London Councils has reacted angrily to plans by the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) to increase the cost of transporting Freedom Pass holders by 25 per cent. During negotiations over the cost of the Freedom Pass, ATOC has demanded London boroughs pay 25 per cent more for the train part of the Freedom Pass next year.
This would mean that the amount London’s boroughs pay to the train operating companies would jump from £12 million in 2009/10 to at least £15 million in 2010/11. The Freedom Pass costs the boroughs £270 million a year in total, the vast majority going to Transport for London. The pass allows Londoners aged 60 and over, plus eligible disabled residents to travel free on the capital’s buses, trains, London Underground, trams, and the Docklands Light Railway.
London Overground services are run by Transport for London and separate train operating companies (working through ATOC) provide all other train services. ATOC sent London Councils an initial proposal on 26 November but no supporting evidence was produced until Monday (30 November), little more than a week before a deal on the cost of the Freedom Pass was due to be agreed by London Councils’ Transport and Environment Committee at a meeting on 10 December. ATOC has not given London Councils access to detailed data on which it has based its current, ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ demand.
Councillor Mike Fisher said: -It is totally unacceptable that at this late stage, the Association of Train Operating Companies announces it wants to charge boroughs 25 per cent more than last year to provide the same train services. -This is outrageous considering that the current rate of inflation is 1 per cent and the average increase in train fares for passengers in 2010 will be 1.1 per cent.
-We have serious doubts about whether the evidence the Association of Train Operating Companies has produced to support their claim is valid. We urge them to use a more realistic figure as the basis for negotiations.
-We will not allow some of the most vulnerable travellers in the capital to be exploited in this way.
Children as young as seven are learning how to prepare themselves for the world of work, including the value of a CV, under an innovative project run by Hays, the world’s leading recruiting experts in qualified, professional and skilled people.
Hays is currently running its courses in primary and secondary schools across the country. It has already given work guidance to around 9,000 pupils since launching its programme, named Hays Ignition, three years ago.
Hays Ignition, which is run by Hays Education, is available for all ages starting from Year Three (seven) up to Year Thirteen. Over the full course of the programme – which is already used in over 120 schools nationwide – pupils are eased into an understanding of what work means and how to choose and get a job. They are taught the value of work, why it improves quality of life, and how to choose a suitable job. They also learn key practical skills as they get closer to leaving secondary school: from writing a CV, to preparing for interviews and managing income. An enterprise training session also involves a class setting up their own business.
Ed Balls, The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, last month announced a pilot project to bring more careers education into schools, starting at primary level. Martyn Best, managing director for Hays Education, said: -We’re already there doing the job. Hays Ignition brings the world of work into the classroom using people who are actually in the world of work, complementing the message that schools are giving out already.
-We’re not teachers, we’re real employers and we understand the ins and outs of the employment market, that helps to drive the message across in a way children and young people find interesting.”
Hays Ignition has a 97 per cent re-booking rate from secondary schools and a 100 per cent re-booking rate from primary schools. -We have had a dramatic and transformative effect on thousands of pupils, and once schools have used us once they want us back again,” said Jenny Ward, national business manager for Hays Ignition.
-Children learn from us about rules and opportunities, about how to make the best of themselves, and that gives them self-confidence and options that might otherwise be missed” continued Ward. Steve Dainty, head teacher at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Wirral, Merseyside, said Hays Ignition had proved particularly valuable at Year Six as children prepared for secondary school. The programme has encouraged his pupils -to look at their skills, their talents and ready themselves for moving on”.
The Year Six programme focuses on achievements. Pupils learn about their personal skills, qualities and areas for development. The resulting CV is then used to introduce themselves to their new school, often a difficult transition. -Hays Ignition is a tool for the future, and it really is something that schools need to be looking at in primary, not just secondary education,” said Dainty.
-Children are the workers of tomorrow and in order to develop their skills and talents, they really need to understand themselves at an earlier time in their lives. I think Ignition allows that process to begin.”
For schools interested in learning more about the Hays Ignition programme contact Jenny Ward at Hays on 0121 236 7933
The public perception is that out-of-hours healthcare is provided to the same standard as daytime GP services. Out-of-hours care is often delivered by private companies that do not have to adhere to the same standards of training, competence, scrutiny and risk management as NHS organisations. Arif Ahmed, co-founder and Director of ikonami, examines why private providers have become so prevalent and reveals potential strategies to improve standards of care and to bridge the patient care gap.
At the turn of the millennium the Government commissioned three reports on improving out-of-hours healthcare. The Carson report suggested a fully integrated model, involving GPs, A&E departments, ambulance services, Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and other partner organisations. Then in 2004 the New GP Contract was agreed, enabling General Practitioners to opt out of offering out-of-hours care in return for a 6% pay-cut. Dr Carson and the other experts could never have anticipated this scenario, nor that 9 out of 10 GP practices would have opted out by 2007 . In many parts of the UK, a fundamental component of Carson’s integrated model – the local GP – no longer provided out-of-hours care, so PCTs had to turn to the private sector to bridge the gap.
The involvement of private healthcare providers has sometimes been controversial. Reports that locum doctors were being flown into the UK from other countries, without adequate checks on the practitioner’s fluency in English, generated a public outcry. In addition, many of these doctors are not familiar with the workings of the NHS. Both issues can negatively impact patient care. Yet out-of-hours healthcare now relies upon the contribution of private providers, so how can we ensure standards of care?
Identifying the main issues
Three major issues need to be overcome: commissioning and contracts, communications and culture. When PCTs first brought private providers on board, many worked through the commissioning process without the necessary background information. Relevant data on levels of demand, the medical conditions encountered, morbidity and costs were held by GP’s rather than PCTs (if recorded at all). This made it impossible to scope out contracts from an informed position. In addition, while the money released by GP’s opting out went into PCT funds, PCTs and providers had yet to realise that this did not cover the true costs of staffing and running out-of-hours care. As a result, some private providers were left to meet a level of demand that had not been anticipated at a price that made it difficult to deliver a high-quality, effective service.
Since 2004, other changes in the NHS mean there is more measurement and reporting on activities and outcomes so PCTs are now better informed. In addition, private providers will have generated their own internal data on levels of demand and the real cost of service provision. This management information can be shared to enable the development of more equitable and accurate contracts that meet patient needs and reduce risk.
Communication and shared values are key
Many PCTs also found it hard to establish and maintain good, clear and regular communications with their private providers. This could be problematic if private providers are not forewarned about localised outbreaks of certain viruses or demographic changes in the local community (like a growing elderly population or local baby boom) that require staff to have particular skills. PCTs gather this type of information and work closely with regional and national healthcare bodies to plan ahead. If they keep private providers informed and are clear about their expectations in terms of levels and quality of service, the private provider is more likely to maintain a better standard of care.
Finally, the culture of the NHS now emphasises risk management, compliance and staff competence, partly because NHS organisations are subject to scrutiny under schemes like the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts and the Care Quality Commission (CQC). This has forced skills and training up the organisational agenda, but that culture is not necessarily shared by private sector care providers, on whom the cost considerations of training provision will weigh more heavily. Yet PCTs should insist their service providers adopt NHS best practice regarding employment, training and development, risk management and reporting. A tool like the Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF), which details the skills, learning and competences necessary for every job role in NHS organisations, can be used to create a common understanding of what is expected on an individual and organisational basis. Moreover, the CQC regulates all care services in England across public and private sectors, so private companies will have to comply with its standards of care provision and reporting, which will also help to raise standards. The CQC recently warned that it wants to see improved scrutiny of private care providers by PCTs, when it reviewed the case of an elderly patient who was given an overdose by a locum doctor employed by a private out-of-hours care provider.
Working together
GP’s are unlikely to opt back in to providing out-of-hours care, so private companies will remain an important part of healthcare provision. But as noted by the CQC, the onus is on PCTs to ensure that private providers comply with public-sector standards of care. PCTs cannot achieve this through infrequent communication and monitoring the care provider from a distance. Rather, PCTs must learn to view them as colleagues and partners who are an integral part of the PCT’s operations. Where possible, the PCT should enable the private care provider to have secure, remote access to relevant management information systems, so they can provide up-to-date information on activity and outcomes. This data then becomes part of the PCT’s normal risk management analysis and service delivery planning activities.
The PCT should also share with the care provider the training agenda that it feels is necessary to meet patient needs and ensure competence – and ensure that any staff who interact with patients have been trained appropriately. To facilitate this, the PCT may wish to offer the care provider places on its own internal training courses, or have its learning and development team act as consultants to advise on mandatory training and the use of technology, such as learning management systems, the e-KSF, e-learning and social learning tools like wikis and blogs, to improve levels of competence and knowledge.
