Business Delivery Review is already
producing improvements
Surrey County
Council’s radical programme
to improve its services and increase
efficiency – the Business
Delivery Review (BDR) is already
coming up with better services for
Surrey people.
With increased investment proposed
for front-line services, refining
and improving ‘behind the
scenes’ administrative processes
and delivering value for money,
a number of improvements are coming
online. These include:
Transport
co-ordination centre
Surrey County Council has launched
a Transport Co-ordination Centre
(TCC), a groundbreaking initiative
that will co-ordinate passenger
transport across all council services.
The Centre will look at the various
schemes run by different services
and organisations and will make
more efficient and cost-effective
use of the hundreds of vehicles
a day carrying older people, school
children and people with disabilities
to day centres and schools across
the county.
They will plan the best routes
for school transport, social care
and other transport services. The
planning function will be supported
by sophisticated computer software
that can allocate appropriate transport
to meet the council’s regular
transport needs, as well as the
extra one-off requirements that
inevitably arise.
The Centre will be able, through
this centralised scheduling and
route planning, to make more effective
use of existing vehicle fleets,
working closely with other transport
companies. These include the community
transport and voluntary sector operators
who have a major part to play in
the success of the Centre.
The Centre is an integral part
of the County Council’s goal
to make the most efficient use of
its resources. Surrey is the first
local authority in England to deliver
such a comprehensive package of
transport integration, and has attracted
considerable interest from the Government
and other authorities.
Counter
services – you’ll be
amazed how we can help
Four key locations across the county
have been picked to pilot a special
information service to see how the
public reacts and gauge how useful
they find it. The venues are: Caterham
Valley library, Camberley library,
Horley Helpshop and Woking Citizens
Advice Bureau.
People are able to get on-the-spot
help with a wide variety of issues
and queries, such as:
- reporting potholes and damaged
pavements
- finding childminders and nursery
places
- applying for bus passes and
Blue Badges
- or choosing local schools
Shared Service
Centre - the best in Europe
We are raising efficiency by bringing
our vital business support services
under one roof - including payroll,
ICT, finance & procurement and
many HR functions. This new facility,
at our groundbreaking Shared Service
Centre, which is saving money by
ensuring that all purchasing is
handled through one central resource
- allowing us to negotiate better
deals for Surrey taxpayers.
Outside the Shared Service Centre,
other improvements to look forward
to include:
- Reviewing the Council’s
contracts and buying arrangements
to achieve maximum value for money;
- Consolidation of support services,
administrative functions and systems
to achieve greater consistency
and reduce duplication
- Reducing the number of buildings
used by the Council so that the
money can be re-invested in services,
such as extending library opening
hours and providing more library
books and computers;
- Net savings of £139 million
over five years. This is on top
of investment in social care front
line services;
- An overall reduction of about
560 jobs, including a layer of
management and overlapping administrative
posts; and
- the gross figure is a reduction
of 680 jobs but 120 new jobs will
be created, mainly in front-line
social care.
Click
here for more news on the Surrey
CC Site |
