Tablelands Regional Council, located in North Queensland to the immediate West of Cairns, approached CT Management Group in early 2022 to draw upon their wealth of experience and expertise in assessing financial sustainability and assessment via Service Planning. CT Management Group’s extensive experience in this area stems from their work with over 40 Councils across the country, where they have successfully carried out Service Planning and Reviews.
CT Management Group developed a Service Management Framework with significant engagement with Elected Councillors, appointed senior executive and key internal stakeholders. It was imperative to establish a clear basis, not only for Service Planning, but also for the subsequent activities that must occur to enable delivery of desired outcomes.
CT Management Group facilitated a cycle of service planning with Service Managers that delivered:
- A Council service catalogue and Service Profile per Service
- An evidence-based service assessment enabling prioritisation of services for service review based on relative importance and strategic alignment to Council’s Council Plan.
- Service level 10-year financial projections based on future service demand.
- Capability to assess the overall financial sustainability of the current range of services at their current level over a 10-year timeframe.
By CT Management enabling a bespoke but structured Service Planning data-capture exercise, Tablelands Regional Council for the first time was able to establish a long-term financial forecast inclusive of estimated Service Demand. This was enabled via the ‘Service Planning Platform’ and ‘Long Term Financial Plan’ (LTFP) products of CT Management working together to aggregate and report data capture.
By providing a formalised and systematic approach to reviewing Tableland Regional Council services, this process has achieved / allowed:
- a deeper understanding of the level of service, future service demand and relative priority of each service is now available for all stakeholders to be better informed.
- provision of the financial sustainability of individual service provision over 10 years.
- a suitable level of information being developed against which to assess customer satisfaction and enable engagement with the community in the future with concise and relevant content.
- Council to move towards a continuous improvement approach to service delivery through the provision of thorough programmed and targeted individual service reviews based on relative priority of Service and relevant considerations.
For further information on CT Management Group’s Service Planning and Sustainable Council Program resources please contact Simon Walsh, Principal – Financial & Service Planning on 1300 500 932 or submit the form below.