Hospitals in the UK produce an estimated 206 million reports each year, with general practitioners adding another 184 million. Currently, transcription of medical dictation consumes half a billion pounds of the NHS budget each year. Add to that the increasing healthcare requirements of an aging society and it becomes obvious that healthcare providers must act, in order to ensure high quality care while keeping costs down.
This is where speech recognition fits neatly into the UK health policy framework from both efficiency and data protection perspectives. Speech-activated solutions help reduce the costs associated with managing ever-increasing volumes of documentation.
Speech recognition software in the NHS
Using speech recognition software increases workflow efficiency and considerably reduces document turnaround times. This in turn makes it easier for Trusts to meet the requirements of the government’s various health policy initiatives. One such policy is the 18-week referral to treatment pathway, which sets a maximum time of 18 weeks from the point of initial referral, up to the start of any treatment necessary, in consultant-led care settings. Indeed, the average wait for treatment on the NHS has come down to 8.6 weeks in recent years. Heart patient waiting times, for example, have decreased from 14 to 7 weeks, between March 2007 and January 2009. But there are still many institutions that struggle to meet the targets and need to take measures to improve efficiency.
Meeting targets is not only a question of increasing the availability of medical practitioners. The ability to streamline communications, on a larger scale to maximise overall efficiency becomes a crucial factor. Vital additions to the armament necessary to tackle the future of NHS efficiency are speech recognition, transcription and distribution based workflow solutions. Their highly efficient processes can reduce document turnaround times to less than a day if needed, or even just a few minutes, which goes a long way in helping NHS Trusts to achieve the 18 week goal and other targets, relating to the care of cancer patients or the distribution of discharge summaries. The latter is particularly ambitious: from April 2009, discharge summaries have to be delivered within 48 hours to the referring physician. In March 2010, this requirement will decrease to 24 hours.
Future NHS targets will not only require highly streamlined processes, but also a consistent use of digital communication networks by medical institutions and Trusts. Indeed, digitalisation of the UK healthcare system is the second NHS policy initiative that can be achieved through the introduction of speech recognition. Within its National Program for IT, the NHS aims to establish regional Electronic Medical Record (EMR) solutions enabling hospitals and GPs to easily share patient data. The aim is to improve the quality and speed of patient care. Speech-activated systems offer a highly efficient way to store reports or letters that have been signed off by the physician directly in the EMR, thus making them readily available for access by cooperating institutions or referring GPs.
Reaping the benefits
Speech-enabled healthcare organisations, such as the Royal Free Hospital in London confirm the massive efficiency gains brought by speech-activated solutions: According to Simone Towie, Head of Radiology at the Royal Free Hospital, London speech recognition allows the department to ensure delivery of reports to referrers, in some instances within minutes of the completion of an exam.
Melanie Hiorns, consultant radiologist and chair of radiology at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, saw a significant improvement in quality, a reduction in turnaround time and an increase in patient safety as a consequence of implementing speech recognition. In plain film radiography, before speech recognition, 40 percent of the reports were available within 24 hours. The addition of speech recognition raised this number to 65 percent almost instantly. While the transition to speech recognition can be tough at the beginning, the rewards are enormous.
HCA International, central London’s premier healthcare facility, has reduced average report creation times from 24 hours to two minutes and 40 seconds. Kaye Bonython, Imaging Informatics Programme Manager found it even more surprising, as they had to deal with concerns. People had negative past experience with speech recognition and they thought it would result in too much time added to their reporting schedule. But the initial negative thoughts simply vanished once they saw that the technology had progressed to a state where it could really improve the timing.
Conclusion
Speech-activated clinical documentation solutions can help medical institutions to meet waiting time and document processing goals. Speech recognition technology is also highly suitable for use in a digital healthcare environment, since the distribution of final documents into various electronic medical record solutions can be easily automated. This can lead to significant cost savings and improved patient care, due to the reduced risk of errors associated with streamlined and standardised digital processes.
At the heart of the Government’s plans for public sector reform is the need to reduce costs, and improve the accountability and quality of the services it delivers. In April, Chancellor Alastair Darling announced plans to make £9 billion in efficiency cuts each year by 2013, in addition to the £5 billion announced in the pre-Budget report in November 2008.
Many public sector organisations have responded already by making redundancies. Around 7,000 jobs have been lost in local authorities, for example. Managers have a huge challenge ahead- they need to maintain the skills, talent and performance of their workforce, and at the same time, increase efficiency and productivity in the face of toughfinancial constraints.
We all know that efficiency is a measure of resources expended relative to the outputs produced by them, and improved efficiency requires a reduction in the running costs of services over time. But to achieve efficiencies, public sector organisations must have greater administrative flexibility.
Given the complexity of measuring efficiency and quality, many approaches assess work processes or institutional arrangements that are reasonably thought to contribute to efficiency and service quality. While various tools have been developed to measure specific services,
organisations now need to set criteria that capture key elements of
performance in relation to:
Financial management
Human resources management
Information technology management
Capital management
Managing for results
Key indicators are essential in the following four areas: record management, internal audit, performance appraisal, and project evaluation. And within those four areas, three intermediate dimensions of performance are needed: “results focus,” accountability and employee
morale.
Managers in the public sector have their work cut out establishing these new measures of performance and evaluation processes, while ensuring they are focused on results. Other potential challenges overburdened managers may face include the need to redistribute job roles, delegate additional responsibilities, achieve more with fewer resources and, in
many cases, make difficult decisions about redundancies.
One simple, effective and often overlooked approach to saving money and improving employee performance is to address gaps in employees’ knowledge and skills. However, the main difficulty for many managers in tackling underperformance is that they lack up-to-date and accurate information concerning the skills, competence and confidence of their employees. Without this, it is difficult for them to understand how to best utilise their staff, reassign roles or address knowledge gaps.
One solution is to introduce customised knowledge development programmes based on individual employee assessments. Such assessments will provide mangers with vital insight into the skills, competence on the job and confidence of their staff. Assessments should be carried out regularly, as most employees move through various jobs and ranks during their
career. Without regular testing, managers cannot be certain employees understand their changing roles or if they require further coaching, mentoring or training.
Such assessments highlight the strengths, weaknesses and knowledge gaps of individuals immediately, and the results provide managers with the information they need to identify the most appropriate intervention to address any knowledge gaps.
With this information, individually tailored employee training and development programmes can be introduced to address an employee’s specific needs. This approach tailors learning and development spending and reduces the need for -one size fits all- programmes which can be
expensive and ineffective.
An organisation’s top performers can also be identified. These are the ‘go-to’ people in the department who are a consistent and reliable resource for other employees. Identifying these individuals will help managers improve efficiency and productivity in several ways. When faced
with difficult expense reduction decisions, assessment programmes help to determine objectively the capability of all employees. They also identify which employees have the potential to deliver training to their peers or are able to coach and mentor others. When faced with the need to cut services, managers will know which individuals have the potential
to be re-deployed elsewhere.
If all government departments were to identify and address employee skills and knowledge gaps, overall efficiency would improve significantly. Last year, a report from the industry analyst firm IDC, entitled -Counting the Cost of Employee Misunderstanding, showed that
one in four employees do not understand certain aspects of their job role and that major knowledge gaps remain unaddressed in many organisations. A misunderstanding can range from misinterpreting a policy, process or job function, to a combination of all three. These
kinds of misunderstandings are inevitable, but they can also be incredibly costly – the report estimates that UK and U.S. businesses lose £18.7 bn a year as a result of employee misunderstandings and also suffer damaged relationships with key customers and clients.
With mounting pressure to reduce costs, now is the time for public sector organisations to tackle employee underperformance, and for managers to take the lead on it. Assessments can be the first step in objectively identifying the interventions needed to help improve efficiency and morale at many levels within government.
Cognisco is a global provider of intelligent knowledge development and assessment solutions. The company works in over 150 countries in 70 different languages with its international headquarters in the UK.
Stuart Littleford speaks with Jeremy Galpin, Sales Director of De Poel Consulting
Prior to joining de Poel, Jeremy spent nine years working for one of the UK’s largest recruitment groups. Having worked initially in operations, Jeremy then progressed to a corporate business development role where he was responsible for delivering group recruitment solutions to some of the UK’s largest logistics and manufacturing companies.
Matthew Sanders, CEO for de Poel Consulting, the number one procurer of temporary agency labour in the UK, believes so.
The Government tendering processes excluding small businesses (SMEs) from public sector contracts is not a new phenomenon. For years, this volatile albeit significant group has been prohibited from sharing in the estimated £175Bn of tax payers’ money spent on both goods and services every year.
