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Celebrating success at the iESE Transformation Awards OUR TENTH ANNUAL PUBLIC SECTOR TRANSFORMATION AWARDS WERE HELD IN MARCH AND ATTRACTED A LARGE NUMBER OF HIGHCALIBRE ENTRIES. Winners of Bronze, Silver and Gold awards were invited to attend a ceremony held at Church House in London on 6th March. This year we had thirteen different categories, including our overall Council of the Year 2019 award, which was presented to Eastbourne Borough Council and Lewes District Council for their Joint Transformation Programme. We also introduced a new category of Ambulance Service of the Year, adding to the existing categories of Fire and Rescue Service of the Year and Police Service of the Year. There were a high number of fantastic entries
demonstrating the scale of innovation and transformation occurring in the sector. The event was attended by Local Government Minister Rishi Sunak who gave a speech to the winners. He said: “My biggest passion, as Minister, is making sure taxpayers’ money is used in the best possible way, and I’m delighted to be at an award ceremony that promotes transformation, entrepreneurship and efficiency, driven by the leading organisation in the field. "I want to thank all of this year's awards winners. Receiving an award is a great achievement and a recognition of all your hard work. You have all made a big difference to your residents, leading the way in efficiency and transformation, so my congratulations to you all.”
The next iESE Transformation Awards will be held in 2020 but local authorities are able to apply for an iESE Certificate of Excellence at any time. The certificates feed into the awards programme and help inform the categories for the annual awards. Dr Andrew Larner, Chief Executive at iESE, added: "I would like to thank everyone who made a submission for their efforts. We hope that these awards will help us all to continue transforming our local public services." To find out more about the Council of the Year 2019 see page 4 For more information about Certificates of Excellence see page 7
iESE launches 'Disruptive Technology Framework' IESE WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM SMALL TECH FIRMS WITH SOLUTIONS TO OFFER LOCAL GOVERNMENT AS IT WORKS TOWARDS BUILDING A ONE-STOP SHOP TO HELP AUTHORITIES FIND INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS TO THEIR PROBLEMS. The idea is to join up small tech firms with local authorities in a simple and cost-effective way, removing the barriers to entry that these companies usually face with the procurement process.
iESE is already talking to several firms and is keen to hear from any business that would like to get involved in its Disruptive Technology Framework project. "This initiative is aimed at any tech company with a solution to a local public service problem, but particularly in health and social care. We are interested in new and innovative ways to increase the quality of a service or to remove the need for it altogether," said Dr Andrew Larner, Chief Executive at iESE. "Through this alliance we would like to create a digital
shop window where authorities know if there is anything innovative out there then this would be a really good first port of call. The current public procurement process is costly for small start-ups and this will hopefully crack that problem. The idea is to remove the procurement bureaucracy so that they can procure these services simply and cost effectively," he added. To find out more about the Disruptive Technology Framework contact: penny.gardner@iese.org.uk
CareCubed delivering savings and wider benefits IESE RECENTLY HOSTED A USER FORUM FOR CARECUBED SUBSCRIBERS WHERE IT HEARD HOW THE TOOL IS ASSISTING THOSE SOURCING SPECIALIST CARE PLACEMENTS. CareCubed is our new secure online tool, which gives clarity on the cost of specialist care and helps manage care spend - a pressing issue for more than 200 local authorities with a social services responsibility. The new product builds on iESE’s decade of experience with the Care Funding Calculator, with the new product even better equipped to help manage the ongoing challenge presented by the cost of specialist care placements. Attendees at the user forum in London explained how their organisations were benefitting from using CareCubed. Paul Mensah, Team Manager (Adults), Care and Support Brokerage at Oxfordshire County Council achieved significant quantifiable savings with CareCubed's predecessor, the Care Funding Calculator – around £1.2m in a year at a previous local authority. He is now
implementing CareCubed at Oxfordshire County Council. “With CareCubed we can save a lot of money for the local authority and at the same time get value for money for our service users,” he said. Hackney Council is another organisation seeing the benefits, with Diana Sherwood, Project Manager at the authority, explaining that CareCubed makes a huge difference for providers as well as the council. "It is a transparent tool and they realise that we’ll expect them to provide us with evidence where we don’t agree on some of their costs. CareCubed helps to maintain a good relationship and also standardise how we operate with all providers,” she said. Rebekah Cooke, Team Manager, Community Team for Adults with a Learning Disability at Milton Keynes Council, highlighted that CareCubed brings some softer benefits too. "CareCubed is really helpful and quite user-friendly, particularly when you are trying to use it not just as a negotiating tool with providers, but when talking to family
members, carers and also service users themselves about how the hours are broken down and how much time is allocated," she said. CareCubed brings significant enhancements to the modeling of care costs in line with changing patterns of care provision, as well as ease of use on mobile devices, a fresher user interface and enhanced support for 'What If' options and analysis and collaboration within and across organisations. It is already being used by more than 50 organisations in England and Wales and was also launched in Scotland in March. However, the successful launch of CareCubed is not the end of the journey. A CareCubed App and greater reporting and analysis functions are currently in development. iESE is also working with users to validate CareCubed for use with specialist children's placements too. Our next user forum will take place in Manchester this autumn. Email CareCubed@iese.org.uk or visit www.iese.org.uk/carecubed-tool to find out more
Vanda Leary takes digital lead VANDA LEARY, WHO HAS WORKED WITH IESE SINCE 2010, HAS BEEN APPOINTED AS BUSINESS LEAD DIGITAL. She brings a wealth of valuable experience, which will see her concentrate on the development of iESE's digital Vanda Leary, offering - both for its own Business Lead consultancy work and as a Digital, iESE commercial offer. Vanda said she was delighted with the expansion of her remit, which has so far seen the successful launch of the CareCubed tool, which replaces
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the Care Funding Calculator. "We are currently working on a CareCubed App and have a range of other digital tools under evaluation and in development - look out for more news about these later this year." One such tool in development is a modelling application which takes organisational data from payroll and HR records. The application will show the organisation's structure visually and with accompanying summary information, allowing different scenarios to be set out and different versions saved for comparison. It is hoped that this will become a central platform which iESE will add Apps onto. The first planned App is the Cultural Compass tool. This will take behavioural framework data and, by allocating this information to each
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employee record, will allow an organisation to roll the data up to see measures for each team, section, directorate, service line and for the overall authority. iESE is also currently working on a Digital White Paper, which aims to give leaders a set of questions they can ask their authority to see where they have got to and what they might do to get themselves into a position to maximise the benefits of the digital revolution. We would like to hear from potential candidates with practical digital experience in the public sector as we look to grow our associate base in the digital arena. To find out more about potential digital roles email: enquiries@iese.org.uk
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