North West Centre of Excellence

News Update

Week Ending 2nd December 2005

Leisure Trusts

A number of authorities who are currently looking at Leisure Trusts have contacted us to ask whether authorities who have already made decisions in this field would be willing to share the legal advice they received, for a fee.

If you have any information or would like to discuss this further please contact Bev at NWCE.

OGC Conference

NWCE attended the OGC Conference on 1^st December 2005. 

OGC’s objectives were set out, as follows: -

°            Ensure efficiency gains of £21.5bn by March 2008 (and ensure they are sustainable)

°            Instill a culture of efficiency across the public sector

°            Improve public sector ability to be efficient

°            Measurement of progress

°            Prepare grounds for longer term efficiency gains

For further information please contact NWCE.

NW Centre of Excellence & OGCbuying.solutions Event - 1^st December 2005

Please click here to view presentations from the day.

Sustainable Procurement – Briefing Session for Members

NWCE presented at a briefing session for members at Bolton on Monday 5^th December, with Dr Gordon Murray of IDeA.  Presentations given at this event can be found by clicking here, and here.

E-auctions

Following two successful OGC facilitated e-Auctions on IT Hardware that have both delivered significant cashable savings of 28% from the existing start pricing, OGC is now keen to gather stakeholder requirements for a planned January e-Auction. Once again we will be focussing on Laptop, Desktop, 17" Monitors and Ultra Small PC's using the existing generic standard specifications. There is also a probable requirement for printers. The planning of these events is critical to their success therefore the earlier we see demand the quicker we can execute on the event. If you are interested or have defined volumes then please contact either, Chris Chettle (07785 310636), Will Harman (07891 363 087) or Paul Howard (07733 217899). 

National eProcurement Project (NePP): Multi-agency eProcurement case studies and proof of concept 

As part of its work on multi-agency eProcurement the NePP would like to request assistance in identifying authorities who have experience of procuring collaboratively with other public sector bodies (eg police, fire, schools, NHS etc).

This strand of work will develop a multi-agency eProcurement framework and toolkit to provide authorities and other public sector bodies with guidance and support to implement and run their own collaborations.  As part of this, we would like to speak to:

°            Authorities who have already procured collaboratively with other public sector bodies.  This would be in order to create case studies. (Please note that it doesn't matter whether the experience was of a succesful collaboration or not).

°            Authorities who are considering procuring with other public sector bodies in the coming months.  This would be in order to determine possible 'proof of concept' areas.

°             

Follow this link to download the adverts for participants in the case studies and proof of concept: National eProcurement Project

VOCA

VOCA, (formally known as BACS Ltd) is working with the nine RCEs to identify transactional payment service efficiency improvements in local authorities.  VOCA’s centre of excellence is an ODPM funded initiative that will help local authorities achieve efficiency objectives as part of the e-government agenda.  VOCA’s centre of excellence encompasses the following key elements:

°            A transaction performance database showing VOCA processed direct debit and direct credit transactions and messages at regional and local authority level.

°            A performance score card for each RCE showing processing issues at regional and local level.

°            An individual road map of improvement areas for overall performance.

°            Action plans for each local authority identifying the actions required to achieve efficiency gains.

°            Quarterly reports and meetings with RCEs to review local authority payment transaction performance.

In addition to the core service above, a key element in creating sustainable improvement is building the capacity for local authorities to develop internal resources to continue to drive improvements. VOCA is able to support building these services through training and consultancy.  The programme has been funded nationally by the 9 RCE’s and is therefore free at the point of delivery for all English Local Authorities. The methodology is currently being piloted in South Yorkshire. Watch this space for rollout details.

National Procurement Strategy Milestones

In December 2005 the second year national procurement strategy milestones are due to be met.  For further information about what your Council should have done by December 2005 please click here.

For further information please contact NWCE, or for further information about the National procurement Strategy please visit www.odpm.gov.uk