Manchester Adult Education Service (MAES)

Client: Manchester City Council
Value: £15m
Duration: 6 months (March 2006 - October 2006)

Project Overview
A sudden £1.722m cut in funding by the Learning Skills Council (LSC) poised an immediate threat to the short and long terms existence of the Manchester Adult Education Service (MAES). With this 15% equivalent cut in its operating budget and an annual overspending of £800k, Manchester City Council engaged CPC to design and implement a bespoke change management programme to modernise and turn-around the service by realising these aggressive cost savings within 6 months.

CPC’s Role
In addition to the traditional role of leading the change management programme, CPC has placed a senior manager as an Interim Manager (Director of Change) into MAES to internalise and implement the new long term business plan and short term cost-cutting plans. This two-prong approach is ensuring that strategic objectives are seamlessly embedded into the tactical cost-savings and modernisation exercises. CPC is involved in critical activities eg corporate strategy planning, performance improvement, business process re-engineering, stakeholder management (including unions), asset management, operation, marketing and service development.

Client Benefits
Working in partnerhsip with all stakeholders CPC is achieving the challenging targets through restructuring and process re-engineering. With a more learner-focused course offering and tighter budget controls, MAES is transforming to not just meet its short term budget cuts but also to embark on its long term delivery goals to promote adult education and community learning, thereby regenerating the region through better employment and community cohesiveness.

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