What makes this issue topical is the current economic climate, which is resulting in a mass of public sector cuts and pressure to reduce public sector spend.
Yet, SMEs are ideally placed to supply to public organisations in these tough times. They can offer more value for money and considerably lower operating costs, better quality service with a direct and personal approach, as well as quick and innovative reactions to industry changes.
With the potential to reduce back-office costs by as much as 30%, SMEs are a perfect and timely solution to the public sector’s primary concern to cut costs. In our case, perhaps in others too, the savings result from increased control over spending, with the side-effect of improved quality.
The problem is not that SMEs are openly discouraged or barred from participating in the bidding process. The difficulties are actually routed in the process itself and the way it operates, preventing small or new companies from being shortlisted. In many cases it is the sheer complexity of the procedure and jargon used, the continuous bureaucracy, unachievable deadlines and endless amount of time, paperwork and costs involved which small businesses just cannot keep up with. The need for insurances and other documents, particularly the ISO 9000, a quality-standards certificate only ever required by the public sector, also contributes to the hassle for small companies, rendering their problems disproportionately high compared with larger firms.
For us, the biggest obstacle lies within the pre-qualification stage of the application, which follows the initial expression of interest. Small firms are invited to answer a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ), upon which they receive a score to determine whether they will be sent an Invitation to Tender (ITT). In a report on SME access to public procurement by the All-Party Parliamentary Small Business Group (APPSBG) in April this year, PQQs are said to be: -especially onerous, discouraging SMEs from registering.
As a company, we (de Poel) tend to score highly on every answer we give, except the section which asks for references from existing public sector clients. The system doesn’t account for the work we do with both small and large, third and private sector organisations in a variety of industry-sectors, with 100% positive client testimonials and a track record of providing savings between 6 and 12%. Nor does it consider the fact we do not charge our clients unless we find direct cost savings on their contingent workforce spend, or that our fees are only taken as a per¬centage of these savings. Not having a public sector client already means we score zero or even minus points for this question, and can never progress.
Perhaps the reason the tendering process is so difficult for SMEs is a reluctance to work with small companies or new suppliers, as well as concerns about giving contracts to private organisations over public. However, working with smaller suppliers is no more risky than working with public sector bodies.
The APPSBG report followed the Glover Report in identifying the problems for SMEs accessing public procurement and making several recommendations for change. This is a great start – successfully addressing the need for simplicity, fairness and increased transparency in the tendering process, and calling for targets to be set in terms of the numbers of contracts awarded to SMEs. It also recommends standardising PQQs and increasing opportunities for SMEs to -show off their selling points and -state any specific area of expertise they have – which could be a significant development.
But for us, the report still doesn’t go far enough. Of the 16 proposals specified, not one looks with any detail at the single but critical problem of not having a public sector client already. Ideally, we would urge the sector to start valuing references from private and third sector organisations and begin appreciating the -catch 22- situation here. Without a public client in the first place, no company can ever be expected to get a reference from one.
Then there are concerns about whether the APPSBG recommendations will ever come into practice, with huge amounts of pressure on the public sector already and the prospect of further budget cuts. Perhaps the recommendations could be supported by a wider campaign informing public organisations that alternatives to their current supply process could ease their problems? Companies like de Poel remain hopeful.
But just in case, we have decided to prove our ability to save money for the public sector, by offering to forgo our savings fee, passing on 100% savings to our first public partner.
As public sector organisations creating an ever-expanding volume of data and face increasing regulatory requirements, the need for stringent records management policies has never been greater. Frank Hopping, Managing Director of Crown Records Management (UK & Ireland) examines what’s at stake and explores how to develop effective procedures.
Records managers have played an essential role within the public sector for decades. Efficient record keeping not only allows an organisation to operate on a day-to-day basis; it is also key to meeting various statutory and fiscal requirements, as well as preserving information needed to ensure effective decision-making and policy formulation.
In recent years, however, the introduction of a raft of legislation covering this field has led to a renewed recognition of the importance of records management. The introduction of the Freedom of Information Act in 2000 created a new onus on public sector bodies to retain information and make it accessible to the general public, while the Date Protection Act set strict security requirements and retention limitations for all forms of personal data, from staff employment records to the address details of housing tenants.
Over the last decade the growth in electronic data has also turned the concept of records management on its head. Organisations throughout the public sector now face new threats, from hacking to computer hardware theft, and good records management is no longer the responsibility of records managers alone. Indeed, it is now vital that everyone within an organisation, from the CEO to frontline staff, is aware of the need to protect data and understands individual responsibilities in this respect.
A number of high-profile cases have demonstrated what can happen if public sector workers disregard the importance of stringent data management and security procedures. During recent months the media has been peppered with tales of lost USB sticks, stolen laptops containing unencrypted information and even boxes of patient files being left in hospital corridors, leading to operational headaches, damaged reputations, public mistrust and even financial penalties.
This is particularly true within NHS trusts as they move from traditional hard-copy patient files towards e-records. Electronic information has specific security requirements and trusts must ensure that they adapt their records management policies accordingly, taking into account documents such as email messages which may not fall within the traditional remit of records managers.
So what practical steps can public sector organisations take?
Firstly, senior managers should establish stringent procedures for creating, sharing, handling and storing information and ensure that all employees are aware of their obligations and the potential consequences of data losses. These procedures should cover all types of information, from electronic files to hard copy records, and should encompass clear policies on the use of devices such as USB memory sticks, as well as the transportation of data off-site. In addition, all sensitive electronic data should be encrypted and should only be transported via secure methods.
Secondly, all staff should follow a consistent filing and naming system to ensure that documents can be accurately identified and tracked. All records should then be monitored throughout their lifecycle and should be accompanied by a retention schedule to ensure that they are neither destroyed before time or retained for too long both of which can break regulations. Once a record has reached the end of its lifespan, a certificate of destruction should be created and kept on file to support compliance requirements and provide a clear audit trail.
In addition, it is important that records are stored in a secure environment, particularly if they are deemed sensitive or hold special importance. Depending on the nature of the information each record contains, measures could include fire-proofing, electronic access restrictions, CCTV and anonymous barcode systems.
Storing crucial records off site with a credible supplier affords further protection, and can offer the added benefit of substantial space and cost savings. This may become an increasingly important factor as public sector organisations face up to the potential of spending cuts, freeing up additional resource for frontline services.
Public sector organisations should also back-up documents to ensure they are not lost or damaged a factor which is particularly crucial with regard to fulfilling the obligations of the Freedom of Information Act. To save space and cost, it is often worth creating electronic rather than hard-copy back-ups by scanning documents, but it is vital that long-term data is not stored on devices such as USB sticks or CD-ROMs, which may be damaged or rendered technologically obsolete.
To conclude, the field of records management is rapidly evolving as organisations create increasing amounts of data and legislation is tightened. The important role of records management must therefore stay front of mind for all employees, rather than being viewed as the responsibility of one person or department. Only by fostering such a culture can public sector bodies ensure they comply with the law and avoid the operational, reputational and financial consequences of lost data.
Frank Hopping is Managing Director of Crown Records Management, which offers hard-copy and electronic records management storage, as well as records management audits and secure destruction.
With the spectre of 2011 looming ever closer, local authorities with National Challenge schools are increasingly turning to the National Challenge Trust (NCT) school model as a way of strengthening leadership and raising achievement. But as Mark Blois and Vicki Hair of law firm Browne Jacobson explain, the transition to NCT status could be anything but smooth.
Launched in 2008, the National Challenge is a Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) initiative focusing on secondary schools where less than 30% of pupils achieve 5 GCSEs including maths and English at A to C grades. Initially 638 schools were told that if their results did not reach the threshold by 2011, they would be closed and reopened as either Academies or Trust schools. By September 2009 the DCSF announced that the number of schools in the National Challenge had fallen to under 270 but with the hurdle of the August 2010 results to clear, it is evident that some schools may fall back under scrutiny again.
NCT schools are based on the very popular Trust school model with few important changes. The school is supported by a charitable trust, involves a high-performing educational institution known as the Lead Education Partner (LEP) and are linked via a governing body largely appointed by the trust itself. Importantly, the relationship between the school and local authority is substantially unchanged.
Routes and models
There are three routes to convert a school into a NCT:-
1. Closure and reopening – process driven by the LA, the school closes and reopens as a Trust School
2. Interim Executive Board (IEB process driven by an IEB which replaces the governing body of the school
3. “Modified IEB – process driven by the existing governing body or IEBOne of three models must then be selected:-
1. Shared trust – the LEP is a school and both it and the National Challenge school will become Trust schools and share a trust.
