Swindon Borough Council selected Capita as a long-term strategic partner to overhaul its operations and meet cost-saving targets while improving customer services. At the halfway point of their 15-year partnership begun in 2007, Capita and Swindon have doubled original projected savings of £9 million by centralizing business support, improving IT systems, and launching Swindon Direct, a single contact center handling over 700,000 calls annually. The partnership looks to continue meeting budget challenges through service improvements and cost efficiencies to best serve Swindon residents.

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Swindon Borough Council wanted to transform the way it did business
– meeting challenging savings targets at the same time as radically
improving its customer services.
The Council selected us as a long-term strategic partner to completely
overhaul its existing operations – people, locations, business processes
and underlying technology.
We launched a 15-year partnership in 2007 and, despite new challenges
faced across local government since that time, the partnership has
worked together and adapted to meet those challenges.
Swindon Borough Council
True partnership, better services, cost savings
One of the benefits of the relationship is the ability to be flexible
in the things that we deliver – and certainly the challenges
that theCouncil foresaw back in 2007 are very different to the
challenges they see now.
Hayley Dickinson
partnership director
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Now, at the half-way point of the relationship, we are on track to
double the original projected savings of £9 million.
Capita and Swindon – what we’ve achieved together
ƒƒ true partnership
we’ve built a solid base of mutual understanding and support – the
only way to meet Swindon’s challenges
ƒƒ improved services, better experiences for customers
we continually evaluate what the partnership is delivering against
Swindon’s key targets
ƒƒ positive change
we’ve made significant improvements to a wide range of council
services, re-shaped the Council’s administration, generated
efficiencies and freed frontline workers to concentrate on Swindon
residents.
Capita and Swindon – better together
Swindon Direct
One of the most important changes we have brought about, Swindon
Direct is a single contact centre for its more than 40 services and has
made a huge difference to the way residents interact with the Council.
The centre handles more than 700,000 calls every year and – crucially
– is helping more and more residents resolve their queries the first time
they call the Council. Swindon Direct’s success is reflected in a 90%+
customer satisfaction rating year after year. And it scores highly in
competitions run by the Contact Centre Association and South West
Contact Centre Awards.
Reshaping services
We’ve changed the way many services are delivered – saving money
and improving the experience for customers. Some examples:
ƒƒ changing Swindon Direct’s operating times to meet customer
demand

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ƒƒ co-locating similar services in one building – saving property costs
and helping deliver these services more efficiently
ƒƒ offering more routine council services online – freeing up frontline
employees to concentrate on more complex issues
ƒƒ turning round a failing housing benefit and council tax service so
that it’s now among best in class.
We are now delivering at – at least – the average for the country
when it comes to benefits – withCapita providing a far better
service, a far more efficient service and a more cost-effective
service.
Cllr Mike Bawden
Cabinet Member for strategic projects and transformation, Swindon
Borough Council
Collecting more revenue
We’ve made all-round improvements to the Council’s revenue
collection – achieving better than the target of 96.8% for 2013/14,
against the backdrop of recession.
Better IT means a more reliable service
Successful service delivery depends on robust and resilient computing.
We’ve thoroughly overhauled the Council’s IT, saving money – simply
consolidating desktop printing will save £4.6 million, for instance – and
improving availability – annual downtime is now measured in minutes,
rather than hours.
Rationalised, centralised business support
Before the partnership, back office support was fragmented, with each
council service running its own business support, or doing without
altogether. We have consolidated all this resource into one function
serving all council frontline teams.
The result is professionalised business support, responsive, agile,
properly resourced and – incidentally – now an attractive career path
for council staff. The centralised unit provides common processes
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for all council teams – an efficiency improvement in itself – frees
frontline staff to focus on their customers, and cuts out much wasteful
duplication.
Expanding our partnership
In 2013, Swindon Borough Council selected us to provide additional
services, in a nine year contract to support its children’s localities
teams.
This contract means we now also provide administrative support
and reception-based duties on behalf of the Children’s Integrated
Service Localities teams, which includes education welfare, youth
engagement, health visiting support, targeted mental health services
and educational psychology.
The future
It looks likely that austerity will continue to be an issue for all councils
for the foreseeable future and we’ll continue to work with the Council
to meet their budget challenges and to improve services for the
residents.
It will all be about the BoroughCouncil andCapita delivering
in partnership the financial savings that are necessary, without
reducing the level of service.
Cllr Mike Bawden
This in itself is a challenge for us all and is a journey we need to go
on together to make sure we achieve the best for the people of
Swindon.”
Karen McMahon, head of business services and support, Swindon Borough
Council
In an ever-changing local government landscape, it’s hard to predict
the future needs and priorities of a council and its residents – but the
strength, flexibility and capability of our partnership with Swindon BC,
means that we are well placed to meet the unpredictable.
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