Local Government Procurement Review

Local Government

Issue 13

Procurement Review

Promoting best practice in Local Government

Reach: more than 10,500 named individuals • Readership: senior management teams across local government • Research: reader feedback helps generate content

Foreword Editor Philip Cunliffe Design Trefor Morgan-Hayes Sales Michael Brookes Publisher Ben Dorney

Local Government Procurement Review is published by Procurement Review Series Ltd. The authors alone are responsible for the

rt hon

Eric Pickles

mp

Secretary of state for communities and local government

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ith the spotlight firmly on council budgets, it has never been more important to make sure that all councils are getting the best possible value for money through best practice procurement. Like all parts of the public sector, local government must play its part in reducing the national deficit and this means they are facing some difficult decisions. Given the track record that local authorities have in being more prudent and more efficient than other parts of the public sector over the past few years, I have every confidence that they will rise to the challenge. Against the current financial backdrop it won’t be easy, but by following best practice and improving procurement, local authorities will be seen to lead by example.

contents of their relevant articles and the views expressed are not necessarily those of the publishers.

Whilst Procurement Review Series acknowledges the appearance of advertisers, it does not necessarily endorse the products or services advertised.

© 2012 Procurement Review Series

Procurement Review Series,

Looking at some numbers shows just what a difference this can make. Around half of all council expenditure is on goods and services through procurement, or around £50bn a year. If all councils bought smarter, demanded better value for money and cut costs by just 10 percent that would be equivalent to £5bn a year. Many councils are already showing what can be done. We should acknowledge and celebrate this best practice but we should also make sure that it becomes standard practice across all councils. The increased powers given in the Localism Bill should make it easier for councils to procure through shared services and I hope all councils will look to take advantage of this.

Central government has also got to get its own house in order, otherwise how could I look councils in the eye? So I’ve tried to lead from the front by making sure that the DCLG is putting all its spending over £500 online and we have already made thousands of pounds worth of savings in procurement.

One of the most important drivers for this change is our emphasis on accountability and transparency - to allow the public to see exactly where their money is being spent - challenge waste, and suggest alternative ways of doing these. It has been extremely encouraging to see how quickly councils have risen to this challenge.

Mansion House 173-191 Wellington Road South Stockport, Cheshire SK1 3UA Tel: 0845 617 1034 www.procurementreview.co.uk

This Government is putting power back where it belongs, in the hands of local people and their democratically elected representatives. They will now have unprecedented political autonomy and financial freedoms and with much greater say over the issues which matter to local people, including housing, planning and the local economy. They are becoming much more streamlined, dynamic, and powerful organisations with a much more direct, responsive relationship to residents. This makes it even more important to get the fundamentals, like effective procurement, right. I am sure that this edition of Local Government Procurement Review will provide the practical advice and support necessary so that councils can make the most of latest best practice.

I’d like to congratulate councils on the hard work they have already done, in many areas, to make their procurement more efficient and to encourage them to continue to do so. They are at the forefront of the Big Society and by continuing their efforts to eradicate waste their efforts will be applauded by the public and applauded by me LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT REVIEW I

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I nformation A ssurance 4. Putting IA centre stage for local government

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CESG takes a look at the new priority being placed on IA across local government

6. Meeting the security standard In April of this year, the Institute of Information Security Professionals (IISP) took over the ITPC information assurance scheme from the Cabinet Office. Dr Paul Dorey, the Chairman of the Institute, explains what it offers to local government.

8. Compliant data handling of end of life IT equipment Chris Avis, Secure Data Services Business Manager at Barron McCann, discusses the responsibilities organisations have to ensure that all IT equipment – and its data – is securely disposed of.

ICT 18. Digital Britain Lord Stephen Carter details how the Digital Britain project can secure Britain’s place at the forefront of the global digital economy.

20. In the world of Telecoms it’s like landing on the moon Bruce Cooper, Head of Local Government Solutions, Cable&Wireless, explains how Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) can give staff greater flexibility and reduce costs.

22. The role of local authorities in rebuilding the superhighway John Ames, of the Digital Communications Knowledge Transfer Network (DCKTN), explains what broadband users can expect from future technology.

38. Housing leads the way

The CCTM Secretariat explains how the events of April this year represent a shift in the way that local authorities fulfil their IA requirements.

Andy McDowell, National Business Development Manager at Pilkington, explains how energy efficient windows can help local authorities meet the zero carbon target for new homes.

