Total Place was an initiative by the last government to assist public sector organisations facing severe cuts in their budgets. It proposed a radical area-wide approach to identifying and addressing overlap and duplication among organisations from different public sectors to enable a step change in both service improvement and efficiency to be achieved at a local level.
It is unclear how the new administration will take Total Place forward but, whatever form it takes in the future, the basic principles are established and the benefits of service providers working together to co-locate services are clear. The initiative can provide opportunities for Local Strategic Partnerships to explore more innovative approaches to local service provision and achieve efficiencies by consolidating services, sharing back-office resources and identifying surplus property assets for disposal.
PROJECT CATALYST
Property is the key driver of any such high level review and the NPS Group, with it extensive and proven property consultancy experience within the public sector, has embraced the Total Place initiative and developed ‘Project Catalyst’. This is a product designed specifically to assist Local Strategic Partnerships achieve a ‘whole area’ approach to delivering better public services at less cost.
Project Catalyst is comprehensive and flexible and allows partnerships to use only those parts that meet their local needs and budgets. Key provisions include the development of a Partnership Estates Strategy and a Rationalisation and Refurbishment Programme. The process can comprise a number of stages and NPS will tailor a business proposal to suit the individual circumstances of each partnership, primarily:
Information gathering and analysis including the option of storage /data hosting on the NPS Property Database with web access
This may include:
- Establishing a Partnership Estates Group
- Identifying and mapping of all property ownership details in the public sector
- Collating and processing data.
Establishing the Culture
NPS would facilitate a one-day workshop with a range of partners to explore the potential for co-location and collaboration and identify any property assets that could be released for disposal. As part of this we would look at:
- Services provided
- Lifecycle analyses of buildings
- Assessment of services needed
- Energy usage and building efficiency
- Energy Certification
- Number of employees (by organisation)
- Filing & storage audit
- Space budgeting
- Building occupancy survey
- Details of specific functions
- Invest to save estimates
- Opportunities to enhance employee well being
Customer Insight
NPS will then work with partners to identify and redesign the future shape of services with a focus on sharing resources, buildings and data and ultimately to achieve efficiencies both in service provision and through the release of property assets. This work will examine issues such as:
- Opportunities for alternative service delivery measures; e.g. homeworking, hot desking, provision of ‘Oasis’ drop-in centres
- Innovative floor layout designs
- Procurement of appropriate furniture
- Building refurbishment
- Project management of employee relocations
- Employee, union and user consultation
- Identification and acquisition of more appropriate buildings
- Disposal of surplus property
- Lease negotiations
- Incorporating the corporate image