SW RIEP: 10 October 2008

The biweekly efficiency and improvement bulletin is produced by the South West Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (SW RIEP).

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If you wish to include efficiency or improvement articles in the next bulletin, or add your name to the circulation list please email swce@dorsetcc.gov.uk.

Professional Services: Temporary Staff and Consultancy CSR07 Challenge within the South West – 6^th November 2008, Taunton

With governments use of consultancy and temporary staff rarely out of the political and media spotlight and as an area of significant annual spend across the public sector, procurement and the use of these services across Councils is a hot topic. Questions include:

How can the public sector buy these services better?
How can we ensure we get value for money?
How can we improve quality?
How can we reduce our requirement and help maximise our use of resources?

This is equally important for the South West region where there is an estimated spend of 400m per annum on these 2 areas alone! Given the CSR07 targets, finding savings within professional services spend is high on the agenda.

This event, hosted by SW RIEP, aims to address spend within temporary staffing and consultancy by providing practical and collaborative ways in which organisations can seek to gain better value for money. Category experts from both local and central government will share their market knowledge, provide case studies and share tools and techniques to support improvements to procurement and the use of resources across the region within temporary staffing and consultancy. The workshop will explore the possibility of collaboration within the South West in these high spend areas and will be of interest to procurement, HR and finance professionals.

Download additional information and book your place online from the following link:

http://www.southwestiep.gov.uk/Events/Eventprofessionalservices0601108.htm

For further information contact:

Gillian Brindle - 01305 757230, g.brindle@dorsetcc.gov.uk

Proclass Launch – 18^th November 2008, Taunton

Proclass is the procurement classification standard for local government following its adoption by eight of the nine Regional Centres of Excellence in 2006 continues to be backed by the RIEPs.

This event is suitable for all local authorities and any public sector organisation that wishes to understand more about ProClass as well as other classification and coding structures.

The programme will help attendees to:

Use ProClass properly and have confidence that it is the right choice.
Hear about authorities which have tested and proven ProClass and its recommended methodologies
Learn how to use ProClass to support corporate goals of effective collaboration, improved shared services and realistic business case development
Understand the opportunities to influence and benefit from the ProClass community
Network with other authorities who are trying to achieve the same things

Download additional information and book your place online from the following link:

http://www.southwestiep.gov.uk/Events/Eventproclass181108.htm

For further information contact

Gillian Brindle - 01305 757230, g.brindle@dorsetcc.gov.uk

Customer Focused Transformation Network Conference - How to Achieve Service Transformation through Culture Change - 12^th December 2008 Exeter

“The Hard things are Easy; the Soft things are Hard; the Soft things are more important!

Are the “way things get done around here”, the existing assumptions, beliefs or culture hindering your transformation agenda? Don’t miss our next Customer Focused Transformation Network conference which will focus on culture and the role of culture in delivering service transformation.

Come to our conference and listen to the collective voice of experience from within and outside our region, share the lessons learned from successful and not so very successful stories of organisations who tried to address culture as part of their service transformation programmes. Walk away with some great input on “How did they approach it? What were the keys to success? What would they avoid if they had their time again?”

This conference is targeted at Members and Officers involved in designing, leading, driving, sponsoring, engaging with or influencing any complex change programme.

Download additional information and book your place online from the following link:

Customer Focused Transformation Network Conference

For further information contact

Anita Tadayon - anitatadayon@yahoo.com

Business Transformation - Skills Development Courses

SW RIEP are pleased to offer additional dates to our Skills Development Course Programme throughout October – December for the following courses:

Fundamentals of Lean Systems Thinking
Managing Successful Programmes Overview
Managing Successful Programmes Practitioner
Rough Cut Activity Based Costing

Download additional information and book your place online from the following link:

http://www.southwestiep.gov.uk/skillsdevelopment/

For further information contact:
Natalie Aldrich - 01305 757236, n.aldrich@dorsetcc.gov.uk

Project Management Courses 2009

APM Introductory Certificate

Reflecting the growing importance of project management in the workplace SW RIEP has arranged an Association of Project Management's Introductory certificate course to be held on the following dates:

19^th – 21^st January 2009, Taunton

The course is held over two and a half days and each place is 60% funded by the SW RIEP - making the cost only £215 per local government officer (inclusive of examination entry).

APM Professional Certificate

Following the great success of the APM Introductory course in Project Management SW RIEP are able to offer places on the APMP course on the following date:

16^th – 20^th February 2009, Taunton

This professional level course takes place over a one week period (followed by a half day exam) providing the opportunity to attain a certified qualification that is internationally recognised, with the benefit of a 60 per cent subsidy from the SW RIEP making the cost only £500 per local government officer.

Download additional information on the above courses and book your place online from the following link:

http://www.southwestiep.gov.uk/skillsdevelopment/

For further information contact:
Claire Morecroft - 01305 755490, c.morecroft@dorsetcc.gov.uk

CRiSPS/NHS Developing Supply Strategy Course March 2009

We have just confirmed NEW dates for the next Developing Supply Strategy Course as week beginning 16th Feb (welcome buffet on Sun 15th Feb) and Presentation Day on Wed 6th May. This course is being led by the NHS and through a reciprocal arrangement four representatives from Local Government are invited to work within the group.

If you are interested in taking part in this course please go the following link:

http://www.southwestiep.gov.uk/skillsdevelopment/devsupplystrategy.htm

For further information contact:

Momtaz Islam (South East RIEP) - momtaz.islam@southeastiep.gov.uk

Shared chief executives: the lessons

A number of councils across the country have entered into arrangements to share a single chief executive working across two organisations. In this new IDeA publication, eight executives talk about their experience (including David Incoll from West Devon Borough Council and South Hams District Council) of taking on a shared role, and offer advice on challenges such as member involvement, working in struggling councils and sharing services.