Client:	Rossendale Borough Council
Contract Type:	Revenue and Benefits Outsourcing

                        

The background

In August 2007, Rossendale Borough Council achieved a ‘Good’ rating following a Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) inspection the previous April. This rating − on which Rossendale scored 40 out of a possible maximum of 60 − made it one of only two district councils in the country to have gone from ‘Poor’ to ‘Good’ between assessments. Rossendale’s Chief Executive, Carolyn Wilkins, said the Council was “thrilled” with the result, adding: “We couldn’t have done it without the support of our partners.”

Prominent among these partners is Capita Local Government Services. One of the key achievements highlighted by the 2007 CPA report is revenue cost savings of £190,000, new investment, faster processing of benefit claims and improved council tax collection rates achieved through the outsourcing to Capita of a range of customer contact services and administration of revenues and benefits. The contract, which became operational in October 2006, is worth £13.6m over ten years, and will yield £1m of savings during that period.

Within its first six months in operation - the period covered by the CPA report - the partnership with Capita was already delivering clear financial and service benefits to Rossendale and its citizens. Alongside the cost savings, increases of 0.5% were achieved in Rossendale’s BVPIs for council tax and NNDR collection, the second highest in Lancashire during the period. While improvements in many other areas, ranging from crime reduction and higher recycling to progress on regeneration and a much-enhanced website, clearly contributed to Rossendale’s improved CPA rating, the Capita agreement played a key role.

What the CPA report says

The CPA report published in August 2007 comments that “over the past three years [Rossendale] Council has worked extremely hard” and “its current performance is good and it is improving performance in most areas”. It adds that “the Council has an ambitious programme of improvement, which is based on a well-developed and clear understanding of local needs”.

What Capita is handling for Rossendale

Following a competitive tendering process, Rossendale chose Capita as its partner to deliver a range of customer contact services and administer its revenues and benefits services. Under the contract, which went live in September 2006, Capita works closely with Rossendale to handle processing of benefit claims and increase the collection of council tax. The partnership involves council staff working for Capita, providing, for example, increased home visits for people with mobility problems by visiting officers equipped with mobile computers. Capita also manages the council’s ‘One Stop Shop’ handling housing and council tax-related enquiries.

One of the key innovations under the contract is a new telephone service to help local people with enquiries about council tax, housing benefits, council tax benefits and business rates. The dedicated 0845 helpline takes callers straight through to fully-trained Capita staff − and lines are open until 7pm so people can call after they get home from work.

The statistics speak for themselves

Aside from the 0.5% increases achieved in both Council tax and NNDR collection during the first six months of the Capita contract, several other statistics also bear witness to its positive impact on service quality. The time taken to process a new benefit claim has been slashed from 40 days to 24. 90% of calls to the new 0845 contact centre are answered within 20 seconds, and 96% of customers surveyed while visiting the One Stop Shop between October 2006 and March 2007 were satisfied with the service they received.

Major benefits − both now and going forward

Rossendale is benchmarking Capita’s performance against the private sector rather than against other councils, and is delighted with the outcome. “We’ve had massive improvements on the BVPIs and customer service,” says Andrew Buckle, Head of Rossendale’s Customer Services. “The savings on the contract alone will be £1 million over the ten-year contract. That’s equivalent to a tenth of the Council’s budget.”

What is more, Rossendale isn’t resting on its laurels − and is actively seeking out ways to get incremental benefits from Capita’s network. These steps include using Capita to help  introduce a new 24-hour emergency number, create a ‘virtual’ disaster recovery centre for the council’s systems and data, and send out advertising to encourage citizens to take up the benefits due to them. All this has occurred within a year of the original contract. “We are leveraging best use of Capita’s resources,” comments Andrew Buckle. “This means working together across systems, people and processes to exploit all the opportunities Capita has to offer us.”

Capita’s 1-2-3 approach

Capita has used an approach it calls ‘1-2-3’ to deliver best value and service for Rossendale, blending local delivery and efficient back-office processing through its shared service infrastructure:

1. The front office − keeping it local, to improve the service and experience
2. The middle office – making contact centres work, to boost efficiency and ensure the right type of contact.
3. The back office – making it smart, using Capita’s shared service centre in Blackburn to provide back-office services that are not invisable to the customer.