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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

Planning Services

The starting point for the service and establishment review was to establish how effective the department was in processing planning applications to the standards set by the ODPM. A key measure of success was to ensure the department was able to maximise the Planning Delivery Grant.

As the analysis progressed it was clear that the processes used to manage the portfolio of applications were not focused on achieving the new targets set by government. A computerised system to aid planners had been installed in 2004 but the system had not been fully developed and was not being used systematically. In addition to the process elements, it was evident that there were insufficient structured or regular reviews of application portfolios and a need to develop an appreciation of how the OPDM standards feed down to targets required on a weekly basis.

To ensure that the right action was taking place on the right application at the right time a management control system was installed that focused on the application portfolio. This required managers, supervisors and officers to regularly review the status of individual planning applications. Officers needed to appreciate exactly what stage each and every case was at within their portfolio and which actions formed the priorities for the week. This process highlighted the important actions required at key stages for certain applications and facilitated a more directed and focused work plan for officers.

Jeff Clarke, Head Of Planning Services, said “…we really know where we are with applications now, this approach has really helped us take things forward…”

The system installed has enabled managers and supervisors to be much closer to the portfolio of applications and has allowed them to influence performance. The impact of applying this approach has been immediate and sustainable, since 21st January 2005 the performance has significantly “stepped” up with an improvement on key indicators of 5-10%. This alone will enable us to secure a further £50,000 of grants from ODPM.

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