FREE: YouChoose: Participatory Budgeting Tool

12 Oct 2010

YouChoose is an online budget simulator that encourages members of the public to consider where council budget cuts should fall, where efficiencies might be made, and where income might be generated.

The tool was originally developed by the London Borough of Redbridge to engage its citizens in the difficult decisions that may arise from a substantial potential reduction to its budget. In partnership with the Local Government Group and YouGov, YouChoose is now freely available to all councils in England and Wales. With this, they too have a tool to help them engage their citizens in decisions about how they spend their revenue budgets and help their citizens understand the tough choices the council faces.

As democratically-elected representatives, councillors make the final decisions, but this tool helps them hear directly from their residents.

The spending categories in the tool are:

- community safety
- council support and public engagement
- culture and leisure
- children's services and education
- environment and waste
- housing and homelessness
- roads, planning and economy
- adult social care.

However, the software can be individually tailored by councils.

The software will allow councillors, officers and the public to see the results as they come in. A number of graphical presentations are available instantly, for example, how the number of responses change over time and which are the spending categories most frequently selected for cuts. The data can also be downloaded for other sorts of analysis.

 Click on the following link to find out more: http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=22436695

Equality Act Starter Kit

12 Oct 2010

Module 1
What is the Equality Act and who does it apply to?
This first training module is an introduction to the Equality Act for everyone, whether you employ people or provide a service.

Modules 2-5
For employers:
This section covers how the Equality Act will affect you and issues you may need to consider such as how to manage your team and people starting and leaving.

Modules 6-9
For service providers:
This section covers what you need to know if you provide goods, facilities or services (free or paid for) to the general public.

Please follow this link to see more.

Less in the bin, more in your pocket!

08 Oct 2010

Less in the bin, more in your pocket: Wandsworth Council asks residents to throw less in the bin and saves £300 000 / year on disposal costs!

In summer 2009, Wandsworth Council launched a new, high profile and innovative waste awareness campaign which urged residents to consider the connection between the amount of waste they threw into their bin and the levels of Council tax they paid.

Two key campaign messages were used:-

“Less in the bin, more in your pocket”

“1kg less waste per household per week saves £500,000 a year”

Residents were promised that if they reduced the amount of rubbish they produced by one kilo per week the Council would save half a million pounds a year in disposal costs. Up to April 2010, figures showed that the Wandsworth householders had gone a long way to achieving this target. The residual waste collected had fallen by almost 3 million kilos! This case study examines how a simple campaign message and a back-to-basics ‘waste hierarchy’ approach can help to achieve significant disposal cost savings for an authority.

Street Cleaning and Recycling 'A Greener Picture' a Capital Ambition case study

08 Oct 2010

Street cleaning is one of local government's most visible services. But increasingly, local authorities are trying to secure value for money within these services as financial and budgetary pressures mount.

To help boroughs improve their street cleaning services, Capital Ambition and London's Environment Directors' Network (LEDNET) commissioned Tribal to undertake a review of these areas, to help local authorities understand how best to deploy their resources and improve efficiency and performance.

Collecting the data
By collecting quantitative data from 10 participating local authorities, Tribal set out to build up a picture of what a good value for money street cleaning service would look like.

"We collected a wide range of data from the 10 councils looking at, for example, how much they spent [on street cleaning], what they spent the money on, how many staff they employed and how they operated their services," explains Olivia Crill, Tribal's assistant director for local government.

The results showed that within London there is huge variance in expenditure on street cleaning - one borough's annual spend totalled less than £3 million whereas another's reached more than £17 million in 2007/08.

Performance also varied: Tribal found that the proportion of streets with unacceptable levels of litter and detritus ranged from two to 40 per cent.

To help get beneath these figures and understand why cost and performance vary so much, Tribal developed an 'ease-to-serve index' to help demonstrate the impact of different environments in which street cleaning services operate.

Those councils with a major night-time economy would, for example, inevitably face greater challenges in keeping their streets clean than those with predominantly residential neighbourhoods.

"We wanted to take into account the different factors that make it harder to keep streets clean, such as population density or deprivation" explains Ms Crill. "The challenges you face in Bromley, for example, are very different from those faced by Westminster."

