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A model approach to transforming public services

Andrew Grant, chief executive of Aylesbury Vale District Council, explains how his authority is tackling central government cuts by operating in a more businesslike way.

It’s a story we’re now all very familiar with – five years of unprecedented government funding reductions, and more still to come, which are creating huge pressures on our budgets and services. 

There’s no doubt it’s tough, but the Aylesbury Vale District Council (AVDC) team is committed to managing those cuts, to continue delivering quality services for residents. Since 2010, we have saved more than £10.5m through a number of measures and efficiencies, including restructuring senior management, channel shift, creating new income streams and redesigning services. 

We’ve stopped some services, changed the way we work, started charging for some services and introduced new ones, while protecting the vulnerable where we can. It’s a challenging ongoing process but I’m really proud to say that we recently won two iESE awards (‘Council of the Year’ and ‘Transforming Local Services’) for our transformation work. That’s testament to the dedication and talent of our staff. 

We can’t rest on our laurels – we still have a predicted gap of around £7m to fill by 2020. Our challenge is to keep working to change the old model of the council from one dependent on the central government grant, to one focused on income from other sources, whilst keeping customers at the centre of what we do. 

We believe the best way forward is to operate more commercially – we call this approach the New Business Model (NBM) and it’s something we’ve been doing since 2012. This is a programme that includes service reviews, new income generating ideas and developing a culture change for staff, elected members and the public at large. 

In all aspects, the customer is put at the heart of decision making. We look at what our customers want from our services and spend time collecting the necessary data and consumer insights to make sure that we’re delivering the best service possible. 

Much of the work takes place in our ‘Engine Room’, which is like an internal consultancy, with some permanent staff and others seconded to specific projects or service reviews. This gives the space to develop proposals, builds knowledge, and allows the NBM message to spread.  

Many innovative ideas have been developed here, including the Local Development Order (LDO) for home extensions. In short, the LDO (which is an option residents pay for) gives homeowners responsibility for ensuring planning guidelines are met and as a result it speeds up the planning process. 

This means less officer time is spent dealing with smaller planning applications. 

One of our most successful products is the paid-for garden waste collection service. Over 13,000 residents are now paying £38 a year to have their garden waste collected, generating more than £450,000 per year of additional income. 

Our commercial approach is not limited to services: capital investment is a major focus. We’ve built commercial properties, which Waitrose and Travelodge rent from us, and we’re currently building a new University Campus for Bucks University and Aylesbury College that will create more rental income whilst providing some courses which are tailored to the needs of the local economy. 

The development of a conference centre within our own offices has played an integral role in reducing our budget deficit. Hiring out AVDC’s facilities generated about £120,000 in 2014-15.

We have also let out additional office space to the NHS, which is generating around £175,000 a year, and housing agencies hire our customer interview booths. 

Changing the infrastructure that supports the council is also key. We’ve moved away from using traditional hardware servers to cloud computing, meaning we can access files and applications over the internet. In fact, we were one of the first councils in the country to move to Amazon Web Services. Moving to cloud technology affords the council greater efficiencies, flexibility and reliability. 

And the big project for the future? Our website. If we want to operate more like a business, we need the sort of website which will do justice to that goal – offering speed, convenience, excellent customer service and service delivery at the push of a button. This is a big investment for us but we’re confident it will go on to deliver savings of more than £300,000 a year.

AVDC is all about change and we will continue to evolve over the next few years. A number of organisations, including the RAF, have been impressed with our approach and have been to visit us to find out more.  For me, this is proof of the good work we are doing, and I must pay tribute to both staff and elected members for working as a team to make the changes which are making the difference. 

I won’t deny these are difficult times, but I feel confident that our approach will help us meet the many challenges which undoubtedly lie ahead.

Andrew Grant

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