Financial Sustainability
The biggest challenge for councils is trying to deliver the best possible outcomes for their area whilst coping with volatility, financial constraints, and navigating externally imposed changes.
Doing this successfully requires clarity, confidence and an ability to embrace complexity.
The challenge
Complex, demand-led services represent two thirds of a local authority’s budget and, for many, demand and cost in areas are accelerating beyond control. Traditional responses are not working fast enough, if at all, and finding alternatives to address the challenge is a corporate priority.
Tackling the problem
Transforming the productivity of complex, demand-led services (adults and children’s social care, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), travel to school, homelessness) requires a shift to a ‘better outcomes’ focused model. This requires setting the right ambition in your medium-term financial strategy (MTFS), pivoting from in-year savings to multi-year and corporate ownership of shared ambitions.
Good Savings
We firmly believe there are transformative ‘good savings’ left for most councils. We work with you to reset your ambition for the most complex challenges and deliver with confidence and grip.
Prevention
We know that tackling root causes of demand, intervening earlier, and preventing crisis makes sense and saves money, but it’s hard to make space for prevention under pressure. We can help you to set the right ambition, scale up what works, and get a clear picture of the long-term impact.
Local government reform
The landscape of local government is changing, and local leaders have the opportunity to aim for renewal, not just reorganisation. Our highly experienced team is bringing unique evidence, facilitation and delivery support into the heart of local partnerships to build consensus and vision, manage risk and deliver at pace.
Our approach
We focus on ambition, delivery and resilience.
Ambition
We shift the discussion from budgets to outcomes, rapidly diagnosing and building consensus on good savings opportunities across complex systems
Delivery
We empower services to deliver at the front line, focusing efforts where the pressure is greatest. We test and learn building confidence before delivering at scale.
Resilience
We support leadership to drive the change, build and capabilities and sustain the work after we step away.
What type of change is involved?
Simple
For example: restructuring, changing charging policy, simple operational improvements.
Complicated
Complex
For example: influencing major systems to manage demand, prevent escalation, influence behaviour.
Some examples of good savings
- Preventing family breakdown and entry to care.
- Optimising placement sufficency and costs for children in care.
- Maximising independence for adults and embedding strengths-based practice in services.
- Preventing unnecessary escalation within the SEND system, and increasing the number of children and young people who can travel to school independently.
- Influencing resident behaviour to increase recycling.
Applied analytics practice
Our applied analytics team helps public sector leaders make better decisions using clear, practical evidence. We work alongside delivery teams to understand demand, capacity, cost and outcomes, translating complex data into insight that leaders can use with confidence.
Local government reform
Transforming demand – The power of prevention
Applied analytics practice
Our applied analytics team helps public sector leaders make better decisions using clear, practical evidence. We work alongside delivery teams to understand demand, capacity, cost and outcomes, translating complex data into insight that leaders can use with confidence.