Southampton City Council

Successfully negotiating a service partnership

Southampton is the largest city on the UK's south coast. The authority maintains a position of being 'three star' and improving well but, like many local authorities, faces the challenge of meeting the growing needs of its community with relatively static resources. In keeping pace with that change it recognised that it could only do so much on its own.

Through a process of business case development and benefit assessment, PA determined a mix of services necessary to attract the optimal benefits and investment from seeking a strategic partner. This enabled the Council to decide what opportunity to take to market.

In supporting the client-team-in-waiting through competitive and preferred bidder negotiations PA instilled a commercial focus and auditable discipline in the procurement process. While managing the detail of negotiations we also undertook regular strategic reviews of the commercial offers, tracking potential benefits back to the Council's goals as prioritised in the business case. Our experience in sourcing partnerships gave the Council confidence to tackle even seemingly deal-breaking issues in a pragmatic and solution-based manner. Key to this was our objectivity in steering both parties towards finding win-win outcomes.