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Job-hunters are often doubly disadvantaged during a recession. School leavers and recent graduates cannot gain the work experience they need to develop the skills that will help them secure a position. People who are out of work or who want to change career can find it difficult to secure another job if their skills and qualifications are not up to date. Eddie Kilkelly, Chief Operating Officer of ILX Group plc examines what educational institutions are doing to help these groups and why there will be a continued trend in developing closer ties with the private sector.
Over the past couple of decades, educational institutions have sought to align their offering more closely with the needs of employers – most obviously with a huge increase in business and information management courses. In addition, some have started to integrate professional qualifications into their courses, to give students a competitive advantage in difficult labour markets. Others are participating in government programmes to help the unemployed update their skills with new courses targeted at specific groups.
As an example, project management skills are in demand for both public and private sector organisations of all sizes. Irrespective of the economic climate, change is an inevitable fact of business life, accelerated by technology and globalisation. Organisations need people with the right skills to work with and manage this change. Moreover, globalisation has created a requirement for a common language and model that can be used to drive cross-border projects. However, there is a huge gap between the generic theory of project management taught in many university courses and the specifics of best practice project management models that are commonly used in real life.
Professional qualifications matter
Professional qualifications can make a huge difference to an individual’s employability – especially in project management. PRINCE2® sets out best practice in the planning, implementation, management and evaluation of projects. It is the de facto standard for project management in the UK and is used in more than 50 other countries. Crucially, accreditation in PRINCE2® is a pre-requisite for over 60-70 per cent of all Project Management jobs advertised in the UK. Accreditation is achieved by passing exams at both Foundation and Practitioner levels, with Practitioners obliged to retake the Practitioner exam every five years to remain accredited. The learner can study the relevant text books, or join an open course or attend a tailored course run by a specialist training provider. Educational institutions have started to realise the importance of PRINCE2® accreditation to their students and are partnering with specialist private sector training organisations to offer relevant courses.
Innovation counts
There are a number of reasons why educational institutions are partnering with private training companies like ILX Group. Most importantly, they do not have the skill set or knowledge to educate students in PRINCE2®. The principles seem simple but the trainer has to impart how those principles may be applied. In addition, educational institutions are operating under the threat of reduced public sector budgets in the coming years, so partnering with an external training provider gives them the ability and expertise necessary to deliver new courses without increasing headcount. Also, institutions that provide PRINCE2® training have to be accredited by the APM Group, and this can be a lengthy process. Partnering gives the institution the opportunity to get these new course offerings to market quickly, without having to become accredited first.
During difficult market conditions there is less money available for incremental discretionary spend, so fewer people are undertaking ongoing professional development. Educational institutions will be forced to re-evaluate their offering to ensure it is aligned with the skills organisations need and professional qualifications provide a key area of differentiation. This shift change will be a positive win-win situation for the institutions and their students.
Case studies: Birkbeck and UWE
Birkbeck, University of London, recently became the UK’s first academic institution to incorporate PRINCE2® professional accreditation in its postgraduate programme. Birkbeck’s MSc in Information Systems & Management includes a ‘Project Management for Informatics’ (PMI) module, which gives students the option to study for PRINCE2® accreditation. Conversely, existing holders of the PRINCE2® foundation and practitioner qualifications can apply for credits on the PMI module. In addition, Birkbeck is offering a short course on Project Management with PRINCE2®. Delegates undertake 40 hours of e-learning provided by ILX Group and an evening workshop before sitting the examination.
The University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) has established a solutions4recession programme to help individuals who are unemployed or under notice of redundancy to improve their skills and marketability. It now includes PRINCE2® foundation and practitioner e-learning courses, in recognition of employer demand for these qualifications. The course includes e-learning modules, the official manual and tutor support by telephone or e-mail and can be accessed by computer from anywhere in the UK.
What Birkbeck and UWE have in common is that they want delegates to have a good mix of skills that they can take and apply immediately in the workplace. PRINCE2® is such a practical qualification, it is equally beneficial to new graduates, the unemployed, or experienced staff who wish to up-skill their project management knowledge in order to keep their jobs.
Eddie Kilkelly MAPM MBCS – Chief Operating Officer for ILX Group plc www.ilxgroup.com has been involved in the Best Practice industry for over fifteen years. During this time he has worked as both a Project and IT Service Manager and more recently as an implementation consultant providing support to organisations who have adopted the use of Best Practice methods including PRINCE2, MSP and ITIL.
It is doubtful whether any industry has seen more change in recent years than healthcare. Arif Ahmed, Managing Director of ikonami, examines the impact of these changes and how HR and Learning & Development (L&D) professionals in the NHS can better manage organisational development.
A report in 2009 estimated that there would be a £15bn contraction in NHS finances in the five years from 2011. However, the demand for healthcare will only increase during the same period. Better healthcare and treatments have led to people living longer with terminal or multiple chronic health conditions. Our ageing population is increasing; the proportion of -old, old, many of whom have multiple health conditions that are more complex and difficult to treat, is now 7% of the UK population (up from 4.5% in 1971). In addition, the recession means that people who once had private health insurance or sufficient disposable income are being forced to turn to the NHS.
At the same time, the regulatory mechanism for healthcare providers is more stringent than ever before. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has a wider range of responsibilities and sanctions than did the Healthcare Commission. Additionally the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) requires NHS organisations to prove compliance across a number of areas. These schemes can have a direct financial impact. Failure to meet CNST targets will lead to higher insurance premiums, whereas the CQC can impose financial penalties – or even close the organisation. One proposal currently under consideration is that a proportion of each organisation’s budget will be dependent upon patient satisfaction. So how can healthcare providers raise standards, prove compliance and maximise the availability and use of budgets?
Initiatives are not enough
In its first 40 years, the NHS focused on the treatment of disease; then the Griffiths report in 1983 heralded a new emphasis on optimal resource allocation. By 1989, the -Working for Patients white paper introduced the concept of health authorities and GPs purchasing services for their patients at the best price. Yet while these changes improved management and budgeting within the NHS, it was at the expense of clinical quality. -The New NHS Modern, Dependable in 1997 and -Quality in the New NHS – in 1998 put clinical standards on a par with governance for the first time, and led to the establishment of compliance programmes like the CQC. Yet while successive initiatives have sought to improve the efficiency of the NHS and safeguard patient care, we still hear about clinical negligence, poor hygiene standards or lax care of vulnerable patients. Measurement and reporting is undoubtedly valuable, but it is clear that tick boxes cannot guarantee patient safety. What is needed is whole-scale culture change.
Focus on competence
The NHS needs to focus on competence – studies have proven that this is critical for delivering better quality care. Yet organisations are more complex because of the service commissioner-provider split. The first challenge is to accept that external staff are an equal risk or benefit as internal NHS employees, so they must be included in the organisation’s training programmes, development plans and reporting systems.
The second challenge is to adopt a framework to measure the competence of each employee in their job role. Tools are already available for this. The Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) sets out the qualifications, skills and experience necessary for every job in the NHS. The associated information management tool – the (Electronic) e-KSF – makes it easy to measure employees against the relevant criteria, identify development needs and track progress. When used across the organisation, this framework can identify the true training and development needs, enabling learning and development programmes to be prioritised, developed and deployed in the most time and cost efficient way. However, it is important to consider the organisation’s current and future needs.
