This good practice guidance, produced by the Department of Health, is aimed at commissioners and procurement experts and is designed to achieve better procurement outcomes for the NHS by aligning equality and efficiency goals. It is based on the experience and knowledge of specialist procurement and equality staff in 10 NHS Mosaic pilot sites, this guide shares information and encourages innovation.

Tags: Finance, Social Issues, Systems

Procurement Solutions has long been recognised for its unrivalled educational programme and is renowned for its inspirational keynotes and practical seminars that deliver the best in education and inspiration alike.

If you're looking to overcome the efficiency, sustainability and e-procurement challenges faced in the public sector then you need to be at Procurement Solutions 2007. You will hear from the biggest-names in government and have access to the best free educational programme and the best suppliers offering you the best value for money.

Spend a day at Procurement Solutions and learn to:
• Implement sustainable procurement practices
• Make further measurable efficiency savings
• Deliver fully-enabled eProcurement best practice
• Introduce new technologies to facilitate improved service delivery and efficiency
• Source new products and services
Full details and an on-line registration form are on the Procurement Solutions website.

Contact details: OGC Service Desk Tel: 0845 000 4999 E-mail: ServiceDesk@ogc.gsi.gov.uk

Tags: Finance, Systems

At the heart of Transforming Government Procurement is the need for a strong, coordinated and expert body of procurement professionals. This event heralds the creation of a reformed Government Procurement Service through which procurement practitioners can establish a coordinated and cohesive function, with the necessary access to expertise for it to gain the support and recognition it needs. Critically, this event provides you with the opportunity to help to shape the reformed GPS.  Take a place at one of the decision-making tables that will define how you and your fellow procurement professionals are represented in the future.

See the conference brochure (PDF, 120KB). Visit the OGC website.

Tags: Finance

Capital expenditure on healthcare facilities has increased from around £1.1 billion in 1997-98 to around £5.5 billion in 2007-08. This record investment has not just replaced old buildings with new ones. For this Government, the investment has served three key purposes:
• Improving the patient environment and experience in terms of more single rooms and better designed hospitals
• Modernising services - trusts have to reassess how they shape and configure their services and patient pathways, taking on board the provision of new IT, new equipment and new clinical areas
• Improving access and offering better choice by delivering a whole new generation of facilities so patients have more control over when, where and how they are seen

Click here to access Department of Health report.

Tags: NHS, Finance

Expressions of interest invited to build 150 homes in Bristol. Housebuilders were invited to submit expressions of interest to build England’s first large scale development of zero carbon homes today, as national regeneration agency English Partnerships published its pre-qualifying questionnaire (PQQ) for a 150 home site in Bristol.

Hanham Hall – a 6.1 ha former hospital site in Bristol, owned by English Partnerships – has been identified as the first site in the country to be suitable for development under the agency’s Carbon Challenge.  Read More...

Tags: Finance

In the Budget, the Government announced that all public sector bodies will be required to prepare their accounts in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) from 2008/09. This announcement has significant implications for the way in which NHS bodies prepare their annual financial statements.  It also poses big challenges for us as auditors. The Audit Commission is committed to helping NHS bodies through this process and has published the second of a series of briefing papers, aimed at the preparers of accounts at NHS bodies, which will address developments in the application of IFRS.

Click here to access Audit Commission's briefing.

Tags: NHS, Finance