arvato and Sefton Council work together to transform services, lives and the local economy

“Our partnership with arvato brings with it many benefits – quality services for the people of Sefton, investment in facilities and new local jobs. We have worked together to further improve services in the first two years of our relationship and are looking forward to delivering continued improvements to meet the challenges ahead.”

Margaret Carney, Chief Executive, Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council

Partners since 2008

challenge: to deliver improvements and savings

The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton extends from Southport in the north to Bootle in the south, covering an area of 59 square miles and serving a population of over 280,000 citizens. It is a diverse borough containing within its boundaries some of the most affluent and the most deprived districts in the country. 

The objectives of Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council included transforming services, increasing performance while reducing costs, improving public perception of the Council, and regenerating the borough.

solution: guaranteed results through partnership

In a 10-year public-private partnership, arvato was appointed to deliver key finance, customer service, HR and ICT services on behalf of the Council. Approximately 450 Council staff were transferred to arvato on their current terms and conditions to support delivery of the services.

The transformation agenda was detailed in a contractually-agreed Continuous Improvement Programme, which included creating savings in the region of £20m over the lifetime of the partnership, achieving top quartile service performance within five years and delivering all services from Sefton.

The partnership has invested over £4m in new IT Infrastructure and facilities for Sefton including designing and developing a new Data centre, equipping a modern new building and creating an innovative new business facility for meetings and training.

successes: benefited the council and citizens

• Improved in-year collection rates for Council Tax in 2009/10, bringing in over £3m more for Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council than in 2008/9
• Improved the speed of benefits claims processing by over 25% (March 2010 v April 2009)
• Raised customer satisfaction in Customer Services to over 90%; its highest ever level
• Recovered £1.6m in overpaid Housing Benefit, with over 7,000 cases reviewed
• Received recognition from Department for Work and Pensions as model of best practice
• Reduced invoice processing times by 75% the average turnaround time is now less than one day
• Conducted over 9,000 CRB checks in 2010
• Delivered a new data centre and transferred 10 tonnes of ICT equipment
• Installed more than 1,200 new PCs to-date

services: key services for Sefton

• Customer Services
• Revenues and Benefits
• Payroll
• Pensions Administration
• Transactional & Strategic HR
• Accounts Payable
• ICT
• Transformation and Change