Tribal has now drawn up a set of three blueprints illustrating what a value for money service would look like for 'easy', 'medium' and 'hard-to-serve' authorities. These blueprints look at the fleet, staff, expenditure characteristics as well as the activities needed for a value for money service.

These are being used by the participating councils as a resource to help them benchmark their performance and Tribal is now working with LEDNET to broaden the evidence base supporting the resource, by gathering data from 25 London boroughs.

As well as the street cleaning review, Tribal was also commissioned to identify ways in which councils could improve their recycling rates. The organisation held interviews with recycling officers and heads of service at eight participating authorities to find out how they run their recycling services and work out which factors helped boost recycling rates.

Some of the results challenged initial expectations. Tribal found, for example, that having a high proportion of flats doesn't necessarily translate into lower recycling rates, despite the difficulties associated with collecting recycling in blocks of flats.

Next steps
Tribal has produced a set of recommendations but warns that there is no silver bullet when it comes to raising recycling rates. The best step forward is to deploy a range of activities, such as well-serviced bring banks, co-mingled collections and community engagement to maximise recycling rates.

If you would like some further information about this project or access to the blueprint work please contact Rebecca Parker.

Waste Project Update

07 Oct 2010

Phase two of the Waste Project is now underway with a focus on 4 key priorities; member engagement, sharing good practice, improving communications and supporting the delivery of efficiencies within waste collection authorities.

By the end of next month, 2 good practice case studies will be published examining why and how North Kesteven District Council and Rushcliffe Borough Council are able to achieve high performance standards whilst keeping spend down, and illustrate how other authorities can adopt similar practice to reduce costs and improve performance. The observational case studies will not only discuss operational processes, but also investigate both corporate, managerial and member procedures. The case studies also aim to examine the attribution of overheads etc in the Local Authorities costs for waste collection.

On the 18th November the EM IEP will also be delivering a free regional event ‘Improving Efficiency in Waste Collection Services' for Directors of Environmental Services, Heads of Services and Operational Managers.

The event will be introduced by Cllr Neil Clarke leader of Rushcliffe Borough Council and include presentations on the ‘Implications of the Comprehensive Spending Review, ‘Understanding the New Legislation and Requirements', ‘Collaboration on Procurement County and Regional Level', ‘Waste Prevention', ‘Understanding Partnership Working' and examples of good practice from across the region. The event will also give you the opportunity discuss examples of good practice from across the region and network with other operational managers, heads of service and high profile speakers.

GovToday presents - Sustainable Communities 2010: Building the Big Society Conference and Exhibition

06 Oct 2010

11th November 2010: Church House Conference Centre, Westminster.  

As part of GovTodays successful 'Securing the Future' series of Conferences, Sustainable Communities 2010: Building the Big Society is the second annual national Conference examining the development of Sustainable Communities. This year, with the economic climate dominating the budget, funding and public service delivery, GovToday examines the key strands that will affect the long-term growth and development of our Sustainable Communities.

Sustainable Communities 2010: Building the Big Society Conference and Exhibition will examine the priorities ahead for this agenda, featuring those at the forefront of policy and sharing case study examples of best practice from the community, providing evidence and solutions for future progress under a new administration.

 Speakers include the likes of:

· Richard McCarthy, Director General, Housing and Planning, DCLG
· Phil Wynne Owen, Director General, Climate Change and Consumer Support, Department for Energy and Climate Change
· Sir Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive, NCVO
· Cllr Sean Brennan, Leader, Sutton Council
· Philip Sellwood, Chief Executive, Energy Savings Trust)

Full details of the day, including Programme, Master Classes, Venue details and Who will attend, can be found at our conference website: www.buildingthebigsociety.co.uk  

What you need to do next
To secure your free place at Sustainable Communities 2010: Building the Big Society, simply email your details to bookings@govtoday.co.uk  (quoting SC10) and someone will be in touch.

Local Lettings Agency Launch for Derbyshire

05 Oct 2010

A new Local Lettings Agency is being launched in Derbyshire by DASH (Decent and Safe Homes) and if you are a councillor, chief Executive, senior manager or local authority member of staff who works in a related field, you are invited to attend this event and hear all about this exciting new service.