Working together will involve cultural and organisational change on both sides and it is not a challenge to be taken lightly, but it can be achieved through robust contracts, good communication and sharing the best of the systems and culture of the NHS. If managed properly, this new version of Carson’s integrated model may even deliver higher levels of patient care while reducing costs to healthcare system as a whole, which might become increasingly important as the NHS faces funding cutbacks over the coming years.
Arif Ahmed is the co-founder & Director of ikonami. He has seven years experience in providing bespoke learning solutions for the private and private sector. ikonami is a provider of bespoke learning software systems for government, independent healthcare and other organisations seeking learning and development efficiency. The company was founded in 1999 and originally provided project management consultancy to help organisations exploit the benefits of technology. In response to client demand, ikonami evolved into a full-service technology company that combines its specialised software offerings with a variety of service capabilities, including full Learning Process Outsourcing (LPO).
No one wants to be featured next in the all-too-frequent litany of headlines like -Confidential Data on Stolen Memory Stick or -Lost Laptop Contains Classified Information. Human error does occur, but there are straightforward ways to minimise the likelihood that any such misfortune will cause major problems.
Our on-going experience of working with well prepared organisations, such as the Scottish Government Office of the Chief Researcher, has shown us that robust organisations can put in place some straightforward means of ensuring they minimise the risk of having an IT security breach.
The start point is to ask some essential questions of your organisation.
Key Questions
1. Do you have an up to date security policy which people know they have to comply with and are you confident that everyone knows it exists and has read it?
2. Are your leaders totally committed? Good security has as much to do with cultural issues as technological controls and it is important to have an effective security organisation which is actively promoted and supported from the top of the organisation. This should stipulate clearly defined ownership of systems and data and help to ensure that your own good practice is extended to those third parties you may deal with.
3. Do you have a robust risk assessment process and asset management scheme? Ideally security measures are driven by such a scheme, one that allows you to classify the sensitivity of all the data which you hold. Without this in place how do you know what data to secure, particularly in those situations where it is transmitted outside your organisation?
4. Do you use encryption? In the current climate ideally all mobile devices, be they USB devices or the wide range of laptops available, should be encrypted and someone within your organisation should know where they all are.
5. Do you invest in on-going staff training? For all of these measures to work it is important to educate your staff and ensure there is regular training and awareness rising. This should extend to a clear and easy-to-follow incident reporting procedure which ensures all security incidents are identified and notified to the appropriate part of your organisation.
6. Are you checking the obvious? It probably goes without saying that you should have suitable virus and malware protection in place along with firewalls and, most importantly, they should be extended to the weakest points of any network which are remote users and home workers.
7. Are you keeping it under lock and key? You need to be sure be adequate physical and environmental security over your core IT infrastructure exists, along with physical controls over access to office areas.
8. Who goes there? All of the above needs to be supported with good control of user accounts, limiting ‘who can access what’ data, including robust password controls or additional, stronger methods of authentication, as required.
9. Are you disposing of data correctly? Having restricted access to your data, it is also important to ensure you dispose of it securely as well. The Data Protection Act stipulates that data should not be held longer than necessary. You need robust measures in place to ensure that data is removed from your systems, and that the devices which held it are also disposed of securely when they come to the end of their useful life.
Case Study
In late 2008 the Scott-Moncrieff Business Technology and Consulting Team was commissioned by the Scottish Government Office of the Chief Researcher. The objective was to provide the Chief Researchers Office with assurance that the data security standards which they, as a government body, are striving to achieve were also being satisfied by their partners in the wider research community.
The report provided a very positive message to the Scottish Government, confirming that, in the main, research contractors had good procedures and processes in place to ensure compliance with data security principles. This appeared to be embedded within the sector, and the existence of the ISO202052 (Market Research Standard) and guidance from the Market Research Society helped reinforce this continual drive towards compliance with best practice.
We identified a number of themes where there is scope for further work and improvement and the two critical areas where there was, not surprisingly, scope for improvement were a wider use of data encryption on mobile devices which could potentially store data of a personal nature, and the need for greater clarity regarding the retention and deletion of research data.
Both of these themes regularly occur in most of the other sectors in which our Business Technology Consultants are involved.
The report itself can be downloaded at www.scotland.gov.uk/socialresearch.
During these difficult and challenging times, when central Government policy requires local authorities to get more than ever done for customers while simultaneously achieving significant cost cuts, transformational steering groups or boards play a vital role in the crucial re-engineering process.
STEPHEN HEWETT suggests how to make the best use of them
No local authority can hope to comply with central government requirements for improved service to customers and cost cuts without effecting not just change but transformation. Today, in response to this pressing and urgent need, more and more local authorities have set up, or are in the process of setting up, transformational steering groups (TSGs).
Some TSGs will cover the entire range of the local authority’s transformational activities; others will specialise in specific areas. For local authorities keen not only to embrace the potential of transformation but to be front-runners in flexing their transformational muscles, TSGs are simultaneously catalysts, powerhouses, think-tanks and centres of ambitious, blue-sky thinking. The challenge is clear: the way ahead perhaps less certain, but TSGs will play a vital role in uncovering it.
In particular, there are vital opportunities right now for local authorities to re-engineer and even reinvent processes that may often have seemed enshrined in stone. But the twin needs of greater efficiency and reduced costs are unlikely to be met without this re-engineering and reinvention. The processes simply must be made to focus more decisively and less expensively on customers; the processes must be made more customer-centric. A powerful argument could be made that the entire rationale of the new strategies of Common Area Assessment (CAA) and Total Place involve boosting a local authority’s level of Customer Centricity, ideally in a dramatic way.
So the challenge facing TSGs is tough but exciting. TSGs have the opportunity to put into action an entire spectrum of change, including all projects that have the core objective of becoming more customer-centric.
In this scenario, the TSG is the catalyst of change as well as the dynamo, the mould-breaker as well as the artist who creates the new mould. The formation of TSGs is consequently a task of great importance for any local authority, and giving careful thought to their formation is vital if local authorities are going to meet central government requirements and expectations.
Essential decisions, including of course who exactly is going to be on the TSGs, need to be made at the very earliest stage. There is a strong case for introducing diversity of interest into the TSG; such diversity of interest can itself be a powerful way for the group to have inherent checks and balances acting upon it.
Inevitably, there’ll be people on TSGs who will have a vested interest in the projects being considered and implemented, and indeed it’s essential there are such people, as they’ll be especially committed to the projects reaching a successful conclusion. But TSGs also need to have people on them who will be able to bring distance and impartiality to the discussions. Union members will be important TSG members, and of course they will have their own vested interests in relation to the workforce. People from the shop floor may also be considered for TSG membership as they will be in touch with matters that may even have eluded union members.
TSGs will also benefit considerably from having people on board who are experts at cultural change. Indeed, why not consider appointing someone from another local authority who has already proved his or her worth in engineering transformation at local authority level? After all, TSGs should be geared toward running hands-on projects.
There is a particularly strong case for the chairperson of any given TSG to be someone who can bring extensive successful past experience of successful transformation at local authority level, plus a fairly impartial overall viewpoint, to the task.
One of the chairperson’s jobs will be to ensure that the TSG’s purpose remains visionary yet pragmatic, ambitious yet realistic, inspired and also inspiring. Overall, the chairperson must be someone who has a truly clear vision of what transformation means for the council while also being someone with a sufficiently strong and decisive purpose not to be blown off course.
TSGs have to focus on high-level issues such as the need to maximise Customer Centricity while reducing costs, yet TSGs must also maintain constant vigilance to ensure that their initiatives are feasible in a practical way. TSGs must in essence be the guardian of the local authority’s vision of transforming itself into a different kind of entity. The new kind of entity will be one that is meeting central government’s objectives and also being true to its own potential for being all it can be to the people who use its services.
Of course there are pitfalls of running TSGs, just as there are when any group of people work together. There seems to be something in the human psyche that makes it all too easy, when people are gathered together, for the gathering to deteriorate into less visionary matters such as discussions of practical difficulties. These will of course need discussing, but it is all too easy for these nitty-gritty matters to dominate the entire discussions, especially if the people on the TSG are not used to working together and may even be starting out with some suspicion of one another’s motivations.
All the more reason for a TSG to be able to make strong and firm decisions about matters central to its remit and to be able to cultivate a pride in its own capability for making decisive and big decisions and never allow itself to become merely a discussion forum.
TSGs must in particular become quickly adept at addressing key questions such as is this particular project really going to advance our objectives? and is this particular project the best use of the money we have available?
