Challenge

Like many Local Authorities in the country, North East Lincolnshire Council (NELC) has a fundamental strategic challenge to the ongoing delivery of its vital public services – how to continue to meet the needs of its 160,000 local residents in Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Immingham in the face of significant funding cuts and fiscal constraints. NELC was successfully shortlisted as an innovative council under the Cabinet Office’s Delivering Differently programme and ultimately awarded funding to work alongside Baxendale to investigate potential alternative new delivery routes for a range of mostly ‘environmental’ services, representing £28m in budget and affecting 500 members of staff.

Solution and outcome

Baxendale worked closely with NELC to identify a range of viable alternative delivery models that met the Council’s strategic objectives and criteria. We presented our analysis and recommendations in a compelling options appraisal to NELC’s Executive Management Team and gained approval to develop a business case for the transformation of the Council’s Cemeteries and Crematorium service into a thriving, sustainable and independent social enterprise. Subsequently we developed the key financial, strategic and legal “cases for change” and delivered a robust business case for NELC’s Executive Team to present to its Cabinet for a decision.

“Baxendale have worked tirelessly, leveraging their deep expertise on alternative delivery models, to help us understand and evaluate the options which would best support the Council to meet our immediate needs as well as deliver our long term vision for North East Lincolnshire. The rigour and detail of their analysis means we are confident we have a robust and powerful case to present to our Cabinet.” – Joanne Hewson, Deputy Chief Executive