Challenge

Barking & Dagenham needed to profoundly rethink some of its key services due to enormous cuts and a range of local challenges. It had a vision for its residents to become as independent as possible and looked to review its approach to ‘early action’. By resolving issues sooner, it hoped to reduce the demand for specialist areas.

Approach

FutureGov was asked to redesign the council’s approach to early action, prevention and targeted support, and also assess the practicalities of this change. In essence, this meant designing a new service that encompassed seven different areas - including employment, housing, community safety, children’s and adult’s services.

Following input from a range of stakeholders, FutureGov created a new service called Community Solutions, which was accompanied by a business case to highlight projected savings, investment and timelines. We followed this up by collaborating with business analysts and a project director to create a detailed target operating model and financial assessment.

Impact

By joining up seven different services, Community Solutions delivers holistic support to residents and tackles root cause issues sooner. Innovation capabilities have been transferred to the project management office and service experts.