Other vital guidelines for the operation of successful TSGs are:
the TSG should at an early stage formulate a statement of its own purpose and objectives. This should be stated in clear, non-jargonistic language, and as briefly and concisely as feasible
the TSG needs to be run with focus and discipline in order to maintain a spotlight on the projects that will bring the most immediate benefit to customers. It is indeed vital to avoid the danger of becoming bogged down in details and letting key projects lose momentum. There are always likely to be interdependencies between some projects and so an emphasis must be placed on clearing a way for the most customer-benefiting projects to be advanced and pushed forward
there needs to be a constant focus on meetings on ensuring that the local authority’s overall culture remains a customer-focused one
one of the TSG’s first tasks should be to identify and document five or six very clear design principles that can be applied to all the projects with which the TSG concerns itself. These design principles should include all the specific requirements that each project will need to meet. By applying them from the beginning, the danger of wasting time pursuing projects that will not advance the overall directive of the TSG will be considerably reduced, if not avoided altogether. Time requirements are especially important when the design principles are being formulated. Projects need to be bringing benefits within, at most, six months
meetings of the TSG should be arranged when the need for guidance is most acute rather than a slavish time frame being adhered to such as, say, meetings being held on a fixed day every month
a clear record should be kept of the key outcomes and decisions of meetings and these should be referred to in detail when monitoring progress with implementations
the TSG needs to steer projects decisively and without flinching from implementing radical solutions where necessary. If a project isn’t sufficiently on track, measures must be taken without delay to get it back to being so
the TSG must decide early on about how it will assess success. In particular, where Customer Centricity is the goal, and it so often is, the TSG needs a workable methodology to allow it to assess the overall progress of its projects towards the twin goals of greater Customer Centricity and reduced costs.
Stephen Hewett is head of Customer-Centricity Business Change at business and information technology consultancy Charteris plc. Tel: 020 7600 9199. www. charteris.com
You can’t go 10 minutes without a politician banging on about the looming cuts to public sector spending. What you won’t hear is anyone explaining how we are actually meant to find and deliver these savings. The word cuts has quickly switched from banned to election winning, but there is another C-word that politicians and senior civil servants must embrace if we are going to get through the next few years without decimating our services. That word is commissioning.
Commissioning is a new model for change. It is about understanding citizen’s needs in a new light, planning and designing services around the population, and finding innovative ways to deliver outcomes cheaper. More for less. Some local authority chief execs are considering massive 33% cuts – can commissioning continue to improve outcomes and deliver savings targets?
Public services have been making steady progress during the last 10 to 20 years and this has led to a strong social and public expectation of continual improvement. The trouble is that improvements have often been thanks to additional funding rather than the fundamental effectiveness of services. Previous increases in funding have led to a degree of lazy management and government leadership that shies away from tackling the big problems in society or the inefficiencies in our services. Looming spending cuts mean this cannot continue.
We must now make large savings whilst maintaining service quality and outcomes- we can’t just tweak services but have to transform them. Commissioning is the model for doing this – emerging in its current form from children’s services and gaining credence across central and local government. It is about taking a whole system view of the needs of the population and available resources, and then finding much better ways of delivering outcomes by moving away from traditional, outdated service models. The commissioning revolution is driven by transformation through a better understanding of the complex public sector system, new ways of designing services around the population (such as patient choice), innovation and entrepreneurship, and a fresh ethos that embraces partnership working and joint leadership.
The question now is whether this revolution can meet social expectations within spending cuts? Are we developing fast enough to rescue public services?
Positive examples are now emerging across the public sector where commissioners have redesigned services, cut spending and still improved individuals’ outcomes.
Disabled adults can now receive a budget similar to the value of previous services which they spend themselves. This has resulted in better services that are designed around the individual, more community accessed support, and huge improvements in satisfaction. Better outcomes – for a reduced cost.
In some London boroughs childcare was badly designed; it often subsidised well-off families and stopped those in most need from accessing services. Commissioning redesign has identified families that are disadvantaged and changed the system so that their children can access childcare – limited resources now have a much greater impact.
The proposed change to the donor card scheme (from opt-in to opt-out) is a simple tweak to make it much more effective, with no added costs. Understanding the system – and redesigning it to work better.
Commissioning sounds like it’s coming to the rescue – but why is it taking so long? The truth is that government is beset with historic and traditional approaches which are barriers to the new ways of working. Old structures, targets and initiatives are preventing us from moving forwards and enabling commissioners to transform services.
There is now overwhelming evidence that targets deliver just the statistic, and not the improvement to lives or service efficiencies that were first desired. A comparison of disparate management approaches between the private and public sectors is stark. Which FTSE 100 company is run through micro-management and ring-fenced funding attached to the latest untested headline-grabbing idea? Excess funding can no longer cover up mis-management. It’s time for change and we are starting to see visionary public servants who understand what is needed and, given half a chance, have embraced commissioning and are delivering more for less. We now need this good practice to be reflected across the whole system.
Politicians and senior civil servants must use the looming cuts as a burning platform – to change the way we run public services, to move away from initiatives, command and control leadership, micro-management, spurious targets and headlines. Commissioning must be part of our common language, our only hope to avert decimation.
Richard Selwyn, Government and Public Sector, PIPC UK Ltd www.pipc.com
Richard Selwyn
Richard is an expert in designing commissioning systems in central and local Government. In 2005 Richard led the national change programme which redesigned the joint planning and commissioning of children’s services across all local authorities, health, schools, youth justice, etc – a system that is now in universal use across the sector. Key elements of this approach were adopted by the major central departments including the Department for Work and Pensions, Department of Health, Communities and Local Government and Ministry of Justice.
Richard’s career started in the Ministry of Defence in 1996 working on major naval procurement projects and space engineering. He then progressed through the Department of Health and Department for Education and Skills where he was a policy lead for Children’s Trusts and the consequent national service redesign. Richard is now a consultant, originally working for PriceWaterhouseCoopers before moving to PIPC UK Ltd where he has continued a career managing major government change programmes and heads up PIPC’s Commissioning team.
Richard is currently working on the Commissioning Support Programme for the Department for Children, Schools and Families and Department of Health. He is a member of the cross-Government Commissioning Learning and Development Group and is widely regarded as a leading commissioning expert across central and local Government.
The National Health Service has enjoyed an unprecedented increase in real funding over the last ten years. But the fallout from the banking crisis, recession and subsequent public sector debt suggests a far bleaker outlook.
The debate over NHS resources and funding has been bubbling away for some time, assisted by excellent work by the King’s Fund and Institute for Fiscal Studies. A number of organisations have criticised the NHS’s use of external consultants. The British Medical Association and Royal College of Nursing in particular have both criticised the public money spent on management consultants. Dr Peter Carter of the RCN called it -utterly shocking.
The Commons Health Select Committee recently reported on management consultants and the NHS, and recommended that the government publish a central list of the consultancies contracted by the NHS and the projects that they have worked on.
The Management Consultancies Association supports greater transparency for taxpayers and has endorsed this proposal. We are working with the Department of Health on a concordat setting out the responsibilities of both buyers and suppliers of consulting.
To help understanding of the role of consultancies, the MCA has also recently produced a report into the use of management consultants by the NHS. Improving care, reducing cost looks at what work is done by management consultants, the value it adds and how this fits in with a future NHS which delivers high quality care without stretching public finances beyond breaking point.
The NHS has a budget of over £100bn and our figures show that of this, £300m was spent on management consultants in 2008 – less than 0.3% of the total budget. This equates to £200 per NHS employee – a typical large private sector organisation spends ten times more per employee on consulting.
Commentators frequently misunderstand the role of consultants, arguing that money spent on consultants could be better spent on frontline services. Our data shows that two thirds of consultancy spend is associated with large scale programmes, including project management, process re-engineering, IT consulting and change management. This spending could indeed be redirected, but only if these projects – which are often core to improving patient care – were stopped.
The other third of consultancy spend is used for assistance with day to day operations of the NHS. Consultants provide strategic advice to Trusts and other health organisations and help to deal with and implement changing government policies. As Steve Barnett, chief executive of the NHS Confederation has commented: -A number of major policies have been implemented in recent years to increase the effective running of the health service where it has been necessary for NHS organisations to procure outside expertise. The NHS is a large and complex organisation which requires management and planning like any other. Responding to major national policy changes often requires local planning and external advice and in many cases the use of this kind of expertise can help to drive down costs in the long-term.
Other projects are geared to improving productivity and identifying and managing outsourcing opportunities. For example, MCA member Atos Consulting recently worked with NHS South Central to increase efficiencies in patient services. This project resulted in an average decrease in patient waiting times of 14 weeks, in some cases by 25 weeks.
A key quality that consultants bring to the NHS is specialist knowledge of other organisations and sectors. This wider understanding can often result in innovative ideas and solutions being used by the NHS. Further, consultants’ position as outsiders allows them to take a long term view and offer objective advice, independent of internal politics.