Better workforce modelling
With constrained budgets, healthcare providers will need to become more effective in workforce planning. HR professionals should use models of anticipated patient needs across a five year timeframe to identify the number and type of staff required to deliver patient care. Then they should focus on identifying the number of people with the appropriate skills, abilities and levels of competence necessary to meet those needs, rather than a certain number of staff at each grade. Integrating the e-KSF with a good learning management system can provide managers with a wealth of information upon which robust decisions and plans may be made. This can highlight the gap between current competencies and future needs, making it possible to develop existing staff in a timely way and reduce the need to increase headcount. Focusing on competence rather than set staff -grades also enables the organisation to be more flexible about offering training and development opportunities to the most appropriate employees.
Back to the start
When the NHS was founded, it was thought that improved disease management would decrease healthcare costs over time as people became healthier. While that did not happen, the NHS is going to have to become more efficient without impacting patient care. That can only come from instilling a quality culture from the very top of the organisation, ensuring the learning and development strategy supports that vision, and having effective workforce planning and support systems in place. From the chief executive to the porter, every individual should be competent enough to act in a way that safeguards patient safety and utilises scarce resources effectively.
Arif Ahmed is the co-founder & Director of ikonami www.ikonami.com 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).
The Organisation
Highlands & Islands Fire and Rescue Service (HIFRS) is the most northerly in the country, covering a geographical area of approximately 12,000 square miles providing a fire, rescue and community safety service to the populations of the Highlands, the Shetland Islands, the Orkney Islands and the Western Isles.
Introduction
If asked to address the logistical problems HIFRS’s 1,500 staff face on a daily basis, many would ring the emergency services for help. HIFRS has a vast territory to cover but its funding is determined by the region’s somewhat sparse population so resources are thin on the ground. With lives at stake it’s natural to prioritise fire-fighting equipment over demand for investment in IT, and needless to say the service was a late adopter – creating a network linking over 100 outlying locations only four years ago.
The challenge
HIFRS’s IT system controls a several operational aspects, the most vital being the issuing of emergency response alerts to retained fire fighters across northern Scotland. Communication Manager John Cannon is based at the service’s central hub in Inverness, and is responsible for the smooth running of the network.
‘The retained fire fighters carry pagers, do other jobs during the day and get called out when there is a fire,’ says John, who adds this is handled by an automated system that monitors the current status of resources also calculates the nearest available fire engine and personnel. There are other vital, though arguably less time-sensitive needs to be met, such as a sharepoint intranet server hosting a training archive of latest news, health and safety information and technical notes. With around 350 end-users desktops and a dozen other SQL, mail and other servers running MS Exchange, HIFRS’s IT system has proved to be an invaluable addition to their fire-fighting arsenal, especially when it includes features such as an accurate, up-to-the-minute availability roster.
Network security and integrity is of course of the utmost concern, and John has double-firewalled the system and has back-up servers to deal with most contingencies. ‘We have to exercise fall-back conditions where you might have to leave one building and operate from another one but still keep all the processes in place,’ says John, who stresses that resilience is a key word when planning responses to system threats.
Various network nodes including the control room itself are connected to the internet, requiring added protection from malicious hacking attempts, spam and other malware (such as the recent Conficker outbreak). . John says that HIFRS tried various security packages but found them to be too passive for their high-end requirements. ‘They sit there and don’t really do very much and you presume everything is fine,’ he says, ‘but we need something that is more proactive in reassuring us and our users that everything is up to date, rather than not telling us anything- if you like.’
He adds: ‘Potentially it is a fairly big thing to have your network shut down because of what most people would regard as a very routine thing, such as a failure in IT security. If such situations are not dealt with properly it can become very embarrassing.’
The Solution
John sought the advice of Security IP (SIP), the UK’s foremost threat protection consultants who recommended a product that would best suit HIFRS’s needs. ‘In terms of seeking out the best solution BitDefender stood out head and shoulders above the competitors. We signed up for a three-year deal.’
Having placed the order in March 2008, the next step was implementation and John was keen to get SIP on board to ensure things went as smoothly as possible. ‘When you change things there are always teething problems. It’s never the case that it’s just flick a switch and there you go- all done.’
John continues: ‘We realised it was going to be a bit of a learning curve, so when SIP offered a monthly review as an add-on we went for it. Now one of the service delivery team comes in remotely and looks around to check everything is how it should be.
‘We have survived some hectic times, especially when Conficker was about, but were fine once we realised that BitDefender could cope with it.’
The Result
John derives considerable peace of mind from the support he receives from Security IP. ‘We tend to be too busy on other things to schedule run exhaustive checks ourselves and we find that to be the most important part of the service. We are very happy to pay that wee bit extra to get someone to come in who knows the system and is familiar with it to look around, tweak things and give us a report saying yes, everything is fine.’
‘I can say that since installation, settling in and taking up the SIP housekeeping service we have been more than satisfied. It’s nice to go to bed at night knowing that everything is taken care of,’ says John.
Commenting on this latest implementation, Security IP managing director, Andi Robinson said: -While Internet Security is of paramount importance to all our clients, having Fire and Rescue Service on our books underlines the significance in mission critical environments. Our work with Highlands & Islands shows how the Security IP service support complements BitDefender’s proven technology.
Tackling the growth of carbon emissions from road transport and meeting demanding emission standards are major challenges for the automotive industry. The concept of green motoring, however, is taking off in the UK with incentive schemes offering cash to motorists who scrap their old models in favour of cleaner alternatives like electric vehicles.
The demands of a large-scale adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), however, could have serious implications for electricity grids already under increasing strain.
It would place additional burden on the electricity supply infrastructure in order to charge batteries in vehicles that currently offer very limited range and consequently few practical applications. And, we must not forget that the source of the energy required for electric vehicles is not currently low carbon in nature as the vast majority of our electricity is generated via fossil fuel-burning power stations.
Despite this, the automotive landscape of the near future is diverse and batteries will play an important role in enabling cleaner motoring. Certainly, there is an early niche market for commuter vehicles, where the requirement is only for short trips and where there is the possibility of accommodating the prolonged recharging the vehicle may require prior to a return trip. Batteries are also key components in hybrids and these are poised to be a practical and widely applicable alternative to today’s engine-based vehicles. In the near term hybrids will use a combination of batteries with internal combustion engines as with the Toyota Prius, but ultimately will be combined with hydrogen fuel cells, to provide that which many in the automotive industry see as the end-game: fuel cell battery hybrid vehicles.
The fuel cell power systems used in such hybrids are highly efficient electrochemical devices like batteries, but with some of the characteristics of engines; they combine hydrogen with oxygen from the air to make electricity and water. Unlike batteries, fuel cells do not require recharging but will generate power in a steady and continuous manner, so long as they are provided with fuel (hydrogen). This characteristic lends itself to the provision of the steady cruising power of a vehicle, while batteries provide the additional power required during acceleration. Once the acceleration is completed, the partially depleted batteries are then recharged by the fuel cell while the vehicle is in operation.
Water vapour is the only emission at the tail pipe, and carbon dioxide emissions ‘well to wheel’ can also be zero, if the hydrogen is produced renewably, or much reduced (30-50%) if the hydrogen is produced from natural gas.
Because the energy contained in the hydrogen fuel is greater than can be stored in a battery, the range of fuel cell vehicles is more akin to that of today’s conventional internal combustion engine vehicles (typically several hundred miles) than that of a BEV and refuelling time with gaseous hydrogen takes only a few minutes not several hours.
