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. 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.
“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.”