Consultants are also able to bridge the gap between clinicians and administrators/managers – they always need to work together effectively if the NHS is to provide a world class service at an affordable price to the taxpayer.
Of course, the use of consultants by the NHS can be improved. For example, the different roles of interim managers and consultants could be better defined. And, where full time employees can be recruited cost effectively this should be done rather than hiring consultants. Project outcomes could be made clearer by the NHS and consultants rather than the focus lying on the inputs. We are already seeing a trend in the private sector of greater sharing of risk between consultants and clients and we expect more performance related contracts between the NHS and consultancies to emerge.
There is no shortage of good ideas for improving productivity and patient care in the NHS; but it will often take strong partnerships between the NHS and management consultants to ensure that they are delivered. Taxpayers rightly demand high-quality services and value for money. Those who attack the role of management consultants are undermining efforts to increase efficiency and improve patient care.
Case Study – The Berkeley Partnership: Making Polyclinics a Reality'”
Polyclinics are a good example of an initiative the NHS is pursuing to transform its services. By changing the way services are delivered and moving some out of an acute setting, we should end up with higher quality care delivered at a more affordable price. But completing the transition and realising the benefits will require five years of sustained project management because so many interconnected processes have to change and so many people, including the public, have to be won over. The Berkeley Partnership been working with two of the early implementer PCTs in London to establish their first polyclinics and plan the full transition journey.
Alan Leaman is Chief Executive of the Management Consultancies Association (MCA), whose NHS report, Improving Care: Reducing Cost is available at: www.mca.org.uk/reports/insight/improving-care-reducing-cost
Many organisations continue to use conventional construction methods to satisfy their expansion requirements. However, certain procedures involved in the traditional build process not only impact on the environment, but can cause major disruption to business activities, employees and visitors.
Contributing factors can be the disposal of site waste, adverse weather conditions and problems associated with deliveries. A key driver in gaining a competitive edge and meeting the need for rapid expansion is the ability to quickly deliver and erect structures which can be used for a variety of purposes.
Provided they are well planned and carefully managed, temporary and semi-permanent structures can help alleviate these problems and deliver a cost-effective and sustainable solution to a multitude of expansion needs. A company at the forefront of the development of innovative structures is Accio Group, which is headquartered at RAF Alconbury near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.
Accio Group is one of Europe’s leading suppliers of temporary and semi-permanent structures and is renowned for its ability to deliver on time and on budget. A true innovator in its field, Accio Group has supplied some of Europe’s largest and most impressive structures and consistently thinks outside the box to meet a range of clients’ needs.
Since its inception in 2001, Accio Group has diversified into a number of sectors, including the armed forces, disaster recovery, education and retail. The company has worked on a number of high-profile projects for both public and private sector organisations, using its extensive experience to develop pioneering structures that deliver exceptional results, drive down costs and reduce environmental impact.
Accio Group’s mantra is that ‘nothing is too difficult’ and this can-do attitude has resulted in Accio Group successfully delivering temporary and semi-permanent structures where its competitors have failed.
Stephen Casey, Managing Director of Accio Group, said: -Temporary and semi-permanent structures offer a perfect solution to the need for cost-effective and low-maintenance buildings and ancillary services. Accio Group has worked on many projects across a number of different sectors and we use our unrivalled experience to deliver world-leading structures to a wide range of industries.
Each project has presented a unique set of challenges, but my team always overcomes these and consistently proves to be the best in the industry.
We develop pioneering new construction techniques that are continually evolving not only to meet our clients’ needs but to ensure we exceed their expectations for efficiency, quality and value enhancement.
We believe our results speak for themselves.
The UK’s leading supplier of storage and temporary structures to the MoD
Recently, the company has supplied the Ministry of Defence with temporary storage facilities for the withdrawal of weapons from Iraq and Afghanistan. At their Huntingdon headquarters, Accio Group is able to provide all the associated storage services including maintenance, climate controlled and humidified storage environments and testing facilities. This extensive facility has excellent transport links to the M11, M1 and M6 routes and the European ports of Harwich, Hull and Dover.
The expert team at Accio Group has almost 50 years’ MoD experience. This includes Stephen Casey, an ex-Army Major who enjoyed a successful 19 year career in the armed forces and a retired Lt. Colonel with 30 years’ experience in logistics management.
Accio Group has an impressive track record working in partnership with MoD suppliers and in June 2009 the company was appointed as the official temporary structure supplier to Supacat Ltd, a manufacturer of high mobility, all terrain vehicles. Supacat Ltd was recently awarded a £74 million contract by the MoD to supply combat vehicles and Accio Group has provided the company with numerous structures, including a temporary showroom for armoured vehicles at the Defence Vehicles Dynamics Show.
At the forefront of innovation and design
Temporary and semi-permanent structures benefit from significantly reduced build costs and disruption times, when compared to conventional builds and extensions. In addition, these structures offer durability, low maintenance and flexibility of use.
Through its focus on corporate social responsibility, Accio Group ensures it has a positive impact on the environment and communities it operates in. The company is committed to reducing its carbon footprint so limits unnecessary transport, sources local subcontractors wherever possible and continually develops more efficient construction techniques.
Accio Group recently designed a ground-breaking structure which is capable of being installed on most surfaces, eliminating the need for costly and time consuming groundwork. The main structure is constructed off-site and assembled once a unique leg support system has been installed. This leg support system is a European first in semi-permanent structure construction and is the main contributor to its efficiency. By removing the need for additional foundations, Accio Group can reduce build time from weeks to days, which in turn produces a significant cost saving, often running into tens of thousands of pounds.
The Olympic Dream
The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games offers an excellent opportunity for temporary and semi-permanent structures providers to develop their business and showcase the quality of their offering on a world stage. It has been estimated that up to 260,000 square metres of temporary structure space is required during the event, which will provide major opportunities for companies of all sizes in the sector.
The International Olympic Committee, keen to avoid a repeat of the Olympic ghost towns which have haunted some previous games in other countries, decided one method of tackling this problem is to scale back the provision of stadia and other buildings once the games have finished. This concept, while hugely environmentally sound, also helps to alleviate the legacy problems faced by host cities.
The use of temporary and semi-permanent structures went right to the heart of London’s bid. The main Olympic and Paralympic Games 80,000 seat venue in East London’s Olympic Park will be converted to a 25,000 seat athletics stadium, providing world-class facilities for years to come.
Solutions for education and local authorities
Providing suitable classrooms, gymnasiums, workshops and other fundamental facilities can be a problem for education establishments. In the past, the portable cabins used for these purposes were cold, unpleasant and suffered from rapid deterioration.
Accio Group has proven that modern modular temporary and semi-permanent structures can be designed to provide bright, comfortable and contemporary spaces that encourage pupils to learn.
A particularly successful project was delivered by Accio Group to the Milbourne Lodge Junior School in Esher, Surrey. The classroom was used by five and six year old pupils for 11 months and during that time there was not a single fault with the structure or ancillary services. The head teacher was so impressed with the quality of the structure she wanted to buy and use it permanently.
A further advantage of these structures is the ability to completely erect them on-site. Any access issues previously faced by an establishment no longer present a problem; this significantly reduces the disruption to both pupils and teachers.
The versatility of these structures and the scale to which they can be designed gives local authorities the flexibility to use them for a number of purposes. This includes the provision of temporary leisure facilities, office space and emergency facilities following a man-made or natural disaster. In these instances, Accio Group can install and maintain temporary accommodation, first-aid centres and weather protection to help house and treat people who have been affected by earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and acts of terrorism.
Europe’s largest temporary structure of its kind
Accio Group is renowned for the impressive structures it has installed on behalf of Sainsbury’s and Tesco. These include online shopping support structures, seasonal structures, store extensions, stores replacements, weather canopies and cafe’s.
This year, the company provided Sainsbury’s with Europe’s largest temporary structure of its kind. The 15,000 square foot retail space was used while the main store in High Wycombe underwent a rebuild as part of Sainsbury’s nationwide redevelopment programme. This project was unique as it required Accio Group to erect the structure two metres above an existing car park, involving the construction of a deck platform. The temporary store was extremely well received and in a customer satisfaction survey it was subsequently ranked in the top five out of 800 stores nationwide.
Proving its mantra that ‘nothing is too difficult’, Accio Group is currently working on a project to supply Tesco with almost 100 structures to help the retailer meet increased demand over the Christmas trading period. This involves Accio Group travelling the length and breadth of the country, installing structures from Thurso to Truro. Additionally, Accio Group will also travel to the Orkney Islands, where the company will coordinate suppliers and construct its innovative structures. This is the third year running Accio Group has supplied all the seasonal structures required by Tesco. The ability to efficiently deliver projects is one of its strengths and was a key factor in securing this year’s contract.
