Freight searching solution design for UK Border Force

The challenge

UK Border Force runs juxtaposed controls in France, checking freight and tourist traffic before it leaves for the UK. Around 7.2 million vehicles a year pass through the three sites, and searches find around 30,000 people concealed in vehicles each year. A contracted workforce searches freight 24 hours a day, then holds and escorts anyone found until they are handed to the French border police or Border Force.

The new provider had to take on around 250 French staff from the incumbent, with their collective agreement and works council, run the service under French employment law, and present a UK headquarters and a French operation to the customer as one service. It had nine months from contract award to go-live.

What our Solutions Director did

Our Solutions Director led the design from the solution concept to a target operating model and a mobilisation plan. The work covered:

• A layered solution: from the contract overview, through the solution on a page, to the solution detail for each response area, with every design decision tied to the question and its weighting
• A target operating model and organisation: a leaner management layer with 47 team leaders and assistant leaders over 186 search officers, which put a Team Leader on every shift at every site, a 24-hour duty management rota, and a responsibility matrix for 16 incident types. The UK headquarters and the French operation split their work by what each did best and were presented to the customer as one service.
• Process realisation for searching, detention, welfare and complaints: each step from stopping a vehicle to handing over a person found concealed, covering translation, same-gender searching, first aid, property, notification and escort. Every power was tied to its legal basis, including detention for up to three hours, and tested on scenarios such as finding a minor or someone needing medical help, which gave Border Force a service it could defend at inspection.
• A workforce model under French employment law: six costed staffing scenarios from 227 to 270 full-time equivalent staff on 12-hour shifts within a 35-hour week, starting at 241 and moving to a leaner model once a new collective agreement was in place. Seventeen flexible staff and a ladder of call-in options let the service raise and lower numbers at short notice, as the Home Office required.
• A business case for the data capture and reporting platform: a saving of £159,000 a year against manual recording, with real-time reporting for Border Force
• A mobilisation and transition plan: the transfer of around 250 French staff under French rules, 17 promotions to strengthen supervision, and a culture change programme with an employee partnership forum, staff champions and mental health first aid. Refreshed in June 2022 across eight workstreams, the plan was set in three phases of mobilisation, transition and transformation.

The result

The provider won the contract, worth £10m a year and £50m over its life, scoring 100% for quality.

Services: Solution & Service Design · Mobilisation & Project Management

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