DASH has been awarded funding by East Midlands Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (EM IEP) to develop a new Local Lettings Agency service across Derbyshire. This enhanced service is delivered through a partnership between DASH, providing inspection and accreditation, and Derventio Property Management Services (DPMS) and is currently being
rolled out in four Derbyshire Local Authority Areas.

Bringing together the award-winning DASH and not-for-profit lettings and property management agency DPMS to ensure that landlords meet their legal obligations for letting decent and safe accommodation, and tenants have greater housing choice to access high quality homes at affordable rent levels.

DASH and DPMS are working closely with local authority partners to ensure priority households can take advantage of the wider housing options available. The DASH Standards Award gives local authorities and tenants a guarantee of high quality service. DPMS has over 10 years experience of property management and working with landlords who want to make a difference to their communities.

Local Authorities:
- Find out how DASH can help raise property standards in your area
- Learn how we can improve the housing options available for your customers

Landlords:
- An alternative professional property management service
- Impressive turnaround times increasing your income
- Advice, grants and other assistance to improve the standards of your property

Take advantage of the experts and speakers on hand to provide free, no obligation assistance and advice, technical details and
information about how we can help you.

Free buffet lunch with networking opportunities

Click here to transfer to our events page and download the flyer/booking form.

(Please note, this event is target at Derbyshire authorities only)

strong, cohesive places = understanding communities + tackling inequality

05 Oct 2010

90 per cent of the Equality Act came into force today details here, read Michael's blog for our interpretation of what this means for local government.

Do, also, continue to think about the public sector equality duty so that we can give the GEO an informed sector-wide response to their proposals (deadline 10 November to feed in directly to the GEO and end of October to us). Click here for more information.

To continue developing our business, moral and legal case for equality the hotseat event ‘place shaping, leadership, partnership and organisational commitment' will be taking place next week between Wednesday 6 October and Tuesday 12 October on the Equality CoP.

The discussions will follow our Nottingham ‘knowing your community and equality mapping' event and support the next phase in Hereford, which will focus on the ‘place shaping, leadership, partnership and organisational commitment' performance area. This is a free event, being held at the Hereford Racecourse on Thursday 21 October. There are still some places available. A booking form and draft programme are attached, further details available on the Equality CoP.

Taken from discussions at the ‘knowing your community and equality mapping' event we have decided to look at:
• using the EqIA process to improve organisational commitment
• building good relationships between officers and councillors
• the changing role of equalities practitioners; increasing interaction between equalities practitioners and the rest of the organisation
• shared services and effective partnership working.

During the hotseat week local government officers and wider public sector partner representatives will be discussing and taking questions on the work they have done in their locations on this crucial performance area.

Please log on and join in the discussions, ask a question, or offer suggestions or solutions based on what has worked in your local area.

The hotseat will be facilitated as follows:

Day 1 - Wednesday 6 October
Building and sustaining effective partnerships in a challenging economic climate

Facilitated by:
Vince Bryce, Equality and Diversity Consultant, Nottingham City Council
Gary Rackstraw, Equality and Diversity Research Officer, Nottingham City Homes
Constance Hall, Head of Equality and Diversity, Nottingham City Homes
Matt Sismey, Equality and Diversity Officer, Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service

Day 2 - Thursday 7 October
Using the equality impact assessment process (EqIA) process to enhance equality considerations and embed and improve your organisations overall commitment to equality work

Facilitated by:
Anne McMaster, Strategic Equality Manager, Leeds City Council

Day 3 - Friday 8 October
Leadership and partnerships from a county perspective

Facilitated by:
Angeliki Ioannidou, Equality and Diversity Manager, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service
Liz Daughters, Equality and Diversity Manager, Surrey County Council.

Day 4 - Monday 11 October
Using EqIAs to limit negative impacts when developing a shared service

Facilitated by:
Emily Cooter, Organisational Development Officer, Weymouth & Portland Borough Council

Day 5 - Tuesday 12 October
Sharing equality services across a number of districts - moving beyond processes and developing shared outcomes

Facilitated by:
Sarah Andrews, West Kent Equalities Officer, Sevenoaks District Council (and hosting the third of this series of events in Kent on 1 December...further details to follow)

LGID Free Equality & Diversity Events

01 Oct 2010

Local Government Improvement and Development (LGID) are organising a series of five free events in partnership with Equality Works over the forthcoming year. The events will focus on how the sector both strengthens its own self-assessment by using the Equality Framework for Local Government; and articulates the legal, business and case for equality to drive service improvement in times of change.