2. LEP school as member only – the National Challenge school becomes a Trust school of which the LEP is a Trust Partner but the LEP school itself does not change status because it is unable or unwilling to do so.
3. Single school, single trust – the LEP is not a school and, as with model 2 above, the trust supports the National Challenge school only.
Potential problems and possible solutions
The appeal for schools considering adopting NCT status is obvious. The DCSF is providing additional funding of up to £750,000 (extended to £1m in some areas) for every NCT status school. Secondly, the NCT model is seen as a more attractive and PR friendly alternative to Academies or hard federations, as the Trust Partners are not seen to be directly involved in the running of the school. However, a number of challenges and obstacles need to be successfully negotiated before the benefits can be fully realised:
Which route – the route used will determine who will undertake the necessary statutory consultation process and make the final decisions whether to go ahead. Choosing the right model and route based on the opinions of the governing body and community and the needs of the school will make the transition smoother.
Conflicts of interest – there is always a potential conflict of interest for the trustees between their duties to the trust and to the Trust Partner that appointed them. Where the Local Authority is Trust Partner, this potential conflict might be problematic for the LA trustee if the LA intends to use its commissioning powers. Whilst conflicts of interest cannot always be avoided, future problems can be avoided if all are aware of the conflicts policy and adhere to it. The Local Authority’s commissioning role should not be a barrier to it becoming a Trust Partner and its involvement in the trust is normally highly desirable.
Governance structure – the LEP may feel that, in order make the changes they want, they want to be able to appoint more trustees and therefore control the board of trustees and the trust itself. Normally a governance structure can be found which balances the needs of all the Trust Partners and the school.
Local Authority involvement – care needs to be taken to ensure that, if the Local Authority is to be a Trust Partner, it does not have sufficient control over the trust so that it becomes a controlled company as defined by Part V of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. Careful planning of the Trust structure and a review of the risks to the Local Authority should ensure that the trust does not become a controlled company.
Whilst establishing a National Challenge Trust school is not without its challenges, the model remains an attractive choice for local authorities keen to raise achievement and strengthen leadership before the 2011 deadline.
The UK Government’s modernisation agenda for the fire service (as outlined in the 2003 white paper “Our Fire and Rescue Service” which itself results from the 2002 Bain report) calls for a greater emphasis on fire prevention activities not least since the white paper recognised that 50 per cent of fire related deaths reportedly take place before the fire service is even called.
No one disputes the need for fire prevention activities in a modern fire service, but there has been debate around how these duties are managed and the impact this has on fire fighter’ workloads, fire fighter safety and essential emergency response.
The Fire Brigades Union, Health and Safety Executive, and Audit Commission may all have distinct positions on the issues surrounding fire safety, yet seemingly common to all are the views that inadequate fire-prevention workload management, inadequate training and inadequate access to accurate risk assessment data has a direct effect on the safety of the public at home and at work and on fire fighters in the line of duty.
Fire and rescue services typically have three teams that carry out fire safety and prevention activities: community safety teams tasked with fire prevention in the home, technical fire safety teams tasked with monitoring how commercial and public organisations comply with fire regulations and the emergency operations teams who are tasked with ensuring the safety of operational fire fighters in the line of duty.
Each of these fire safety teams generate valuable risk-related data that can have a direct impact on the effectiveness of the prevention and/or management of fire incidents.
Data Management
To operate at maximum efficiency in preventing avoidable deaths and damage to livelihoods and property, fire services need timely access to accurate risk-related data, no matter which team generated the intelligence. Yet in many cases the back office systems that support the storage, management and analysis of life-critical information are inadequate and out-dated.
Unconnected and often paper-based admin systems simply cannot live up to the demands of the modern fire service nor do justice to the sophisticated risk data that the safety teams generate and work with.
Further, the additional work created by the stand-alone systems not only adds to the burden of administrative duties, impacting on the time that fire prevention teams could be out using their skills and experience to make a difference, but often it cannot effectively capture and support the need for case escalation and the historical intelligence and analysis essential to enforcement work.
No one software system can provide a panacea for the issues around fire service data management. Yet many of the issues touched on above can be addressed, simply, cost effectively and efficiently, without the need for risky large scale IT implementations with their accompanying challenges of time, resource and budget.
As a result, fire services are increasingly using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software which can be customised for their specific needs, to support and underpin their data management systems and procedures.
Top six benefits for fire services of risk-related data-sharing
Integrating CRM software with a fire service can provide a number of significant benefits in terms of data management and service delivery, including:
Better data: cleaner, more accurate
Consistent data forms across community, technical and operations teams mean data is captured, analysed and reported against easily, creating valuable insights and speeding up the IMRP returns process.
Manage workloads better
Better scheduling and management of risk assessments cuts down on unnecessary admin, freeing up officers to focus on their core areas of fire and safety expertise.
Enforcement
Effective case management ensures that audit histories for properties are easily accessed, deferred audits are tracked, enforcement issues are managed and, where necessary, cases can be escalated.
Sharing life-critical data
Information taken from community, technical and operational assessments can be combined with data from incidents to continually inform and improve local knowledge and training activities. Further, data shared between teams can be used to pre-brief auditing teams, and supplement audit reports.
Availability of risk-related information
All life-critical information, irrespective of source, can be made available in a timely fashion to better inform fire fighters in the line of duty. Combined live risk-data from all sources can be accessed on the mobile data terminals in fire appliances improving fire fighters’ dynamic assessment of risk when attending an incident.
Risk assessment
The dynamic risk assessment improvements afforded by delivering live life-critical data to officers in the field is clear. In addition, an ever more accurate and sophisticated understanding of the complex interplay of physical, geographical, behavioural and socio-economic influences can be developed by combining intelligence from the three safety programmes with incident data. This continually improving assessment of risk leads to increasingly effective prevention strategies and tactics.
Top economist Roger Bootle warns UK house price to fall another 35% in 2010. In an interview with Nigel Pivaro for the Government & Public Sector Journal Roger Bootle warns that house prices are set to fall dramatically next year and we are still a long way from seeing the end of the recession. Nigel asks him some interesting questions after reading Rogers new book ‘The Trouble With Markets’.
What they say;
“Compelling prescriptions from an economist unusually able to speak with authority – because unlike most of his peers, Bootle spotted that the boom was unsustainable.”
Robert Peston, BBC Business Editor and author of Who Runs Britain?
In his last book, Money For Nothing, Roger Bootle predicted with great accuracy the property crash and subsequent financial crisis. In The Trouble With Markets, he offers us a way out of the almighty mess that excessive debt created. It should be made compulsory reading for all policy-makers.
Jeff Randall, Sky News business presenter and Daily Telegraph’s editor-at-large
See the television interview with Roger bootle and Nigel Pivaro for GPSJ NEWS and listen to the podcast interview on GPSJ Radio.
Jim Watson, the managing director of Shred Easy, one of the UK’s largest confidential data shredding companies, discusses advances in shredding technology and the benefits of recycling confidential data.
According to Home Office figures, identity fraud is costing the UK £1.7billion a year – that’s £35 a head for the entire population. It’s hardly surprising when roughly 60 million people in the UK use sheets of paper to exchange information.
It is estimated that 95% of business information is still stored on paper and that 115 billion sheets of paper are used annually in the office . Destroying and recycling confidential data in the office has now become more important than ever. The recent spate of security breaches by MPs, regional councils and other organisations has highlighted this.
So, how are we to make an impact on identity fraud and the production of vast amounts of paper? By using less paper and recycling more. Recycled paper doesn’t retain confidential data.
Currently, UK recycling is estimated to save more than 18 million tonnes of C02 a year the equivalent of taking five million cars off the road. The recycling of card and paper products in recent years has moved on leaps and bounds but there is so much more to do.
Carbon emissions
Awareness of the importance of embracing ecologically responsible corporate policies is growing. In the developed world, the G20 governments are pressing ahead with sweeping legislation covering carbon emissions. Enlightened sections of industry have responded to this challenge by looking at the many different ways paper waste can be reduced. Unless compelled to do so by law, relatively few organisations will expend resources on recycling for purely ethical or altruistic reasons. They need to base decisions on hard-nosed commercial reality.
