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Wigan Council – Capital Asset Pathfinder Customer Insight Project

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LGDC local government delivery council Improvement Customer led transformation programme Case study – Wigan Council Capital asset pathfinder customer insight project 38/58 Contents About Wigan 3 Background 4 Objective 5 Approach 6 Findings 14 Outcomes 18 Benefits 20 Governance 21 Resourcing 22 Challenges and lessons learnt 22 Next steps 23 About Wigan The Customer Led Transformation Programme The Metropolitan Borough of Wigan consists of the town of Wigan itself , (the largest Wigan’s work has been funded under the constituent town) as well as the smaller customer led transformation programme. towns of Leigh, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Ince- The fund aims to embed the use of in-Makerfield and Hindley. It is the second customer insight and social media tools most populous local authority in Greater and techniques as strategic management Manchester, with a population of 317, capabilities across the public sector family 800(making up 12 per cent of the total in order to support place-based working. population of Greater Manchester as a whole.). The borough is located on the north- The customer led transformation western side of Greater Manchester on the programme is overseen by the Local M6 corridor and covers 77 square miles, 70 Government Delivery Council (supported per cent of which is green or open space. by the Local Government Association). Wigan faces many challenges including The fund was established specifically to high levels of deprivation and worklessness. support collaborative working between According to the Indices of Deprivation LA local authorities and their partners focused Summary measures, Wigan is ranked as the on using customer insight and social 67th most deprived local authority out of the media tools and techniques to improve 354 local authority districts in England. 29 of service outcomes. These approaches offer Wigan’s 200 neighbourhoods fall within the public services bodies the opportunity to 10 per cent most deprived neighbourhoods in engage customers and gather insight into England. This equates to somewhere in the their preferences and needs, and thereby region of 49,400 people - or around 16 per provide the evidence and intelligence cent of Wigan’s total population. needed to redesign services to be more targeted, effective and efficient. The unemployment rate in Wigan is 9.6 per cent, compared to an average of 8.1 per cent for the whole of Great Britain.1 These figures reflect the fact that Wigan suffers from a legacy of low skills and worklessness. Fewer of the Borough’s residents hold NVQ Level 4+ qualifications than either Greater Manchester as a whole or the UK in general, particularly in the 25–29 year old age group. (The current figure stands at only 20.7 per cent compared to 32.1 per cent for Greater Manchester). This skills gap serves as a significant barrier to creating higher paid and higher value employment within Wigan or for residents to take advantage of such employment opportunities in other areas. 1 April 1022 to March 2012 figure from NOMIS Capital asset pathfinder customer insight project 3 An analysis undertaken as part of this project This exercise produced a map of public identified that the public sector own 15 per sector assets (see “Findings”), and revealed cent of local assets and have an interest that the public sector owned 15 per cent of in 40 per cent (either as leaseholder or these assets and had an interest in 40 per freeholder) in the Wigan borough area. cent (either as leaseholder or freeholder) of properties and land in the Wigan borough Background area. Initial calculations show the value of the public estate in Wigan, excluding Central Government buildings, to be nearly £750 During 2011, Wigan was selected to be one million, with social housing being valued at a of the UK government’s “Total Capital and further £800 million. Asset Pilot Pathfinder” projects. For further information on the Pathfinder Programme, To understand how to make the best use see Text Box 1. of the public estate for the residents and businesses of Wigan, the council recognised As part of this pilot, Wigan Metropolitan that they needed to understand how the Borough Council (MBC) facilitated a pan residents of Wigan use the public estate public sector review of the properties owned and what impact it has on their lives. Hence, by the public sector across the Borough. The the project employed a range of customer objective was to identify and map all public insight tools and techniques in order to both sector buildings in Wigan, and then to work understand customers’ use of the public with partners to assess whether the buildings estate and also to establish what their needs met the needs of the local community. were going forward. The participants in this process included: Given the high rate of unemployment • Wigan Council in Wigan, a particular focus of the work was on worklessness, and on identifying • Wigan Lift Co opportunities to use the estate to improve • The Homes and Communities Agency access to support and guidance relating to • Job Centre Plus / Department for Work and employment and / or training opportunities. Pensions • Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust • Greater Manchester Police, • Ashton, Leigh and Wigan PCT • the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) • Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust • Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service • Wigan And Leigh Housing. 