Solving parking issues
Transportation planning and parking congestion is an issue faced by many local authorities. Car use and effective management of parking provision is increasingly important.
Next generation modular car parking systems provide an economical and rapid solution to parking issues. Accio Group has delivered a number of these structures and is experienced in designing and installing bespoke parking solutions for both single and multi-storey situations.
The clear span and clear bay systems have the flexibility to be configured for either temporary or permanent use. This flexibility of layout allows for future expansion or rearrangement. A next generation modular car park can be configured to fit any shape of building and each installation features an integral gutter system and watertight deck surface which ensures the structure performs in all weather conditions.
Accio Group is committed to providing objective advice and its dynamic team will be happy to discuss your requirements. For further information please visit www.acciogroup.com or call 0800 389 6884.
Please see structures information pack you can download below this article
For NHS staff, accessibility, collaborative working and the reassurance that sensitive information is secure and remains confidential are top priorities when it comes to communications. That’s why increasing numbers of organisations are switching off their local email services in favour of NHSmail, the national email and directory service for the NHS in England and Scotland
GOAL
At the start of the project the vision was to build a single shared service platform which could be scaled to support the whole user base in the NHS. This would encourage organisations to switch off locally supported communication services in favour of NHSmail,
Building on the success of the first generation platform, the new service would have the potential to benefit nearly one million healthcare professionals across the NHS who were either still using locally supported, unsecured platforms or had no access to communication tools.
REASON FOR CHANGE
Under a contract that has run since 2004, Cable&Wireless has worked closely with NHS Connecting for Health to provide a fully managed enterprise email service to the NHS.
The first generation NHSmail platform successfully supported 350,000 users however requirements for the development of the service had changed with an increasing need for collaboration and mobility features.. It was time to consider moving to a more familiar and feature rich platform and it became clear that Microsoft had made great strides in the provision of a large scale public sector email service.
In 2007 the decision was taken to migrate users to a new platform based on Microsoft Exchange 2007 to meet the evolving requirements of the service and allow for potential future developments such as incoming SMS and collaboration tools.
TAKE CONTROL
With new NHSmail, staff benefit from access to a service that is accredited to Government Restricted level, allowing them to safely share sensitive information with NHS colleagues as well as local authorities and government. NHSmail is the only NHS email service with this level of security, which is why it’s approved by the Department of Health and endorsed by the British Medical Association, Royal College of Nursing and Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.
Crucially, organisations stay in control of their accounts – locally appointed administrators have access to a bespoke management portal developed by Cable&Wireless.
Tools are provided allowing them to perform administrative tasks such as resetting passwords and managing mailbox quotas. Organisations within the NHS benefit from access to a nationally shared platform whilst retaining local Administrative control. This allows existing email services to be decommissioned, IT resources freed up and costs reduced. In these challenging economic times, NHS staff are under pressure to deliver more for less with NHSmail, monthly email management costs could fall by up to 80%.
And NHSmail is centrally provided, availability is guaranteed with full disaster recovery and an ISO2000 accreditation gives organisations confidence in the service provided for their staff. In addition all email traffic is monitored 24×7 and accounts are protected by cutting edge anti-spam and anti-virus protection.
Representing the gold standard in functionality, NHSmail offers a range of features that enable staff to send a mix of email, fax and SMS text messages. It incorporates a full electronic calendar and folders that can be shared with colleagues across organisation boundaries.
DRIVE VALUE
For NHS staff, accessibility, collaborative working and the reassurance that sensitive information is secure and remains confidential are top priorities when it comes to communications
The NHS traditionally communicates by letters and phone calls, so patient care, referrals and follow-ups take time. With NHSmail, processes are e-enabled, speeding up communications and improving patient care. NHSmail allows organisations to provide their staff with the tools to carry out their jobs more effectively.
Staff also benefit from access to the powerful and data rich national directory containing the professional contact details of over a million staff across the NHS. Using NHSmail as a collaborative tool means that clinicians can seek the expertise of others regardless of where they are in the country. And this is helping to create -virtual communities where knowledge, expertise and different working practices are shared among those in similar areas of medicine and administration.
For NHS staff that work across multiple organisations or in the community, NHSmail allows them access to stay connected wherever they are. With full push email on over 200 mobile devices including the Blackberry, a Community Nurse equipped with a mobile device can avoid trips to base, maximising productivity and allowing more time for patients.
The fastest growing element is use of the SMS feature showing how changes to working practices in the NHS are being implemented at local levels. On average 35,000 SMS messages are sent via NHSmail every day to reduce appointment no shows, as well as for other communication such as flu jab reminders and relaying weather warnings to patients who suffer from diseases such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Innovations such as these save time and money and benefit both staff and patients.
C&W SERVICE DELIVERY
Migrations began in January 2009 and over 11 weekends more than 350,000 accounts were moved to the new platform, reaching a peak when a massive 47,000 accounts were migrated in just 48 hours. With an unprecedented success rate, Cable&Wireless achieved the biggest and fastest enterprise email migration of its kind ever. And with the capability of serving one million users, the service is the largest Exchange 2007 implementation of its type in the world
Use of the service is accelerating at a great pace with an average of 12,000 new users joining the service per month. By 2011 it’s estimated that NHSmail will be used by half a million NHS staff and on a typical day over 100,000 users log in and send and receive an average of 1.6 million messages.
The new platform delivers
Security to Government Restricted level and Anti Virus & Spam services
Business Continuity via dual site resiliency
Mobile email SMS & Fax capability
Public Sector Search – National Directory searchable at a local organisational level
Folder Sharing – open, subscribe to and share folders with any other user on the platform
Delegation of permissions to other users within enhanced Outlook Web Access (OWA)
Enhanced OWA – Richest Web Mail experience gives option to reduce costs and replace older Outlook versions
Administration Portal – organisations retain control of administration
Extensibility – new web services can be added to the end user or administration portal.
Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS) has launched the musically-flavoured ‘Stand by Your Pan’ as a response to figures which highlight a particular risk to those who get peckish after a few drinks.
The light-hearted approach of this Tammy Wynette inspired viral video is intended to engage those at risk so they take on board the serious safety messages that could save their lives.
Statistics show that one in every three fire deaths is drink related, and the majority of accidental domestic fires begin in the kitchen.
The short video tells the story of a man’s return home after a night out with friends, and how his hunger pangs lead him to dice with death, before being saved by ‘fire angels’. It can be viewed on YouTube by clicking on
KFRS’s Head of Community Safety Stuart Skilton: -Unfortunately, ‘fire angels’ don’t actually exist – if you’re asleep and a fire breaks out, you’re in serious trouble. Just a couple of breaths of fire smoke can be enough to knock you completely unconscious.
Leaving cooking unattended is often a recipe for disaster, and if you’ve been drinking you’re even more vulnerable. Despite the old proverb ‘a watched pot never boils’, keeping a close eye on your cooking really will save your life. Whether you’ve had a few drinks or not, our advice to cooks is quite simply – ‘Stand by Your Pan’.
Watch Manager Andy Bigginton, KFRS’s Education Team Leader, plays the lead role the film and said: -As a firefighter and education officer I am used to seeing first hand the devastation caused by cooking fires and talking to the people about the risks. It was fun to be involved in the filming, as it is a light hearted approach to a very serious subject. I hope that as well as making people smile it will make them think twice next time they think about cooking after drinking alcohol.
A common misconception about house fires…
‘If there’s a fire in my home, the smoke will wake me up’
but in fact:
It can take just two or three breaths for you to fall unconscious from smoke inhalation.
The smell of smoke doesn’t wake up you up. The poisonous gases produced by a fire numb the senses and put you into a deeper sleep
A child can die from smoke inhalation in under a minute
A household fire doubles in size every thirty seconds
Combine these elements with the effects of alcohol and the chances of escaping from the smoke and flames diminish significantly, explained Stuart. -Drink affects people mentally and physically, increasing their likelihood of having a fire and slowing their reaction times when one breaks out. Survival is dependent on early detection – which means working smoke alarms.
Kent Fire and Rescue Service supplies and fits alarms free of charge, and can also offer special detectors for those with hearing or sight impairment. To book a free Home Safety Visit call 0800 923 7000.
The recording, transcription and storage of police interviews has always been a time-consuming and expensive process, says Simon Jones, Sales and Marketing Director for Indico Systems UK. New technology, however, is helping to boost efficiency and cut costs in this important area
Many people outside of the police force will be surprised to hear that a large number of police forces in the UK are still using audio cassette tapes to record and play back even their most sensitive interviews. Apart from the obvious problems with audio quality- especially when these tapes are played and re-played over a long period of time – there is also the risk of damage, corruption and physical loss. Not only that, but using audio cassettes for this purpose is expensive, as well, with some UK police forces spending more than £250,000 per year just on the tapes alone.
