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Case Study – Borough Council of Lynn & West Norfolk

Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk achieves £1m efficiency savings – ahead of Gershon

Legal and Democratic Services

The Legal Department, whose primary role is to provide legal advice, support and representation to all areas of the Borough Council, was one of the first service areas at the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk to undergo the establishment review.

In 2004, the Legal Department was accredited with the Lexcel Standard (the Law Society’s Practice Management quality mark). This recognises, amongst other things, the service given by the department to its clients, recognition of the management of the practice and the morale and motivation of its staff.

The department use IKEN, a case, document and email management system with a time recording function. Statistics generated from this system were used in conjunction with individuals’ activity lists when compiling the Master Schedule, a list of all the tasks carried out by the department.

Discussions and observations with the team suggested that IKEN was not being used to its full potential and that time recording needed tightening. Following the departure of the Legal Services Manager in late 2004, and a period of relatively high staff turnover it became apparent that there was an opportunity to improve communication and guidance amongst staff in the section.

The establishment of the department was reduced from 39 to 35, with a total saving of some £55,000. This was possible in the main by reducing the number of vacant posts in the section, which the Master Schedule suggested were not necessary.

One of the primary aims of the Management Control System put in place in the Legal Department was to increase communication, formalise operational meetings and ensure ownership of issues. It highlighted the need to measure key indicators such as Freedom of Information requests, and the number and type of new ‘matters’ opened on a weekly basis.

The meetings have been a great success, especially in the Legal Support Team, the Senior Support and Information Officer, Chris Marshall said: “The meetings have provided an effective and proactive management tool which allows everyone in the team to be aware of the work pressures within the team and resulting priorities ”.

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