Local Authorities (LAs) have faced non-stop change since 1988 and this continues apace. In recent years this change has often focused on the agenda for school improvement and the imperative to support social and educational inclusion with accountability sharpened by a wide ranging inspection regime.

To this is now added change that will occur in local authorities following the forthcoming Children Act to implement the proposals of “Every Child Matters” as well as further DfES initiatives such as the new School Improvement Partner role and the single conversation with schools.

LAs are also increasingly improving their own procurement processes and helping establish brokerage services for schools; and they face challenges of making effective use of ICT and implementing e-government initiatives.

Each LA will want to design its own response to handle the changes associated with these developments and will seek to tailor this response to meet local need.

Cocentra's approach is to provide:

• Support with business design, organisational restructuring and business process re-engineering

• Evaluation of performance management systems and practice and advice and support on the introduction or redesign of these systems, either within the education service or, more powerfully, across the whole local authority

• “Client side” support and advice if the LA is considering outsourcing or market testing some or all of its services

• Public-private partnership in the management of all or part of an LA service

• Other support tailored to the local needs of the authority.

We believe that all these services can be powerful levers to improve the quality of service delivery through increasing LA capacity and / or capability and can help achieve greater financial efficiency.

For Advisory support in a LA or any other institution please call Steve Davies on 07917 080203.

Or if you prefer you can send us an email at administrator@cocentra.com and we will contact you.