Local Environmental Quality Case Studies

13 Jan 2011

We are currently developing two detailed operational case studies on Local Environmental Quality (LEQ) services with Blaby District Council and Broxtowe Borough Council.

These case studies will set out the structure, function and ‘shape' of Street Cleaning and Litter Management services in each of these councils, with the aim of understanding what drives their performance and spending as well as how other authorities can adopt similar practices;

The aim of these case studies will be to:

• Provide an in-depth analysis of the respective authorities' LEQ services, summarising their management, deployment of resources, asset usage, demographic profile and service performance;

• Track improvements made in each service over time that have improved the quality of street cleaning and litter collection, as well as reduced expenditure;

• Identify specific, practical ideas that other authorities could incorporate into the delivery of their LEQ services to improve performance and reduce spending.

The case studies are expected to be published at the end of January 2011 and will be available on the EM IEP website.

Productivity Opportunities: Have You Considered Them All?

13 Jan 2011

The LG Group's Place Based Productivity Programme has launched a library of over 80 'productivity opportunities' - short articles describing ways in which councils can improve productivity and save money. You can rate and comment on each ‘opportunity', which feeds into a ranking of the sector's most highly recommended ideas. So, explore the resource, help the sector help itself, and see how your council can improve its productivity.

To find out more go to:
http://www.local.gov.uk/lgv2/core/page.do?pageId=820364&utm_campaign=December%2BNewsround%2B2010&utm_source=emailCampaign&utm_medium=email  

Introducing the Business Improvement Package COP:

13 Jan 2011

Did you know that a new Business Improvement Package Community of Practice (COP) has recently been launched?

The new COP (a sub-COP on the Efficiency Exchange) has been created from the popular BIP website. Its purpose is to provide users with an integrated package of improvement tools to support business transformation programmes including shared services. As one would expect project and programme management is an integral part of the package as is change management.

It's a desktop guide that takes a practitioner end to end from developing a vision to building a business case, to implementation and evaluation. The generic process is supported throughout with practical resources and case studies which demonstrate a strong record of delivery in the sector. There are also some particularly useful resources related to understanding customer preference, process mapping and transaction costs.

This resource has been moved to a COP to bring it to a wider audience of professionals including P3M managers who are likely to find it very useful. It has been widely used already by programme and project managers from the public and private sector. Another major benefit is that the COP allows users to comment and rate the material, pose questions to others and upload new materials to keep this excellent resource fresh and in focus.

You can access the Business Improvement Package COP using the link below, it's a great place to post your thoughts on the resource, good or bad, whether it's new to you or if you're a seasoned BIP user.

Join the Business Improvement Packagae COP at:
http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/comm/landing-home.do?id=8196578

North East RIEP Efficiency Business Cases Online

13 Jan 2011

Our colleagues at the North East Improvement and Efficiency Partnership have circulated business cases for a number of RIEP efficiency projects to Chief Executives in their region. They demonstrate the savings and benefits that are possible from the 12 councils and 4 Fire and Rescue Services working together as the RIEP.

Business cases by Programme area are available at:
http://www.northeastiep.gov.uk/businesscases.htm  

Buying Solutions' new Telecare, Telehealth and Telecoaching Framework

13 Jan 2011

Buying Solutions' new Telecare, Telehealth and Telecoaching framework agreement covers a wide range of products and services, and builds on the success of the previous arrangement let by NHS PASA.

The framework agreement provides public sector organisations with access to electronic devices to monitor and improve the health, safety and quality of life of often very vulnerable members of society. Treatment can take place in the home, reducing the need for many otherwise routine GP or hospital visits, making a positive contribution to front line services.

Assistive Technologies:

- help local authorities to ensure that their elderly / vulnerable residents are cared for / monitored within their own homes
- improve the lives of vulnerable people
- reduces the need for routine GP and hospital visits

Products include items such as personal alarms, fall detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, blood glucose monitors, spirometers and audio visual equipment for remote health coaching. A range of services are also available.