The events will look at how a better understanding of equality and cohesion can improve efficiency, help local councils understand their communities better and deliver appropriate, high quality services.

The first event took place in July in Nottingham, and focused on the performance area of ‘knowing your community and equality mapping'. The second event will be hosted by Herefordshire County Council; one of the five authorities shortlisted in the equality and diversity category in the Local Government Chronicle Awards 2010.

Event: Making the Equality Framework work for you: place shaping, leadership, partnership and organisational commitment
Date: 21 October 2010
Time: 9.30am to 4pm
Location: Herefordshire Racecourse, Roman Road, Hereford, HR4 9QU
Cost: free

This event will focus on:

- the performance area of place shaping
- partnerships
- leadership
- organisational commitment.

The programme will focus on:

- using the Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) process to improve organisational commitment
- building good relationships between officers and councillors
- the changing role of equalities practitioners; increasing interaction between equalities practitioners and the rest of the organisation
- human rights based approaches to equality and service delivery
- shared services and effective partnership working.

In order to maximise the value of these events, LGID will be running online support activity on the Equality community of practice (CoP) to encourage in depth dialogue in the lead up to the event, support discussions during the event, and share the learning as widely as possible.

To book your place go to: http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=22419540 

OGC Policy Note on Frameworks

01 Oct 2010

OGC have issued Procurement Policy Note (PPN 16/10).

This Action Note provides updated guidance on ensuring that, when establishing a framework agreement, a contracting authority properly identifies the bodies which are able to make use of the agreement. It also provides guidance on when and how framework owners may need to clarify the identity of the bodies which are able to use their existing frameworks.

West Midlands Automated Pill Dispenser Pilot

30 Sep 2010

Our colleagues in the West Midlands have released a case study about a project that brings Local Authorities, Pharmacies and Primary Care Trusts together around the single issue of medication. The result is that customers experience a safe and well managed service that enables them to live independently. Initial findings are demonstrating significant efficiencies for both the health and social care sectors.

Click here to read the case study

Lincolnshire's Care Funding Calculator saves over £2m

29 Sep 2010

Through the implementation of a Care Funding Calculator across the region's authorities, Adult Social Care Services in the East Midlands have generated over £2 million in savings since 2008, forecast to become £4.5 million cumulatively when the 2010-2011 figures are included. This represents an average price reduction of 17%.

The Calculator assists in managing the costs of residential care and supported living for adults with learning disabilities, but can also help plan the future strategic direction of services. Although initially developed specifically for learning disabilities, the tool is flexible and is now being used successfully in other adult care services such as mental health.

The Care Funding Calculator is just one of 27 projects managed by the Joint Improvement Partnership.

Click on the following links for more information:

- Care Funding Calculator short film
- Find out more about Adult Social Care
- Care Funding Calculator Toolkit
- Care Funding Calculator Case Study

Want to benchmark your street cleansing service?

29 Sep 2010

South Northamptonshire Council does and would be interested to hear of others wanting to do this. Click here for more information.

New Rules for Town Hall Papers

29 Sep 2010

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles announced proposals to tighten up the publicity rules for councils so they guard against campaigning with public funds today.

In recent years there has been a major growth in the frequency and scope of council publicity techniques that use taxpayers' money whilst local papers have struggled in a saturated news environment.

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, said:

"An independent local press is an essential part of our open democracy helping local people scrutinise and hold elected councillors to account."

The new consultation proposes rules to stop municipal newspapers being published more than four times a year and to end the hiring of lobbying contractors. They also give more transparency and certainty to local authorities and political parties about conference stalls rules, for example, by distinguishing between the promotion of a local area for tourism purposes and the taxpayer-funded lobbying of politicians.

