Sheffield City Council
The challenge
The council had already established a high-level view of its future operating model. However, it needed a clearer understanding of the gap between current and future states, as well as a quantified view of the benefits achievable through transformation. The work had to provide insight across the whole organisation and link closely to the council’s Medium-Term Financial Strategy.
The task required a wide-ranging review of operations, strategy, performance and spend. It also needed to strengthen internal capability, so that the council could carry the transformation forward beyond the initial discovery phase.
The result
We worked in close partnership with the council to deliver a five-month discovery programme, focused on building insight and capability across the organisation. Key activities included:
Activity analysis to understand how staff time and effort were distributed.
Deep-dive workshops to examine core processes and identify inefficiencies.
Benchmarking to compare performance against peer councils.
Reviews of the council’s strategy, policy framework, commissioning and procurement spend.
Engagement with senior leaders to explore the implications of large-scale transformation, particularly from a change management perspective.
Insights from this work were used to create a structured portfolio of transformation opportunities, covering both cost reduction and performance improvement. These were developed into defined workstreams with clear milestones, resource profiles and financial estimates, providing a practical blueprint for change aligned to the council’s future operating model.
Alongside delivery, we worked closely with the council’s in-house teams to support knowledge transfer and strengthen internal capability. This included interpreting data, building confidence in the discovery approach and supporting ownership of the workstreams going forward.
Outcomes delivered included:
A whole-council current state assessment to baseline performance and surface improvement opportunities.
A portfolio of transformation workstreams mapped to the future operating model.
Quantified savings opportunities aligned to the Medium-Term Financial Strategy.
Increased leadership understanding of the change management implications of transformation at scale.
Strengthened internal capability in discovery, business change and delivery.
What made it successful
Wide scope: the work covered strategy, performance, operations and spend across the whole organisation.
Clear alignment: every opportunity was directly mapped to the future operating model and financial planning goals.
Leadership engagement: senior leaders shaped the work through ongoing collaboration and insight sharing.
Capability building: in-house teams were supported throughout, building confidence and ownership of next steps.
Actionable outputs: each workstream had a clear rationale, defined benefits and an implementation route.