Since 2006 the market for the provision of Assistive Technologies has grown for both service and product offerings and Buying Solutions is committed to helping customers reduce spend in this area on an ongoing basis.

With Telecare and Telehealth featuring more prominently on the agendas of Health & Local Authorities, the Buying Solutions framework agreement provides a cost-effective, EU-compliant path to the procurement of both products and services.

The new Buying Solutions framework agreement has a broad scope with 62* suppliers across six specific Lots as follows:

1. Telecare Products
2. Telecare Services
3. Telehealth Products
4. Telehealth Services
5. Telecoaching Products and Services
6. Managed Services (pertaining to the above)

The structure of the framework agreement allows you to buy direct from the online catalogues (where applicable) or to conduct a Further Competition. The Buying Solutions website has full details of the online tools available to customers as well as Guidance Notes for using the tools and the framework agreement.

There is no cost to use the framework agreement.

For further information on the opportunities available to customers please contact the Assistive Technologies Team via the Buying Solutions customer service desk on:

T: 0345 410 2222
E: Info@buyingsolutions.gsi.gov.uk
W: http://www.buyingsolutions.gov.uk/categories/ICT/telecare/

*Of the 62 suppliers 23 are defined as an SME.

£100m Transition Fund for Charities & Voluntary Groups

13 Jan 2011

The £100 million Transition Fund to support charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises affected by public spending reductions has been opened for applications by Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd. The application process closes on 21 January 2011.

The fund is available to organisations with a turnover between £50,000 and £10 million which have derived much of their funding from state sources. It will provide grants of between £12,500 and £500,000 to enable organisations to make the changes they need to become sustainable in the longer-term.

The Transition Fund is managed by the Big Fund, the non-lottery funding arm of the Big Lottery Fund. Applications can be made by visiting www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/transitionfund  or calling: 0330 303 0110. 
 

Total Place lives on in new Community Budgets

13 Jan 2011

Principles underpinning the Total Place approach to local services will be adopted by the Community Budgets, a government initiative allowing councils and their partners to pool funding and resources with the purpose of improving services and reducing cost.

From April, a selected number of councils and partner organisations will put various strands of funding into a single ‘local bank account'. This will be used to set up community budgets that will be spent on services prioritised by local communities.

The initiative follows year-long Total Place pilots, testing how to improve services while reducing costs and encouraging greater collaboration between organisations, and wider involvement of local people.

Earlier this year, Secretary for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, described Total Place as "a step in the right direction", but says councils now have the opportunity to be more radical and innovative.

Cuts in Red Tape to Give Councils More Freedom

13 Jan 2011

A raft of reporting and inspection requirements have been abolished by government to give councils greater freedom and flexibility in the way they operate.

The aim is to make local authorities more efficient and effective in delivering public services. Removal of centrally driven targets include Local Area Agreements, National Indicators and the Comprehensive Area Assessment.

The Local Government Association estimates compliance with government data demands and inspections costs local authorities nearly £300 million a year.

The Public Service Challenge: Implementing the lessons from Total Place

13 Jan 2011

As the public sector implements the next stage of Total Place, this joint publication highlights the lessons from the pilots. Produced by the Local Government Group and the 'Municipal Journal', it serves to collate all the views of the Total Place participants in one source document.

Learning lessons from Total Place

13 Jan 2011

Results from 13 Total Place pilots across England show better services can be delivered at less cost, if public sector organisations work collaboratively and put citizens at the heart of designing services.

The report, Total Place: a whole area approach to public services, details work undertaken in the pilot areas, covering 63 local authorities, 34 Primary Care Trusts, 12 fire authorities and 13 police authorities. Each pilot had its own theme and mapped all of the public spending in their area.

Analysis of spending on key local priorities was also carried out, and views were sought from the customer's perspective. This gave participating organisations a clearer picture of how benefits from spending might be enhanced.

