Swindon Borough Council signs contract with Capita to deliver local services in strategic partnership

Swindon Borough Council has signed a contract with Capita Group Plc (“Capita”) to deliver a fifteen-year incremental strategic partnership. Capita will deliver a wide range of services including customer services, business support for administration services, financial administration, HR & payroll, ICT, property (design and technical services) & facilities management.

The contract will commence today (1 February 2007) with revenues and benefits starting from April 2008. 

Leader of Swindon Borough Council, Roderick Bluh is looking forward to seeing the partnership deliver improved services for local people. He said:

“The council has undergone a remarkable transformation over the last three years, described as ‘radical’ in our most recent inspection by the Audit Commission. We recognised that to keep up the pace of change we needed to engage a partner with the expertise and capacity to challenge and improve some of our existing processes. I look forward to an exciting period of joint working that will help us to put the customer right at the heart of everything we do.”          

Chief Executive of Swindon Borough Council, Gavin Jones is very clear about what benefits the partnership will bring. He said: 

“This is certainly not an outsourcing of services in the traditional sense but an opportunity to re-engineer the way the Council does business so that we offer top quality, value for money services to local people. Right from the outset we made it clear to potential bidders that we wanted a strategic partner and not a contractor. I am delighted that after twelve months of hard work we have achieved exactly that and I am confident that our impressive transformation will gather even more momentum.”

Simon Pilling, joint chief operating officer, Capita said: “It is through long-term partnership-based relationships like ours with Swindon Borough Council, that continuing service improvement and enhancement can be achieved. We are delighted to have secured this contract and look forward to delivering service and value to the Council and its communities across this fifteen year partnership."  

The strategic partnership will involve the TUPE transfer of nearly 400 staff from the Council to Capita.  Some of the most noticeable benefits that residents and businesses will see are the development of a new contact centre and ‘one stop shop’, which will become the first point of contact for all services the Council offers.

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For further information, please contact:
Capita Press Office, 0870 2400 488

The Capita Group Plc is the UK’s leading provider of integrated professional support service solutions. The Group’s service capabilities encompass customer services, financial services, human resource services, software services, systems and strategic support and property services delivered to both public sector and private organisations. With over 26,000 employees at more than 250 offices across the UK and Ireland, Capita is quoted on the London Stock Exchange (CPI.L), and is a constituent of the FTSE100 with revenues for 2005 of £1,436 million.

Further information on The Capita Group Plc can be found at: www.capita.co.uk

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