Mr Pickles added:

"The rules around council publicity have been too weak for too long allowing public money to be spent on frivolous town hall propaganda papers that have left many local newspapers looking over the abyss - weakening our free press - or to use 'hired-gun' lobbyists that operate in the shadows to bulldoze special interests through.

"The proposals I am publishing today will close off these inappropriate practices and make sure that councils focus taxpayers' money on where it should be spent - protecting frontline services."

To download the consultation document go to: http://www.communities.gov.uk/newsstories/newsroom/1727275 

Source: DCLG

Local authorities reminded of their health and safety responsibilities ahead of waste and recycling inspection programme

28 Sep 2010

Local authorities are being reminded to check that they are clear on their health and safety responsibilities in procuring and managing waste and recycling services, ahead of a programme of inspections that will begin next month.

Over the next three years, inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will look at the procurement and management of municipal waste and recycling services following the introduction of guidance in January that clarifies the legal duties on local authorities, whether they deliver them in-house or contract them out. Some mistakenly believe that contracting out these services relieves them of health and safety responsibilities.

To read more click here

Streets for All

28 Sep 2010

Streets are the foreground of our buildings and the backdrop to everyday lives. Yet England's streets are increasingly cluttered with a proliferation of traffic signs, bins, bollards, guard rails and street furniture. This results in streetscapes that are both unsightly and lack character. Co-ordinated action is needed to reverse this decline.

Retaining historic features keeps individuality of a street and helps to create a sense of place. Well designed, well ordered and well maintained streets are an expression of a confident and caring community. Chaotic and cluttered streets are a symptom of a community in decline with low self-esteem. Investing in quality solutions reduces maintenance costs and makes cleaning easier.

To read more click here

Digital Waste Data Framework Contract

28 Sep 2010

What is it? WIN's Digital Waste Data Framework Contract will enable you to procure the technology to allow you to manage your waste data more efficiently using digital methods.

How will it help you? The technology has many benefits including:

• Systems can collate, reconcile and report data derived from all service providers to contracts
• Efficiencies through significant reduction in data processing time by staff - Cambridgeshire report 75% decrease
• Risk of human error from manual inputting removed
  - West Sussex - error rates reduced from >30% to <5%
  - Cambridgeshire report £10k per annum saving through reduction in tipping by invalid vehicles as automatic number plate recognition is linked to the system.
• Defra can now accept electronic upload data to Waste Data Flow

And the framework will save you time and money by allowing you to procure digital data technology from pre-approved service providers without going through a full, lengthy tender process. To find out more about the framework please download our benefits summary.

How to get involved: In order to ensure that this framework meets all of your needs, we need your help. We are currently out to tender on the framework contract which should be available from this November and are looking for Local Authority officers to form part of our project group to help evaluate tenders and ensure the best outcome for councils.  If you can contribute any time (maximum time required is three days and your travel expenses will be paid for) please contact win@southeastiep.gov.uk

Flycapture Results April 2009 – March 2010

28 Sep 2010

Flycapture Results April 2009 - March 2010 reports 18.7% decrease in incidents since 2008-09

Recycling overseas

28 Sep 2010

Find out more about recycling overseas and your responsibilities.

High-quality recyclable material makes a valuable contribution to sustainable resource use. However, the illegal export of poor-quality waste materials can harm the environment and human health. It can damage reputations and may ultimately result in criminal prosecution.

If you work for a local authority or company that is involved in waste management, an increasing amount of the wastes you collect and process for recycling and re-use will ultimately be exported.

If your company is involved in the waste export business or international shipping you need to understand the legal framework relating to the export of wastes.

This section provides further information to help you understand your responsibilities. The information will help you ensure the wastes you handle are exported properly and legally.

To read more click here

Countywide review results in harmonised garden waste subscriptions across Northumberland

28 Sep 2010

Building on the success of WIN's Garden Waste Focus document which aims to support councils who are considering the introduction of a subscription based garden waste collection service, by bringing together advice, top tips and lessons learnt from other councils; WIN now introduces our new case study on Northumberland County Council's countywide review which led to:

Uniformity in collections across six WCA areas
Harmonisation of subscriptions - which previously ranged from free of charge to £35/year
Countywide suspension of service over winter period
Standardisation of collection receptacles
Reduction in net costs of £100,000