Time to re-focus on priority customer groups

28th June 2010

Reports suggest that the cuts announced in public expenditure will affect deprived areas of the north the hardest, particularly metropolitan councils.

Local government is expected to contribute £1.166bn to the £6.3bn of announced savings in the current year and CLG is having its budget slashed by 25% over 4 years. Revenue grant reduction will be 0.8% in the north west, 0.7% in Yorkshire and the Humber and 0.9% in the north east. Whilst districts are least affected on the whole, the five district councils with the highest levels of deprivation in Lancashire/Cumbria are facing the maximum cuts of 2% in the current year. Key public sector figures in the north have already spoken out against the cuts with Barnsley Chief Executive Philip Coppard saying "I find some of the distribution of cuts very odd." Meanwhile, AGMA Chair, Lord Peter Smith, leader of Wigan Council has said "Clearly if you start to slash these schemes then it's those areas that most need the spending which lose out."
The implications of the new fiscal landscape will be far reaching. How councils react now will have long term consequences for the quality of local public services. Authorities and their partners will need to focus now, more than ever, on the needs of their priority customer groups and will need to consider alternative delivery mechanisms. Already a trend is emerging for joint Chief Executives and other senior managers but we are yet to see any significant emergence of the acceptance of the shared customer concept. Aperia's Circles of Need® is designed to help local authorities and their service delivery partners focus on the needs of priority customers and shows the significant value and benefits of adopting the shared customer concept. Our experiences from working with low income families, older people, victims and perpetrators of anti-social behaviour and the workless gives us unrivalled insight into the most vulnerable segments of our society and how processes can be reshaped to better address the unmet needs of these customers and the wider community. To find out more about Circles of Need® and how it can help your customers contact us now.

<< Back