Client: Staffordshire Moorlands District Council
Date: March 2023 to present
Challenges faced by the client:
Staffordshire Moorlands District Council successfully secured £19 million in funding from the Levelling Up Fund to regenerate Leek town centre. The funding was for the Council to deliver three major projects: refurbishing the historic market halls in the centre of Leek, renovating and developing a new public leisure centre, and refurbishing the Nicholson Institute, a historic cultural building that houses a museum and library. The Council was also successful in securing match funding from Staffordshire County Council towards the projects.
To successfully deliver these projects and meet the requirements of the Levelling Up Fund, the Council identified that it needed support to mobilise its programme.
Having previously supported the Council for its bid to the Levelling Up Fund, Mutual Ventures was asked by the Council to support in mobilising their programme.
Our support:
Mutual Ventures’ support began with establishing robust programme governance arrangements, creating effective reporting processes, and setting clear tolerance levels to manage project risks.
In addition to this, Mutual Ventures offered direct coaching support to the three project managers responsible for mobilising the three distinct projects as well as providing coaching and technical advice to the programme manager. This support focused on developing comprehensive project initiation documents, creating stakeholder communication plans, and establishing project-level governance.
The Mutual Ventures team worked with the Council’s project managers to identify the expected project outputs and outcomes and establish methods to measure and report on these outputs and outcomes as part of the Levelling Up Fund requirements. This involved supporting the Council to develop a performance framework and data collection mechanisms to ensure that the outputs, outcomes, and impact from the programme can be measured and reported.
Following the initial mobilisation phase, Mutual Ventures continued to offer ongoing coaching support as the projects progressed. This included assistance with project management tasks such as identifying risks and finding solutions to emerging issues.
Throughout the process, Mutual Ventures provided consistent and appropriate challenge and support, ensuring that the Council could meet the requirements of the Levelling Up Fund and successfully deliver their projects.
Outcome achieved:
The Council successfully mobilised the programme including all three projects. The programme has faced challenges due to the impact of inflation on construction costs and the resulting effect of this on decision making and project timelines. Nevertheless, the projects have successfully progressed with the refurbishment of Leek Market Halls now complete and the renovation and development of a new public leisure centre, along with the refurbishment of the Nicholson Institute are progressing well. Throughout this process, the Council has effectively managed the requirements of the Levelling Up Fund programme. To date, all projects have remained within Council and Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government tolerances fir time, cost, scope, and quality.
Feedback from the client:
“The support provided by MV has been essential in ensuring the effective delivery of our LUF programme. The programme represents the single largest capital project undertaken by the Council; MV's support has ensured that the programme benefits from solid and best-practice fundamentals, including programme governance and controls, contract management arrangements, benefits realisation planning and monitoring and evaluation arrangements. Following a thorough mobilisation stage, MV staff have continued to provide strategic, programme and project level advice and support. Their support is always highly responsive, professional and pragmatic in addressing all elements of the programme.”
Mark Trillo, Executive Director and Monitoring Officer, High Peak Borough Council and Staffordshire Moorlands District Council.
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