EFFICIENCY
A key focus of Improvement East is to support authorities in meeting their efficiency savings through smarter procurement or innovative service delivery including collaboration of services. This has become more important than ever in the current economic climate. Improvement East's work under the Efficiency theme is concentrated in four main areas. There is a key emphasis on procurement as it is the most likely area to offer support to all authorities across the region in achieving direct savings:
What's new in Efficiency from Improvement East?
£2 million of investment to generate £10 million of efficiencies. Read more....
Shared Services:
Improvement East is offering authorities in our region access to a new "Shared Services" fund which is designed to assist authorities embark on new shared services.
Shared Services are already a key feature in local authority innovation and delivery and are expected to become more prominent in coming months as the recession impacts on base budgets.
The new fund will support (with capital or revenue) one or more of the stages required to establish a shared service. This could be feasibility study, developing the business case, designing the service or implementation costs.
If your authority is interested in developing a proposal and would like an initial discussion, please contact our assistant director, David Ellis, or Tony Edwards (tony.edwards@improvementeast.gov.uk), senior programme manager, to arrange an appointment.
A guide to Shared Services business case development
Developed by the Shared Services programme setup by Dacorum Borough Council, Three Rivers District Council and Watford Borough Council, this guide is intended for local government officers who have been asked to think about the benefits of sharing services or who have been tasked with directing, managing or participating in a Shared Services initiative.
The guide will be of particular interest to those local government officers who are considering:
- developing public-public partnership between two or more authorities;
- sharing services in corporate, transactional and support services e.g. HR, ICT, Finance, Revenues/Benefits, Audit, Procurement, etc;
- Building a business case for their management teams and councillors to promote Shared Services;
This is a practical guide that explains how three councils developed a business case for sharing four transactional and support services. Other local authorities may consider the guide as a useful starting point for their own work. You can download a copy by clicking here. The tools referenced in the guide can be obtained by contacting Improvement East at info@improvementeast.gov.uk.
Shared Services Checklist
Improvement East has recently funded an options appraisal of shared Building Control services between Basildon, Thurrock and Castle Point councils. Tribal carried out the appraisal, providing an exemplar which Improvement East has used to help develop a simple checklist. The checklist provides a list of the key things to think about early, when shared services are very first being considered.
To read the checklist and see our funding criteria please click here.
Accounts Payable: Overpayment Recovery Service
Improvement East has tendered an Overpayments Recovery Service (Accounts Payable audit) on behalf of all local and fire and rescue authorities in our region. This service forms part of our efficiency programme and is designed to lead to the identification and recovery of overpayments to suppliers.
We have local authorities in our region recovering substantial revenues from using similar systems and there are many more authorities that currently do not have access to such a service, until now. Six and seven figure sums have been recovered by other authorities and Improvement East encourages all authorities in our region to take up this offer in 2009/10.
A menu of services is available with the core service being recovery of duplicate payments. Through a competitive process, we have selected experienced analysts, who will undertake this work for a proportion of recovered sums. The fee rates we have achieved represent a very significant saving on those available to authorities who may already have procured such a service on an individual basis.
Work to date shows that using the service requires very little time from overstretched finance departments. After you have provided a download from your internal systems, analysis of your data is carried out offsite. Appropriate confidentiality agreements will be put in place prior to commencement of the service at any authority and the service will be carried out on a 'no recovery/no fee' basis.
For further information on our Accounts Payable: Overpayment Recovery Service please contact tony.edwards@improvementeast.gov.uk or call 01284 758308
Useful links:
» Inclusion of Efficiency Information with Council Tax Demand Notices - FAQ
» Calling Cumbria and Counting Cumbria, two publications from the Leadership Centre which highlight efficiency benefits from projects undertaken in Cumbria.