LBBD - Interim Change Management Support

The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham is situated to the east of the City of London on the north bank of the River Thames and within the M25 London Orbital Motorway.  With over 17% of the resident population aged 60 or over, the Adult and Community Services Department works to provide the support needed to enable elderly and vulnerable people with particular needs to live in the community as independently as possible.

The Accord Partnership was asked to provide an interim and change management resource to help improve the services provided by Careline, a dedicated monitoring and response service that provides assistance to people who feel at risk in their own homes around the clock.  It was also asked to help with the Out of Hours service that handles calls from all residents including those requiring an emergency response from social services, noise complaints, highways, alarm monitoring and more.

A manager with extensive local government and operational people management experience was assigned to work with existing staff.  Taking a consultative management approach and acting as a 'staff champion' enabled measurable improvements in customer care to be achieved whilst reducing operational expenditure by nearly 50%.  In addition, the services are now in a position to be smoothly transferred into a partnership with a neighbouring borough.