In London, Intelligent Energy (IE) is leading a programme part-funded by the Technology Strategy Board with partners Lotus Engineering, London Taxis International and TRW Conekt to develop and field zero emission fuel cell hybrid Black Cabs in London for 2012.
The fuel cell taxis will have a range of 250 miles, zero tail-pipe pollution and reduced well-to-wheel emissions but also unaltered passenger capacity, improved acceleration and will take only minutes to refuel. The first of the vehicles will be on the test track in January 2010, with the first road-legal version due in May.
Fleet applications, such as the London Taxi, often use centralised, return-to-base refuelling and Black Cabs in particular rarely stray beyond central London. Only a few hydrogen fuelling stations will be required around London to facilitate the introduction of fuel cell vehicles across the capital, a vision that the Mayor of London is already subscribed to.
A group of the world’s major automotive companies, including Toyota, Daimler, Honda and General Motors recently announced that they view 2015 as the year that will see the start the true mass market commercialisation of their fuel cell vehicles. Leading up to that time, we will see the fielding of increased numbers of fuel cell vehicles in fleet applications. By then it will be possible to have significant numbers of fuel cell taxis operational in London and to have exported the idea and the technology to other cities and other applications around the world. It represents nothing less, than a chance for the UK to gain a lead in an automotive industry going through a period of intensive repositioning and change.
For many not directly involved in public sector financial reporting the move to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for all public sector entities must feel like finance colleagues creating another self-generating, cottage industry. Shadow accounts, restated balance sheets and further audit reviews leading to the holy grail of WGA (Whole of Government Accounts) seem curious distractions at a time when the public sector is facing huge funding challenges.
It is perhaps an apposite time, therefore, to reiterate why such significant changes in financial reporting are taking place.
The reasons for the adoption of IFRS and those for preparing WGA are different but, in overall terms, they have the same broad principles behind them i.e. consistency and comparability. IFRS have now been accepted across most of the developed world as a set of appropriate standards for financial reporting. In the commercial sector this has become ever more important with the globalisation of capital markets. But it is also important that public sector entities report under these accepted standards to promote comparability between organisations and across sectors.
The consistency and comparability arguments also hold true for WGA. The original stimulus for WGA came in a Treasury scoping study in 1998 and the reasons still hold true today. Firstly, consolidation of public sector organisations into one set of accounts provides an overview of the financial state of the UK government and makes comparisons with other fiscal data possible. Given the greater interaction between public bodies, for example, shared service initiatives and partnership arrangements, such an overview has grown in importance.
Making informed comments on changes in the net worth of the UK government should also be possible once a history of WGA accounts is available. This will mean, for example, the full underfunding of public employee pensions can be tracked as will the government’s pledge to make sustainable investment into physical and social infrastructure. The adoption of IFRS across the public sector will also bring consistency in the treatment of PFI and other PPP contracts. In general, many of the schemes will be brought finally on the public sector balance sheet, a development welcomed by most practitioners and commentators.
The WGA process has also brought an improved level of discipline to financial reporting within the public sector. In the past, some departments and government bodies have been notorious for the length of time they have taken to finalise accounts. Fiscal decision making has been made far more difficult given previous year figures have not been finalised. The disciplines of WGA have brought a significant improvement in the timeliness of public sector financial reporting.
But the full realisation of the benefits coming from WGA remains theoretical. The 1998 scoping study envisaged the first full set of WGA being published in 2005/06. This original target came and went. The most recent timetable is for 2009/10 accounts to be published probably towards the end of 2010. Given that local government will move to IFRS in 2010/11 – a year later than central government and the NHS – it is quite possible that this will be given as a reason for further delay. Issues such as ensuring consistency between local and central government in the valuation of the road network remain outstanding and may hold back publication.
That this whole process will have taken over 10 years to complete is testament to the complexity of the task. However, many commentators believe that at least some of the delay has been caused by political stalling due to concern that the picture painted by WGA of government finances would be portrayed as poor within the media. And, if this has really been a reason over the last 10 years, just think how much worse the future position will be as a result of the bank bail-outs!
The WGA initiative has the potential to deliver real benefits and the efforts of finance practitioners up and down the country have been significant in bringing us to the current position. Whoever is in government next year will be faced with a long and difficult agenda of issues. Notwithstanding these challenges, it is imperative that a real commitment is given to the earliest publication of WGA. The alternative is that this initiative loses all credibility in the eyes of practitioners and the rest of the public sector.
For further information contact Nick Bennett: nick.bennett@scott-moncrieff.com or 0131 473 3500
Whilst England’s campaign for world cup qualification in South Africa has been impressive, doubts still remain over some of the key positions. Left side midfield remains a long term problem and the goalkeeper’s spot also now has question marks over it. These remain specialist positions where the limited number of convincing contenders reflects a dearth of talent coming through.
A group of specialists coming together to form an effective team is not only essential for an international football team but is also a requirement for most management structures within organisations. The effective CEO acknowledges and harnesses these skills to manage the leadership team to its full potential. Leadership teams require a broad range of skills and talents but there is real danger that sometimes the very breadth of the skills required means these teams ‘play people out of position’ or appoint individuals who lack the necessary level of skill.
Over the last decade there has been a move across the public sector to reduce leadership teams to a small cohort supporting a chief executive. The corporate services director has become a key member of the team responsible for an array of functions including personnel, finance, ICT, procurement, legal services and administration. Inevitably, the individual tasked with such a role, although frequently professionally trained in one area, has to be a generalist in all others.
The trend for small management teams has not only been born from the need partly to focus decision making away from larger, unwieldy groups but also from the need to find efficiencies in senior positions. The days when public sector organisations can operate with extensive management tiers have gone. There is, however, a danger that the focus on decision making is at the expense of ensuring the core skills exist to effectively and properly manage the organisation.
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance (CIPFA) has recently picked up the cudgels on behalf of finance professionals. In its publication ‘The role of the chief financial officer in public service organisations’ it rightly makes the point that financial issues are central to the success of an organisation.
Public sector organisations need a chief financial officer who is professionally qualified (in finance) and is a member of the leadership team. If this view is accepted it cannot, therefore, be acceptable for an organisation’s finance function to be represented at the top table by an individual with a legal or HR background no matter how able they are when it comes to finance.
There is wide-scale acceptance that significant cuts will be required in public spending over the next decade. Increased pressure to protect front-line services will mean challenging support services to make efficiencies. The impact on these services will be severe whether through more shared service initiatives, business process improvements or asking more of employees. Inevitably the size of the public sector will reduce and organisational restructuring and mergers will be required. The public sector may also have to withdraw from certain discretionary service provision. In such a difficult environment the skills and professional standards of the chief financial officer of an organisation are even more important.
Financial stewardship and ensuring robust controls exist to safeguard public money inevitably come more to the fore when budgets are tight. But when budget-holders are also being asked to do and take on more, or when there is major organisational change or restructuring, there is a real danger that some of the more routine controls can slip. The chief financial officer must have a level of professional, independent skill to ensure good financial management remains in place. Rigorous financial appraisal and evaluation of efficiency initiatives and all new investment opportunities is also critical. This level of robust questioning cannot be properly undertaken by someone who is not part of the leadership of an organisation.
This view has been recognised by HM Treasury who require all UK government departments to have a finance professional on the board or equivalent and recommend -it is good practice for all other public sector organisations to do the same and to operate to the same standards”.
