Looking back - moving forward: an account of council improvement by leading politicians

An excellent and succinct collection of eight leaders’ and one elected mayor’s personal accounts of their council’s improvement journey, produced and published by the IDeA. The accounts of these leaders are significant, complex and represent collective endeavours. Through their stories some strong themes emerge. To many leaders these themes will sound self-evident, but they are worth stating again because their obviousness often only becomes so with hindsight. What is also evident is the real sense that all the leaders involved are not content to rest on their achievements and that they have a strong commitment to continuous improvement.

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The report is published as a .pdf document. If you can not view the report, you may need to install Acrobat Reader on your machine. Read More...
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Sharing and integration of services to children

This case study examines the advantages and practical challenges of sharing and integrating services between Rotherham Council and Primary Care Trust for Children's Services, and the practical lessons that other organisation can consider whether evolving Children's Services or other shared services initiatives.

The case study looks at how both these different bodies have had to rise to challenges of adapting to a different culture, agree on new outcomes and objectives, integrate process, share information and manage confidentiality. Officers and executives of the council explain how they have managed staff change and created an integrated structure to accommodate the different organisational issues, responsibilities and governance across the Local Authority and PCT. The importance of creating a shared vision and establishing core principles is also highlighted.

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Efficiency savings through outsourcing

Spelthorne has recently renewed its IT outsourcing contract with Steria to deliver technical solutions that will support service modernisation and improvement, while making £125K savings at the same time. Spelthorne’s partnership with Steria is supporting customer service improvement and releasing significant efficiencies for its Planning and Revenues and Benefits department with online self-service facilities that allow residents and businesses to manage their accounts and make payments online.

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Keys to LSP and LAA Success - Openness, Information Sharing and Performance Management Keys to LSP and LAA Success - Openness, Information Sharing and Performance Management

The open sharing of information and monitoring of performance are key to the success of Local Partnerships, LAAs and LSPs. Now for the very first time, LocalGov TV are going to be talking the same language but also talking about it at the same time. 'I believe that data and that accuracy of data will provide us with the power we never had but also provide us with much more confidence that the activities we are suggesting as the way forward are the right activities' claims” Dr Angela Lennox, Chair, Leicester Partnership.

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Sharing Services: A route to getting started

This expert forum brings together policy leaders, advisors and practitioners to consider the benefits that Shared Services between councils and other public bodies can deliver, and, most importantly, the different approaches to partnerships, governance and commercial arrangements that are proving successful in establishing successful shared services.

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Local Government Transformation Outlook: Bromley

Find out how Bromley is transforming services to residents and generating internal efficiencies by increasing links between its call centre and service departments via a new CRM implementation. As part of its Customer Access Programme, Bromley has implemented a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system using business process templates to automate linkage between call centre staff and staff within ten key service departments.

In this case study key personnel discuss the many benefits of the new structure. Contact centre staff can now train on a single system with links through to the different back office systems. This reduces the time and cost of staff training in addition to providing a swifter, more professional service to customers. The constant update of information also enables the fast and accurate production of reports for reviews.

"We were absolutely delighted with the ability to implement the new system in less than four months and the whole project including the development of hardware and software was done for under 200,000 pounds". Jim Haslam, Assistant Director of Business Solutions & ICT

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The implementation of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system was carried out by Optevia, using Optevia's set of proprietary business process templates to provide best practice linkage to various departmental services in order to accelerate the overall CRM implementation." rel="external">here
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Local Government progress with shared services

Sue Reid, Head of the Modernisation and Efficiency Division at the Department of Communities and Local Government discusses in a one-to-one interview the progress Local Authorities and public sector bodies are making towards sharing their services.

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Written Ministerial Statement on Machinery of Government Changes: June 2007

This is a transcript of the written ministerial statement by Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the Machinery of Government changes on 28 June 2007. He says that the changes will sharpen the focus of central government on the new and very different challenges that Britain will face in the years ahead.
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Choice Matters: Putting patients in control

This document provides an update on the implementation of patient choice in the NHS since it was introduced at the start of 2006. It focuses on the experiences of patients and NHS staff. It is aimed at Chief Executives of primary care trusts, NHS trusts, and strategic health authorities, Medical Directors, Directors of Nursing, GPs, and Communications Leads.
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Government reponse to Power of Information Review

This paper gives the Government’s response to the Power of Information Review. It outlines how the Government plans to take forward the recommendations of the review.
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Modernising adult Social Care: What's working

This report assesses the progress and outcomes of the process of modernisation initiated in Modernising Social Services (1998) and developed in Independence, Well-being, and Choice (2005), and Our Health, Our Care, Our Say (2006) and related policies. It is aimed at Directors of adult social services.
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DFT: Building our capacity together

This action plan outlines the Department for Transport's priorities for the future, coming out of the department's Capability Review assessment.
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Cutting bureaucracy in public services: DfES

The Cabinet Office is today launching its public sector better regulation strategy, which aims to identify and reduce the bureaucratic burden on the front line. The aim is to find practical ways to lessen the main administrative and regulatory burdens on the front line, without creating more bureaucracy in order to do so.

The strategy follows up some major initiatives to reduce bureaucracy already underway, and also focuses on what’s next. In the HE sector, for example, a recently agreed Concordat is significantly simplifying data collection and quality assurance. Next steps will extend the Concordat to more organisations and professional bodies; seek to address issues of health education regulation; and, ensure that the implementation of Sandy Leitch’s recommendations in the HE sector is consistent with principles of good regulation.

In the schools sector, the New Relationship with Schools (NRwS) was formulated in response to a review of unnecessary bureaucracy. It aims, within the context of delivering school improvement and the five Every Child Matters outcomes, to: lift bureaucratic burdens that schools feel add nothing to their core purposes; remove confusion and irritation in schools as a result of the number and separateness of the initiatives coming at them (‘initiative overload’); improve accountability by helping schools identify priorities according to their needs, based on the evidence of their self-evaluation; and, restore schools’ sense of responsibility for their own actions.

And in FE, there have been a number of recent major reforms - a focus on simplification; the creation of a single inspectorate for FE and of an Information Authority, which sets standards and organises how information about FE is collected, managed and disseminated; the Managing Information Across Partners Programme, which is securing efficiencies by improving how information about learners and learning is shared across the whole education sector; the creation of a communications gateway for the FE System and the establishment of a Practitioner Panel to advise on the timing and content of publications – LSC has reduced by over 60% the number of its publications between January and March this year compared with the same time last year. The Department recognises and values the commitment shown by the members of the gatekeeping groups to helping the DfES and its delivery partners make a real difference for those at the frontline.

For the future, the big thing that will make a difference in FE is the move to self regulation. This offers the opportunity to further streamline and challenge.
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ICT capital grant for mobile technology

This updated circular sets out the requirements for the ICT capital grant for 2007-08. In particular, the specific conditions of grant, grant allocations and payment arrangement. The main change to this guidance is in the Acceptance of Grant form at Annex E.
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White Paper: Care Matters - Time for Change

This white paper sets out the steps the Department for Education and Skills, together with local delivery partners, will take to ensure children and young people in care get a better start in life. It builds on responses to the green paper, Care Matters: Transforming the Lives of Children and Young People in Care, and the conclusions of four working groups established to investigate best practice in supporting those in care.

Click here to access relevant webpage.
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Transformation at work

This webpage gives information about the Equal Opportunities Commission's investigation into the transformation of work, which examines imaginative and practical ways to meet the changing demands of today's workplace. It gives links to the final report and a series of supporting resources.
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