Shred Easy collected, destroyed and recycled more than 20,000 tonnes of confidential material last year. The process helps the environment, conserves resources, saves energy and reduces landfill. Almost 98% of the destroyed material is recycled. Recyclers work with customers to make sure the paper they dispose of contains minimal contamination such as plastic wallets, glossy magazines, lever arch files. The less contamination, the more paper gets recycled. Once shredded, it is baled, recycled and re-used as raw material for household and office paper products.
Legalities
Businesses are also advised to avoid the possibility of expensive litigation by complying with confidentiality and data protection laws. For example, various ICO fines have been imposed on big name companies guilty of not securing customer data appropriately. Earlier this year, HSBC was fined by the FSA when customer data was lost twice.
It is vital to demonstrate a real sense of responsibility to an organisation’s increasingly eco-aware publics. Spokespeople need to be able to reassure markets, shareholders, customers, the authorities and the world at large that they are doing everything they can to reduce the effects of over-consumption and pollution.
Growing demand for mobile shredding
Despite the recession the shredding industry is growing rapidly. Professional shredding of confidential waste means documents, folders and files are completely destroyed with no chance of being used in any way again. Shred Easy is an ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 UKAS registered company. As part of these standards a business sets a number of targets and objectives, one of which is the monthly recycling rate percentage. This drives a company to achieve higher recycling rates every month.
Shredding on the move
One way businesses, especially those based in city centres, are tackling the destruction of their confidential data is to employ ‘mobile shredders’. These trucks arrive at a company and shred confidential material on the premises and take the shredded material away to be recycled. This is key for two reasons. Firstly, the security of documents is improved if paperwork is shredded before the eyes of a customer and secondly, it’s more cost effective as there are fewer chains in the shredding and transportation process.
The new generation of mobile shredding trucks are designed to minimise carbon emissions by being smaller, lighter and quieter and can visit businesses around a city with minimum disruption. Typically, they will cause less inconvenience than the collection of other types of waste.
Shred Easy has developed an Urban Shredder, an advanced mobile shredding unit, which has an ultra-low Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) of only 7.5 tonnes. It operates with a more compact engine than its predecessors and its reduced weight means that it uses less oil and unleaded fuel when being driven or during the shredding process. It is more cost effective and has less impact on the environment.
At just six metres in length, the Urban Shredder is the shortest mobile shredding vehicle on the market. Its maneuverability, coupled with a greater range of driver options, enables it to provide higher levels of service. It means drivers can zip in and out of towns and cities more easily. Furthermore, while the truck size has been reduced, the shred speed remains unaffected.
SCR technology
The Urban Shredder’s exhaust gases are processed by Selective Catalytic Reduction technology (SCR). This reduces particulate emissions by decreasing the nitric oxide levels through the post-treatment of exhaust gases. The greatest advantage of SCR technology is that is uses five percent less fuel which makes it cheap to run and less harmful to the environment. This technology meets the Euro 5 emission standards that come into force in 2009.
SCR technology uses only one chemical reactant named AdBlue, a water solution of urea, which reacts with the nitric oxides once it has been sprayed into the exhaust gases and transforms them into harmless substances. The consumption of AdBlue usually makes up three – five percent of all fuel consumed by the vehicle. The SCR makes the PM filter redundant since the production of harmful particulates is minimal. It also improves the performance of the vehicle and extends the life of motor-propulsion units.
In addition the low levels of particulates produced through combustion reduces the contamination of the lubricating fluid oil and allows extended maintenance intervals which further enhances the Urban Shredder’s productivity.
Cradle to grave solution
If an organisation can boost its green credentials at the same time as reducing risks then all the better. The ‘cradle to grave, then back to cradle’ process used by shredding companies is one that’s completely green because all shredded paper is then recycled and used again. The process helps the environment, conserves resources, saves energy and reduces landfill.
Case study
Gary Dawson, of Kuehne + Nagel the global supply chain company, has been using a mobile shredding company for a number of years because the service is cost effective and good for the environment:
“We’re in the supply chain business so it’s important that all our own processes are as lean and green as possible.
“Now, our on-site shredding company comes to us every four weeks. Our files, folders and old CDs can be destroyed right in front of our eyes. This is reassuring because we know that our data is being disposed of securely. The process is convenient, saves time and saves money as we don’t have to employ a driver to transport our waste to a depot. Plus we’re doing our bit for the environment by reducing our carbon footprint.
“We treat our confidential data very seriously indeed and we have our own internal policies to deal with it. Every member of staff knows how to identify, securely store and check the destruction of our confidential waste.”
The rapid growth of Web 2.0 services is forcing more and more public sector organisations to rethink their internal and external communication strategies, both on and offline. John Glover, director for INOVEM, explains the powerful role technology can play in including key stakeholders in consultations and collaborative decision making
As Web 2.0 emerged, it was unfortunately mistaken by some as just the latest buzzword technology – something that could be entertaining at a social level but should never be taken seriously at an organisational level. Happily, forward-thinking public sectors bodies and a few private sector businesses very quickly dismantled this viewpoint. They learned that with good-will and buy-in from stakeholders, they could build really effective productivity tools, services and communities that would allow like-minded groups of people merely separated by geography or circumstance, to involve, consult and collaborate with each other on an equal footing.
When public sector organisations first became bold enough to embrace Web 2.0, they did so primarily because they wanted to bring their stakeholders closer together. Sure, they also wanted to have a bit of fun getting to grips with technology and being creative with interactivity, but they mainly wanted to show stakeholders and employees that they genuinely valued their opinions and input.
In practice, Web 2.0 services must be deployed for all the right reasons, and not simply because a technology champion within a given organisation has heard or read that it’s ‘a good idea’. It’s vital for these organisations to truly understand what they want to do with emerging technology, and how and why they want to do it. These solutions must be used to include stakeholders, not to create ‘clubs’ or communities that exclude by default.
Any discussions with peers and colleagues will quickly reveal that broadcast only communications are no longer acceptable. Simple put, the best collaborative systems empower people to work together better. That’s why it’s worth deploying technology that you can really call your own. Systems that are tailored specifically to fit business needs rather than providing a hollow generic environment for you to find your way around. Impose your way of thinking on to the Web 2.0 environment you choose. Ensure it is flexible enough to accommodate the needs of you and your stakeholders. Achieve the blend of focus and informality that works for you, and don’t be steered by rigid, branded tools and bundled services.
Of course organisations would be blinkered to entirely ignore the worth of popular social media tools such as Twitter or Facebook as part of their marketing activities, but it is essential that the care and effort taken to include stakeholders through Web 2.0 is associated directly with their own brand. All organisations must realise that we are operating in a world in which what we say or do on our internal or external facing web sites reflects directly on our brands and how we are perceived by customers, investors, partners, employees and members of the public. Participants must be fully aware form the start who is engaging with them. They should have no trouble understanding why they are participating, and that they can trust other participants with access to their views and interests. The organisation itself should be identifiable as ‘the hero’ in this context, not a ubiquitous social media platform, because it is the organisation and its own champions who are going those extra lengths to listen and involve stakeholders.
Regardless of the sector your organisation operates in, inclusion is a brand value you should be rightly proud of. It’s a fantastic foundation for all levels of relationships and achievements. There’s further value to be had by businesses and public authorities who are willing and able to seek the views of their customers and other key stakeholders at an early stage, before they design and refine any of these products and services. Focus groups are a great way of revealing amendments or additions to systems that might never have been considered without this extra level of consultation.
But inclusion must begin at home. Create a community rather than imposing one. Invite people into an environment that is welcoming and beneficial. Work yourself to make it work for everyone. And above all, ensure that it is all yours, right from the very start. One word of caution though- there is a danger that if feedback mechanisms are poorly managed or there is no easy way to analyse and respond to contributions, then participants will be become disenchanted and feel unappreciated, which will have a detrimental effect on the brand and the organisation. This is why any serious step into Web 2.0 must be committed and owned by engaged champions within the organisation. Simply ‘dipping toes’ into social media is likely to cause more damage than benefit.
In July 2008 the government published the final report of Lord Darzi’s Next Stage Review, High Quality Healthcare for All, which spelt out a long term vision of an NHS that is high quality, personalised and clinically led. With public finances now under pressure, the Department of Health’s clear policy position is that high quality, safe care is cost effective and can deliver efficiency savings. It is therefore vital that the NHS ensures that patients are in the right place to receive the care they need at the time they need it.
The NHS in Rotherham is keen to address this issue of appropriateness of care and resource utilisation. The health and social care community recognised that patients may remain on acute care wards inappropriately for many reasons, including a lack of intermediate care facilities. They wanted to address this systematically in a patient-focused way that would also support commissioning new services to fill any gaps. At the same time, McKesson was looking to adapt its well-used and highly respected InterQual® tool for the NHS.