16. Case study.

Security transfusions

40. The code for Sustainable Homes – lessons learnt

Nick Lowe, Check Point’s managing director for Northern Europe, outlines how healthcare organisations can apply flexible security to systems and data.

24. Local government at the heart of a Digital Britain Aidan Roberts, of Huawei Technologies, explains why local government should be taking a close interest in Digital Britain.

28. How to do green when you are in the red

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14. The Claims Tested Mark on the local government list

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Jos Creese, Head of IT for Hampshire County Council and Chair of the LG CIO Council, discusses how Green ICT can be balanced with the demands of a recession.

Chris Gaze, Director at BRE Global, gives guidance for local authorities looking to increase the sustainability of building projects.

42. E.ON’s drive for a sustainable energy future Richard Scott, Head of Marketing for E.ON Sustainable Energy Solutions, talks about some of the company’s recent achievements.

30. Case study. Green your ICT and gain savings

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Christian Grauwiler, Head of IMS at Konica Minolta, outlines how common issues in fleet management can be overcome.

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S ustainability

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32. Environmental Management Systems (EMS Nick Blyth, Senior Environmental Adviser at the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), warns that neglecting EMS can result in lost savings.

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34. Greening your supply chain

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46. Instant buildings from Buying Solutions

Catherine Golds, Head of NQA, explains how local authorities can make an effective contribution to the green agenda

Buying Solutions explains how a framework agreement for modular buildings can ensure that the provision of public services remains uninterrupted.

36. A real commitment to reducing carbon

48. Case study. Portakabin – rapid relief to flooded school

John Fiennes, Director of Sustainable Buildings and Climate Change at the Department for Communities & Local Government (CLG), highlights the steps being taken to tackle climate change.

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Contracting Portakabin to supply emergency accommodation for a flooded school saved time and money – and allowed education services to continue seamlessly and conveniently.

T elehealth 50. The next stage for care in the home and community

H uman R esources 68. Forces at work

The NHS PASA explains how reprocurement of the National Framework Agreement for telecare services will build on the current agreement to continue to enable individuals to live longer independently.

The recession is forcing redundancies in some areas, creating new recruitment challenges, and increasing demand for services. The Audit Commission’s Katie Smith asks if councils can square the circle and make sure their workforces are fit for the future.

52. Case study. A lifeline for independent living

70. Case study.

A recruitment masterplan

Merging the Lifeline services of Wealdon District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council has resulted in such a high level of service that the resulting company, Wealden and Eastbourne Lifeline (WEL), has been appointed to the NHS PASA National Framework Agreement for telecare services.

Nicola Allen, Strategic Procurement Manager at Plymouth City Council, discusses the benefits that outsourcing temporary recruitment to a managed service provider has given the council.

72. Changes in performance management Angela Baron of the CIPD discusses the history of the process and what we can expect to see from performance management of the 21st century.

74. Underpinning high performance Angela Probert, Director of Organisational Development at SOLACE Enterprises, outlines how the keystones of organisational achievement can be integrated into organisational development.

F inance 56. Building capability in Portfolio Management

76. The importance of leadership

development in a downturn

The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) discusses how Portfolio Management can be used to meet strategic objectives.

Anne Bingham Holmes, Richard Masters and Pascoe Sawyers of the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) discuss how local authorities can develop leaders who achieve the best for the community.

58. The National Portfolio Management Framework

78. Procuring leadership development

Kevin Hopps, Managing Director of BPM, provider of specialist technology services to the public sector, introduces the National Portfolio Management Framework (NPMF™), the public sector portfolio management resource.

Lesley Campbell, a Director at the Office for Public Management (OPM), outlines ways in which clients and providers of leadership and management development (LMD) programmes can improve the ways they work together.

Tom Hadley, Director of External Relations at The Recruitment and Employment Confederation, explains the challenges organisations are facing, and trends emerging in the current climate.

86. Regeneration of the long term unemployed Kimberly Radford, Recruitment Contract Officer at London Borough of Haringey, explains how a managed recruitment services provider, Hays, enabled the council to further its regeneration objectives by giving the borough’s long term unemployed a route to employment in the council.

88. Skills and procurement Kevin Brennan, Skills Minister, explains how local government must do everything necessary to support people and businesses through the downturn.

