News Update

Week Ending 8th September 2006

NWCE STAKEHOLDER EVENT – ‘AHEAD OF THE GAME’ – 14^th September

THE NWCE is inviting chief executives, lead officers and members to make sure their names are on the team sheet for its stakeholder event in two week’s time.

The centre’s showcase event – Ahead of the Game – is being held at the City of Manchester Stadium on September 14 with the keynote address being delivered by Phil Woolas MP minister for local government and communities.

As well as hearing from the minister and Sue Reid, head of the modernisation and efficiency division at DCLG, the event will celebrate the way that local authorities are leading the field in making efficiencies and improvements in the delivery of services in the region. It will also highlight a range of best practice projects being delivered in the region and will provide the opportunity for members and chief executives to assess their own local authority’s game plan and how their performance can be improved.

This event is next week – is your council attending?  If you have not already received your invitation and would like to register please click here .

NWCE SUPPORTS CHESHIRE WASTE PARTNERSHIP STUDY….

The NWCE is supporting the development of an options appraisal and outline business case for a multi authority waste management contract or integrated series of contracts.

The NWCE is supporting the Cheshire Waste Partnership (CWP), Chester City Council, Congleton Borough Council, Crewe & Nantwich Borough Council, Ellesmere Port & Neston Borough Council, Macclesfield Borough Council,  Vale Royal Borough Council and Cheshire County Council) in carrying out to study to investigate whether working together to collect and recycle the county’s waste could produce a better and more efficient service across the county.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affair’s is encouraging joint working between local authorities to deliver efficiency savings on waste collection of £300 million nationally.  Chester City Council is the lead authority on this project.

Consultants ENTECC together and Price Waterhouse Coopers were appointed in mid August to carry out the first phase of the work, which is an options appraisal and outline business case which will enable the Councils to take a decision on the best way forward.

EAUCTION CASE STUDIES – TRADING PARTNERS    

eAuction provider, Trading Partners, have made available a number of eAuction case studies and guidance documents. These can be found on the eProcurement Portal at https://vwg.agma.gov.uk/sites/NWCEeP/eAuctions/Forms/AllItems.aspx under the Trading Partners folder. Of special interest is the back page of the Trading Partners brochure that outlines the percentage savings that can be achieved in certain categories; from Abrasives to White Wine! The North West is also represented by a Stockport case study on Telecommunications.

If you can not access the eProcurement Portal please email rebecca.mcdevitt@tameside.gov.uk.

MOBILE LIBRARY VEHICLES – CAN YOU HELP???

Manchester City Council has recently gone out to tender, for two coach built mobile Library vehicles. To assist them in securing best value, any information that would help such as the specification you used would be most welcome in assisting Manchester City Council to evaluate and compare the tender returns.

If you can offer any assistance please contact Gary Campin, Transport and Plant Manager on 0161 957 8419 or email g.campin@manchester.gov.uk.

AES MID YEAR UPDATE

A statement from Michael Leah posted on the ESD Toolkit AES forum this week stated that there would be no new guidance to accompany this year's Mid-Year Update statement.  The issue published in May remains in force and there would be no significant changes to the format for completing the Mid-Year Update from that used last year.

(The only real change is to be a different 'tick box' arrangement for showing whether or not the statement is draft or has received approval from the Leader, Chief Exec & Chief Finance Officer.)

The new online template should be launched a minimum of six weeks prior to the deadline for submissions which is 17 November.

CATALYST

The first edition of CATALYST, a new national news publication from the Regional Centres of Excellence is now available for download here: CATALYST - September (PDF, 4 pages, 40KB)

GC FORUM – e-BULLETIN FOR THE GOVERNMENT COMMERCIAL COMMUNITY

Best practice, in all aspects of procurement, is spreading influence right across the public sector.  New versions, new partners and new results can be found in the GCForum August e-bulletin.

THE CENTRE FOR PROCUREMENT PERFORMANCE – AUGUST NEWSLETTER

Published by DfES this issue contains details of events of interest to those involved with procurement within Education, case studies etc. including the Portsmouth ‘Turning the Curve ‘ toolkit and desktop guides for e-procurement in schools.  Download the CPP August Newsletter.

EVENTS

NWCE ANNUAL STAKEHOLDER EVENT

“AHEAD OF THE GAME”

14 SEPTEMBER 2006 – MANCHESTER CITY FOOTBALL STADIUM

THE NWCE is inviting chief executives, lead officers and members to make sure their names are on the team sheet for its stakeholder event in two week’s time.

