Oxfordshire County Council's Third-Party Savings Project
Background: Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) embarked on a third-party savings project to achieve financial sustainability by reviewing and assessing its third-party spend, which amounted to approximately £600 million/annum The primary focus of our project was to identify immediate, in year savings for 2025/26, with a target of £5 million
Approach: Newtrality were engaged by OCC to complete a detailed, comprehensive analysis of both on- and off-contract spend using Council data. Newtrality, engaged with key stakeholders, working with OCC business partners and finance colleagues to support the collation of information and carry out detailed discussions with service leads to test opportunities. We used our team of Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) to guide the conversations and challenge service assumptions.
From this we developed a tailored Power BI to further support OCC in ongoing spend analysis. This will support them in the future to identifying common themes, key lines of enquiry (KLOEs), and areas of possible savings. The project was divided into several work packages, each with specific deliverables and due dates.
We then supported the team to verify and drive out the savings.
Key Outcomes
1. Financial Savings:
The project identified a total of £10,857,678 in savings opportunities, with £4,171,820 achievable in the financial year 2025/26. These savings were distributed across various clusters, including FM and Property, Environment and Highways, ICT, Technology and Systems, Cross Cutting, Adult Social Care, and Children's Social Care.
2. Improved Spend Management:
By collating and analysing spend data, OCC was able to develop a clear understanding of its expenditure patterns. This enabled the Council to identify areas of overspend and implement measures to control and reduce costs in the short and medium term
3. Enhanced Supplier Negotiations:
o Newtrality also developed a toolkit which was rolled out with OCC staff to support supplier negotiations, help improve\contract terms and realise savings e.g., the consolidation of cleaning suppliers and the renegotiation of core supplier rates led to the identification of significant cost reductions.
4. Strategic Commissioning and Contract Management:
The project also identified areas for improvement in strategic commissioning and contract management, ensuring that OCC could achieve better value for money from its contracts. This included the review and renegotiation of contracts in areas such as waste management, horticultural and tree maintenance, and street lighting.
5. Data-Driven Decision Making:
The development of a Power BI dashboard will allow OCC to make real-time data-driven decisions, ensuring that savings opportunities can continue to be identified and prioritised based on robust analysis.
The third-party savings project has provided Oxfordshire County Council with a clear roadmap to achieve financial sustainability Having worked with the OCC team and developed the BI dashboard the Council are now well positioned to identify and drive future savings. By identifying savings opportunities, improving spend management, providing ways to enhance supplier negotiations, and strengthening strategic commissioning and contract management, OCC is positioned to achieve its financial goals and provide better value for its residents.
Director of Finance and Commercial said:
“We engaged Newtrality to help us find, verify and drive out in year savings. They worked collaboratively with our team throughout and their subject specialists helped us to land the savings concepts within the organisation. The £4M + of savings will significantly help us in this financial year and our team are well equipped to tackle future savings.”