4 Capital asset pathfinder customer insight project Text Box 1: The Capital and Assets Objective Pathfinder Programme A key objective of the work summarised here Councils are facing financial challenges was to provide customer insight to inform as a result of the cuts in local government and influence the formation the long-term funding, announced in the 2010 strategies of the Wigan Capital and Asset Comprehensive Spending Review. They Pathfinder. This objective would be achieved need to make savings while continuing to by: provide services that meet their customers’ needs and deliver on-going improvements. • integrating customer insight into Wigan’s Capital Asset Management Processes to In 2010, the Department for Communities make more informed decisions about how and Local Government (DCLG) initiated to best use buildings as well as identifying the Capital and Assets Pathfinder which buildings could be released or were programme, the aim of which is: in need of redevelopment • ensuring that the use of assets in the “…to test how a customer-centric future both improves the experience of and place-based approach to asset customers while simultaneously delivers management and capital investment cost efficiencies to the public sector could improve local outcomes and generate significant savings.” • understanding customer’s journeys - particularly those experiencing The pathfinder explores methods to use worklessness - with the aim of improving capital (funding that results in a tangible access to relevant support at a single point asset with a defined life span) and assets of contact (in this case usually buildings and land) across the public sector, in a more joined Wigan Council and partners (see below) up way using customer information to recognised that in order to understand how determine what and where services best to make use of the public estate they should be delivered. needed first to understand how the residents of Wigan were using the existing public Based on an estimate that the size estate to access services and information. It of public estate is valued at around was necessary not only to map their journeys £370bn, and that around two-thirds of to these different buildings but also to make this is owned by local authorities, DCLG an assessment oft he impact such journeys estimate that this approach could release were having on their lives. £35 billion in capital receipts over ten years, reducing revenue expenditure by The intention was to use the insight £1.5 billion per annum through reduced generated to shape future plans and to running costs and delivering 10 per cent facilitate the joining up of related services., savings on procurement. This would ultimately lead to a redesigning of processes and the rationalisation and reconfiguration of the local public estate. Capital asset pathfinder customer insight project 5 Over time, Wigan’s pathfinder focused on re- Wigan Council and partners progressed generation rather than releasing assets. This through the following steps: is because the pathfinder found many of the buildings in question to be in poor condition • mapping assets in areas with little market for property and • identifying opportunities hence of low financial value to the public • data gathering and segmentation analysis sector.,. The partners also became aware that if they released too many buildings too • mapping service providers relating to soon they could end up introducing areas of worklessness blight into the local economy. • researching transport and accessibility • understanding demand. Approach Mapping assets Wigan’s CAP project comprises two broad To begin, all public sector partners provided work streams. The first was to: information on property assets to Wigan’s project team. The project team used this • understand and map the assets owned by information to create and share a GIS based the public sector and map of asset ownership across Wigan. • identify opportunities to rationalise that To assemble the data, Wigan worked portfolio. with CLG to develop a set of 28 property The second stream of activities sought to attributes relevant to decision-making understand how customers access and regarding property assets. The attribute table experience services - particularly those was agreed with CLG, and these are outlined experiencing worklessness. This involved in the table below: understanding: Post town Reason for holding asset • who they are and where they live Postcode FTE Asset tenure Year asset was built • what services they accessed and from Asset owner Asset condition which buildings Asset user Rateable value Building/land Fair value • how they preferred to interact and Meter squared Alternative use value communicate with service providers Services offered Revenue costs • how they travelled to services.
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