The centre’s showcase event – Ahead of the Game – is being held at the City of Manchester Stadium on September 14 with the keynote address being delivered by Phil Woolas MP.

The event will celebrate the way that local authorities are leading the field in making efficiencies and improvements in the delivery of services in the region. It will also highlight a range of best practice projects being delivered in the region and will provide the opportunity for members and chief executives to assess their own local authority’s game plan and how their performance can be improved.

To book your seat at the event click here .

BARGAIN HUNT – CONFIRMED SESSIONS

The NWCE has identified in excess of £100m quick win procurement savings within the region. This event will illustrate how local authorities can take advantage of these savings. Further sessions have now been confirmed for the 3^rd October Bargain Hunt session at the Palace Hotel, Manchester. Bargain Hunt should be attended by anybody looking for efficiency savings, involved in decision making or purchasing goods and services for local authorities.

Current sessions include:

A: Collaborative Procurement

B: Savings from Better Contract Management

C: Agency Staff - A Vendor Neutral Approach

D: Spend Analysis - Using the data to save

E: Postal Procurement Efficiencies

F: Mobile Telecoms Efficiencies

G: Savings from Better Energy Procurement

H: Using the OGC.BS Energy Framework

I: Making Framework Agreements Work For You

J: Fleet Procurement Strategy

K: Using Financial Information for Reducing Procurement Costs

L: Regional Procurement Cards

M: Can having the right connections save you money?

N: eInvoicing – Reducing the cost of invoice processing

O: Online Recruitment & Recruitment Advertising

P: eAuctions - Practical Example for the NW 

It is expected that delegates will be able to select 5 workshops from a current list of 16 so organizations may want to send a number of delegates to ensure that all relevant sessions can be attended.

More information can be found at www.nwce.org.uk/bargainhunt.htm.

Sign up now October 3, 2006 by contacting Bev Brooks on 0161 342 4081 or bev.brooks@tameside.gov.uk

STATIONERY VISIT – 19^TH OCTOBER

The NWCE have been working with OGC on better use of existing stationery agreements available to North West authorities. Over the past few weeks, around £750k of savings have been identified with those organizations involved to date. As part of this work Office Depot have agreed to make their best government deals available to all local authorities within the North West and to assist in the migration. This could result in multi million pound savings for the region on stationery procurement.  

As part of this process the NWCE and Office Depot are holding an open day on 19^th October. View the full agenda.

As places are limited please contact Shirley Frost via 08704 416 3056 or Shirley.frost@officedepot.com.

Discussions are underway with other stationery firms in the region. Please contact neil.hind@hind.co.uk if you need further details.

MAKING THE MOST OF PURCHASE SPEND ANALYSIS DATA

The North West Centre of Excellence is running a series of one day workshops on making the most of the Purchase Spend Analysis data that the majority councils have collated. These workshops will be completely subsidised by NWCE and as such will be completely FREE to you all.

The workshops provide a great opportunity for Local Authorities to gain the tools needed to make the most of Purchase Spend Analysis. The skills and knowledge you will walk away with will enable your authority to use the expenditure data effectively to help support future planning, to achieve efficiency and cashable savings and to identifying areas where collaborative working is likely to deliver the best results.  One workshop will be held in each sub-region of the North West throughout September and October. The following workshops have been arranged so far:

·         Tues 19 September – Cumbria

·         Wed 20 September – Greater Manchester

·         Tues 11 October - Cheshire

Each workshop can accommodate 16 people, with a maximum of 2 from each council.  Download a short two page summary of the workshops, providing details of the contents and format of the day.  If you wish to sign up for this event then please email Rebecca McDevitt at NWCE as soon as possible to avoid disappointment as places will fill up fast.

NWEGG ANNUAL CONFERENCE - 7 NOVEMBER 2006

An exciting agenda has been put together for this event, including keynote addresses from the Implementation Plan’s architect, the Head of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, Ian Watmore, and John Suffolk, the new Government CIO, who will be outlining his vision and plans for the future.  Please see the attached brochure for a full outline of the day’s plenary and seminar sessions or visit our website at www.govnet.co.uk/nwegg

During the afternoon, Sir David Varney is speaking on Transforming the Delivery of Public Services and Peter Ryder, President of SOCITM will be delivering a paper on how to Harness technology for transformational change and efficiency gains. Kate Silver, Implementation Manager, Government IT Profession at the Cabinet Office, will provide critical insights into Developing IT Professionalism and Skills and complimenting the plenary programme will be a series of workshop sessions including: Multi-agency Information Sharing; Government Connect; Tackling Social Exclusion; Putting the Customer First; and Joining up Services across Organisations.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS CALENDAR