Working Together to integrate and transform Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils - making them work better for you!



Everyone wants to be on the receiving end of excellent service and to feel that it is value-for-money too.

Here at Babergh and Mid Suffolk district councils we want to provide those aspirations for you and are working hard to achieve it.

With both sets of councils working together, we are with those in the vanguard of rethinking and transforming the fundamental relationship between local government and local communities. 

Suffolk is sometimes seen as being a bit sleepy. This is certainly not the case.  Six districts across Suffolk are now working together. 
Some have been doing this for longer but Babergh and Mid Suffolk have a challenging integration and transformation programme that we hope will enable us to make greater changes faster.

Our integration and transformation plans have been moving swiflly forward since the appointment of a new, joint Chief Executive in May - bought in to oversee a radical transformation in the way in which we do things and how we deliver them.
This change was prompted by the need to meet tough savings and efficiency targets, as well as cuts in Government grants to local authorities across the UK.

In order to achieve these savings targets both councils decided to work together.

A previous proposal to merge both councils into one, new council was narrowly defeated in a Local Poll but the need to deliver the savings was ever more apparent.

Since then, both councils have continued to plan and deliver ways of bringing the two workforces together as a way of achieving savings and improving support for frontline services in an era of public sector cuts.

Over the past six years, both Councils have consistently exceeded the efficiency targets set by the government and have done so by identifying savings and efficiencies that did not adversely impact on services for our residents.

The recognition by both Councils of the scale and immediacy of the challenge with which they were faced was reflected in their support for the principle of a unitary model for Suffolk during the recent Local Government Review.

When it became clear that unitary local government was no longer an option, both Councils agreed on the need to identify a deliverable and sustainable alternative

Both Babergh and Mid Suffolk believe that by integrating our staffing structures we will achieve savings. It will transform how we do what we do and improve services wherever possible.

Our vision is to have a stronger long-term future and achieve better outcomes for all.

As part of this transformation process, we are now recruiting externally for two Strategic Director posts. Please visit here for more information.