Yet despite CIPFA and HM Treasury’s view, many public sector organisations persist with management structures that relegate the importance of finance. These organisations need to appreciate the environment has now changed. There is still a role for generalists but just like the left side conundrum facing Capello, for an organisation to not only fulfil its real potential but to also safeguard its future, you need specialists in the right position.
For further information contact Nick Bennett: nick.bennett@scott-moncrieff.com or 0131 473 3500
POLICE Authority volunteers have jumped in the saddle of a scheme aimed at ensuring police force dogs and horses don’t get a woof ride. Greater Manchester Police Authority’s Animal Welfare Visiting Scheme was trotted out earlier this month (Dec 7).
A total of six volunteers are signed up as Animal Welfare Visitors and they regularly monitor the Force’s dogs and horses when the animals are working, training and resting.
A GMPA volunteer said: -GMP’s horses and dogs are extremely well cared for and it’s important that people realise this scheme isn’t a result of any issues or concerns in that respect.
-It’s all about maintaining the extremely high standards of care which are in place and introducing a process which reassures local people that the welfare of GMP’s animals is safeguarded.”
The visitors make unannounced checks of the animals at Force facilities at Hough End in Chorlton and at various training venues.
They also watch the animals when they are at work during operations and they recently observed work carried out as part of Operation Admiral, which resulted in almost 600 arrests.
Animal visitors comment and report on the welfare of the animals and the conditions in which they are housed, trained and transported.
GMPA Chairman Cllr Paul Murphy said: -GMPA has a legal duty to make sure GMP is delivering a good service. I hope this scheme shows we are committed to fulfilling this duty in every aspect of police service delivery.”
Information recorded by visitors is reported to Greater Manchester Police Authority and shared with senior police officers at GMP’s mounted and dog units.
GMPA scrutinises the police officers on a quarterly basis to ensure the findings being recorded and shared are being addressed where appropriate.
Scientists at the University of Bath have set up a specialist research lab in Madagascar to train local students in using the latest satellite technology to monitor and conserve the environment. Dr Peter Long and Professor Tamas Szekely, from the University’s Department of Biology & Biochemistry, have transformed a previously empty room at the University of Toliara into a Geographical Information Science (GIS) lab.
Supported by The Leverhulme Trust and the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Ralph Brown Expedition Award, they have created the specialist lab by providing laptops, internet access and GPS receivers.
The pair also collaborated with Dr Sama Zefania at the University of Toliara to run courses to train Madagascan biology graduates to analyse satellite images for projects ranging from environmental conservation to planning and forestry management.
Dr Long explained: -We’ve been working with colleagues at the University of Toliara for several years, studying the use of wetlands in Madagascar for farming and fishing, and looking at how these activities will be affected by future climate change, deforestation and human population growth.
-We noticed that the local biology graduates have quite an old-fashioned education at university. So they don’t have the transferable skills they need to be able to work in environmental impact jobs such as park management, geographical planning and the mining industry. This means that companies employ foreign workers to do these jobs instead.
-So we decided to set up a lab there and run workshops to teach these specialist skills to lecturers and students at the university.
Professor Szekely said: -It was an interesting challenge- the lab didn’t have any furniture, or even a door, let alone internet access. We had to transport all the books, laptops, printers and field equipment using rickshaws!
-We’re hoping to continue running workshops and help the students into the careers they want to do.
-It’s very satisfying to see the progress of the students. We’ve met some good friends with whom we hope to be able to collaborate academically in the future.
Kafosay Felestin is a postgraduate student in Geography at the University of Toliara.
As part of his course he must undertake an extended piece of field research and write a dissertation, but for many students in Madagascar fieldwork costs are prohibitively expensive.
The Leverhulme-funded project, a collaboration between Bath, Toliara and Cardiff University-based scientists Professor Mike Bruford and Dr Edward Brede, has funded Kafosay to spend two months doing fieldwork in the lower Mangoky region in order to understand how rural people use wetlands.
-I was really happy to be able to work with the Bath team, said Kafosay. -This project was an opportunity for me to learn how to perform the latest GIS analysis, get into the field with all the equipment I needed, and improve my English by working closely with the British team.
Dr Long said: -It was great to work with some really enthusiastic Malagasy students in Toliara. I’m confident that this small project has given valuable training to the students we worked with and it was great to be able to leave the legacy of a small library, laptops and field equipment so that Toliara students in future will be able to do high quality field research in their local environment.
Kafosay hopes to continue to do a PhD on conservation of wetlands in Madagascar. He feels that working with the two UK universities has helped him towards this goal.
-I now know how to plan scientific research and compete for grant funding from international agencies, he said.
Dr Long added: -Working with students in Universities is an important aspect of doing research in Madagascar. The Malagasy students’ perspectives are often very valuable and it is possible to make a real difference to higher education in Madagascar by taking the time to understand the students’ needs.
An Employment Tribunal in Croydon has rejected a claim that Surrey Police discriminated against an officer who was dismissed for poor performance during her probationary period.
Alison Wheeler, now aged 40, was dismissed in December 2007, after she was found to be incompetent as an officer. The tribunal dismissed her claims she had been discriminated against due to her age and gender.
Ms Wheeler joined Surrey Police in January 2006 and undertook the new recruits’ course at the Force’s Training School near Guildford. She was then posted to North Surrey to serve her probationary period, where, as with all new officers, she received guidance and support from experienced colleagues.
Officers assessing her ability observed regular underperformance. Ms Wheeler was often late for duty and failed to take responsibility for some of her assignments while working in CID. A performance action plan was drawn up to provide structured development, but she failed to meet its targets, such as arriving at work on time.
She was then posted to the Targeted Patrol Team to experience another area of policing. While here, she failed to intervene when another officer was being assaulted outside Walton police station. She did not use her personal protection equipment and did not activate the emergency button on her police radio, which officers are trained to do if they or colleagues are facing immediate danger.
Following this incident, Ms Wheeler lost the confidence of fellow officers and, in combination with the other performance issues identified, her suitability as an officer was reconsidered. Under national police regulations, she was dismissed before completion of her probationary period, a course of action that was not taken lightly and for which there is no right of appeal.
Following her dismissal, she lodged a grievance that she had been discriminated against due to her age and gender. Thorough internal reviews were conducted by senior officers, all of which found she had been treated fairly and that her personal circumstances had not contributed to her dismissal. After these reviews, she sought the Employment Tribunal.
Commenting on the verdict, Assistant Chief Constable Ian Dyson said: -Far from discriminating against Ms Wheeler or writing-off her potential at the first sign of weakness, we supported her – as we do with all new officers – and created an action plan to help her achieve her goal of becoming a police officer.
-Despite this, her poor performance continued during her probationary period and she failed to help a colleague who was being attacked and to uphold her duty to the public. The decision to dismiss her was based on sound evidence and this scurrilous claim at Employment Tribunal has cost the Force considerably in terms of time and resources.
-Surrey Police values the diversity of our workforce and welcomes applications from all suitably qualified candidates, regardless of their age, gender, social background or any other personal circumstances.
-However, we make no apologies for dismissing someone who was not suitable to be a police officer and will support managers in identifying and tackling underperformance.
A design has been unveiled for the first council houses to be built in Bolton for 20 years. Planning approval was recently granted for the £2 million scheme, which will see 17 homes built on land at Hamilton Court, in Little Lever. The project, which was given a £1 million grant by the government, will see work commencing in February.