Rotherham Health and Social Care Partnership
Rotherham is in the lucky position of having a very straight forward health and social care economy. There is one acute provider, Rotherham Foundation Trust, one community services provider, Rotherham Community Health Services, and one PCT that is coterminous with the local authority which also provides social services. There is close co-operation between all four and in 2009 they formed a Health and Social Care Partnership and began the project with McKesson to adapt and test InterQual.
Choosing McKesson
McKesson UK, healthcare IT solutions and services specialist, formally launched InterQual in the UK in October 2008. InterQual is a computerised tool used to assess whether patients are in the appropriate care setting for their individual needs. It is already used in over 5,000 healthcare settings worldwide, where it is used primarily to support decisions about patient care in insurance-based healthcare systems. However, McKesson felt it had wider application and could be adapted in the NHS to support commissioners and providers with effective utilisation management and appropriateness of care validation.
InterQual has at its heart a rich repository of clinical evidence, developed over 30 years. Over one third of the 16,000 citations are derived outside the USA. McKesson’s highly trained clinical development team continually assess the evidence with feedback from an InterQual Clinical Panel of 800 experts. As a result, all InterQual criteria have a level of credibility and integrity that cannot be found anywhere else.
The power of InterQual lies in applying this evidence-base in a systematic way to individual patients. When aggregated, the results of individual assessments and clinicians comments on them provide commissioners and managers with a rich source of evidence about bottlenecks and service gaps. This can be extremely powerful as a source of evidence for service redesign.
Rotherham Partnership had been involved with McKesson since 2004 in a project to redesign unscheduled care. Since then McKesson has maintained a close relationship with the Partnership, culminating in the implementation of an NHS-specific version of InterQual in 2009.
The project
Rotherham Partnership began implementing InterQual in February 2009 initially on three wards covering emergency admissions; trauma and orthopaedics; and healthcare for older people. It was also implemented in the community in a purpose built facility for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In each care environment a case manager – a senior nurse or therapist – was appointed and trained to use InterQual. These Case Managers assessed patients both on admission and throughout their hospital stay and where they identified that patients could be cared for more appropriately elsewhere, they worked to facilitate a supported discharge.
All patients are reviewed against InterQual’s admission criteria and then against the continued stay criteria while they are on a ward using the system. In the first 16 weeks (16 February 09 to 8 June 09), 3631 reviews were undertaken on 892 patients. Of those reviewed against the acute criteria, 558 were admission reviews, 2872 were against the continued stay criteria and 83 reviews were undertaken against discharge screens.
The hospital found that 49% of the admission reviews met the criteria for an acute admission; 45% did not meet the criteria. The remaining reviews were either redirected off the project or referred for a secondary review.
The continued stay reviews show that 15% met the acute criteria and 77% did not meet. Again, the remaining reviews were either redirected off the project due to transfer to other wards or were sent for secondary review.
This data shows that the 77% of continued stay reviews and the 45% of admission reviews which did not meet the criteria resulted in patients occupying an acute bed, for a total of 1574 variance days, when patients could have been cared for at a sub-acute level if that level of care had been available in Rotherham.
InterQual has subsequently been rolled out across respiratory medicine, and plans are in place to use the criteria in a modified way on the Stroke Unit and obstetrics and gynaecology in order to undertake retrospective audits. A further two Case Managers have been appointed at the acute trust in order to roll out to unscheduled care.
In the medium term, the Partnership hopes that InterQual will support the World Class Commissioning agenda by providing data for commissioners, inform Transforming Community Services and provide data about variations on length of stay.
Realising the benefits
It is early days for this project but already the Partnership perceives a range of benefits.
Defining the problem
On one level, the project has helped managers confirm and quantify what they already knew. Rotherham Foundation Trust’s Chief of Quality & Standards/Chief Nurse Jackie Bird says: Our priority is to get care and clinical services right for the people of Rotherham. The problem for the Trust was that we were not getting the flow of patients out of the hospital right. We did not believe that we had the right level of care outside the hospital in the community.
Kath Henderson, Chief Nurse and Managing Director of Rotherham Community Health Services, agrees: My feeling is that we have the care but not the right levels. We have no community hospital, for example. The skills are there but there are not enough of them. We are now getting evidence about the level of underlying need that supports our gut feeling.
Project Lead at the acute trust Carole Lavelle adds: InterQual is clearly defining a group of patients with sub-acute care needs. Our feeling that we need a resource for these patients with the appropriate skill mix is being proved correct.
Increasing clinical engagement and developing new roles
A major success of the project has been engaging clinicians. InterQual is a clinical tool that requires a high level of knowledge and expertise. Gaining clinical engagement including support from consultants has had benefits.
Lavelle says: Clinicians have the same frustrations as managers in terms of moving patients on. Once they were reassured that InterQual did not replace their clinical judgement and that this was more than simple admission/discharge criteria, they were happy.
The creation of new Case Manager roles has allowed the trust to develop some of its most talented band seven nurses and therapists.
Improving patient care
Case Managers report numerous examples where experience told them that a patient needed moving to a less acute environment but InterQual provided the evidence-based assessment to confirm this.
Case Manager Michelle Morgan recalls how she was able to facilitate a care package for a patient who required antibiotic therapy at home. She says: The assumption was that the rapid response team could not provide the service when in fact they could. InterQual was the trigger for making this happen. We are using it to change people’s mindsets.
Conclusion
The project in Rotherham is now demonstrating that InterQual is adaptable for the NHS and can deliver not only significant benefits for patients but also relevant information for commissioners and potentially significant cost efficiencies.
The cost of gas and electricity has never been higher so it is no surprise that public sector organisations of all types and sizes are looking at ways to cut down on consumption. What many are also waking up to is that there is no such thing as customer loyalty with UK energy suppliers and – by staying with one supplier from one year to the next – you will end up paying more expensive rates. The difference between ‘new customer’ and ‘repeat business’ electricity rates, for example, can mean a saving of £2,000 a year for a non-domestic building using an average 25,000 kilowatt hours.
It is no wonder then that more and more organisations are looking into the option of switching. However two-thirds of would-be switchers suffer setbacks because they are unaware of the contractual obligations they have with their existing supplier. Here are some tips to avoid the traps.
Get On A Contract. It is actually better to be in a contract than not. Out-of-contract rates are the highest you will ever pay. So if, for example, you’ve just taken over new premises but not contacted the utility suppliers to tell them that you are the new bill payer, you will automatically – and indefinitely – be put on rates that could be three times as high as you would pay in a contract.
Compare Rates First. Shop around before accepting a contract. Price comparison services will tell you immediately if the rates you are being offered are competitive and, if not, do the legwork of finding out which are the better deals. EG The current range for business electricity contracts is between 8p and 14p per unit.
Don’t Pay For Advice. Do not pay for price comparison or switching services – however helpful, efficient or effective they are in saving you money. As a general rule, they offer their services to you for free because they earn a fee from suppliers when you switch.
Check Notice Periods. Once on a contract, make a note in your diary of renewal dates and what notice you need to give to accept or reject renewal terms as many suppliers make it difficult to switch at the end date.
Each supplier has different rules but the notice period ‘window’ can be as narrow a week and is activated as soon as a renewal letter is sent which, in some cases, is as much as 120 days before the contract is due to end.
Don’t Be Complacent. If you miss your notice window, you will be automatically ‘rolled over’ and locked-in to an uncompetitive rate for up to two years.
The ‘Assumptive Renewal’ trap that suppliers use is legally-binding even if you do nothing and ignore their letters.
Be A Serial Switcher. Savvy businesses review their rates and switch, if necessary, every year. It only takes a few minutes over the phone and, by doing so, you are always guaranteed the lowest bills. Datamonitor reckons energy suppliers loose money on new business customers in first year but make 32% profit from them in the next.
Serve Notice Regardless. Not everyone has the patience to keep a track of when their contact is up for review.
The best way to get around this is to send a notice letter immediately, irrespective of how long your contact has to run. Save a copy as proof so you have all your options open when it is time for renewal. You cannot be cut-off for doing this and, given that your current supplier knows your intentions, they will be more inclined to offer you competitive rates at your renewal.
Refuse Winbacks. Those that switch are often contacted at the eleventh hour by their old supplier with a better rates or a cash-back offer. This ‘winback’ practice is banned by Ofgem as it can often mean the customer ending up with two contracts and a fine from the new supplier for reneging on their agreement.
