Unifying Development Management and Building Control in Christchurch and East Dorset Councils
This case study highlights the benefits to the councils in performance, cost and technologically by unifying two separate Development Management and Building Control systems into one system provided by DEF Software Ltd under Local Authority Software Applications.
The requirement
Background
Christchurch Borough Council and East Dorset District Council operate in partnership (CED) through a shared management and staffing structure accountable to both Authorities. The project was the integration of the Development Management and Building Control services, by providing a common IT system to replace the two systems in use (PACS in Christchurch and Uniform in East Dorset).
The council chose to complete the procurement exercise as a direct award under the Local Authority Software Applications (LASA) Framework.
Development Management
The Development Management service exercises the statutory responsibilities of the Councils to decide planning and other applications and takes necessary enforcement action where breaches of control take place. In doing so it draws widely on consultation with local residents, neighbouring Councils, special interest groups and other statutory bodies to ensure that development is sustainable and consistent with the general aim of seeking to achieve the public good. The service handles 2,400 planning applications per year, in addition to tree works applications, Tree Preservation Orders, enforcement cases (approximately 1,000 per year), appeals, and a range of non-statutory work such as provision of general advice and pre-application discussions.
Building Control
The Building Control system exists to ensure that buildings, extensions, alteration and renovation work are properly designed and constructed with regard to health, safety, welfare and convenience of people using them and for conservation of fuel and power (to reduce carbon emissions).
Other service functions include inspection and reporting on dangerous structures, monitoring demolition work, responding to licensing consultations and reporting on safety at sports grounds.
The solution
CED carried out initial market engagement and held supplier days to give suppliers an idea of their requirements and understand more about the technologies and capabilities of suppliers to meet their requirements. At these supplier events in was suggested that they look at LASA and the possibility of a direct award.
Time pressures and internal resources meant that CED was very keen to understand whether direct award was a viable option and contacted CCS for further advice and guidance.
Following discussions with the LASA framework manager the council then made an assessment of the supplier’s capabilities and prices using the published catalogue pricing. CED then sent clarifications to all of the suppliers in order ensure these assessments were accurate. Following this process the winning solution was the MasterGov suite provided by DEF Software Ltd.
MasterGov includes modules for Development Management, Policy Research, Tree Preservation Orders and Building Control. The solution contains specific functionality to enable two or more sovereign authorities in a partnership to share a common platform whilst maintaining their own identity.
The solution provided contains a GIS connector, in-built document management system, electronic consultation, a full public access offering for all modules, is remote and mobile working ready and is complementary to CED’s ICT infrastructure.
The results
The business benefits to CED from adopting MasterGov will be significant. It allows Christchurch and East Dorset staff to work as a genuinely integrated team for the first time, working to common business processes and managing workload pressures in a more efficient way than was possible with the two legacy systems.
The project has also given the Councils the opportunity to transform the way they interact with local communities and statutory consultees. For the first time, all consultation on planning applications will happen electronically, saving significant time and cost for CED and consultees alike, and improving the transparency of the planning process to local communities.
A particular benefit is the adoption of DEF’s mobile working module, which will allow planners and building control officers to access and update records when out on site. This supports CED’s corporate move towards flexible and smarter working.
The procurement benefits from using the direct award process under LASA were that the customer was able to order the new system following a procurement process that lasted 25 days. The direct award option also had the advantage over a traditional ITT route that, had CED needed to do so, additional information and clarification could have been sought from suppliers prior to the contract being awarded. CED’s procurement and assessment methodology have been shared with several other councils undertaking a similar exercise.
The combined solution is saving CED £20,000 per annum in system running costs, and contributes to savings in excess of £350,000 per annum in the service as a whole.
We are delighted that CED found the direct award process within the Framework easy to use and have reduced the amount of effort required for both themselves and the suppliers in awarding this contract to DEF Software and that this process enabled them to deliver efficient savings. We are also very pleased that the winning supplier is an SME who new supplier to our Frameworks and this highlights the improvements in the supply chains we have introduced with Local Authority Software Applications.