Testing of Total Place in services for older people was led by three councils and two primary care trusts in Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole. In addition to mapping spending, expenditure on avoidable admissions and residential care was also examined.

Ways of shifting the balance of care towards the community were identified, for example, instituting joint case management of people with long term conditions by integrated health and social care teams.

The pilot concluded savings could be made by reducing avoidable hospital admissions by 15%.

The report also outlines a new approach to delivering public services that includes:

• freedom from centralised performance and financial controls

• freedom and incentives to encourage local collaboration

• freedom to invest in prevention

• freedom to drive growth

Most of these freedoms have been taken up in the new Community Budgets to be introduced in April 2011, and have been backed up by the abolition of a raft of reporting and inspection requirements, including national indicators used to monitor council performance.

Information about the latest developments in Total Place can be found on a dedicated website at:
http://www.localleadership.gov.uk/totalplace/

e-Auction Opportunities

12 Jan 2011

There is an opportunity before the end of this financial year for your organisation to take part in a Buying Solutions aggregated e-Auction at no cost to you in one of the following categories:

· Building Materials (plumbing and heating equipment, kitchens, bathrooms, heavy and light building materials, timber, sheet materials, joinery, hire of building related equipment)
· Fuel Cards (reduced pence per litre margins)
· Government Procurement Cards (improved rebate levels)
· Landline telecoms (call charges and/or line rental)
· MFDs (copiers, fax, printers - rental costs, click rate)
· Mobiles (Voice & Data line rental, call charges and/or devices)
· Non Marketing Print (council tax demands, electoral printing, business forms etc)
· Office / Student Furniture (desks, chairs, storage etc)
· Office Supplies (stationery, electronic office supplies, cut paper)
· Refrigeration (small white goods or industrial equipment)
· Specialist or Bulk Paper (large format SRA2, coloured/tints or A4/A3 reams)
· Vehicle Hire (Leasing)
· VOIP (Voice over IP)
· Water Coolers (bottled or plumbed equipment rental)

By aggregating your spend together with that of other public sector organisations you will realise the benefits of economies of scale and deliver significant savings to make your budget go further. Average savings being achieved for organisations are 26.52%, with some categories as high as 41%.

As well as significant savings it is straightforward to get involved. As one recent customer commented:

"We have found the whole process very easy and were very happy with the outcome - we were not expecting any savings as we already had a very competitive contract so 35% is amazing. Communication from Buying Solutions and TradingPartners was very good throughout."
Rebecca Clark, Procurement Officer, Crawley Borough Council, Horsham District Council and Mid Sussex District Council

All eAuctions are funded by Buying Solutions, managed by TradingPartners (we are a Buying Solutions supplier) and will take place before the end of March 2011.

If you are about to begin a procurement in any of these areas, or would like to look into any of the above mentioned categories, please get in touch as soon as you can to discuss your specific procurement requirements.

For more information contact:

Terri Hudson, Senior Account Manager 

Mob:  0791 758 4594
Tel:   020 7261 0000  
Web: tradingpartners.com

Survey Results - The impact of EU Procurement Legislation on Councils

12 Jan 2011

The survey was undertaken by Local Government Association Analysis and Research during November 2010 and represents the views of over 140 local authorities from England and Wales on the costs and benefits of EU procurement legislation. The results provide valuable evidence on practical implications and propose legislative improvements which will be discussed with national and European stakeholders.

To see the results go to:
http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/core/page.do?pageId=16052380  

MSTAR: Managed Services for Temporary Agency Resources (Update - Jan 2011)

12 Jan 2011

MSTAR, the Managed Service for Temporary Agency Resources project, has been commissioned by the Local Government Professional Services Group (LGPSG) in order to establish a national framework for managed services for agency workers.
The return deadline for tenders was 13th December 2010, and with evaluation well underway we are looking to award in time for the framework to be live in April 2011.

