The challenge
Like the majority of Councils, Sutton Council is under budget pressure driven by rapidly increasing ASC spend. The Council had taken steps to control short term spend. Longer term, significant action was needed to deliver a balanced budget.
Sutton commissioned PPL to conduct a comprehensive review of ASC expenditure and deliver a strategic savings plan.
Our approach
The review and development of the strategic plan was completed in 10 weeks and followed the key principles of:
- Analysis – reviewing historical financial data, analysing spending trends, benchmarking, reviewing current cost reduction plans and growth assumptions; and modelling potential savings opportunities.
- Engagement – interviews with key stakeholders, workshops, development of opportunities with service owners.
- Co-design – developing actionable recommendations/ opportunities for cost savings, prioritising and “stress testing” recommendations, iterative development and user testing of the strategic plan.
Our Impact
We worked closely with existing teams to deliver innovative, practical and sustainable change proposals which will lead to sustainable reductions in costs, improvements in practice, increased staff retention and motivation; as well as opportunities for integration.
The ASC strategic plan was agreed by the Portfolio Holder and Leader of the Council in March 2024. It contains 30 quantified opportunities, estimated to deliver a total saving/ benefit of £11.5m over the next three years.
Following this initial phase, PPL were re-commissioned to help mobilise the implementation of the strategic plan and lead the delivery of key projects. Current data shows the programme is on track to over-deliver against the £4.97m target for this year.