture …• External spend for public sector in England is £221Bn …• of which £50Bn is local government• 96% of our external spend is in 4 areas

WasteConstruction Corporateservices

Social care

• But the position isn't static• Costs are rising sharply in waste and social care



… and we know what the financial future is• The impact of core grant cuts will vary

– South east between 5% and 50% of revenue– Some councils in other regions can be over 80%

• Reactions are varied

• Additional support will be very scarce– Specific grants– Improvement support

• Local government performance has improved– But at a price

• The current cuts are only a part of the picture– Expecting collaboration across the public sector– Passing the budget to the customer

• So the overall trend– Spend will be down– What we will control will reduce

• But there is hope!



We can squeeze more savings from the basics• On average third of external spend is on

commodities

• Whitehall is centralising this– Local government doesn’t effectively use its buying

organisations– How will we be judged if we don’t improve

• In simple terms we need to know:– Have we got the best price– Are we using the prices we agreed– Are we managing demand

• Most effort seems to be on improving price

• But its common to find high off contract spend

• Are we monitoring external spend …– Others will be!



… but we can apply the lessons of the last 5 years to other areas• Over the last 5 years we have had an unprecedented

chance to experiment on improvement and efficiency

• We know what works and how it works

• We can repeat the successes from one are in another

• For example we can apply the lessons from Construction in Corporate Services and Waste Management

• But whilst we can drive down unit costs, total cost in some areas is rising:

– Waste from the move from landfill to incineration– Social care from an ageing population

• So whilst we can do the basics, reshape markets there is more that we can do …



At the same time we can reduce the cost of audit and inspection



... so we need to stop doing things the same way …

Collecting rubbish without collection

Sharing learning online



… and we should just stop doing some things …• IESE piloted the concept of “Care bay” in

two areas– Enabling exchange of service between

members of the community– Reducing dependence on formal care– Bringing transparency to the market

• IESE is going to market for the full soluton



... and we need to start doing other things• To date we have only helped a few customers with

care services

• As funding has reduced so has the number we can help

• Often there are more people self funding than are funded by the council

• Add to this the trend to get our customer to commission their own care

• So the customer needs to make the best deal

• We developed the Care Funding Calculator to– Clearly specify the service needed– Calculate the fair price for care– On average council costs have reduced

• We are putting the Calculator on the web– Enabling the customer to do the calculation– This works for customers who hold budget– And self funders



So what are the barriers?

• Council sovereignty• ‘not invented here’• Wanting to do it all ourselves• Local capacity• Supply chain management behaviour• Collaborative arrangements do not exist

The obstacles are not technical. Local Government can now define, procure and deliver some of the most complicated projects in government.



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Dr Andrew Larner - Maintaining & Improving Services in a time of Austerity

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