90. Prove that training works Suzana Lopes, EMEA VP Sales and Marketing at Pearson VUE, argues that while training is vital, it’s even more important to prove the outcome with assessment.

64. Looking forward to pension reforms Richard Wilson, Senior Policy Adviser at the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), outlines the toolkits available to raise standards in the pensions industry and allow balanced assessment of the funds’ performance.

92. The challenge of change

66. Investment trends in a new global environment Rob Bailey, Head of UK Sales at AXA Investment Managers, explains the current trends in investment and the potential repercussions of the economic crisis for pension funds.

84. Challenges in buying recruitment services

80. Why invest in the health and well-being of employees?

Health, Work and Well-being explains why the benefits of investing in the health and well-being of employees are many and varied.

82. A change in attitude to health and well-being PPC Worldwide outlines the support it offers to local government and the wider public sector – and its experience in providing health, well-being and counselling services.

Deputy Chair of the Interim Management Association (IMA) Jason Atkinson, explores the valuable role interim management has to play in helping the sector to achieve change management goals and deliver real business solutions

94. Council’s labour lost?

Heather Wakefield, National Secretary of the Local Government Section at UNISON, outlines the implications of staffing cuts to workers, the community and the government’s support for gender equality.

96. Penna career transition services Penna explains how its Outplacement and Career Transition services are designed to support individuals and organisations through change in the workplace.

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P utting IA

centre stage for local government

As IA09 approaches – the ‘must attend event’ for those responsible for information risk in government – CESG takes a look at the new priority being placed on Information Assurance across local government.

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here is no doubt that government budgets will come under great pressure over the next decade.

Achieving efficiency savings in delivering services will be a serious imperative,’ says Tim Allen, Director Analysis, Research and Knowledge Management at the Local Government Association (LGA).

‘There will be increasing pressure to focus resources on front line service provision – the demand for greater efficiency will require greater information sharing and shared services with a priority placed on doing it once and doing it properly,’ he said.

‘But in this new world the public rightly demands guarantees about the security of personal and sensitive data. This will drive the need for greater information risk management and Information Assurance.’

Information Assurance (IA), essentially the management of risk across all aspects of information capture, storage and use, is viewed in Whitehall as part and parcel of bringing in transformational government – so maximising the use of that information while putting the citizen at the centre of public service delivery.

Many public sector ICT systems were designed and built as silos with little commonality and organisational boundaries are such that inter-department link ups are often difficult while a lack or standardisation means high management and integration costs.

The government wants to introduce one public sector network (PSN) to pave the way for full transformational

government – a move that will also eradicate duplication, drive down costs and mean greater efficiencies.

If successful, PSN will be fast, efficient and secure. CESG, the government’s National Technical Authority for IA and the IA arm of GCHQ, is working with the LGA and Socitm (Society of Information Technology Management), the professional association for public sector ICT management, to develop the IA agenda in local government.

At this year’s CESG-hosted IA conference – IA09 – a dedicated stream will look at the implementation of IA across local government.

DWP which will provide a secure network between central government and every local authority in England and Wales.

Government Connect is already showing advantages for local authorities that are using it and as the system develops and more authorities join, so further benefits will come on stream.

A third session will act as a guide to keeping up to date with changing policy and making access to information easy for wider government.

Speakers during the sessions will include Tim Allen at the LGA and Ann McChesney, commercial delivery manager – ICT, at the Office of Government Commerce (OGC).

IA09, which takes place on 6-7 July, brings together more than 500 senior figures from all sections of government and industry.

Kevin Hayes, CESG’s local government specialist, said: ‘CESG has responded to the needs of local government and we have made significant strides in working with local government and local CIOs, which is why we are bringing together a strong panel of speakers for the wider government stream at IA09.

The main message is that there are significant advantages to local government in moving IA up the agenda – and that better IA measures improve access to government.

‘It’s not just about sharing information securely – it’s also concerned with sharing infrastructure and reducing costs. There has got to be more emphasis on a common approach to managing shared

The demand for greater efficiency will “require greater information sharing and shared services with a priority placed on doing it once and doing it properly

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Chaired by Jos Creese, head of IT at Hampshire County Council, chair of the Local Public Service CIO (chief information officer) Council and vice-president of Socitm, and titled Delivering Clarity on Local Government by Unravelling the Array of Messages, it will answer questions on the level of support available to local government to fulfil the objectives of transformational government and improve the interface with central government.

