News Update

Week Ending 26th August 2005

Efficiency Toolkit Workshops

The West Midlands Centre of Excellence are hosting an ‘Efficiency Toolkit Workshop’ on the 27^th September 2005, to which all appropriate local authority staff are invited.  This event may be best suited to officers engaged in reporting efficiencies to the ODPM, such as accountants / key procurement people and heads of departments.  The workshop will include an AES Surgery which is a questions and answers session on the annual efficiency statements.

Details of the workshop are at: -  http://www.wmcoe.gov.uk/events.asp?ses=&pl=false ).  The event will take place in central Birmingham and the workshops are free of charge.

If are interested in attending this event, or have any queries please contact Jane Daly direct at the West Midlands Centre of Excellence – j.daly@wmcoe.gov.uk

eAuctions – Funding

An urgent reminder that the OGC has some funding available for local authorities to apply for support in carrying out e-auctions. The criteria for funding and the application form are available on our website, and these need to be submitted to the NWCE by 2nd September 2005. Please contact the Centre if you would like further information – nwce@tameside.org.uk

Framework Agreements Workstream

The second meeting of the NWCE Framework Agreements workstream took place on Tuesday 23^rd August and went very well.  Minutes and actions of this meeting will be available on the NWCE website within the next couple of weeks. 

One of the agreed outcomes was to compile a catalogue of good quality framework agreements for use by authorities across the North West. These will be drawn from agreements created by local authorities, OGC Buying Solutions, the Higher Education sector and other public sector organisations. A small working group will be established to identify suitable agreements.

The next two meetings of this workstream will take place on 3^rd October and 13^th December.  For further details regarding this workstream please contact Bev at the centre – bev.brooks@tameside.gov.uk

Purchase Spend Analysis

A project for Purchase Spend Analysis is underway, and a working group has been set up led by Gary Amos of Salford.  The group will identify by early October the best provider to do the analysis for the region.

RCV Questionnaire

At the beginning of July a questionnaire was distributed to all Local Authorities within the region regarding Refuse Collection Vehicles.  Thank you to those authorities who have taken the time to complete and return this questionnaire.  However, some returns are still outstanding and we would be grateful if you could check whether your authority has completed this questionnaire, and if not, endeavour to ensure that this is done as quickly as possible.

For a copy of the questionnaire, or if you have any queries, please contact Bev - bev.brooks@tameside.gov.uk

Annual Report

At the last Regional Centres of Excellence Chief Executives Task Force Meeting in June 2005, it was agreed that an Annual Report would be produced summarising key achievements so far and highlighting some challenges for the future.  This report has now been finalised is available to download from the RCE website at http://www.rcoe.gov.uk/rce/core/page.do?pageId=12711

Audit of Existing Collaborations across the North West

The mid-project report will be available on the NWCE website from Friday 26^th August.