Jason LowtherDirector (Policy & Delivery), Birmingham City Council

Re-inventing local services Improving services, reducing costs

About Birmingham• Britain's biggest city outside London • Over a million residents• Regional capital - over 42,000 businesses • A safe city with crime rates lower than all other core cities• An international centre of business and professional services• Europe's youngest city• A city of faiths• A leading “Science City” and “Digital City”

Sustainable Community Strategy Vision 2026• Global City with a Local Heart• Economic prosperity and wellbeing• Building aspirations of our young people• High quality of life for all citizens• Improving health inequalities• Tackling community safety issues• Diverse and strong communities

Birmingham’s building blocks

Strong localStrategic partnership

Consensus on2026 outcomes / LAA

Commitment tocollaboration

Test investment vs. LAA outcomes

Key PrinciplesPrevention

Personalisation

Business TransformationCo-Production

Partnership

Birmingham’s Total Place ambition3 objectives

• Put citizens at the heart of better service delivery

• Identify efficiency savings

• Develop new collaborative leadership

Work undertaken so far…

• Map expenditure and investment in City of Birmingham

£7,500,000,000

• Test alignment of investment to priorities

• Identifying the challenges and solutions

Pilot (July 09 – Feb 2010)6 Project Themes• Early intervention for children with behavioural difficulties• Working with people with learning disabilities• Working with people with mental health problems• Reducing the impact of drug and alcohol misuse• Gangs• The Poolway ‘Total Community’ project

Each Project Theme will work on:-

Scope Deep Dive Innovation Savings Barriers

Collaborative Leadership• Common vision and purpose• Strong strategic leadership• Empowering staff to be creative• Working across organisational boundaries• Different ways of working, thinking, behaving• Citizen/community focus

Prevention – investment and return

• Children and families - £400m benefits for £40m investment (over 15 years)

• Gangs - £14m from 13 incidents

• Alcohol – 10% reduction in health costs

• Drugs - £9.50 saved for each £1 spent on treatment

Stabilisation/Harm

prevention

Needs recognised

Care planning

InterventionRecovery /

maintenance

Drugs and alcohol misuse

1313

Using customer Insight…

Better informed customer strategyBetter served customersResident needs better met More satisfied residentsResident trust in “gold standard” of data protection and securityIncreased staff satisfactionImproved approach to equality, diversity & social inclusionRaise city reputation

Build Customer Knowledge

To help us understand what our customers need and want

Develop Customer StrategyTo treat our customers differently according to

their needs and preferences

Manage CommunicationTo inform the right people at the right time and

show we are listening

Customer SegmentationTo group customers with similar characteristics

and service needs

Service wanted by member of public?NoYes

No

Yes

Direct economic exchange betweenorganisation and member of public?

Citizen

ObligateeBeneficiary

Customer

Adapted from “Engaging public sector clients” (John Alford, 2009)

15

Customer Strategy

Outcome-based Service Transformation driven by customer need

Customer Needs Outcomes Initiatives Investment Output

Continuous enhancement of “joined up” service solutions in collaboration

Segment-specific solutions increasingly inform and drive operational service planning, budgeting, delivery and performance management

16

Strategies based on customer needs

Group c

Group b

Segment Profiles1

Service Delivery Framework28 High-level Service Categories based on customer needHigh, medium, low importance of access to information and service usage per segmentPreferred / most receptive channels per segment

2

Mosaic Public Sector DataGroup b

Group b

Group a

Key events and service needs

Ssrvice needService needService need

abcabcbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbabcbacbacbacbabacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbacbac+

Segment Service Plan Group cSegment Service Plan Group b

Segment-specific Service SolutionsStrategic PrioritiesService Offering – most relevant services per segmentChannel Mix for Service Delivery

Segment Service Plan Group a

3

17

Unreceptive ChannelsTVLeafletsNewspapers

Preferred (Receptive) ChannelsInternetTelemarketingCommunity Associations & religion-based channels

Key DescriptorsLarge families, some overcrowdingLow qualificationsService sector or manufacturing jobsModest incomesTerraced housingReligion importantMulticultural communities – Pakistani, Bangladeshi and other Asian minorities, plus Eastern Europeans, Somalis and CaribbeanLanguage issues, poor or no English literacyHealth issues, including obesity and high infant mortalitySense of community

Birmingham Group F (13.3%)Diverse (large) families, but mainly from South Asian origin living in inner city terraces

Customer Insight on drugs misuse

People dealing in drugs at least a fairly big problem in the local area

Barriersyes

Partners

no

no yes

Government

Agreement and action with partners (including voluntary and private sector) (O/P)

Agreement and action with partners and central government departments and/or agencies(O/P/G)

Change within one organisation (O/O)

Agreement and action with central government departments and/or agencies (O/G)

Emerging barriers• Short-term financial horizons

• Conflicting performance management and regulatory / audit expectations on different partners/sectors

• “Accountable officer” responsibilities

• Inflexible national rules can get in the way of sensible outcomes

• The burden of national reporting needs to be reduced.

• Facility for rigorous evidence-based analysis and evaluation of programmes

• Evaluation of the “value added” by various commercial customer insight products

Improving services and reducing costs involves …• Service redesign rather than modification,

doing different things• Prevention and early intervention

rather than treating the consequences• Being a public servant for Birmingham’s Citizens• Helping residents and communities to help themselves