It will also offer an update on collaborative initiatives that leverage wider government involvement, including an overview of Government Connect, the pan-government programme led by the

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INFORMATION ASSURANCE

IA09

risk. There are different challenges to bringing in transformational government to local government – but we need to start meeting those challenges.’

He also said there was a need to pay more attention to the risk management of ICT systems, echoing the current initiatives in central government.

But at the same time the centre recognises that achieving savings is already a serious imperative for local government, he added. Through engagement with PSN, local government could potentially make significant savings through procurement when introducing new systems, he said, including buying maturing technology such as Voip (voice over internet protocol) telephony services or updated email systems.

According to Tim Allen of the LGA, there is an imperative for local authorities

to focus resources on front-line service provision: ‘We will only achieve this through effective information sharing,’ he said. ‘There will be significant increased demand for shared services.’

But running parallel to this must be guarantees on how public data is handled: ‘We must never forget that behind data entries are real people whose lives we can damage,’ he added.

A two-day workshop is being staged by the Local Public Service CIO Council in September to explore these issues in more depth.

IA09, which takes place at QEII Conference Centre in Westminster, will be chaired by GCHQ director Iain Lobban. Its prestigious line up of speakers includes Sir Gus O’Donnell, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service, and Paul Murphy, Secretary of State for Wales and Minister for Digital Inclusion, who will look at the Data Handling Review one year on from its publication.

David Smith, Deputy Information Commissioner will speak on the new IA regime and what has been learnt in the year since IA08 and Director of Governance and Security at HMRC, Mary Aiston, will present a peer-to-peer case study.

For more information on IA09 go to www.IA09.org.uk

CESG Tel: 01242 709141 Email: enquiries@cesg.gsi.gov.uk www.cesg.gov.uk www.icscat.mod.uk

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M eeting

the security standard In April of this year, the Institute of Information Security Professionals (IISP) took over the ITPC information assurance scheme from the Cabinet Office.

Dr Paul Dorey, the Chairman of the Institute, explains what it offers to local government.

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ecurity standards in local government are coming under greater scrutiny than ever before. April 2009 saw 251 local authorities achieve Code of Connection approval for the GCSX (Government Connect Secure Extranet), with all 410 expected to be on-board by September.

To meet the security standard many have had to introduce new technical security measures such as virtual private networks (VPNs), Virtual LANS (VLANS) and dual factor authentication.

But the technical challenges are dwarfed by the need to change security cultures and bring the necessary security expertise into local authorities. The Government Data Handling Review, led

by Robert Hannigan, further focused on security and introduced the concept of accountable Senior Information Risk Officers (SIROs) at the local level. But where will the SIROs get their day to day information assurance support?

I know that more than one employee in the past decade has found themselves unexpectedly nominated as their

department’s information assurance expert to meet policy requirements.

But there are clearly real dangers if inexperienced staff are left to do the security job without support. Under these circumstances key risks could be missed and inadequate security solutions proposed. Although it sounds far-fetched, the global statistics are quite concerning.

Forrester Research estimates there are approximately 2 million full and parttime IT security roles in private and public sectors, yet – if we look at reported memberships – less than half of these roles are held by people who have formal security knowledge qualifications such as CISSP, CISM, SANS GIAC or a relevant university degree.

the Cabinet Office has worked to ensure that training and development has been available and, as far back as May 2001, created the Infosec Training Paths and Competencies (ITPC) scheme to accredit competency in security skills.

The private sector followed a little later and, with the encouragement of government, the Institute of Information Security Professionals (www.instisp.org) was set up. During 2007 information security professionals in the private and public sector gained the opportunity for formal professional accreditation to become assessed full members of the Institute (M.Inst.ISP).

This has come full-circle with the Institute now taking over public sector competency accreditation from the Cabinet Office, as ITPC transfers to the Institute from April 2009. This scheme is now also available to full or part-time information assurance staff in agencies and local government.

It would be unfair, and very wrong, to accuse a security professional of being incompetent just because he or she does not have an independently assessed competency qualification. The information security industry is very young and can only just call itself a profession. As a result many of its best practitioners are self-taught and learnt at a time before there were even any security training courses. But the truth remains that you cannot prove a negative, and that formal competency assessment by peers – the foundation of other recognised professions such as medicine and engineering – is the only

competency assessment “ Formal by peers – the foundation of

other recognised professions such as medicine and engineering – is the only way forward

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Still fewer have formal professional competency accreditation that shows their ability to apply theoretical security knowledge in real practical situations.

