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The LGA's Productivity Experts programme supports councils to make efficiency savings against a backdrop of decreasing funding and increasing demand for services. It offers direct bespoke advice and support to councils to help them deliver efficiency savings or income generation.
The Productivity Expert Programme is now closed for applications in the 2019/20 financial year. We hope that you find this webpage useful to discover the ways in which councils have saved money and generated income through the LGA programme. Please do make contact with the officers who have undertaken the projects to learn from others and implement their work. We will update this page should further funding become available from April 2020.
The aims of the Productivity Experts programme are to:
- provide external challenge, mentoring and advice to officer(s) or member(s) to deliver efficiencies or income generation
- support approaches that will boost productivity within a council
- work with councils who may subsequently supply the ‘experts' of the future, to provide a model for ongoing sector-led support and challenge.
Results to date
Since 2012, we have worked with 125 councils contributing to nearly £170 million of efficiency savings or income generation for these councils.
Councils have used the Productivity Expert programme to:
- save £2.3 million working with a contract renegotiation expert (Allerdale Borough Council)
- develop traded services and a business management programme delivering savings of £16 million (Leeds City Council)
- set up a shared ICT service making a combined net saving of £6 million per year across the three councils involved (Teignbridge District Council).
Who are the Productivity Experts?
The LGA has recruited a ‘pool' of productivity experts who can provide support across a range of issues. They could be from another council, public sector organisation or the private sector and would have experience in implementing a similar approach to what you are trying to achieve.
All of the experts have a proven ability to work with councils and deliver results.
Programme evaluation
An external evaluation of the Productivity Experts’ Programme was carried out in 2016. Apteligen, the research company, used a robust methodology to assess how the Programme was working for the sector. It found that from 2012-2016, £131 million worth of savings was achieved from the programme. Projects which involved the following skill areas were proven to be the most successful: commercialisation, contract renegotiation, governance, and developing new service delivery models.
Further information
For an informal discussion about the Productivity Experts programme please contact:
Grace Abel
07825 726273
[email protected]