The houses – 10 two-bedroom apartments, six semi-detached houses and one detached house – are expected to be ready for tenants in early 2011, and will be managed by Bolton at Home.
Great Places Housing Group is the development agent for the scheme and architects Paddock Johnson Partnership were appointed to carry out the design.
The homes have been designed to be energy efficient and will meet the government’s code for sustainable homes level 4. The scheme also contains leisure space and parking provision, with shared communal allotment spaces to the rear of the apartments.
Councillor Nick Peel, Bolton Council’s Executive Member for Housing, said: -These are the first homes we will be building and retaining ownership of in more than two decades. Like all local authorities, we have a real shortage of affordable housing and these houses will help provide much needed new housing for local people. The housing scheme has been designed with careful consideration to the surrounding areas, neighbourhoods and buildings.
The homes form part of the council’s Transforming Estates programme, which aims to develop around 6,000 new homes of which 3,000 will be for sale and 3,000 for affordable rent over the next 12 years dependent on market conditions and securing planning approval.
Police in Oldham have raised £3,681 for men and women injured while serving with the armed forces by giving shoppers a little extra help at the checkout. Officers and Police Community Support Officers took part in a bag-packing event on Thursday 3 December to raise money for the Help for Heroes charity.
PC Ian McDonald said: -Not only have we raised a lot of money for this worthy cause, but the event also provided us with the chance to talk to people in an informal environment who might not otherwise speak to an officer.
Phil Caloe, County Coordinator, Royal British Legion, said: -We want to thank all the officers and of course the public who helped raise this money. We are always very grateful to everyone who takes the time to contribute to this worthy cause.
The fund-raiser not only supports a good cause but it is just one of the many ways that the Oldham Division is working with local communities and striving to deliver the Policing Pledge.
-We are keen to hear from the residents to ensure our service is focussed on the needs of local communities, addressing the issues that matter most to people in Oldham, adds PC McDonald.
Help For Heroes is a registered charity and was launched in 2007 to raise funds for the treatment and rehabilitation of injured service men and women.
Budding young filmmakers from Huyton Sports and Arts Centre for Learning are celebrating after making a winning movie about the consequences of becoming involved with gangs and guns as part of a Merseyside Police
awareness campaign.
Merseyside Police commissioned pupils from Huyton Sports and Arts Centre for Learning and Christ the King Centre for Learning to produce their own films to dissuade their peers from joining gangs and highlight the dangers
of carrying/using a gun.
Armed with a video camera they were asked to produce a three-minute film and distribute to as many young people as possible within three weeks. Judges from Merseyside Police and Knowsley Council were stunned by the
creativity and innovative ways the schools pushed their videos out. This included using social network sites such as You Tube and Facebook.
Both entries were of a consistently high standard, but after much deliberation, Huyton Sports and Arts Centre for Learning was selected as the winning team. All the entries were judged on content, creativity, effectiveness and distribution.
The winning students received £250 for their school and the video equipment they used for the project. The video will also be posted on the Merseyside Police website.
The Safer Knowsley Partnership has also made a donation to the runners-up in recognition of their contribution.
The team – which consisted of Lloyd Williams, Sophie Lynch, Andrew Connor, Sam Meaghan, Chloe O’Neill, Natalie Reppion, Jess Balmer and Amy Houghton – chose hard-hitting themes throughout their video to try and
influence the behaviour of other young people.
One of the winning school pupils Lloyd Williams, said: “It’s been a very interesting experience coming up with ideas and progressing the video. We have all worked hard to create a video that will have a positive impact on
the community.”
To get their video out to as many people as possible the students put the video on the school screen and it has been viewed by 1400 pupils. It has also been shown during lessons and at local youth centres and placed on
YouTube. They also asked for feedback on how effective the video was and received a 96% satisfaction rate. A total of 106 pupils were interviewed for the survey, which also revealed the following:
96% of students said that the film was successful in getting across the dangers and consequences of gun crime
58% of students knew about the consequences of gun crime before watching the video
The viral video schools competition is part of a wider Merseyside Police Gun Crime campaign and the videos produced by the schools were aimed at young people under the age of 18.
Acting Superintendent Claire Richards, said: “This project has been a great success. I was overwhelmed by the high quality of both video’s and the innovative, hard-hitting approaches used by the students to get key messages about gun crime across to their peers. Using groups of young
people to act as role models to influence other young people is invaluable. It was evident that a lot of hard work and effort had been put into the project and feedback from the pupils who were involved was very positive.”
Steve Agger, Knowsley Council Service Director – Crime and Disorder, said: “The Safer Knowsley Partnership recognises the hard work that has been put into this project by the schools and pupils involved. They both showed
great creativity and a sound understanding of the issue. We value their involvement in helping to promote, what we feel is a very important message to members of their own peer group. We hope to continue the relationships
we have developed with both schools and to work with them again on future projects.
Commuters around the world have been waiting for “paperless” tickets for some time now, says John Elliott, Head of Public Sector Practice at Consult Hyperion. But there are still some important lessons to be learnt from the international trials held to date
Several different technologies are emerging to support paperless ticketing, but one of the best known is Near Field Communications (NFC), a short-range high frequency wireless communication technology that enables the exchange of data between devices. “Contactless tickets” make use of smart card technology using radio waves (rather than physical contacts) to communicate with the chip inside the card. As such, these electronic tickets – also known as e-tickets – can be used to help reduce the production and distribution costs connected with traditional paper-based ticketing channels, and can also increase customer convenience by providing new, secure and simpler ways to purchase tickets.
Benefits of e-ticketing
Clearly, transport is a sector where this kind of technology can make a huge and positive difference, bringing down journey times while increasing capacity, comfort and convenience. The required technology is already out there, and governments worldwide are increasingly keen to see it used not only to help passengers, but also to reduce congestion, pollution, improve the local environment, and help plan more effective local transport systems.
Some of the other common benefits cited by national transit operators who are currently trialing these schemes are:
Operational cost reductions – By allowing contactless payment smart cards (EMV) to be accepted or using NFC-enabled mobile phones.
Reduce cash-handling costs – the cost of collecting, transporting and securing cash is high. By minimising the use of cash, there is also a reduction in the risk of theft.
Additional revenue streams – new technologies allow operators to consider new services and also to increase overall patronage, leading to higher revenue.
Standardisation- by moving towards globally standardised solutions, there will be more equipment vendors to source devices from and so more competition will be fostered in the market.
Customer convenience – as we move to having more everyday applications on mobile phones, there is significant interest in having ticketing products on NFC-enabled mobile phones.
Recent developments
NFC mobile phones have now emerged, and these have the ability to act as both smart cards and smart card readers. This means that, in the near future, the phones in people’s pockets will be able to store transit e-tickets that can be read simply by tapping them on a reader. If this sounds slightly futuristic, it’s not; Sony Ericsson has already claimed that all of its handsets will soon support NFC.
Additionally, international payment organisations like MasterCard and Visa are writing specifications to allow their chip and PIN cards to work contactlessly and then bill the transit journeys directly to the credit card statement. The many trials of NFC payment across the globe have shown that it is popular with the users and fit for purpose as both a payment instrument as well as a transit ticket holder. NFC is already widely used in Asia, for example, with schemes like T-Cash in Korea and Suica in Japan.
