News Update

Week Ending 29th September 2006

NWCE Success at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester

The North West Centre of Excellence, North West e-Government Group and North West Improvement Network hosted the “Joining up the drive for improvement” stand at the Labour Party Conference.  The conference was a great success and gave us the opportunity to promote our work with the ministers who visited the stand including: Tessa Jowell MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Peter Hain MP, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, David Miliband MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Jack Straw MP, Leader of the House of Commons, Baroness Scotland QC, Minister of State for the criminal justice system and offender management, Hazel Blears MP, Chair of Labour Party, Ruth Kelly MP, Minister of Communities and Local Government, Margaret Hodge MP, Minister of State (Industry and the Regions), Department of Trade and Industry, Malcolm Wicks, Minister for Energy in the Department for Trade & Industry (DTI), Gillian Merron, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, Lord Pendry,  the Rt Hon (Peter) Goldsmith QC, Attorney General, Rosie Winterton MP, Minister of State for Health, Phil Woolas MP, Minister of State for Communities and Local Government, Derek Twigg MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Defence, Ed Balls MP, Economic Secretary, James Purnell MP, Minister of State (Pensions Reform), Department for Work and Pensions, Barry Gardiner, DEFRA Minister.

NWCE Stakeholder Event – 14.09.2006

As promised in last week’s edition of our news update, the presentations from our Stakeholder event are now available to download, together with photographs from the day.

View the information

Once again, a huge thank you to all who participated in the event and contributed towards its success – see you next year!

Bargain Hunt – 03.10.2006

THE countdown has started to the NWCE’s Bargain Hunt event

The event on October 3 at The Palace Hotel in Manchester will reveal to the region’s  local authorities how they can share in annual savings of more than £100 million.

The NWCE has identified savings opportunities across a range of key areas including £15 million on construction commodities, £15 million on on-line recruitment, £8.2 million on energy contracts, £5 million on print and copying services and £2.5 million on car purchasing, lease/hire agreements.

The Bargain Hunt conference will give chief executives, finance directors, and local authority procurement officers their  first opportunity to see, in detail, how these savings can be made.

Delegates will also be able to view a live, national e-auction for £8 million worth of IT hardware. Richard Paver, the city treasurer at Manchester City Council will be hosting the opening session.

The final agenda can be viewed here – www.nwce.gov.uk/bhagenda.pdf

There are a handful of places available. Contact Beverley Brooks on 0161 342 4081 or email bev.brooks@tameside.gov.uk

Transport project champions Integrated Transport Units

THE NWCE has revealed that local authorities could make individual savings of up to £1million a year by changing the way they run their public transport operations.

The savings have been highlighted in a best practice paper that examines current local authority public transport provision across England and has been commissioned by the North West Centre of Excellence.

Garth Goddard, NWCE Transport Programme Director, revealed the results of the report at a conference of local authority transport heads from across England that took place at The Barbican Centre in London on September 20.

The report has looked at the benefits of local authorities adopting an integrated transport unit (ITU) to meet its transport requirements and concludes that local authorities who are continuing to undertake their various passenger transport responsibilities in separate functional units should ‘give serious consideration’ to the creation of an integrated transport unit.

Garth Goddard commented: “The business case for moving to an ITU depends, principally, on the balance of benefits and costs associated with establishing and operating such a unit. This report aims to provide clear direction to local authorities with regard to the efficiency gains achievable through an ITU.

“It also looks, in more detail, at the benefits and costs of moving to an ITU, the concept of such a unit, implementation issues and organisational variants and operational arrangements.”

A copy of the report is available here - http://www.nwce.gov.uk/integratedtransportunits.pdf

New Chair of the Chief Executives' Taskforce

The new Chair of the Chief Executives’ Task Force, the body that provides strategic direction to the nine Regional Centres of Excellence, is Rob Sykes, the Chief Executive of Worcestershire County Council.

Mr Sykes takes up the helm of the Task Force following the appointment of Tim Byles, the former Chair, as the Chief Executive of Partnerships for Schools. Read More...New chair of CEXTF (PDF, 2 pages, 23KB)

Publication of AES Backward Looks

Local authorities in England have delivered a further £1.2 billion worth of efficiency gains in 2005/06, on top of the £700 million they achieved in 2004/05, figures published by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) show.

Tim Byles, Chair of the Chief Executives Task Force said of these results "This is further evidence that local government is leading the public sector in its drive to meet its efficiency targets. Local government must be congratulated on its success but with the pressure to make even greater efficiency gains set to rise, local authorities cannot take their foot off the pedal. All authorities without exception must actively explore options for shared services, greater collaboration, process re-engineering and smarter procurement"

To see DCLG's press release of these figures click here
To download the spreadsheet of backward look gains click here

AES Analysis Tool and Returns Archive added to ESD-Toolkit

The new version of esd-toolkit (v3.06) went live on Tuesday 19th Sept and has a number of new additions:

Take a look at the AES returns archive from the homepage navigating as follows: tools >> online submissions >> Annual Efficiency Statements >> AES archive or by clicking the following link:
http://www.esd.org.uk/esdtoolkit/StatementArchive/Root.aspx?SelectAES

Also the online AES analysis tool has some interesting and helpful report and graph generators for all councils. Take a look by navigating from the homepage as follows: tools >> online submissions >> Annual Efficiency Statement >> AES reports or by clicking on the following link:
http://www.esd.org.uk/esdtoolkit/Aes/Reports/Root.aspx

ESD Toolkit Newsletter – Take 5 – September 2006

This month's esd-toolkit Newsletter - Take 5 - is packed with information on Measuring Take Up, the launch of exciting new features, subscriber benefits and much more.

To find out more click below...

http://www.esd.org.uk/esdtoolkit/documents/Public/ESD00965a%20-%20Take5%20Sept%202006.pdf

Leading Lights

A LANCASHIRE council is about to lift the lid on how they secured a public private partnership with a value of £100million for a fraction of the cost.

Pendle Borough Council has entered into a successful partnership with Liberata and has now created a best practice framework for the procurement of such a partnership.

It’s holding an event on November 22 to share the secrets of its alliance with Liberata at its headquarters in nelson.

The cost of the day-long event is £80. For further information, contact 01282 661780 or log on to www.pendle.gov.uk/beaconbooking

£1.2bn Efficiency Gains Achieved by Councils

Local authorities in England have delivered a further £1.2 billion worth of efficiency gains in 2005/06, on top of the £700 million they achieved in 2004/05, figures published by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) show.   Read the full press release here. 

EVENTS

National Colloquium

Or the Care of Older People

6^th November 2006, The King’s Fund, Cavendish Square, London

This important national colloquium will be of relevance to practitioners committed to the development, organisation and improvement in services for older people.  The Health and Social Care Advisory Service (HASCAS) has played a significant role in collaborating with and advising health professionals in improving services.

Employing the research and practice from recent programmes, HASCAS invites delegates to share experience, pool knowledge and contribute to this vital area of health and social care.

Papers will address topics of interest to voluntary and community organisations, the independent sector, as well as those working within the National Health Service.

Under discussion will be the HASCAS project on stroke and intermediate care, the user’s right to dignity, the importance of effective collaboration and aging healthily.

The event will deliver a better appreciation of how the various sectors can work more closely in improving the delivery of services

For further information and to register for this event please visit the following link –

http://www.hascas.org.uk/news_home.shtml