Rushcliffe Borough Council

Rushcliffe Borough Council is pursuing an innovative Social Franchise model for their long-standing Streetwise service, which provides a growing range of environmental, grounds maintenance and on-street services. Since autumn of 2014, Streetwise has operated as a wholly Council-owned trading company subject to a Teckal exemption. This protects the core contract with Rushcliffe whilst allowing the company to demonstrate its competiveness in the marketplace by trading work with the public and private sectors. Whilst continuing to clean and maintain the borough on behalf of the Council, Streetwise has branched out to offer new services to businesses and public bodies including schools, parishes, sports clubs and voluntary organisations. The company is still in early days in its current form but there are promising signs for the future including a major contract about to be announced in the Nottingham area and work being commissioned by neighbouring boroughs.

The Streetwise workforce has benefited from the transition through access to a wider range of work and training opportunities, as well as flexible working and reward schemes that have been successfully implemented.

Social values and principles of local growth and employment are central to Streetwise. Through seeking to partner with small businesses, employing locally and offering routes to work for homeless and long-term unemployed residents the company hopes to provide increasing social as well as economic and environmental benefits. The Streetwise brand is also seen as important. As well as providing a distinct identity for existing and future employees, Streetwise is already a visible and respected brand within the borough with Rushcliffe recognised as one of the cleanest place in the country.

Building on this brand, the bold next step for Streetwise is to develop a social franchise model. This will enable other organisations to partner with Streetwise and provide services under a recognised banner whilst accessing the supporting infrastructure that Rushcliffe intends to provide. The franchise model is seen as a way of de-risking and managing the cost of expansion for Rushcliffe, whilst offering other organisations a way to potentially reduce costs and improve service quality.

Allen Graham, Chief Executive, Rushcliff Borough Council

http://www.rushcliffe.gov.uk/