Barriers to adoption
Although national e-ticketing schemes are currently being trialled around the world, none of them are fully interoperable at the technology level. Therefore, large international suppliers of the equipment needed for this kind of solution simply cannot see the point of developing it for small national markets. As a result, competition has not emerged to drive prices down, and so the costs of such elements are destined to remain artificially high for relatively small markets like The Netherlands or the UK.
Cost remains an issue for transport operators, and the benefits from this kind of investment will ultimately fall to a number of different parties, with some savings falling to local government (such as more accurate reimbursement of concessionary travel), and others going to bus operators, passengers and the public. Returns will be high, although the large wins are contingent upon a full, interoperable, inter-modal infrastructure being in place and widespread take-up by passengers. Plus, increased passenger numbers will depend on each country’s public transport operators developing fare strategies to make use of interoperable ticketing enabled by smart cards.
Looking to the future
Although we may need to wait a bit longer for a fully-functioning, fully-interoperable national e-ticketing scheme, there have already been several significant urban e-ticketing success stories based on e-ticketing technologies, such as the Oyster card in London, the MoBIB scheme in Brussels, or the Octopus card in Hong Kong. From a customer point of view, these schemes are extremely attractive: no need to tender cash; discounted fares; multi-modal journeys, and so on. As such, an appetite for this kind of solution remains.
After all, the benefits of e-ticketing for transport are well documented, and as new technology becomes more established, tickets will be loaded onto mobile phones instead of smart cards, allowing people to buy their ticket over the air, check timetables and real time travel information and view their stored tickets all on their phone. The list of possibilities for this kind of technology is endless, which is why governments around the world not only want to promote the spread of smart and integrated ticketing, but also want to fully understand what barriers may currently be preventing its more rapid adoption, so that they can continue to build on this strategic vision and instead move towards a reality that will benefit everyone.
With the Cop 15 Climate Change event in Copenhagen drawing to a close, now is a time for reflection. A period for the governments and people involved to sit back and reflect on decisions made. Further treaties and agreements will no doubt be made over the course of the next few months as world leaders try to comprehend the scale of the challenges arrayed against them and bring about the changes needed to preserve this world and our natural resources.
But this is not the first such event, it will not be the last and there are already a host of measures in place to stem the tide of ecological damage. In April 2010 the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (previously known as the Carbon Reduction Commitment) will come into force. This is part of the government’s efforts to improve energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions across the UK. In particular it is focused on large organisations, across the public and private sector in an effort to change opinions and mindsets at senior management levels. In simple terms the scheme will place a cost on carbon emissions and provide caps on energy usage, whilst providing opportunities to buy and trade allowances. The key fact though is that the individual organisations will have the right to decide for themselves, the most cost effective way to go about making those reductions.
Overall the scheme is likely to affect around 20,000 organisations across the UK, who are in total responsible for approximately 10 percent of the country’s emissions. There are various means of qualification for the scheme but it is expected to initially affect local authorities and government departments as well as supermarkets, banks etc. There will be a three year roll out of the scheme with various qualification levels and phases, culminating in 2013 with the first capped phase and the beginning of carbon auctions.
Why am I so pleased about the CRC. Well, quite frankly there are two reasons. Firstly, as an environmentalist – anything done by any organisation to improve our climate and decrease damage to the earth is, in my opinion a good thing. Many people deride the government for not doing enough (or anything at all). This is a substantial step and should at the very least raise awareness levels. Secondly, the fact that the organisations involved can make up their own minds about how to improve their energy efficiency – why? Because it provides opportunity for those smaller businesses and service providers already going to great lengths to be energy efficient.
Those organisations, like Magenta Security, who are already measuring, reducing or completing negating their emissions and environmental impact are in the perfect place to help. As the scheme kicks in, the companies affected need to start looking very hard at all areas of their business, identifying potential cuts and opportunities for greater efficiency. What better place to start than the replacement of an inefficient supplier with an efficient one. I appreciate that any purchasing teams reading this are probably having an apoplectic fit at such a blasé comment, I entirely understand that supply change in large organisations involves lengthy tender process, due diligence and extensive negotiation. However; it doesn’t change the fact that the use of carbon neutral suppliers has a direct and immediate effect on your own emissions. Just think of the difference you would make by immediately changing the supply of your catering, cleaning and security services from carbon heavy to carbon neutral.
Unfortunately it is unlikely that you will immediately find carbon neutral, environmentally friendly suppliers for all your services, however small steps in the right direction will make changes you can measure under the CRC. Draw up a list of potential suppliers, look into those where immediate changes can be made, in those cases where there are long term contracts and commitments, start communicating with the suppliers. Make them more aware of the scheme, see what they can do to help you, surprisingly few small businesses are aware of the CRC or how it is likely to affect their larger clients.
Above all don’t fear the CRC, yes it will mean changes, yes it is likely to mean some more red-tape and paper-work. But for once the sacrifice is worth making. It has been years since the Kyoto summit and only now are we seeing real differences in the way our policy makers behave. Just think how long it will be before the Cop 15 talks have any impact – it may well be too late by then.
Lean methodologies that have revolutionised manufacturing are achieving impressive results in hospitals. Many healthcare managers are using the principles, systems and tools of Lean to stretch limited resources, improve the quality of patient care and safety, eliminate errors, reduce waste, cut delays and reduce the length of patient stays.
Lean provides, perhaps, the best opportunity to achieve gold standards of healthcare- offering a proven route to better care, better quality and lower costs- and succeeding where a raft of political initiatives have failed to make their mark.
Some people argue that healthcare is a totally different environment to industry and that Lean cannot be transported successfully to a patient focused environment. But a factory and a hospital actually have more in common than is first apparent. Both environments run complex processes where the scope for errors, quality problems, poor communication, waste and the failure to put the customer first is colossal.
Why Lean Healthcare?
There are huge advantages to using Lean in healthcare because it determines a new culture and system of checks and improvements- providing a sustainable methodology to continuously improve services. The NHS has a long history of trying to improve services against aggressive goals, but it lacks a sustainable methodology to achieve those goals and avoid the need to constantly set new ones. Everything that happens in healthcare – procedures, appointments, bills – is a process. The challenge is to improve and continuously do it better time and time again.
Lean healthcare involves a radical rethinking of working procedures in hospitals and elsewhere and a long-term commitment by management at the highest levels.
In hospital operational areas (wards, theatres, diagnostic departments, outpatients, etc) lean can achieve many tangible benefits, including reducing patient waiting times and faster preparation of operating rooms. It enables an organisation to discover the reasons for poor quality, for poor delivery, for poor management.
Whatever the challenge, the truly lean organisation can harness the ideas of its people to deliver even better care, and world class performance- freeing up clinician time to spend more time with patients, indeed to -End Waiting, Change Lives.
Lean implementation and principles
When our lean practitioners go into any organisation they identify all of the process inputs to work out where value is being added for the patient and where it’s not. This is similar to a medical diagnostic process where the symptoms are identified to understand the current condition and issues. Next step is to work with the relevant team to develop solutions for eliminating all the non-value added steps within the process. The aim is to cut out those factors that are a waste of time, money or resources. In a healthcare setting, it needs to be totally focused on putting patients first.
Good Lean practice is not based on finding quick, temporary solutions, but instead concentrates on how the work is done and how to eliminate the root causes of delays and other impediments to flow. It is easy to blame human error, but in the healthcare sector humans have to work within often highly complex systems, and it is usually the systems themselves that are the cause.
