Reigate and Banstead Council

case study

Reigate and Banstead Council

Reigate and Banstead Borough Council support the local community in the borough which encompasses the towns of Reigate, Redhill, Horley and Banstead. As part of the drive to improve services and make cost savings Reigate and Banstead Borough Council (RBBC) developed an accommodation strategy to rationalise their estate. Included in the strategy is the rationalisation of the Town Hall site in Reigate.

Challenge

Creating an agile working environment

Like most local Councils, Reigate & Banstead Council were faced with ongoing reductions in budgets and increased demands on services. The Council had embarked on a rationalisation programme but had not undertaken a consultation to fully engage the staff in the process. Faced with low morale due to potential staff losses and the need to make significant property savings they engaged Baker Stuart to look at opportunities to both rationalise their accommodation and improve staff morale and working practices by moving to a more agile working environment and develop an overall change and stakeholder engagement programme.

solution

Baker Stuart undertook an initial review of the project, and developed a consultation programme to fully understand the councils needs and the concerns of the stakeholder. We conducted an initial workplace audits and developed a new accommodation strategy, and business case for the closure of two existing building and the refurbishment of the existing Town Hall and Annex to create an agile environment to house all existing staff. This was twinned with an extensive change management and stakeholder engagement strategy to ensure full staff buy-in to the changes.

Upon sign off Baker Stuart were further engaged to develop the new workplace strategy, change management plan and all associated guidelines and to design, coordinate and manage the project. Working closely with the internal FM, HR, IT and Comms teams, Baker Stuart lead the programme and provided both detailed design, project management, move management and a full change management and stakeholder engagement service.