The longest established mainstream Interim Management provider in the UK.

Our Mission is to provide outstanding flexible management resources to all our clients.

A specialist service from Russam GMS to find the right expertise for challenging assignments.

During times of increasing pressure to deliver in an efficient and effective manner you can rely on the support of an organisation that clearly understands the key issues facing local government.

Local Government Focus

The Russam GMS local government practIce focus is on the key issues affecting most authorities:

• Finance
• Adults and Childrens Social Services
• Transformation
• Regeneration
• Estates and Corporate Services
• Education

We have the resources available to support initiatives in all of these key areas with Interim Management professionals who will fit in with the existing teams and accelerate the pace of change.

Capability Statement

Please read our Capability Statement here, a PDF version suitable for printing can also be downloaded here.

Are Interims Managers best placed to balance local council budgets?

The 1st April 2011 heralded the start of a new financial year in local government, with budgets confirmed for 2011-12. However, for most finance directors the new financial year will be greeted with caution, trepidation and the knowledge that there is greater pressure than ever to balance the budgets and save millions of pounds.

For most local government finance directors last year was all about cuts; this year will be no different.

New research from the Local Government Association of local authority finance directors, published on 1 April 2011, highlighted that nine out of 10 councils have already reduced the cost of senior officers, either by cutting numbers or pay and that eight out of 10 have cut middle-management costs.

In terms of targets for this year, 58% of local authorities are planning to make greater savings in 2011-12 by cutting central services such as administration, Human Resources, Finance and IT. One in five said they were seeking to make proportionally the greatest savings from services for young people and 16% said they were targeting library and cultural services for proportionally the largest cuts. Around 70% are also planning shared services with a neighbouring local authority.

Continue to read full article here (word doc)

Interim Project Manager delivers IT improvements and savings at Northants County Council

Grant Olwagen is an Interim Project manager and technology expert. His latest assignment was in the Children's Services Department at Northants County Council where he upgraded vital technology and restructured IT procurement, which resulted in half a million pounds savings.

Grant was hired initially by the Children's Services Department to project manage technology upgrades for educational systems such as Capita One and Care First, which was upgraded from Version 5 to 6.7 to 6.9. Capita One had low visibility within the Authority. Since Grant has increased the visibility of the system, it has had a higher profile within the organisation.

However, this wasn't his only achievement. During his assignment Grant realised that the technology within the department wasn't integrated or being used in a joined up way. There were 19 different modules in distinct areas covered by the Capita One solution; each with an individual module manager. However, the lack of integration between Capita One modules and other IT systems meant that Managers at Northants had no single and cohesive view of a child. They were therefore unable to track any case histories easily or cross reference them with information about schools and social services.

Grant instigated the concept of integrated technology across the department to give managers insight into the council's entire business operations, as well as to deliver a cohesive view of the children. He provided a business process map outlining all the technology in the Children's services department and the Authority as a whole, showing how it could be integrated. He wanted to ensure that the managers had a better overview of the technical architecture within the authority with a single concise view of the technology, what it did and how it was aligned to the business needs. For the first time ever, managers now have an overview of the technology and how it serves the business.

He also eradicated the need for some of the Capita One modules altogether which has saved the council money. He has moved employees onto new upgraded technology systems, which is improving the quality of their work and making it easier for them to do their jobs.

He also changed the Council's approach to IT procurement, particularly with regard to the purchase of a Capita product, eStart, which has which has resulted in half a million pounds worth of cost savings. Whereas previously, the 50 Sure Start centres across Northants would have purchased a new system separately, Grant purchased systems for all of them at the same time, ensuring big discounts and savings.

Grant has left the council with a great legacy. He has integrated the technology across the department and trained people on new systems, which are improving their work. He helped to align IT with the business needs and save money; something which is a major priority for all councils at present.

Interim Manager puts plans in place to handle pandemic flu outbreak at Essex County Council

According to a National Risk Register, Pandemic flu is the gravest threat to UK security as it could claim up to 750,000 lives. The government has made it a priority to ensure that local authorities around the UK can respond to an outbreak and protect vulnerable people in their communities.

As one of the largest counties in the UK with a population of nearly 2m people, Essex is considered at high risk if an outbreak occurred.

Lacking the skills internally to put together a flu planning programme, Essex called in experienced Interim, Roger Gatford to put in place a county-wide continuity plan to help the council respond and deliver essential services in such an event.

This complex programme involved creating action and contingency plans for up to 60 different departments in the County Council, ranging from adult and children's social care, through to education and transport in order to determine their response to an outbreak.

Thanks to Roger, the council now has a draft plan in place which will become part of the UK national response.

To find out how Roger created his contingency programme, please click here.