Ealing Council and Serco agree £30 million 10 year partnership to drive innovation and improve service
Date : 18 May 2007
Ealing Council and Serco today signed a £30 million 10 year partnership, Service Ealing, which will support Ealing in its vision to deliver high quality, cost effective services to its residents.
At the heart of Service Ealing is a first class ICT service built around strong delivery and performance management. The Service Ealing partnership will help Ealing to effectively achieve its key priorities.
The new partnership will utilise the breadth of Serco's expertise to enable the Council to achieve greater value for money. Ealing Council and Serco will jointly develop business cases for a wide range of initiatives to improve business effectiveness. An incentive element of the partnership arrangement encourages Serco to invest by offering the opportunity of additional reward.
Anthony Kemp, Director of ICT & Facilities at Ealing Council explains: "We selected Serco as our partner to help deliver Service Ealing based on a number of factors. First and foremost, Serco has offered us a contract which delivers excellent value and moves the ICT service to be more flexible through standardisation and centralised management. We had absolute confidence that Serco was a good strategic fit for Ealing. In addition Serco's wide experience in the public sector services industry will give us a partner who we believe can add real value in our thinking for the future. We were also impressed by Serco's approach to aspects such as modern apprenticeship schemes and the digital challenge."
Darra Singh, Ealing Council's chief executive, comments: "We are delighted that Ealing has secured a contract that represents best value in the ICT service market. We are also excited to be working with a partner who has in-depth knowledge of the local government sector and goes way beyond technological capabilities."
Kevin Lavery, chief executive of Serco's Solutions division, said: "We are very excited that we have signed a 10 year agreement that gives us the opportunity to work with Ealing Council to make a real difference to Ealing's customers, residents and businesses. The Service Ealing partnership is focused on outcomes and delivering best value and we are looking forward to realising the benefits in partnership with the Council. Our public-service ethos combined with commercial know-how means that we can add genuine value and ensure that Ealing can deliver on its vision with complete confidence."