Supporting Regeneration through Partnership
The Challenge:
Situated just north of Manchester, Rochdale is characterised by a culturally diverse and vibrant population of more than 200,000. While the city has recovered from the recessions of the last few decades, the legacy of the Borough’s reliance on declining traditional industries has left challenges within the local economy in terms of strength and diversity. As such, the Council looked for a partner that could focus on economic regeneration across the area, including the four constituent townships, each of which has its own identity and devolved decision making.
The Solution
The Impact Partnership is an innovative joint venture partnership between Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council, Agilisys, and Mouchel Parkman. The 15-year Partnership seeks to tackle the economic and regeneration challenges of the Borough through:
- Jobs creation – both flexible and sustainable, job creation will be in place from the initial stages of the Partnership, through, for example, the creation of a new contact centre that will support not only the Council but also private clients
- Skills development – linking local educational providers, ongoing and improved training opportunities will ensure the local population is able to take advantage of new employment opportunities
- Service transformation – supported by proactive BPR and change management, service transformation will evolve with the Council’s priorities. Initial areas for transformation include customer services, payroll and HR systems, and ICT support
- Physical regeneration – delivered by Mouchel Parkman, plans include construction of a new Partnership building in the town centre, as well as local improvement projects across the Borough
The Benefits
The services Agilisys is providing are not only providing benefits now, but also building a platform from which the Impact Partnership can attract new external clients and deliver external growth.
Already the Partnership has delivered improved customer service and increased new jobs through the creation of a new, extended hours customer contact centre. Additional investment in IT, processes, and physical regeneration projects have also started to deliver service improvements that will continue to grow through the life of the Partnership.