Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council

The need to trade with schools in a more efficient, customer focused and commercial manner has been identified. The current Service Level Agreement (SLA) process between school customers and Calderdale traded services is inefficient: it involves numerous manual processes and interventions from each service. Furthermore, it is very difficult to report on which services each school has, how much they spend with Calderdale each year, as the process needs to be done manually. We would like to develop an online solution that will allow schools to access all the relevant traded services through a self-service model. In addition, the online solution would have reporting capabilities, making it much simpler to report on which services each school is using, and the total amount spent with Calderdale each year.

Our alpha project would focus on developing an online solution that includes both ICT and HR traded services. Once efficiencies and savings are proven, we would then integrate additional traded services, and the service would be made available to additional customer groups.

We would work with any Local Authority which is interested in collaborating with us.

Discovery evidence

Currently, there is no system that supports a joined up approach to the communication, reporting or transactions associated with services traded with schools within Calderdale. Most processes creating school SLAs involve significant levels of manual intervention including the need to record specific information on spreadsheets and files. We have identified that a joined up online solution would lead to significant savings of both time and money. Currently, ICT and HR traded services spend £34,371, or 1,122 hours, working on SLAs and additional paperwork, such as developing brochures, writing letters and creating and sending quotes. By investing in an online solution, these departments would be able to devote far more time to delivering effective customer service, for example delivering training or resuming customer care visits. Furthermore, an online solution would also free up a significant amount of school staff time, as services would be tailored to their needs.