The challenge

Limited resources, demand pressures, the need to be financially sustainable, and complexity – local authorities face significant challenges. The good news is not only that it is possible to deliver savings in this context, but to deliver ‘good savings’. We define good savings are those that are not achieved by budget cuts or efficiency gains, but rather as a direct result of achieving better outcomes. Examples include reduced demand for adult social care through increased independence, increased recycling rates, or innovating through commissioning approaches.

The key challenge for local authorities is not the identification of these savings, but the delivery of them – especially if complexity, competing challenges and the need to create shifts in behaviour are not properly planned for.

Our approach

Enabling you to grip today’s challenges and prepare for tomorrow requires simultaneous efforts on two fronts; working directly with your organisation’s services to deliver good savings, and supporting you to shape your organisation into one that is more resilient and better able to grip the challenges of complexity. This approach requires a different approach to financial sustainability, better information on which to take decisions and embedding new ways of working across the organisation.

Organisational Resilience

We define organisational resilience as the ability to anticipate, adapt to and bounce forward from disruption. Instead of viewing resilience as a response to an event, resilience should be viewed as a capability – having the skills needed to be able to respond to disruption – that can be deliberately nurtured and strengthened. We help public service organisations become more resilient so that they are able to thrive, despite the uncertainties of complexity.