Other Overheads. Review other overheads at the same time such as water, mobiles, landline and broadband to see where else you can save money. You may find that there is a way to get out of existing contracts and find savings to be made on things other than gas and electricity.
Sign-up For Help. For those in any doubt about their existing contract obligations or just looking for an easy solution, Make It Cheaper offers a free service which logs your utility renewal dates and, during the notice window, will contact you to recommend the best available rates in the market to switch to. If requested, we will then serve notice on your behalf and arrange new contracts, making sure that you are not rolled onto expensive rates further down the line.
Established in 2007 and based in Central London, Make It Cheaper receives more utility price comparison enquiries (2,000 a week) and arranges more new contracts (1,000 a week) than any other commercial-only price comparison service. These enquiries include those from the business customers of most of the major domestic price comparison services as well as business membership organisations, charities and trade associations.
Acting on behalf of these customers with total impartiality and without charge, Make It Cheaper offers cost savings across a range of products including electricity, gas, insurance and telecoms. The prices it offers are often better than could be found by going direct to suppliers because of the volume of deals its negotiates. www.makeitcheaper.com
The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), a mandatory emissions trading scheme, starts in April 2010. The legislation covers organisations – including public sector bodies – with an energy bill of £500,000 or more. Allowances need to be purchased to cover the average total energy consumption. The money will be recycled to participants, but the amount will vary according to their success in cutting emissions. Each year a table of the best and worst performers will be published, with the best performers rewarded and the worst penalised.
In addition, National Indicator 185, part of a framework of performance measures set by central government, requires councils to measure their CO2 emissions. Both the CRC and NI 185 have the potential to damage Councils reputation by getting a poor rating. This public reporting and the financial impacts are the greatest drivers for many public sector bodies. Conversely, a clear strategy can yield some positive PR and cost benefits.
Whilst many local authorities, fire and police authorities, hospitals and schools will fall within the remit of the CRC, little has been done to effectively incorporate the requirements at a strategic level.
The revised Carbon Reduction Commitment was released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change in early October providing clarification for public sector bodies on how this far reaching legislation will affect them. The response sets out the Government’s final policy decisions on how the scheme will operate. The Environment Agency will publish guidance for participants later this month. The order implementing the scheme will go before parliament in December.
One of the key changes is a name change to the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme to better reflect the ambitions and intentions of the legislation. Recent studies by both the European and UK Environment Agencies have shown that up to 25% of energy can be saved from the average building through good practice measures of which 15% can be met through quick payback initiatives.
Greater focus has been placed upon the ability to achieve the early action metric, used to compile the league table at the start of the CRC. The Carbon Trust Standard or equivalent will now be accepted in respect of the Early Action metric. A set of strict criteria must be met to demonstrate energy emissions reduction has been achieved over a three year period. Key is the evidence and accuracy of the data set to gain these additional credits. The weighting of the metric has also been amended to provide a greater weight in years 2 and 3 of the scheme – it will count for 40 per cent in second year of the introductory phase and 20 per cent in third year.
Certainly to be well placed in the ranking tables for the first three years, robust energy efficiency measures will be required. Cost effectiveness will be swayed by the £12 per tonne trade price enabling some initiatives to become viable.
Prior to April 2010 public sector bodies will need to have understood the risks and developed a forward strategy based upon a management system approach. There are a series of steps which need to be taken to achieve this:
Stage 1 mobilisation
High level organisational review to understand the liabilities and how ready the business is.
Engage with the key stakeholders
Perform an initial review and gap analysis using a roadmap approach
Stage 2 – Strategy
Identify the organisational requirements
Develop the CRC strategy key needs, business case, costs and early action measures that can be taken, 2008 inventory of half-hour meters, board approval, date systems and comms approach
Stage 3 Implement early actions
Implement necessary systems
Collate registration details and data
Stage 4 forecast, monitor and projects
Complete registration
Forecast and monitor carbon emissions under the CRC over the next 12 months to assess accuracy of the model developed
Project identification and implementation to test the system use robust system to understand and capture savings.
Our own experiences suggest that whilst the private sector is reasonably well advanced in its preparations for the CRC regime, public sector bodies are not. With both financial and reputational issues at stake public sector organisations would do well to act and prepare now.
Sunil Shah is head of sustainability at independent planning consultancy DPP. He can be reached by email: Sunil.Shah@dppllp.com
The public sector is under intense pressure to cut spending, increase services and improve efficiencies. In his budget the chancellor Alastair Darling demanded £600m of savings next year and £5.5bn worth of savings over the current spending review period.
Many government bodies are recruiting experienced Interim Managers to help lead change management programmes and improve efficiency. According to a MORI poll from the Institute Management Association published in August, 51% of all Interim Management assignments in the last quarter were in the public sector. What’s more, Buying Solutions, the National
Procurement Partner for UK Public Services anticipates the use of Interims will increase with £2.5bn being spent on non permanent staff, including interim managers over the next four years.
Historically, the public sector has favoured management consultants for the delivery of their strategies and solutions. But with tight budgets, using a well known professional services companies is no longer an affordable luxury. Also many organisations have realised that interim
managers are typically more experienced, more hands-on and charge half the price of management consultants.
Interim Managers bring to the table the commercial know and often many years’ experience of working in both the private and public sectors delivering strategic change management programmes. They are independent and objective, have no interest in getting involved in internal politics and their focus is firmly on delivering results and then moving on to their next assignment. Increasingly, they are being used for specialist project management and to lead coordinated programmes of work, such as Flu Pandemic programmes and adult social care programmes. They are also being called upon to deliver expert procurement and commercial guidance in crucial areas such as shared services and category management.
In many areas, change management programmes led by interim managers are already underway. Essex county council, for example, recently hired Samson Jebutu, an experienced HR interim to help the Directorate meet the requirements of a forth coming Joint Area Review (JAR) inspection and to implement a new recruitment and retention strategy for its Schools, Children and Family Directorate. Like many UK social services departments it faced a shortage of skilled social workers as well as other hard-to-fill roles, such as educational psychologists and youth
workers.
Part of his work process involved working with managers across the Directorate to uncover their key recruitment and retention challenges, scrutinising employment data to understand exactly why problems were occurring in these areas and to make informed recommendations about how the Directorate should solve its recruitment and retention issues.
This shortfall in Essex is now being addressed through this international recruitment campaign and he has put in place a new retention strategy that is improving employee engagement and retention at all levels.
Another example of an interim manager leading change is at South West Fire Control, a local authority controlled company involved in the government’s FiReControl project. The project will see the current 46 fire control services in England amalgamated into nine new regional
control centres (RCC). South West Fire Control will be one of the first three RCCs to go live and interim HR expert Leonard Sheen has been helping it meet its deadline for the transfer of operations and people to a new centre in Taunton in Somerset.
When it goes live, the South West RCC at Taunton will mobilise to incidents requiring fire and rescue service in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, Gloucestershire, Dorset, Avon and Wiltshire. This regionalised service will replace the seven existing control rooms in these areas.
The main challenge for the company undertaking this process was the successful transfer of services, people and functions from the local control rooms to the centre Taunton. It needed to ensure the transfer of existing staff complied with The Transfer of Undertakings Regulations
(TUPE) designed to protect employees’ rights when a business or undertaking is transferred to a new employer.
It recruited HR and TUPE expert Leonard Sheen to lead the transfer and implement change management processes in a legally compliant, efficient and successful way. Leonard worked with the team at the RCC to establish a pre-selection process for existing control room staff, ensured the right processes were in place to deal sensitively with those employees
who would not be transferring to the RCC.
He also developed new employment policies, terms and conditions, remuneration and benefits packages. Key to implementing these processes successfully was getting buy-in and agreement from the trade unions.
Leonard worked with the RCC team in the consultation process for of the transfer of operations involving employee and achieve the representative bodies’ agreement to introduce new demand-led working rotas for employees when the new centre opens. Resources will be more streamlined, with people working demand-led shift patterns to ensure the service is run in the most cost efficient way possible, while still delivering a high quality service to the region’s fire and rescue services.
These are just some examples Interim Managers leading and managing change in the public sector. However, with the government’s transformation agenda in full swing, we will see many more interim managers working in public sector organisations across the UK, driving
efficiencies and ringing in the changes.
Leading software and services provider Equiniti ICS, part of the Equiniti Group has been awarded a multi-million pound contract to provide a complex case and complaints management solution for the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). This significant new business win demonstrates Equiniti’s increasing BPO offering and is the third successive contract won by the business in this highly specialised field.
