1. The Council of the Future™
- and how to get there
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2. Key points
• The Council of the Future will be very different from what it is
today
• It has to be – financial pressures will force it, as will customer
demands for service
• Challenge or opportunity?
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3. What can you do? Four choices:
• Ignore it – it will go away
• Cut costs (and services) – not sustainable
• Increase revenues (not practical)
• Or do things differently; break with the old ways and do more
for less
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4. www.socitmconsulting.co.uk

5. What will the Council of the Future look like?
• Smaller, leaner than at present – fewer, smaller buildings
• Fewer staff directly employed
• Closer to its citizens and communities – really listening
• Smarter use of staff resources, smart working
• Shared services, partnerships, Total Place, LAA, LSP
• Information recognised as the key asset and managed as
such
• Lean systems thinking embedded in the organisation
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6. The opportunities
• Re-think systems and processes from scratch
• Lean systems – don’t just do things differently, do different
things
• Use ICT to support completely new ways of working
• Don’t just think of 3-5% savings, think 20-30% or even more
• A culture of continuous improvement embedded in the
organisation
• Real partnerships – and joined up working a reality
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7. Up to 50% reduction in central office costs
10-20% reduction in central staff costs (HR,
accounting, finance, legal, admin, ICT, corporate
communications)
5-20% in key service costs – social care,
children’s services, housing etc
Up to 90% reduction in transaction costs (for
typically 2 – 10 million transactions per annum)
Better customer service, customer satisfaction
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8. The key signs
• No paper! (or very little)
• Fewer, smaller office buildings
• Manager of services, not necessarily provider
• Outsourcing and partnership working the norm, not the
exception
• Self-serve internally and externally
• Heavy use of ICT to support processes
• Information the key asset
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9. Here’s how – the jigsaw
• Key are the culture change and the move to electronic
records – enables smart and mobile working, transactional
capability of the web, and saves 20% of office space
• Smart working, home working, mobile working and hot
desking can release another 30% of accommodation costs
• It’s not enough to fit just some of the pieces – they’re all
needed to achieve the final vision and benefits outcomes
• And they all have to be completed – dabbling is not enough
(eg ERDMS has to be corporate, not just some services)
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11. Better for less
Green Joined up services
Resilient Agile, responsive Outcomes measured
Less office space Reduced staff Better service Information- key asset
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12. Some questions…..
• Does the council really, really want to change? (if not, don’t
start)
• Does it really understand its customer requirements? How?
• Is the council’s information recognised as the single most
important resource?
• Is the council’s information managed appropriately – secure,
accurate etc
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13. Some questions…..
• Is it clear who “owns” the website? Needs to be corporate –
communications and customer service?
• Are customer journeys for each transaction fully understood
and customer driven?
• Does the council use shared services and partnerships to
best effect?
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14. What are the barriers?
• Fear of the unknown (risk averse)
• Uncertainty about the ultimate benefits (show me)
• Accepted wisdom on KPIs (measure process, not outcome)
• Reluctance to “think out of the box”
• Nervousness about significant re-allocation of budget – to
invest in change
• Silos, internal politics
• Trying to do too much too soon – manageable steps
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15. Thank you!
For more information, contact:
Doug.maclean@socitmconsulting.co.uk
www.socitmconsulting.co.uk