New Support and Customer Services Organisation (NSCSO)
Barnet Council’s Cabinet has confirmed Capita as preferred bidder to run the council’s back office services, the New Support and Customer Services Organisation (NSCSO), from 2013.
Capita were selected after an 18 month procurement process which saw Capita and BT compete in a final competitive tender. Both companies met the specification and financial criteria laid down by the council.
The contract will be worth circa £32 million per annum and account for 11 per cent of the council's spending. Approximately 500 posts will transfer to work for Capita. Capita will make an upfront investment which will provide improved Information Technology and telephone support to improve council back office services.
Read the press release.
The full recommendation and business case, which was reviewed and approved at the Council’s Cabinet on 6 December can be found with the Cabinet meeting papers.
What is the NSCSO Project?
The NSCSO project is part of the One Barnet programme.
The project aims to reduce back office costs and improve customer service to residents.
The NSCSO will need to improve the service we provide to customers by:
- reducing costs and increasing efficiency
- providing a more flexible service in the future adopting best practice from other organisations.
Significant savings need to be made within all council services, including customer and support services, as government grants to local authorities continue to fall. In 2011, the council decided to look for an external provider to run the NSCSO and we are discussing options with two potential providers; BT and Capita.
The following service areas will be provided by the NSCSO:
- Customer Services
- Estates
- Finance
- Human Resources and Payroll
- IT Infrastructure and Support
- Procurement
- Revenues and Benefits
- Commercial Services.
How does it work?
The council is currently running a procurement exercise with the two bidders. By getting two major national companies to compete for this work, the council and residents will receive a highly competitive deal. A decision will be made by Cabinet in late 2012 as to which bidder will win the contract. The new provider will start to run the NSCSO in spring of 2013.
Benefits
Financial
- this arrangement is expected to save the council at least 11 per cent of the cost of running these services over 10 years. This is around £41m over ten years.
Non-financial
- there will be a single point of contact for all customer enquiries
- a better and more consistent quality of customer service within the council
- more issues will be resolved on first contact and we will be able to respond more quickly to those we can’t answer immediately
- you will be able to provide information to the council once, which will then be used to provide a range of services
- you will be able to access council services in a number of new ways, making the best use of new technology.
How decisions were made
The NSCSO project aims to enable the council’s customer service and support services to respond to the challenges and opportunities of the future.
- an Options Appraisal, which recommended a business case to be produced for the procurement of a private sector partner(s) to deliver services, was reviewed and approved by the Cabinet Resources Committee in March 2011.
- the Business Case was reviewed and approved by Cabinet in June 2011 - Cabinet approval of business case.
- the Business Case was updated in February 2012.
- In December 2012 Cabinet confirmed Capita as the preferred bidder to run NSCSO from 2013. Full business case and recommendation.