Five key steps to Lean can be applied to healthcare and these are:
1. Specify value in the eyes of the customer
Patients expect to receive the best care and service that can be provided, free of errors. This means identifying best practice in every step of the patient journey, both information and physical flow, and then rigorously applying gold standard work. This could mean always labelling samples at the bedside, applying care bundles rigorously, or eliminating opportunity for transcription errors by using IT effectively.
2. Identify the value stream
It is useful to start at the end of the process and follow the activity right back to the beginning. This is because the process of discharge often holds up the whole healthcare system, whether this is blocked beds, or follow up appointment processes.
3. Make value flow
No manufacturer would ever run every asset in the value chain at 100%. Customers would never contract to use all the capacity of every supplier, as they know this would guarantee failure the moment there is a small change in demand. But hospitals often run their wards at 100% occupancy. To enable patients to flow safely, there has to be unused capacity. This is actually more economic because the hidden waste in dealing with the errors, cancelled appointments, initiative lists, missed targets and lost activity is eliminated. This means turning the traditional accounting on its head, and focusing on giving value to the patients rather than on measuring activity and cost.
4. so the customer can pull.
When a service is capable, adequate and available, with good flow, it is possible to move to a system that is pulled by patient demand, rather than pushed onto the patient. The possibilities of this are very exciting: No need for outpatient appointments and waiting list procedures, just turn up at a convenient time.
5. Continuously improve in pursuit of perfection
Visual management is essential to show what has been achieved and how to improve. This ensures patients can easily see what has been done to make their service better. The Lean organisation will challenge every team to have a daily review, and write on the wall what the staff will do to make tomorrow even better than today.
The difficulties or challenges encountered in achieving each of these steps will vary from institution to institution depending on the inherent work culture and conditions but every step is essential and must be addressed if improvements are to be gained and sustained.
The Manufacturing Institute has partnered blue-chip enterprises, healthcare and public sector organisations in the UK and Europe over the last 15 years and has helped all these different sectors to understand their individual needs. Their more recent work with more than 15 NHS Trusts is helping to transform the care given by hospitals such as Stockport NHS Foundation Trust; Blackpool Fylde and Wyre NHS Foundation Trust ; Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust; West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust and Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust. More information about these Lean initiatives and others can be found at www.manufacturinginstitute.co.uk/Healthcare
Groupcall is a leading provider of communication and data solutions to the education, public and private sectors. Stuart Abrahams, Groupcall business development director, discusses the positive impact regular communication between a school and a parent can have on a child’s education. He explores how a parental communication system, such as Groupcall Messenger, can assist Local Authorities (LAs) and its schools to achieve this.
The UK education system has undergone a major overhaul in a bid to streamline learning and help equip young people with the skills and knowledge required for a positive future. The Government has identified that parental engagement plays a significant role in achieving this and has consequently implemented recommendations for schools to adhere to in order to fully involve parents in their child’s education. An example of this is Manchester City Council, which has recently chosen to install Groupcall Messenger, a parental communication system which is proven to enhance parental engagement and improve attendance, in all of its 167 schools.
The deadline for parental reporting in UK schools is fast approaching. It is becoming increasingly accepted that parents who are actively engaged and involved with their child’s academic life, can have a positive influence on academic performance. The ultimate objective of parental reporting is to encourage parents and teachers to work in conjunction to support a child’s education and learning. If a child feels their parent is interested in their learning and general school life then they are more likely to strive to excel.
One aspect of what schools are required to offer to their parents is online reporting, which is being introduced to increase the level of information parents have access to, therefore boosting parental engagement. Those schools yet to provide online reporting will have an obligation to do so by 2010 and 2012 for secondary and primary schools respectively. A plethora of frequently updated information regarding a learner’s school information, such as attendance, behaviour, assessment, home work assignments and class work schedules is consequently made available. Improving the level of communication and the accessibility of educational information enables the school-parent relationship to become more meaningful.
With the parental engagement targets implemented, LAs should acknowledge these too to ensure that the relevant facilities and services are in place to help support its schools to achieve these.
Utilising parental communication systems
With an automated parental communications system, such as Groupcall Messenger, which is currently used in more than 2,000 schools across the UK and Europe, making contact with parents becomes simpler. Rather than being a time-consuming manual process which requires dedicated staff members and consumes staff resources and time, contact is quick, efficient and cost-effective. Via Messenger schools can inform parents of key information from the ‘Reporting to Parents’ guidelines including attendance, behaviour, progress, attainment and Special Needs. This improves parental engagement and means that schools need not rely on parents logging onto the school’s system to access student information.
For schools whose service procurement is influenced or managed by the LA, the council will want to support its schools in implementing the best solution; helping to ensure cost-effective and far-reaching efficiencies. LAs will be keen to support schools in successfully achieving parental engagement targets as this can positively affect the overall reputation of the council, for example, it is beneficial for councils to be recognised for having high attendance rates and first-rate exam results.
An effective parental communication system is able to directly inform parents quickly about incidents such as a child’s unauthorised absence via text or voice messages, this enables early intervention. Issues surrounding an absence can be identified and addressed in the early stages rather than being allowed to escalate and potentially become a more serious situation.
A solution with many benefits
Councils should bear in mind cost effective ways of sourcing and implementing an efficent parental communication solution in their authority. Manchester City Council has chosen to install its parental communication system due to its ability to enhance parental relationships and improve attendance. By centrally securing a parental communication system on behalf of all of its schools, the authority has benefited from bulk cost savings compared to schools procuring a system individually.
Manchester City Council’s MIS support manager, Vince Slatford, summarised: -As the support manager for school’s ICT, it is always a challenge to find new and intuitive ways of assisting schools in raising their performance levels. One of the many projects we are currently working on is to improve the attendance levels at each school and therefore that of Manchester as a whole. We were aware of a limited number of schools using various applications to text parents/carers in relation to first day calling. This seemed to be a cost effective and time saving method of engaging parents at an early stage to discover the whereabouts of each child.
-Since then we have realised that Messenger can do so much more than just track and improve attendance and it has enabled us now to focus on the Parental Engagement strategy for the 2010/2012 agenda. Schools can send various forms of messages out to parents/carers relating to simple queries such as forgotten PE kits to school closures due to bad weather etc.
-Communication leads to community
Communication is such a simple basic human skill, yet can truly be such a large factor of academic success. As society become increasingly technologically advanced, it is vital that we exploit and embrace the ICT available to us in order to maximise the education provided to learners of tomorrow. Good communication is a two-way process and therefore should include both parents and the school. An effective parental communication system has the power to improve communication and provide huge scope for cost-savings. Manchester can demonstrate to other LAs the scope of what a parental communication system can achieve, and how via procuring a system to be applied on an LA-wide basis; LAs can gain best value, whilst also standardising quality for their schools.
VENDOR-NEUTRAL consultancies offering low-risk fee structures may be the compromise between long-term sustainability and the need for immediate savings in the NHS- de Poel.
The announcement from the number-one procurer of temporary agency labour, who manage the supply of temporary workers for more than 50 clients across the UK, comes in response to government plans to cut public spending by £12bn by being more efficient.
Unlike other management consultancies, de Poel says that vendor-neutral consultancies with low-risk fee structures can help manage NHS processes but with the added value of impartiality and without any initial outlay.