These problems are made even worse when it comes to more serious cases, since additional tapes are often used to record multiple interviews in different locations, before being played and re-played many times. Copies also need to be made for all parties concerned, often in different parts of the country, which means that important security issues are raised, as well as the deterioration of audio quality with each new copy.
For all of these reasons, many police forces have now switched to CDs or other removable media, but this option brings its own challenges. For a start, any data stored in this way – whether on a cassette tape or a CD – needs to be carefully sealed, labelled, sent to a typist to be transcribed, and then stored securely.
As a result, this approach often causes significant delays, since the whole tedious process – from interview to typed transcript – typically takes three weeks or more. Not only that, but there are once again serious security risks involved with sending such important information via an internal, albeit secure postal system.
Although it is difficult to obtain any national statistics for the number of investigative interviews recorded each year, 30,000 is normally given as an estimate for an average sized force. To comply with PACE (Police and Criminal Evidence Act) regulations, most of these interviews require three taped copies, but many of them (especially those involving more high profile crimes) tend to be longer than average, and can therefore extend to more than one cassette.
Even applying the simplest of maths will give us a figure in the region of 200,000 tapes used per year per police force, all of which will require storing and sorting. One police force that we’ve spoken with has said they have a storage room with over 750,000 tapes filed away; one can only imagine the amount of man hours that has taken to sort and document over time.
A server based process however, such as the Indico Streaming Solution, eliminates all of these problems, and can therefore save the police a significant amount of time and money, whilst also ensuring that evidence is presented securely, accurately and safely. In addition to making high-quality digital audio and video recordings that can be stored on digital discs, digital server technology can be used to store digital copies of every police interview on a secure network, which means that there is no risk of CDs or DVDs being lost, damaged or delayed in transit.
This kind of technology, known as “straight-to-server” digital recording, is already being looked at closely by the NPIA (National Police Improvement Agency) and has been installed by Indico Systems at Teesside University on their police training course. Because the interview is recorded straight onto the server, the delays and associated costs caused by the time it takes for removable media to be delivered to transcribers (who then summarise each interview) are eliminated completely.
In 2008, Lancashire Constabulary used this kind of technology to replace traditional taped interviews with digital recording methods as part of a Government-approved pilot study. Instead of using traditional tapes, audio-only interviews were stored on a secure server that legal teams and police were able to access.
The Lancashire study concluded that up to three hours were saved per interview by using a server solution to record and store the interviews. If you multiply this figure by up to 40 interviews per day across a force, and then extrapolate those figures across the whole of the UK, you can quickly see how the police and the government could save millions of pounds and countless man hours with this approach. Not only that, but less police time wasted also means more time spent on front line crime fighting, which is good news for the police – and for the general public, as well.
For all of these reasons, plus the fact that analogue tape systems are proving increasingly unreliable, a move to digital recording, – and ultimately a server-based solution, – is without a doubt the way forward for improved efficiency, better security and lower costs.
Every day, local and national government and public sector departments manage millions of documents related to the individuals they deal with and the services they provide. Nick Rowley, managing director of workflow management company Oceanus discusses how to keep track of this countless correspondence, and how document management within the public sector must evolve to embrace new communication challenges.
These days the general public communicates in many different forms from web, email and letter to fax, SMS or by telephone, and expects to be able use these multiple and varied communication systems with whichever organisation they are dealing – whether a catalogue retailer, a hospital ward or a local authority parking shop. As service delivery becomes more complex, and citizens demand multiple methods of contact, managing and integrating communication systems alongside information management and collaboration requires planning, foresight and an understanding of the issues at stake.
All these channels of correspondence and associated information need to be combined into a single case based interface, allowing the capture, processing, resolution and management of all these interactions. In fact, public sector organisations, government departments and local authorities now face the same challenges as retailers operating in a multichannel environment. How do you manage communications from disparate channels? How do you achieve a single view of the individual’s case? How do you ensure information is centralised, so that officers on the front line have access to the case history of the person they are dealing with, while citizens can access the information they need quickly and easily? Most importantly how do you improve staff efficiency?
These are the questions that need to be asked when implementing document management systems, as the way information is managed affects the whole spectrum of activity – from the service people receive, to the day-to-day work of staff, to the way departments and teams collaborate. Government departments need to look at ways of becoming more efficient, of doing more for less money, and as the mantra goes, exceeding customers’ expectations.
The development of information and citizen communication systems, such as the Directgov website, have shown that streamlining and centralising information can be a slow and onerous task – But one that is worth it in the end. The idea for the site was first mooted in 2002, it actually launched two years later and has built up to receive over one hundred million visits so far this year, proving its popularity and effectiveness.
However, from schools registrations to benefits applications, public sector bodies still suffer under the weight of paper and labour-intensive processes. Beyond just meeting the e-government agenda, the ability to scan, categorise and store documents electronically for easy retrieval and collaborative use is the only viable alternative to these outdated modes of working.
Many document management systems will enable all types of messages (notes from voice, letter, email, text, scanned documents and, if applicable, pictures, video etc.) to be stored and linked to a customer reference for quick access. A simple workflow system will sort and flag priorities or track response progress so that responses are prepared and issued in the timeframe agreed with the ‘customer’. If a response is delayed, or cross-departmental cases are lacking co-ordination, then the system can at least give warning that a response is due, so that cross-departmental teams can communicate on the issue, agree on a required outcome and advise the customer that there is a delay or requirement for further action. A response can be released in the format agreed (letter, fax, email, SMS or telephone call) direct from the worker’s workstation to the customer’s preferred method of communication. Furthermore, this helps trace communications and ensure communications are received.
Data protection regulations, compliance and government directives make it imperative that there are systems and processes in place to manage the way transactions are processed. Take the healthcare sector for instance. It has to manage mountains of patient care data both back office and patient facing. Medical staff such as nurses, physicians or lab technicians, need applications to document, review and analyse patient information relating to a patient treatment. They have to be able to retrieve a series of different pieces of patient information from different sources. Such pieces of patient information are commonly called “parameters” and may include information about indications of patient condition, laboratory test results, assessments, and the administration of treatments. All this information has to reside in a secure and yet accessible environment. In this environment, the loss or mishandling of parameters can have serious consequences, so an integrated workflow and records management system is crucial.
There are also additional benefits to implementing electronic workflow and collaboration systems. Not least regulatory compliance and green concerns. Scanning documents to produce electronic records helps not only to save on paper storage costs and implications but also meet requirements for data storage and retrieval.
Digital self service is well under way, and before long, customers will be expecting to fully interact with all local and national services online and across various media. When looking at their information strategies, public sector organisations should take into account business process management, workflow, internal and external collaboration and single customer view implications. No one says it is going to be easy, but in the long term government departments and citizens will reap the benefits of increased efficiency.
The forecast drop in economic growth to three and a half per cent during 2009 was a big blow to businesses. However, it seems there is light at the end of the tunnel; deals are being done, the economy is forecast to grow one and a quarter per cent in 2010 and spending on public services is expected to grow by an average of 0.7 per cent for 2011-12. The green shoots are starting to show.
So while tendering for government and public sector business can cost companies thousands upon thousands of pounds, clearly getting a tender submission right is top priority.
For the organisation setting the tender, receiving a relevant and informative response is paramount but dependent on having the time to issue a well constructed brief. Having to answer multiple questions, asked at different times by different bidders is time consuming enough but then sifting through and comparing the tender responses accurately and evaluating them fairly can be complex and involved.
-As soon as a tender document comes in it needs to be actioned straight away, says Terence McGuire, Bid Team Manager, from commercial property company Colliers CRE. -It’s not uncommon to have a short amount of time until the submission deadline, and the longer time is taken to decide whether bidding for the job would be worthwhile, the less you have to create a compelling submission that will stand out.
Organisations issuing and responding to tenders acknowledge that providing relevant information from the outset is key to getting a good response, yet a common complaint for both parties is the quality of information provided. When sections have been cut and pasted from previous briefs and submissions, it may save time in the short term, but in the long term it will cause more work as clarity will be required on unclear points.
Assessing a tender opportunity is particularly time consuming in multi-discipline pitches. Circulating the request to individuals in other departments, who then undertake manual scoring, is a lengthy process that requires accuracy and consistency. It’s difficult to ensure individuals are accessing the brief according to the same criteria when they are only looking at specific parts of the document at varying times and from differing perspectives.
It’s also easy to miss things when there are other demands to fulfill and you are expected to pick through a document running to hundreds of pages. Terry continues: -Being part of any new business exercise, which would be a coup for the company if won, can become onerous and demanding instead of being part of something which you can be proud to be involved with when time is of the essence.