Whilst the savings can be significant, the resource and forward planning required to implement a managed service, regardless of the organisation's starting position, should not be underestimated. Internal approvals will need to be sought, information regarding your plans will need to be communicated to stakeholders and the relevant information will need to be readily available for your new provider. It is therefore crucial that we establish which customers are committed to using the MSTAR framework and the timescales in which they are looking to access the agreement so that we can manage the anticipated initial demand for migration and establish a phased roll-out for users and manage supplier capacity.

The term ‘early adopters' will be given to all customers wishing to access MSTAR and have their managed service live and operational by September 2011, and will constitute phase one of this migration. We will be writing to all those customers who were listed in the Invitation To Tender (ITT) document as ‘committed to' or ‘interested in' using this framework to explain the next steps and detail preparatory work which must start now if customers wish to go live before September 2011.

We are also aware that there may be customers who, at the point of going to OJEU, were unable to commit to MSTAR in the ITT. If your council is seriously considering using MSTAR and wishes to be live before September 2011 but was not listed in the ITT, please contact k.shaw@espo.org at your earliest convenience. The Project Team will then work with you to understand the feasibility for your organisation to migrate to MSTAR within your desired timescales.

Contacts:
If you have any questions, please contact:

ESPO - k.shaw@espo.org  or g.kaur@espo.org  
Efficiency & Reform Group (previously OGC) - professionalservices@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.uk  
DfE - mstar.project@education.gsi.gov.uk  

MSTAR - Background
The framework will be for the provision of managed services for agency workers, covering the spectrum of needs for local authorities and education customers, as explored with the stakeholder groups. As such, the agreement will need to be entered into as a corporate arrangement. It will not operate as a PSL or framework for direct supply, and will not be suitable for ad-hoc use.
The scope of the MSTAR framework has been designed to meet a broad range of user requirements, and is being structured to enable authorities to call off or mini-compete to find the option that best meets their needs.
Within the framework there are three ‘lots', covering Corporate only, Education requirement only, and Corporate and Education requirements combined; where Corporate Staff means any roles reasonably required by any Local Authority or Wider Public Sector, or Third Sector organisation and Education staff means any roles reasonably required by any educational establishment.
Consultation with potential users has been a core part of the work to create the MSTAR framework, with over 30 local authorities involved to date in working groups to develop the scope and specification. This involvement will continue through the letting and subsequent management of the framework; the Evaluation Panel is made up of representatives from customer organisations that have committed their intention to use the MSTAR framework in the ITT or are considering using the framework upon expiry of existing arrangements.
Individual users will need to manage their own supplier and service delivery, but the framework will be managed by ESPO at a national level to drive performance on an ongoing basis.

MSTAR - Objectives
The national MSTAR framework aims to:

• Harness the opportunity to aggregate spend and procurement know-how, gain greater value for money and cashable savings for the public sector;
• Minimise duplication of effort and time taken within the tendering process;
• Build strategic relationships with suppliers to gain better value for money, improve performance and align them with our organisational priorities;
• Ensure there are fit for purpose frameworks and contracts in place across professional services spend, that best serve public sector organisation's needs;
• Share commercial knowledge, including supplier and market intelligence and expert advice to add value across the public sector.

More information can be found at:
http://www.ogc.gov.uk/managedservicecontract.asp  

Winners in the Region!

12 Jan 2011

Congratulations to Leicester City Council and Northamptonshire County Council who were both regional winners in the Health and Social Care Awards. Leicester City Council was the winner in the Support for Independence category. In partnership with colleagues from NHS Leicester City, the Council has developed a re-ablement scheme to provide support for people that reduces dependency after hospital discharge and also uses occupational and physiotherapy to help people regain lost skills. Up to half the people who join the six-week scheme need no further care input.