This is a compromise between arguments for long-term strategies to improve NHS services in the future, and the need for immediate cut-backs highlighted by the Chancellor Alistair Darling this week.
Chief Executive of de Poel, Matthew Sanders, said: -The argument against NHS outsourcing focuses primarily on how expensive management consultancies are, but this isn’t always the case.
-Our client-base for example, which includes charitable organisations with very limited spend, are only charged a percentage on the money they save. There is no initial outlay, and if they don’t make any savings, they don’t pay a penny.
He added: -Though there may be some things which the NHS can manage internally, there are others- such as the supply of temporary agency labour, likely to increase with a slashed workforce – which the NHS has neither the capacity nor the expertise to manage in-house.
-Unmanaged, the use of temporary agency labour poses huge legal, financial and qualitative risks to the NHS, as it remains one of the largest unregulated industries in Britain.
In his speech in central London which unveiled plans to reduce public spending, Prime Minister Gordon Brown also made reference to the value of technological advances in improving efficiency and bringing down cost.
Mr Sanders agreed, saying that the increase in organisational efficiency acknowledged by every single one of his clients in the most part came down to use of de Poel’s electronic timesheet and invoice-processing system.
COST-SAVINGS, increased human resources support and reduced bureaucracy, have been recognised by the NHS as positive results of outsourcing recruitment processes. A new scheme launched by NHS Employers is one of several offering organisations the chance to save millions of pounds by taking on some of their recruitment hassles and CRB checks, freeing up money, time and resources for other things.
A similar service, offered by the largest purchaser of temporary labour de Poel, is already proving effective for care and social housing organisations in the third and private sectors, saving as much as 12% a year on their temporary labour spend.
As well as reducing costs and administrative time through use of an innovative, online timesheet and invoice processing system, organisations such as Mears and Avante Partnership are enjoying better access to critical management information, improved quality suppliers and outsourced management of incoming legislation.
Chief Executive of de Poel, Matthew Sanders, said: -This is great news for all involved. The fact that the NHS are finally recognising the value of recruitment outsourcing means that organisations such as ourselves might finally get the chance to share procurement best practice with the public sector.
-Our relationship with some of the biggest care organisations, as well as the top procurement professionals within the retail sector, has equipped us with the capacity to help the NHS and the public sector generally, where they need it most.”
Director of NHS Employers, Sian Thomas, echoed some of these views. She was reported in the Health Service Journal as having said: -We [the NHS] need to learn lessons from other sectors, and embrace technology.
-People haven’t had the money to go out and make the massive investment in support functions. It’s difficult for small departments.”
In line with these observations, de Poel has developed a fee structure where there is no charge unless they find direct cost savings on organisations’ contingent workforce costs.
One of the UK’s most prominent stop smoking campaigners has joined Knowsley Health & Wellbeing to head up its work in helping locals to kick their smoking habit.
Christine Owens has been at the vanguard of smoking cessation for more than 16 years, having previously worked for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. During her 10-years at the charity she was instrumental in setting up the North West Stop Smoking Services which has collectively helped more than 371,000 people quit smoking to date.
The well-known campaigner also played a critical role in lobbying for the introduction of the smokefree legislation in 2007 which banned smoking in all enclosed public spaces and workplaces.
She joins Knowsley Health & Wellbeing as programme manager for Tobacco Control, where she will lead work to reduce smoking prevalence. Knowsley Health and Wellbeing is already recognised as a national leader in stop smoking services across the UK, with more adult smokers quitting per head of population than anywhere else in the North West.
Christine, who is married with four children and lives in Runcorn, grew up in Halewood. She said: -I’m delighted to join Knowsley Health & Wellbeing. I grew up in the area and so I’m keen to use my knowledge and focus my efforts into supporting local people quit smoking. It’s still vitally important that we get the message out there that the single most important thing people can do to improve their health is to quit smoking.
Dr Diana Forrest, Director of Public Health for Knowsley said: -We are very privileged to have Christine on board. She brings such a wealth of knowledge and energy to the team, and is someone who has already made an incredible contribution to helping people live longer and healthier lives. We are looking forward to working with her to implement innovative initiatives which will further help Knowsley smokers to be free of the habit.
Food producers and suppliers are today offered the chance to capitalise on the growing local food goldmine following publication of a new feasibility study. The study, produced by Bidwells Agribusiness on behalf of the South East Food Group Partnership, establishes the growing demand for regional food at both a consumer and buyer level, and the difficulties that impact on suppliers and customers undertaking more business together.
According to Bidwells’ research, two in three London consumers currently buys or would like to buy more local food. The report also concludes that there is not currently enough supply of local beef, lamb, fish, fruit and vegetables to satisfy demand, implying there are significant opportunities available to the region’s suppliers and producers, with similar scenarios likely in other UK conurbations.
Valuing the London demand at £9.3 billion annually, the Bidwells study suggests a number of ways in which producers and suppliers could capitalise on the growing consumer appetite for local food and regional food. The report also demonstrates how this might then stimulate more long-term support for the British food sector.
The report makes two main recommendations.
1. The development of a food hub to support the food sector in the regions around London (South East and East of England)
The hub should incorporate a virtual business to business e-marketplace to enable producers, suppliers, buyers and retailers to engage more directly, and at the same time provide a platform for promoting food to consumers, helping stimulate the long-term demand for local and regional food where it counts
The study reveals how nearly all food buyers and retailers surveyed want greater links to producers, easier sourcing, less hassle, and a one stop shop. Having a strong and (interactive) relationship with the producer is essential, but being able to undertake administrative transactions across a range of purchases in one place is of equal importance. The study outlines how the development of a hub is critical to link up this disjointed market place.
2. The development of 10 – 20 street markets across the Greater London area
These markets would act as local food beacons at key locations across Greater London, enabling markets to play a greater role in providing fresh regional food at local levels
Both recommendations illustrate how it is possible for Britain’s food sector to put in place the necessary infrastructure to foster greater market access through the supply chain as well as outlining a viable and attractive proposition to consumers. In the current climate, this is not an opportunity to be missed.
Richard Walters, head of food marketing at Bidwells, said: -The shift away from organic has increased the focus on regional and local food, and people now want to know their food is the freshest it can be and know where it comes from. In addition, the challenge of the recession means that people want to support their local community as best they can, from buying local food, to sustaining local shops.
Henriette Reinders, managing director for South East Food Group Ltd commented: -The report gives us a detailed analysis of the demand for local regional food in the capital. This will assist us in focusing our efforts linking suppliers in our region with the buyers in the capital. It also strengthens our work with regards the wholesale market, New Covent Garden Market, where we try to improve the take-up of regional produce as well as the initiatives we undertake with the fishing industry to get more local species into the UK supply chain. It is a key priority for us now to realise the virtual hub idea and work with street markets to offer more regional food.
Walters concluded: -Our research demonstrates the sheer scale of the opportunity available to producers and suppliers in the South East and, by implication, across the whole of the UK. Having explored the challenges, Bidwells is now on hand to help regional food businesses – producers, suppliers, buyers and retailers – start capitalising on them.
-Bidwells has a unique understanding of the UK local and regional food market which can help organisations – such as the South East Food Group Partnership – and local businesses prosper in these challenging times.
For a copy of the full report and the next steps, visit
www.southeastenglandfoodanddrink.co.uk/londonfoodhub
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