However, while tendering for Government and Public-sector organisations can be a long and laborious exercise, there is no doubt that securing work in this field is very valuable to suppliers. Once won, most become long term, steady customers that can be relied on to pay on time and inline with agreed payment terms. Sadly this level of security isn’t always a common feature among clients outside the sector.
So how can you dissect a tender document in a quick, efficient and consistent way that leaves you in no doubt as to whether bidding for the work is a good idea?
Mind mapping can ease both the processes of drafting the tender submission and evaluating the proposals received. It is a practice that has been used for decades by people in sectors ranging from education to business to help clarify and organise information.
Using mind-mapping software takes this principle to the next level. You can break down complex information into component parts which can then be categorised and compared against organisational priorities, skill sets, experience, forecast costs and any other factors you feel should be taken into account when assessing viability. For example information could be sorted into categories such as low-effort high-return and high-effort high-risk.
Critical to the success of the tender is being able to pull prepared data, market research, analysis and evaluations together in a timely manner and any type of document such as text document, picture, spreadsheet, hyperlink, slide etc. can also be attached to a mind map. Holding all this information in one place makes it easy and convenient to reference information and attach further data such as annexes, biographies, case studies, sample work, web pages or financial overviews.
When starting the tendering process a lot of content is created and is hard to prioritise when you simply save it in different text documents. Using business maps enables the team to display content in a very structured way and to complete tasks faster.
In terms of receiving tender submissions, content compiled the traditional way cannot easily provide the context needed to formulate conclusions or explain why and how suggestions were made. Visualising the thought trail in a map makes it easier to pick up on the nuances of the tendering process. It simplifies very complex deals, enabling your customer to conduct the due diligence more easily, quickly and accurately.
However, if specifying tender responses in a mind-map seems a step too far, documents accepted in Word can be easily converted into a map and vice versa. Information can then be prioritised according to budget, skills set and other relevant categories, allowing issuers of the tender notice to quickly and easily identify the most appropriate company for the job or shortlist.
It is becoming increasingly clear that time is a valuable currency and to leverage this precious resource, efficient working practices need to be established. This includes being able to keep track of projects, finding information faster and empowering teams to collaborate better. Mind mapping software provides an easy to use blank canvas on which to place all the elements and relevant disparate information of the tender in one place, enabling you to visualise the project as a whole and build out from that point.
Taking a clear and concise approach will minimise the risk of coming in second in the tendering process. While it’s not a guarantee, mind-mapping software could give you the edge and it’s an approach that bid managers should consider using.
The use of open source is a topic that is continuously debated in both the private and public sectors. With some companies and organisations welcoming the liberal use of technology, whilst others fearing that in removing proprietary software companies and organisations will be doing away with vital legacy expertise and control.
Earlier this year open source evangelists and early adopters witnessed a key milestone when the UK government took a positive stance on encouraging the use of open source in government IT systems. In recognising some of open source software’s true benefits, the UK government updated its policy and introduced an action plan to drive the adoption of open source tools inside government.
Abiding to the new 2009 policy, the government will now actively and fairly consider open source solutions alongside proprietary ones in making procurement decisions. Procurement decisions will then be made on the basis of the best value for money solution to meet the business requirement.
Despite this tremendous step forward it is therefore extremely concerning to hear that that the 2012 Olympics will not be using open source software. This is a major opportunity for the government to reduce costs associated with the project and to show its full support for open source products.
In a recent interview, Michelle Hyron, Atos Origin’s chief integrator for the London 2012 Olympic Games stated: -We will probably use open source for some of the operational tools like e-learning, but as an operating system? No. I think if you target open source carefully as to when and where you use it, it is possible. Will it be considered? Yes. It’s not a definite no-no. But we will also make sure that we do not take any risk. On a project like this, risk is not something you want.
As an open source evangelist, I hope that the decision against using open source for the Olympics will not become a costly and regrettable error. Not only is the government’s actions to rule out open source tools contradictory to its new policy, it also fails to recognise that open source products are equal risk or in many cases a lower risk than proprietary software. Open source software has to pass a number of complex tests. In fact, open source products are put through greater testing before GA release than proprietary based products. At Talend for example, over 1,000 of our community members are involved with testing milestone releases (milestone releases are roughly equivalent to beta releases). And a recent study by independent analysts has proven that open source database MySQL has ten times less defects than Oracle!
One of the major benefits of using open source software is that in having such a passionate community of followers, the software is constantly being developed and improved. In contrast, proprietary software’s code cannot be developed by its users to meet evolving business needs and can therefore become dated within a matter of months.
Another fact that challenges the idea that open source is high risk is that when subscribing to a commercial version of an open source product the user is provided with full customer support. This helps to emphasise how secure and protective open source products actually are.
Despite fears around open source, there is a steep rise in government and agencies taking on open source software. For example, the Revenue Commissioners in Ireland has introduced an open source data integration tool to meet various data integration needs such as improved data management. Since adopting the open source based software, the Revenue Commissioners has already identified benefits, including increased speed of developing optimised structures for query, reporting and analytics.
Open source evidently has its benefits over proprietary software and this does not come at the cost of having greater risk. Although some believe that open source is high risk, the issues raised above stress that open source is a professional and supported offering. With open source being able to integrate with legacy systems, risk is automatically reduced as organisations no longer need to spend massive amounts of IT budget on replacing major IT systems that may only be required in the short-term. In this case, the Olympics, as a project, is a perfect example of where open source software can show its true purpose. Often, IT budgets for such projects are very limited and open source software provides that vital flexibility needed for continuously adapting project requirements.
After recognising all of open source’s advantages, the UK government must ensure that it fully supports open source and steers clear from being locked in by proprietary software or face an on-going list of timely and costly IT blunders.
The award recognises and rewards the most outstanding young solicitors in the local government legal profession. Apart from the glass award and the acclaim of being the 2009 Young Solicitor of the Year, Nathalie will receive a Red Letter day of her choice for her and her partner.
Nathalie has won the award for her innovative work and raising the profile of local government solicitors. She is currently dealing with letting out contracts to organisations that care for people with acute needs on behalf of the County Council where she has worked to reduce costs for the authority by working with partners in the East Midlands.
She has recently helped to clerk the Council’s Planning and Licensing Committee when it dealt with the Council’s largest planning application in over a decade for an energy recovery facility in Nottinghamshire. She is also a member of the National Executive of Solicitors in Local Government where she has worked hard to ensure young solicitors are represented on the group.
Nathalie said: -I am delighted to have won this award which I receive very much on the behalf of the team I work with.
-I take a ‘can do’ attitude to my work to ensure that the needs of my council colleagues are met within legal means – there is no point in putting up unnecessary hurdles or not finding ways a round a legal problem.
Nathalie was nominated by the County Council’s Chief Executive Mick Burrows and Head Of Legal Services Heather Dickinson.
All children love the elements, whether it is digging or planting in the earth, running in the sun, splashing in the rain or watching how things move with the strength of the wind. With this love of natures elements in mind, Playgarden www.playgardens.co.uk have launched a range called Elements for Play, that schools, nurseries and pre-schools can incorporate into their outdoor learning and play.
The first products to be launched from the Elements for Play range will focus upon water and the number of limitless play opportunities it offers children! From stepping into a puddle or simply pouring water into different sized containers buckets and containers, children are naturally drawn to water. Children can move water from one place to another to see how it reacts and how it makes objects.
Water play is a great way for children to interact and cooperate with others, they can use their imaginations to create fun, exciting games that can be reinvented time and again. It helps children develop fine motor skills whilst helping them understand weights and measure simply by moving water around.
Bamboo Channels are one of the most popular water products in the Elements for Play range and can be used for both indoor and outdoor water play. They come in a pack of 4, 1m in length, and being lightweight, offer great opportunities for water and sand transportation. The 4 parts to the Bamboo Channel encourages children to think creatively, testing their coordination and engineering skills to build a larger channel.
In addition to Bamboo Channels, Playgarden is offering a range of essential water play items including watering cans, water bowls, water sprays and water pipes.
Commenting, Paul Collings, MD at Playgarden says, -Here at Playgarden we are working hard to highlight the value of outdoor play for young children. We want to see more and more early years settings and schools incorporate the natural elements into outdoor play, hence why we have created the Elements for Play range. Water is something that children never grow tired of and they are fascinated by how they can manipulate it and how it works in a natural setting. Jumping in a puddle to create the biggest splash is a delight to children and we want to harness this fascination and love of water to offer a range of water based play resources that will enhance this.
Playgarden Design and Resources Ltd has been launched by Paul Collings, Managing Director, who is also the face behind Playgarden’s successful sister company, Timberplay. Playgarden is an online service – www.playgardens.co.uk offering outdoor play solutions. The company will purposefully target nurseries, pre-schools and primary schools with solutions designed specifically to address their play needs.