The company won the IPCC sub-contract on the basis of its specific business knowledge, in-depth understanding of complex case and complaint investigations and the experience and track record of delivering similar contracts for the equivalent bodies in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
The deal forms part of a wider contract win in partnership with Steria worth £45million. The 10 year contract will commence later this year and Equiniti is expected to contribute to improved access to information, enabling the IPCC to meet the stringent legislation and statutory processes governing the handling of complaints against the police forces in England and Wales.
Equiniti, the UK’s leading provider of share registration, retail investor services and employee benefits, signified its move into the BPO market earlier this year when it acquired ICS Computing, the software and service provider, and broadened its offering into HR & Payroll, Accounting & Distribution services and Public Sector Software.
The IPCC project win marks the first major contract announcement for the company since the takeover. Wayne Story, Managing Director of Operations at Equiniti said: We are delighted to have secured this major contract win with the IPCC which is further evidence of our increasing capability and reputation as a BPO service provider. The efficient management of cases is critical to the success of IPPC, which must demonstrate openness, transparency and accountability across its operations. The system provided by Equiniti is highly comprehensive and secure, and will enable the organisation to achieve increased efficiencies and flexibility to respond to current and future demands more efficiently.
IPCC Chief Executive Jane Furniss says, The tailored case management system provided by Equiniti will greatly assist our case workers and investigators at a time when we face ever increasing demands for our resources. In this climate we need a system that our staff can rely on to help them manage their time and complaints about the police. We hope the new system will help them do their job to a high standard, improving the “customer experience’ and increasing public confidence.
Treviglas College played host this week to a distinguished guest from the University of Warwick.
Professor Malcolm Hoare is the Regional Director at the Centre for Education and Industry, an academic specialising in education.
The Professor has been commissioned to investigate and identify best practice in enterprise education, and a Newquay based school, in Cornwall, Helen Mathieson head teacher at Treviglas College said “We were delighted to welcome Malcolm to the College, he was able to see for himself the diverse and ‘outstanding’ curriculum on offer which is cutting edge and a national model.”
Professor Hoare is researching the benefits of a personalised curriculum which Treviglas College has pioneered; he was particularly interested that we are the only 11-19 institution formally affiliated to the University of Plymouth, with the ability to deliver degree level courses to our students, whatever their age.
The professor took particular interest in the College’s four academies; Surf Academy, Technicians’ Academy, Business Academy and Science Academy all of which deliver university courses and all of which lead directly onto university courses . He witnessed how the delivery of the curriculum at Treviglas is innovative and rigorous and how it has lead the College to achieve outstanding results this year at both A-level and GCSE.
Mrs Mathieson said;”Professor Hoare has gained an understanding of how an emphasis on the development of the individual as an independent learner, as an entrepreneur and as an effective and dynamic member of a focused team , can have a significant effect upon the culture of the community. Professor Hoare agreed, he said; “It was wonderful to see such excellent teaching and learning in action, benefiting so many students at the College. This is what enterprise education is all about high levels of stimulus, high levels of expertise, high levels of enterprise, leading to very high levels of achievement.”
The Warwick-based professor has been so impressed by what he found at the Newquay Community College that the university has invited closer links with Treviglas, Prof Hoare has invited students to visit the University to get a real taste of university life and he’s also invited Mrs Mathieson to address the university’s annual national conference as well as inviting Treviglas College to become involved in an important national research project.
A drive by government to reduce carbon emissions is affecting county councils as new legislation soon comes into force. Voltage optimisation addresses this issue while also significantly reducing energy costs.
Reducing the energy consumption of commercial building users is a high priority for the UK Government. In April 2010, the UK’s new legally binding climate change and energy saving scheme called the Carbon Reduction Commitment will be implemented, affecting the estimated 5,000 large business and public sector organisations that consume more than 6,000 megawatt hours of electricity. Companies that fail to reduce their carbon emissions will be penalised by fines. Smaller electricity consumers are also actively being encouraged to reduce their carbon footprint.
Voltage optimisation reduces both carbon emissions and energy costs. Active Energy Ltd., manufactures and installs the VoltageMaster range of voltage optimisation equipment, which can reduce voltage usage in commercial buildings by up to 20%. By reducing electricity generation, carbon emissions are also reduced. The VoltageMaster optimises the voltage used in a building by regulating the incoming supply of electricity to produce a constant output of 220 volts to the whole building, creating electricity savings of up to 20%. The sophisticated but easy to install VoltageMaster device can be adapted to complement existing infrastructures.
In the United Kingdom electricity is always supplied at a higher voltage than required by consumer machinery and appliances. The average voltage distributed through the UK is 242 volts. Electrical equipment is designed to operate most effectively at 220 volts. Operating electrical equipment at its optimal voltage level using the VoltageMaster reduces maintenance costs and extends the product life.
In addition, the voltage optimisation equipment designed by Active Energy includes a 10% Overload Capacity to protect against fluctuations in power supply, a bypass Switch to prevent loss of power to the facility, a power meter that enables assessment of power consumption and remote monitoring and a separate control panel aiding installation in smaller switch rooms. Further optional features include surge suppression, protecting against incoming voltage spikes and a power factor correction to bring the voltage and the electrical current into phase throughout the building.
Cash-strapped councils seeking funding for carbon reducing equipment such as voltage optimisation technologies have recently been given a helping hand as Salix Finance, the public sector arm of the Carbon Trust, has relaxed its guidelines on loans for carbon emission reduction equipment for public sector bodies. Salix now offers interest free loans based on a payback of up to five years and no credit checks are required. (Previously Salix only offered grants to public sector bodies on condition of matched funding this has been removed.) The loans are available to local authorities, NHS hospitals, schools, colleges, universities, libraries and any other public body not directly controlled by central government. The VoltageMaster qualifies for interest-free Salix loans.
To date, the VoltageMaster has already been successfully installed in a wide range of public sector buildings including council buildings, schools, prisons and leisure facilities.
Voltage optimisation technology is rapidly gaining recognition by the UK authorities as an efficient method of reducing carbon emissions and creating cost efficiencies, especially in the current, straitened economic conditions that all public sector organisations are facing. For instance, Active Energy recently received formal acceptance of its tender to supply its Voltage Reduction and/or Optimisation Technology under a Framework Agreement to members of the Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation. The Framework Agreement has an estimated value of £15 million over a period of two years. The ESPO has stated it believes that demand for the technology will be high, particularly when recognising the need for public bodies to comply with national targets for reduction in carbon emissions. Further voltage optimisation equipment tenders are increasingly being issued by regional authorities.
In May 2009, the Associated Parliamentary Engineering Group released a report on voltage optimisation, highlighting the benefits the technology provides. The report was launched at the House of Commons with an introduction by the APEG Chairman, Bill Olner MP, who expressed his support for voltage optimisation and Active Energy’s technology. He cited the technology as a practical, simple and timely solution that would provide both the energy consumption reductions and cost savings that the public sector is seeking.
Voltage optimisation is a tangible way forward for public sector bodies to contribute to saving the environment while reducing their costs. Voltage optimisation technology produces instant results from the moment of installation and allows users to monitor their savings. The equipment is totally non-controversial and is largely maintenance free. In effect, a rapid roll-out of voltage optimisation equipment on a large, national scale would enable the UK to make substantial inroads into its energy reducing targets.
Long term substance misuse, ie drugs and alcohol, is not a new problem in the UK, but it is an escalating one. The National Addiction Centre recently claimed that more than three million British children now live in households where at least one of the parents is a binge drinker and one million are living with at least one parent who abuses drugs.
Many end up in care, with others either living with one parent or with extended family. Young people in care are amongst the most vulnerable in society consistently achieving less then their peers: 10% more likely to be excluded from school, 36% will not be entered into GCSEs, 20% will be homeless and 35% of girls will have early pregnancies.
The main reason why substance abuse is so hard to tackle is the reluctance of people to admit it in the first place and the lengths they will go to in concealing their habits. Accurate historical detection is another obstacle. It has long been acknowledged by the medical profession that a reliable test to detect alcohol and drug consumption is required. A number of traditional tests exist (eg blood, liver function test) but each one has severe limitations – eg even when accurate, they only relate to recent consumption.
