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Related Links News Updates |
News Update Week Ending 20th October 2006
Latest e-Auction Cuts IT Costs by 36% for Councils
Nine local authorities in North West England saved nearly £3 million in the sixth IT hardware e-auction run by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC). This e-auction was held at the NWCE’s recent Bargain Hunt event.
The councils auctioned IT hardware requirements worth £8 million at pre-auction benchmarked prices, achieving a price of £5.09 million: an average saving of 36%. This brings the total saved by public sector organisations in OGC e-auctions to nearly £16 million since the first e-auction in September 2005.
For more information view a copy of the press release.
eAuction Offer
The NWCE still has funding for a number of collaborative eAuctions to be let via existing OGC.buying.solutions frameworks. If you are looking to hold such an event then please contact Neil.Hind@hind.co.uk.
Job Vacancies with the North West Centre of Excellence
The NWCE is advertising three posts. These are Efficiency Delivery Manager and two Project Support Officer (Admin). The closing date for all three vacancies is 10th November. To view the job descriptions for these posts please use the links below.
Delivering efficiencies and savings through collaborative waste collection and recycling
The NWCE is supporting the Cheshire Waste Partnership (CWP) made up of Chester City Council, Congleton Borough Council, Crewe & Nantwich Borough Council, Ellesmere Port & Neston Borough Council, Macclesfield Borough Council and Vale Royal Borough Council together with Cheshire County Council in looking at the advantages of collaboration in waste collection and recycling.
The project is lead by Chester City Council, project manager David Limb and supported on behalf of the Centre by Andrew Callander. It takes the form of a two stage study; first preparing an Options Appraisal of the best way forward, followed by an Outline Business Case for a multi authority waste management contract or integrated series of contracts
The first stage has now been completed by Entec and Price Waterhouse Coopers and an Options Appraisal study showing the potential for considerable savings has been presented to the Councils’ Chief Executives, who have given approval to move to the next stage and the preparation of an outline business.
Helping local authorities meet their statutory recycling targets with direct consultancy financial support
The centre will be assisting Defra in the assessment their Waste Implementation Programme (WIP), Local Authority Support Unit (LASU) Tranche 1 of Direct Consultancy Support (DCS) grants in November. In recent years these grants have been awarded to 373 out of 394 English Local Authorities to help them in meeting their statutory recycling targets through specialist. Financial support. It is available to any one joint County Council authority/district council project up to £50K per financial year; and £15K per Unitary Authority per financial year. A project can be for the two year period, 2006/08. The deadline for the current submission of applications is 31st October.
Three awards were made in the North West for 2006/8 following the first application deadline in March.
Warrington BC - New Municipal Waste Strategy Wigan - Waste composition analysis and, Cumbria CC - The Development of a Strategic Environmental Assessment for Cumbria Strategic Waste Partnership
Procurement Surveys
A quick reminder that you should have received a copy of the DCLG survey on procurement. It is important that this is returned by 3rd November but we understand it is rather lengthy and will take some time! View a copy of the survey and reminder letter.
..and More Surveys
Another quick reminder about the energy survey that councils were requested to complete. This information is now being requested by a number of groups and will help with energy procurement in the region. If you have not completed we would be grateful if you did. View a copy of the survey.
Lancashire Postal Collaboration
A number of councils within the Lancashire sub region have shown interest in collaborating in a regional postal framework. Recent changes in legislation have shown that considerable savings can be found in this area that could be extended to include courier services. If you are interested in getting involved then please email neil.hind@hind.co.uk.
Bolton MBC – Shared Services Programme – Can You Help?
Bolton MBC are running a shared services programme as part of a council-wide Change Management programme, and are looking at sharing services within the council. Over the past 18 months Bolton have developed centralised shared service centres for a number of back office functions including accounts payable and received, payroll, HR and training.
The council are now looking more towards “professional services” and a number of services have been identified as those which have the potential for a shared service. These are:
Should your council have any experience in sharing these, or similar, services within your authority and would like to share your knowledge, lessons and experience with other councils please contact Olly Baker. We are particularly interested in speaking to those councils who have developed shared service centres internally for non-transactional functions.
Grounds Maintenance and Vehicle Maintenance – Can You Help?
Fylde Borough Council are considering going out to tender for their Grounds Maintenance and Vehicle Maintenance.
Are there any framework agreements covering these two areas that Fylde could use? If you can offer any assistance please contact Allan Williams at Fylde Borough Council (AWilliams@wyrebc.gov.uk).
High Fives! Buying organisations join forces to support local government efficiency drive
The Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation, Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation, Central Buying Consortium, West Mercia Supplies and the North East Purchasing Organisation have agreed to work together as the ‘Pro5’ and are preparing a business model to underpin their collaborative efforts.
Under these arrangements, the Pro5 will identify and promote the best deals for local authorities, including those offered by other professional buying organisations.
As a first step, the Pro5 have identified a number of key markets where quick win cashable savings can be made. They will combine their procurement expertise and strong market position to help local authorities migrate spend onto new contracts in the markets of telephony, postal services, self-drive vehicle hire, micro-technologies to support environmental sustainability and energy.
For further information read the full news release.
Landmark guidance forecast to save £100m on local government’s annual temporary staff bill
Called ‘Transforming the procurement of temporary, agency and interim staff’, the guidance has been drawn up by the London Borough of Havering with funding from the London Centre of Excellence. The nine Regional Centres of Excellence are working with Havering and the Office of Government Commerce, which has now adopted the guidance, to promote it nationally.