To find out more call 0114 282 1285 or visit www.playgardens.co.uk
Rodney Pearce, one of the UK’s most senior and highly respected Fire Risk Assessors, who recently passed away, has been awarded a posthumous certificate of competence from Warrington Certification Limited (WCL).
Receiving the award on behalf of Rodney were Fireco’s MD Neil Purssey and Tom Welland, with Fireco Fire Risk Assessor Cyril Moseley who was also awarded the WCL Competent Fire Risk Assessor Certification.
Simon Ince, manager of personnel schemes for WCL, presenting the awards said, ‘Congratulations to Cyril on being one of the first Fire Risk Assessors in the UK to successfully attain Competent Fire Risk Assessors Certification. I wanted to come here myself to present this certificate as Fireco have assisted us in pioneering this scheme and I also know they are extremely passionate about appropriate certification for Fire Risk Assessors.’ Speaking of Rodney he added: ‘Presenting his award to Fireco is a fitting tribute to a very capable man, who will be missed by all those in the industry who knew him.’
WCL, in partnership with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), operates an independent third party ‘competent persons’ scheme in accordance with ISO/IEC 17024:2003. This UKAS accredited scheme, called FRACS (Fire Risk Assessors Certification Scheme), has been designed to allow fire risk assessors to prove, through third party certification, their competence to complete ‘suitable and sufficient’ fire risk assessments as required by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order (RRFSO).
Engineers at the University of Bath have opened a new state-of-the-art laboratory that allows them to measure very large objects, such as aeroplane wings, to within a fraction of a millimetre.
The facility, named the Laboratory for Integrated Metrology Applications (LIMA), is based in the University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and has strong links with the Department’s Innovative Design & Manufacturing Research Centre.
Metrology is the science of measurement, and the researchers at LIMA are working with a number of industry partners to develop new techniques for measuring large objects such as aeroplane wings and engine parts to accuracies that were not feasible before.
Another key objective of LIMA is to develop measurement-assisted automation that will revolutionise the way robots and machines are functioning.
LIMA’s partners include the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), metrology company Renishaw and other metrology vendors, five other universities and a wide range of advanced engineering and aerospace companies including, Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Vestas.
The laboratory was officially opened on 25 November by Mr Peter Mason, CEO of the National Measurement Office, in the presence of the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Glynis Breakwell.
Peter Mason said: “It’s great to see this sort of initiative that brings together government, the national measurement institutes, industry and academia, all focusing on a very clear requirement to apply measurement to the widest possible purpose.
-It has been a real pleasure for me to see these excellent facilities at first hand.”
The University also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Physical Laboratory that will strengthen their future collaboration in advanced metrology research and development, and accredited services to industry.
Dr Graham Topley, Head of the Measurement Solutions Division at the National Physical Laboratory, said: -This event represents an important milestone in the development of our relationship with the University of Bath, as well as our collaborative business venture from LIMA.
-It also confirms very significant support and interest from our academic, governmental and industrial stakeholders.
At the same event, the University also exchanged corporate gifts with Renishaw to mark the opening of the Renishaw Metrology Laboratory, within LIMA.
Professor Geoff McFarland, Group Engineering Director of Renishaw, said: -LIMA is the first lab of its kind. Integrated metrology is very important because it is bringing together research and practical application.
Professor Paul Maropoulos, Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Chairman of LIMA, said: -We are delighted at Bath to be working with all the partners of LIMA to develop new metrology-enabled technologies and methods that will have applications in many industry sectors from aerospace, to wind turbines, power generation and healthcare.
-Today, we celebrate the formal opening of LIMA and the creation of strategic links with the National Physical Laboratory and Renishaw. We now starting work to develop research projects, accredited measurement services and training material that will address the industrial needs and generate economic impact.
Housing Minister John Healey visited New Broughton in Salford today recently as it is the first North West scheme supported by the Homes and Communities Agency’s (HCA) Kickstart funding programme to be fully signed off, with all legal agreements and contracts now exchanged.
New Broughton was officially approved for £8m of funding in October as part of the Kickstart Housing Delivery programme which targeted stalled sites, to support construction of high quality mixed-tenure housing developments. Since the confirmation, the HCA, Salford City Council and developer Countryside Properties have been working towards the final stages of the deal.
Deborah McLaughlin, North West Regional Director of the HCA, said: -The HCA recognises the potential of New Broughton coupled with the local demand for affordable, quality homes. All parties have rallied together to get builders back on site ensuring that a real difference is made to local communities.
Les Brown, Countryside Properties’ Regional Project Director said: -It is fantastic news that we have now cleared the final hurdle to draw down the additional funding. We have been particularly eager to complete the complex and lengthy legalities as quickly as possible with the HCA and our other partners – Contour Homes, Great Places and Salford City Council – so that we can get onto site and deliver the much needed affordable new homes for the area.
-It has been a challenging past few months for all parties concerned with a plethora of legal agreements to fulfil, however it is extremely satisfying that we are now back on site and new life is being breathed back into New Broughton.
Councillor Peter Connor, Salford City Council’s lead member for housing said: “We’ve worked with our partners and the HCA to beat the effects of the economic downturn and get New Broughton back up to speed.
“The government money is a much needed helping hand for the project which will be used to provide quality affordable homes for local people.
New Broughton in Lower Broughton is one of the country’s largest and most ambitious regeneration schemes, with 3,500 new homes planned, a new primary school, recreation and open space along with new retail and local facilities. Construction has now begun on the next phase of homes.
The government-appointed Working Group charged with setting rules for how ‘game birds’ will in future be produced for shooting has caused widespread dismay this week by publishing a Code of Practice that fails to outlaw the notorious battery cage for breeding birds.
Even the UK’s leading pro-shoot lobby group – the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) – has long condemned the cages and called for them to be banned. Made of wire mesh, and holding around eight female pheasants and one male, the contraptions expose the birds to the elements all year round. Partridges are confined in breeding pairs in metal boxes that are correspondingly smaller and just as bleak as the pheasant units.
The cages were first exposed nationally by Animal Aid when its undercover footage was broadcast on BBC’s Countryfile programme in November 2004. Animal Aid’s evidence convinced BASC that the cages were publicly indefensible and the lobby group has maintained its opposition to them ever since.
This week’s draft Code of Practice on the Welfare of Gamebirds Reared for Sporting Purposes is the product of more than two-and-a-half years of fitful deliberations by the industry-dominated Gamebird Working Group, which was established under the 2006 Animal Welfare Act. Animal Aid submitted detailed filmed, written and verbal evidence to the Group. This week’s draft Code of Practice ducks the issue of a cage ban. Instead, it offers three options for public consultation to keep the cage system as it stands, to allow ‘enriched’ cages, or to ban the cages outright.
Animal Aid has covertly filmed examples of ‘enriched’ cages. They generally have a plastic ‘curtain’ set towards the back for a small measure of privacy, and a piece of dowel resting on bricks for perching. In reality, these ‘improvements’ make little difference to the bleak prisons or to the distress of the caged birds.
The Working Group looked at a broad range of issues relating to game bird production, including diet, veterinary care, transportation and housing. Another especially contentious area is the industry’s routine use of various restraint and vision-limiting devices on birds as they pass from cages to sheds and finally to the large pens, in which they are held prior to release for shooting. The aggression between birds that the devices are intended to limit is caused by the crowded, unnatural and oppressive conditions in which the birds are reared. The devices are typically attached to beaks or over eyes, and include so-called bits, spectacles, masks and clips. Some bits are attached with a pin that pierces the nasal septum. Other birds have the ends of their beaks amputated. Apart from calling for a ban on the nasal septum-piercing bits, the draft Code fails to set out clear restrictions. Typically, it urges that the devices should not be ‘generally’ or ‘routinely’ used.
Says Animal Aid Director, Andrew Tyler:
‘Animal Aid has been exposing the suffering that is integral to game bird production for more than a decade. We first brought battery cages to public attention five years ago and have led the growing campaign – which now includes important elements of the shooting industry itself – to outlaw their use. The failure by the DEFRA-appointed Working Group to produce a draft Code of Practice that clearly prohibits cages is not only gravely distressing to animal protection groups but will also disappoint key pro-shoot bodies such as BASC, which knows that there is no rational, ethical argument that can be made for the cages- not least because the purpose of the birds being produced is to serve as feathered targets for wealthy shooters.’
Animal Aid reiterates its call for a ban on the production of birds for ‘sport’ shooting. Such a ban was introduced in Holland in 2002. As a matter of urgency, we seek a prohibition on the use of battery cages and of devices that restrain and restrict the vision of birds during their breeding and growing cycle.
More information:
Contact Andrew Tyler or Kit Davidson on 01732 364546. Out of hours 07918 083774.
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