Although relatively new, forensic toxicology testing of hair is fast-becoming the preferred method of determining whether someone’s alcohol or drug consumption is preventing them from doing their job or caring for a child. Samples can be collected non-invasively and will provide an accurate record of any alcohol or drugs dependency over a three to 12 month period. Since hair growth is fed by the bloodstream, the ingestion of drugs or excess alcohol in the blood is revealed by analysing chemical markers absorbed by the hair. As the hair grows, it absorbs these markers into its structure, which remain in the hair indefinitely. These markers are only produced when there is alcohol or drugs in the bloodstream. The more markers there are, the more has been consumed. A tuft of hair about the diameter of a pencil is required and the industry standard is to test a length of 1.5 inches, which provides a 90 day history. If no head hair is available, body hair can be used instead. Samples must be taken by a trained collector or by a national nursing service to collect samples on behalf of clients. Results are generally available in seven to 10 working days from receipt of the sample and can be provided in a standard legal statement. This is accepted, if required, by all UK courts – although in some cases it may be necessary to also provide ‘expert witness evidence’ to support the results.
The vast majority of circumstances in which people are required to undergo Hair Alcohol or Drug Tests in the UK are when Local Authorities are gathering evidence for child custody cases or family lawyers in divorce proceedings. However requests are also made by doctors for assessing a patient’s suitability for transplant surgery, by corporate lawyers in employment tribunals and routine screening for safety critical jobs such as airline pilots. We also test samples from around the world: for banned drink-drivers to be allowed back their licenses (Germany) and to confirm cases of suspected Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (Canada), where mothers have drunk excessively during pregnancy.
Whilst no official figures are available, we estimate the annual number of tests carried out in the UK to have risen to around 5,000 since the technology was first introduced and accepted as evidence in court proceedings in 2006. The number of people in the UK failing compulsory Hair Alcohol Tests, for example, has risen from 43% in 2008 to over half – 51% – in 2009. Those failing the test exceeded a consumption of 60g, or 7.5 units, of alcohol per day. This equates to eight small glasses of wine or four pints of average strength beer – double the Government’s recommended threshold for safe drinking and the point at which someone is considered to be alcohol-dependent (World Health Organisation). Men are more likely to fail the test than women with 54% of male hair samples exceeding the cut-off limit, versus 46% of women.
Case Study
Merseyside law firm, Burd Ward Solicitors, has used hair alcohol tests in a successful bid to reunite children with their parents. In early January, hair samples were collected from both parents who had admitted excessive use of alcohol. Both adults reported abstinence in the four day period prior to hair samples being collected, but it was too short a timeframe for the hair alcohol test to yield a negative result. Further testing one month later did however give a negative result, showing that the donors had significantly reduced their alcohol intake. A third and final hair alcohol test carried out one month after that yielded a negative result of less than 4ng/mg, which is typical of teetotalers. This clearly showed that the parents had abstained from drinking in the three month period covered by all three tests.
Established in London in 2005, Trimega Laboratories is certified for the provision of clinical testing services for substances of abuse. Its services are used in the UK by Family Law specialists, social services, regulatory bodies, professions such as nurses and pilots, as well as being ordered by the Courts directly. Other services offered by Trimega Laboratories include: Roadside Drugalyzer Testing for law enforcement, Hair Steroid Testing for athletes, and most recently, Hair Benzodiazepines Testing.
The appointment of David Patrick as Commercial Strategy Manager, by Vencel Resil, producer of the well-known Jablite range of insulation, signals the company’s intentions to achieve ambitious new expansion targets over the next three years.
David is the first of several senior level appointments,’ explains Richard Lee, Sales Director, Vencel Resil. Our range of expanded polystyrene insulation products are uniquely well-placed to help meet the government’s climate change objectives to create a low carbon economy.
We are determined to make sure that Jablite plays a key role in insulating new and existing buildings and, that the company is fit and ready for the inevitable upturn across all our customer sectors. David Patrick is an important part of our plans for the future.
David Patrick’s previous positions in marketing and sales account management for Bosch, Phillips Lighting and ICI have equipped him well for the challenges ahead, which he relishes: This is a great time to be joining Vencel Resil, the company is investing in a bright future and I am looking forward to being a part of that.
I will be focusing on the Jablite range of products; we are looking to extend this strong brand to compete in new sectors, and I will be responsible for bringing a number of innovative products to the market quickly and effectively.
David’s responsibilities will stretch across to Vencel Resil’s sister company in the Synbra Group, Styropack, the UK’s leading supplier of protective packaging.
As well as concentrating on the Jablite brand, explains David, I will also be working with the team at Styropack, which like Vencel Resil is investing in the future, and is looking to win new business and extend its product line into new sectors.
Expanded polystyrene is a great material, the combination of its extraordinary insulation and compression properties, and its lightweight nature, put it in a unique position to play a positive role in helping to slow climate change in a growing economy, concludes David Patrick.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is one of the 43 police forces in England and Wales. Covering an area of 500 square miles in northwest England, it serves a population of two and a half million and employs 12,586 people across 15 main sites. Its duties cover all the main areas of law enforcement.
Law enforcement is by no means immune to the trend toward more electronic storage of critical data. The force expects its data storage requirements to grow at between 10 and 20 terabytes a year over the next few years, driven by applications such as ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) and CCTV, as well as scene-of-the-crime information and other audio and video records.
In addition, the force has a tapeless backup environment and has 30- and 90-day retention windows for critical information. Users’ data from the force’s 7,400 desktop and 1,500 laptop PC systems are also held and managed on the central storage systems, rather than on local drives. At the same time GMP is seeing growth in the structured data produced by its central business systems.
The issue for us was capacity management and storage growth, says Andrew Gorton, systems planning team leader in IT at Greater Manchester Police. The demand for storage, especially from applications such as ANPR and CCTV, is growing but general storage is growing too.
THE CHALLENGE
Greater Manchester Police needed to increase its immediate storage capacity as well as futureproof its systems to allow predicted storage growth. The organisation wanted to further consolidate its storage without adding additional layers of complexity to the IT department’s work.
But at the same time, GMP wanted to improve its data resilience and business continuity arrangements..
The force had already made a strategic decision to use NetApp as its supplier for storage systems. So the organisation wanted to build on that, but ideally also allow systems administrators to continue to use familiar tools to manage storage capacity across both the force HQ, and the business continuity site.
However, GMP also wanted to remove some specific bottlenecks in application performance and improve both uptime and storage utilisation. As a further challenge, the organisation had both recovery time objectives and recovery point objectives that were, in effect, zero.
THE SOLUTION
Greater Manchester Police opted to add to its existing NetApp environment by buying additional clusters. Bringing new capacity on stream allowed the organisation to make use of both high-performance Fibre Channel disks and cheaper SATA arrays within the same storage framework.
In addition, NetApp’s architecture allowed the IT department to mix both network-attached storage (NAS) for file-based data and a SAN (storage area network) environment for block-level access on the same physical infrastructure.
Adding to the NetApp infrastructure allowed GMP to continue to use its existing SnapMirror® and SnapRestore® software, already familiar to IT staff, for business continuity and backup and recovery.
The infrastructure is now more resilient and more available, says Gorton. We are moving to even tighter service-level agreements, and this will help us to do that.
The force brought in NetApp’s Professional Services team, both to help design the upgrades and manage the transition. A key part of the process was transition planning and providing GMP with sufficient new capacity at the right cost. The consultants used NetApp’s Performance Adviser tool, as well as trend analysis, to improve system design.
The NetApp team was also able to relieve pressure on existing systems by identifying where data could be moved to the lower-cost SATA systems, and by identifying and removing some specific application bottlenecks.
By separating the data paths for unstructured (file) and structured (block) data, overall application response times have improved. Some key operational applications, such as FIS, the Force Intelligence System, have a response time target of under two milliseconds, so even relatively small performance gains matter.
BUSINESS BENEFITS
As a result of the upgrades, Greater Manchester Police has been able to improve both system performance and resilience, quickly and at an affordable cost. In addition, the upgrade was carried out with the minimum of disruption, and the new systems need little in the way of additional management tools.
Because NetApp SAN, NAS, and near-line backup systems use the same interfaces, the additional storage has not added significantly to IT staff workloads: One operator now manages some 100TB of data.
Application performance has increased, as has storage utilisation. Capacity is used more efficiently, and the uptime for the NetApp environment is at least 99%. The organisation has also been able to meet its business continuity requirements, especially the specific retention periods for each class of data.
In addition, Greater Manchester Police now has a dedicated staging environment that closely replicates the production setup. The staging environment is used to perform preproduction testing and performance benchmarking and to help new applications make the transition into the live environment.
A further benefit is that the force can use capacity on the second cluster in its business continuity site for application testing and development, improving application reliability and cutting deployment times.
Gorton says, it has been fairly seamless, from the point of view of the end user; the outages have been minimal and we have even been able to undertake other technology refreshes at the same time.
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