Northamptonshire County Council won the regional award for Success in Partnership Working with their "Think Home First Project". They have gone on to win not only the national award in this category but also the Winner of Winners award out of all the finalists. The project is an integrated discharge team, which is managed by a council manager and includes staff from the hospital, PCT community services, council, CMHT and they work with a voluntary sector hospital to home scheme. As well as reducing the length of stay in hospital, the team has been driving a culture to support people to return to their own home when they are discharged from hospital.

Visit the website at:
http://www.institute.nhs.uk/hsca/national/_content/2010_national_winners_and_finalists.aspx 

Improving recycling through effective communications

04 Jan 2011

A practical guide to improving recycling performance through effective communications with residents.

The guide is built on WRAP's experience of running national recycling and waste prevention consumer-facing programmes and on good practice from local authorities throughout the UK.
It provides a broad introduction to the issues of developing a recycling communications strategy and a methodical approach to behaviour change programme planning whether you are:
• Getting started with recycling communications
• Keeping communications fresh
• Expanding an existing behaviour change programme to cover new collections or tackle specific issues

100 councils commit to improving customer satisfaction with waste and recycling

04 Jan 2011

Over one hundred local authorities have now committed to help improve residents' satisfaction with how their waste and recycling is collected, by signing up to the Waste Collection Commitment.

The Commitment is the first set of principles for a good waste and recycling service, based on public opinion. It was launched by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) and the Local Government Association just over a year ago, aiming to help improve residents' satisfaction and ultimately boost recycling rates. Wyre Borough Council became the 100th local authority to sign up.
Councillor Paul Moon, Street Scene Portfolio Holder for Wyre Borough Council said: "We are delighted to be the 100th authority pledging to the commitment. By signing up we are reinforcing the message to our residents that we are committed to providing them with a waste and recycling collection service which is right for them. The commitment makes it clear what people can expect from our service and we hope it will improve residents' satisfaction even further.

"We are currently developing our new waste collection and recycling contract specification and will seek to further embed each aspect of the Commitment with our new service provider".

Phillip Ward, Director of Local Government Services at WRAP, said: "Reaching this milestone proves that local authorities across the country are dedicated to improving customer experience when it comes to waste and recycling.

"Our research shows that more than 80% of people are satisfied with their waste and recycling collection. By signing up to the Waste Collection Commitment, local authorities can give their residents confidence that they will consistently receive a good service. We invite more local authorities to review their service against the principles of the Commitment, and follow the lead of our first 103 signatories."

Cllr Gary Porter, Chairman of the LGA Environment Board, said: "Local authorities appreciate the importance of making sure people are satisfied with the waste and recycling service they receive.

"With the current financial squeeze, it is more important than ever that councils work with residents to make sure as much rubbish as possible is recycled to avoid being hit by heavy fines.

"There is no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to bin collections. Councils use many different methods to encourage people to recycle, and different methods work best in different areas. By signing up to the commitment, councils can show they are determined to continue to work with residents to decide which approach works best for their area."

Cutting waste: cutting costs and improving waste and recycling services

03 Jan 2011

A new report by Eunomia on behalf of the Conservative Environmental Network gives recommendations on how the sector can save money and suggests how £770 million/annum could be saved.

2010 Gate Fees Report

03 Jan 2011

This WRAP report aims to raise price transparency and, through improving the flow of information, enhance the efficiency with which the waste management market operates.  A lack of market information may reduce a local authority's ability to make informed decisions on waste management options in terms of both economic and environmental costs.

Analysis of kerbside dry recycling performance in the UK 2008/2009

02 Jan 2011

This report provides an analysis of kerbside dry recycling performance for local authorities in the United Kingdom for 2008/09. It explores how the nature of the collection systems and local area characteristics influence recycling performance, and provides benchmarks against which authorities can compare themselves.

Local Green Points: Latest Incentive Scheme

22 Dec 2010

WIN recently produced a Q&A on Recyclebank and we hope to be able to provide similar information on the latest incentive-based scheme, Local Green Points – in the meantime, read their factsheet for information on how the system works and what it aims to deliver.