The guidance, which has been written by local government HR, finance and procurement professionals, comes in the form of an easy to use toolkit. It sets out the different approaches to attracting and engaging temporary workers supplied to the public sector through Britain’s large number of temporary staffing agencies. It also offers guidance on how to select the approach best suited to an organisation’s needs, the latest HR advice and a number of best practice case studies.
For further information read the full news release.
NWCE Team Awayday – 25 October 2006
The NWCE are holding a team awayday on Wednesday 25th October 2006. As such, telephone calls will not be answered on this date, and emails will not receive a response until the following day. A telephone number will be made available for any emergencies which we will post on the home page of our website – www.nwce.gov.uk. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience.
EVENTS
Local Government Engagement Event, 2 November 2006 - 1.00pm - 4.30pm, Skills Northwest Conference Centre
This is an exciting opportunity to ensure that local government perspectives feature in two plans being developed in respect of local government service development. The Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Centre of Excellence (Y&H RCE) is leading on the development of a delivery plan for corporate and transactional services (C&TS) in local government. The Department for Communities and Local Government is making recommendations to local government in respect of Shared Services, this will take the form of a sector plan for shared services which could have a profound impact on the agenda for local government in delivering shared services.
The delivery plan for C&TS and the sector plan for shared services are considered imperative by DCLG in identifying where the 'big wins' are in terms of efficiencies and service improvements and how these 'big wins' can be realised by local authorities. The two plans will contain a vision for the future based on evidence of what constitutes best practice and what is achievable.
The North West Centre of Excellence (NWCE) is running a workshop to take place on Thursday 2nd November 2006 1.00pm - 4.30pm at Skills North West, St Helens.
This workshop will provide a key input from the perspective of local government into the work DCLG and Y&H CE is carrying out as well as giving DCLG the opportunity to test out in a live setting some of the assumptions that have been developed as part of research into C&TS and Shared services.
The NWCE hopes that the event will be attended by local government Chief Executives, Council Leaders and change agents and will ensure that the views of local government are reflected in the eventual planning.
Since the event is of high priority for the local government community, your support would be greatly appreciated. Please ensure your authority is represented. For further information or to book places please contact Beverley Brooks at the NWCE:
Agency Staffing Project Engagement Day 3 November 2006
The NWCE in partnership with AGMA are pleased to announce Agency Staffing Project Engagement Day. Public Sector expenditure on Agency Workers across the UK is estimated be in the region of £12 billion per annum and is believed to be in excess of £50 million purely with AGMA.
As you may be aware the AGMA Agency Staffing Project is progressing well and has completed a quick win exercise that could save over £2million across the eleven participating authorities and associations. The success of the project to date demonstrates the power of true organisational collaboration. Not only will each organisation gain substantial ‘cash’ savings and streamlined processes, but a new model would afford greater control over the quality of agency workers for all parties.
This event will demonstrate with further single authority and collaborative case studies from Lancashire, Southwark, Fulham and the OGC (who in partnership with the London RCE have developed a toolkit for agency Staff projects) how this process is already proved to work. We will take you through all the phases of the project, from Pre-Implementation to Delivery right through to What Happens Next and Future Operations.
The event will be held in Manchester (Barbirolli Square) on Friday 3rd November. To see the agenda and map please click here
To register for this event please email viv.greatwich@tameside.gov.uk with full contact details of those who you would like to attend. Numbers are limited so will be allocated on a first served basis. We look forward to seeing you there.
Regional Transformational Government Discussion Event 9 November 2006
The North West Centre of Excellence is hosting a regional transformational government discussion event (organised by the Cabinet Office and DCLG). The event is taking place on Thursday 9th November at Ashton Town Hall, commencing 12.00noon with buffet lunch.
This is an opportunity to discuss this important topic with fellow authorities, senior DCLG and Cabinet Office representatives and shape future thinking in policy development.
Date: Thursday 9 November
2006
Register at: www.govevents.co.uk
The Transformational Local Government discussion paper can be found at www.cio.gov.uk/documents/pdf/transgov/trans_local_gov060328.pdf . This paper identifies some of the key issues and questions and is a useful starting point for our discussions on the day.
For further information please click here.
Improving the Local Provision of Culture and Sport – Workshop 27.11.2006 – 9am to 1pm
A workshop on improving the local provision of culture and sport is being run by the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) in conjunction with the North West Centre of Excellence. The event is aimed at the chief cultural heads of service in each local authority, but we also welcome the attendance of other interested local authority officers and elected members responsible for culture and sport. Please pass this invitation onto any other appropriate people.
Details of the agenda for the day will be available in the near future.
This is an opportunity for you to discuss your experience of the Efficiency Programme and other performance management issues such as CPA, and learn from the lessons of other local authorities. The event will focus on the ways in which efficiency gains have been found in culture, sport, library, and tourism provision and subsequently recycled into frontline services that meet the public’s priorities. This workshop will therefore assist you to ensure that the gains made in the Gershon Efficiency Programme actually lead to genuine improvements in the procurement and delivery of these services within your council.
The workshops will be led by the head of the Local Government Efficiency Programme at DCMS, and will provide an ideal opportunity to take advantage of the expertise of the North West RCE to identify good practice in the delivery of culture and leisure services and make the improvement agenda work for you.
You will also find out more about the priorities and the landscape confronting local authorities as they embark upon the third year of the efficiency review in 2007-08. This will feature a discussion of the impact of the Culture Services assessment within the CPA, the introduction of Regional Commentaries and the implications of self assessment on local authority spending and performance.
For further information or if you would like to attend please contact Beverley Brooks at the NWCE in the first instance.
For further information about NWCE events please see the events section of the NWCE website. |
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