LookUp: Achieving Efficiency Savings The Cambridge Education Diagnostic Tool
Cambridge Education provides education services for the London Borough of Islington. CE@Islington have developed a diagnostic tool that involves a financial review of each service or business activity of the Local Authority (LA).
It has achieved ongoing savings and increased income – 10% real terms savings achieved with more identified for future years. The diagnostic allows the LA to look at need, resource use, performance, outputs and outcomes in each of the business or service areas chosen for review. It is a three stage process of review: Strategy Challenge
In this stage, we ask the questions: - What do we deliver?
- Who do we deliver to and how?
- How extensive is the service delivery?
- How does it fit within the organisation’s objectives?
- Where are the gaps in delivery?
- What is statutory/mandatory/additional?
- This information is gathered through interviews with unit managers, a review of data on performance and an activity analysis of staff.
Customer Challenge
In this stage, we look at: - Who buys in?
- Competitor analysis
- Quality of service
- The views of customers
- VFM comparisons with other providers
- Scope for improvement in quality and customer care
- ‘Customer challenge’ is supported by surveys of customers. This service is an addition to the basic provision package.
Resource Analysis
In this stage, we look at the level of resources used: - Linking all staff to income streams
- Activity analysis and costing
- Buildings
- Time trend analysis
- Spend by type – compare and benchmarking
- Unit costing
- Income analysis
- Direct, Support and Overhead cost analysis
- Capacity matrix to compare and contrast staff time (part of activitiy analysis and therefore an additional service)
- Vacancy/Agency Analysis
Information is gathered through interviews with unit managers and a financial analysis by the consultant alongside a one to three month Activity Analysis Study of where staff spend their time.
This additional element delivers more accurate and in-depth data for the client and can be purchased as an additional service. Results
The results of these reviews include: - Policy review
- A provision or service delivery map showing service performance in relation to the organisation’s objectives
- A review report on each unit with recommendations on both a financial level and in identifying areas for improvement, including staff development and professional excellence
- A costing and budgeting model for the unit
- A capacity matrix – analyses how much resource should be applied against current or future activities
- A summary report listing the main recommendations and potential savings in each unit and across the department
Examples of savings achieved include: - Full recovery of management fees
- Workload review and ceasing activities that are no longer a priority
- Improved charging regimes
- Developing new sold products
- Dissolving vacancies identified as a low priority
- Outsourcing
- Capping ‘free’ provision
- Merging services to reduce costs
- Administration review and reduction
- Premises and telecoms savings
Find out more
For more details, or to talk about your possible needs, please call us on 01223 463915 or email us at info@camb-ed.com |