Doncaster Council

Review of policy, performance and research functions.

Category

Organisational strategy & change

Services provided

Policy; performance; service review

Overview

Activist completed a fundamental review of the operation and design of policy, performance and research functions across the Council. We undertook a comprehensive stakeholder engagement exercise, including workshops with staff, managers and the cabinet and interviews with the Mayor and other strategic leaders.

As well as delivering a saving of almost £1 million the support from Activist helped Doncaster introduce a very different operating model for Policy, Performance, Partnerships and Research which became the Strategy and Performance Unit. Operational for just 2 years, the SPU has helped to make a real difference not just to the Council but also across our Team Doncaster partnership. The successful launch in September 2017 of our ambitious Borough Strategy – Doncaster Growing Together – is an excellent example of this.

Doncaster Council

How we helped.

We conducted an option appraisal of the structural options and recommended consolidating the disparate functions into a new Strategy and Performance Unit, reporting to the chief executive, and delivering substantial savings of £924K from a £3.4M budget. We also designed the structure and job roles for the new unit.

What our clients say about us.

It was great working with Activist

It was great working with Activist – they had a strong commitment to doing an excellent job as shown in the quality and depth of their analysis and the clarity of their written reports.
Croydon Council

Their contribution was a key factor in meeting the deadline

Activist provided excellent advice and skills in all aspects of this ground-breaking venture, including sensitive management of stakeholder relationships during difficult stages of the project. Their contribution was a key factor in meeting the deadline for the establishment of the joint venture company and in the initial realisation of benefits.
Herefordshire Council / NHS Herefordshire

A pleasure to work with

Activist worked at pace to deliver an evaluation report that our senior leadership were very pleased with. Activist were a pleasure to work with, well organised, thorough and helped us to achieve our intended outcomes against a set of challenging timescales.
Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP)

We learned so much

We learned so much from the Activist team, who provided brilliant support to help us transform our service and improve our income generation. Their commercial and negotiating expertise helped us increase the financial performance of our external contracts.
Bracknell Forest Council

It was incredible how much was achieved

An enormous thank you for the work on the lockdown report. It was incredible how much was achieved against the clock! The report seemed to have a very enthusiastic response. It is not just me saying it’s a great report – you hit the jackpot by producing something of value to heads of service.
Libraries Connected

We are very happy with Activist’s work

We are very happy with Activist’s work and it has helped us take a more strategic approach to funding requirements and securing match funding for the Town Deal Programme, as well as providing support to Glastonbury Abbey in progressing their ambitious longer-term development plans.
Mendip District Council and Glastonbury Abbey

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