This would be like someone fresh out of their university medical degree, declaring themselves to be a doctor. Fortunately, in medicine this does not happen. Instead there is a scheme of on-the-job tutoring and mentoring that leads to assessment of competency and to full qualification.

As new information assurance roles have been created in central government,

INFORMATION ASSURANCE

way forward. Having security professionals with recognised qualifications certainly eases security competency conversations between partnering organisations, be they public or private sector.

Managing third party relationships The ability to cross-recognise security skills between public and private sectors is also very relevant to third party management, as to achieve a secure supply-chain relationship, both customer and supplier need to speak the same security risk language. Managing risks between organisations needs to bridge the definition of the risk appetite of the customer with a matching security capability of the supplier. Seamless integration of security processes between customer and supplier also needs to happen to cover both day-to-day security and the inevitable incidents. Robust security conversations need to happen from the earliest definition of contract through to regular service management reviews during the contract period.

Without clearly defined goals there is a real risk of misunderstanding leading to differences in customer expectation and supplier delivery. Many organisations have devised their own standards for security requirements like these, but increasingly they are being harmonised through the adoption of a standard Information Security Management System (ISMS) based on the internationally recognised IEC/ISO 27001:2005 In the past, speaking the same security ‘language’ across organisations has been difficult and time consuming. Now, with the adoption of common standards for security management systems and for the accreditation of security professionals, the task has become much more straightforward. Standards have become the key tool to bridge this security gap.

Next steps So now would be a good time to do a quick assessment of information assurance skills within your department and also ask some probing questions of the suppliers that support you: 1. Who do you have in your designated departmental information assurance roles? What training and experience do they have and do they have ITPC certification?

2. When did they last attend a security training course? – It is easy to get out of date.

3. Are they part of an active ‘network’ of security professionals where they can share real experiences – the things that don’t get published in the newspapers?

4. Do the information assurance professionals have a development plan that will enhance their skills in risk management as well as security tools?

And of your suppliers: 1. Who looks after your information assurance, and what is their experience and level of certification (corporate and personal)?

2. What channels exist for departmental information assurance professionals and those in the supplier organisation to meet and share skills and knowledge?

3. What can the department’s team learn from the supplier?

Bringing together public and private sector information assurance and security accreditation into one body concludes the government’s first visionary step.

The opportunity for wider improvement of the security skills that support us across society is now entering its next important stage.

About the author Dr Paul Dorey CISM, M.Inst.ISP is the Chairman of the Institute of Information Security Professionals.

He has previously held the positions of Chief Information Security Officer at BP PLC and Barclays Bank and is a co-founder of the training and development company Securityfaculty.com.

He is advisor to Cranfield University’s MSc in Information Assurance for the Public Sector.

He is happy to advise on the suitability of this and other courses and training and can be contacted at paul.dorey@securityfaculty.com

For more information about ITPC and the accreditation of Information Assurance professionals see: www.instisp.org or contact: info@instisp.com

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C ompliant

data handling of end of life IT equipment The proper disposal of end of life computer equipment is no longer a case of simply throwing it in the skip. Chris Avis, Secure Data Services Business Manager at Barron McCann, discusses the responsibilities organisations have to ensure that all equipment – and its data – is securely disposed of.

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rganisations now have responsibilities under data protection legislation and the EC’s 2007 WEEE (waste electrical & electronic equipment) directive to ensure that equipment is properly disposed of – or comprehensively recycled – in order to prevent data contained on hard disks or other memory media falling into the wrong hands. If your organisation also deals with protectively-marked or personal information, then the obligation is even greater – as are the consequences for getting it wrong.

Realistically, how you handle your end of life data storage and computer equipment depends largely on the level of sensitivity that your organisation works with. Inevitably, those dealing with protectively-marked information are subject to higher levels of operational – and indeed legal – responsibility than an organisation that may simply be working with ‘just’ names or addresses.

Until recently, however, there have been very few – if any – practical disposal solutions to organisations dealing with protectively-marked data – especially data of critical or national importance.

Such data can include government, defence-related or national security-level

information rated up to and including ‘top secret’ – also referred to as Impact Level (IL6). The disposal requirements for this type of data are stringent and focus on the complete and verifiable destruction of the information and its storage media.

But while the requirements for this level of information are necessarily strict, there are lessons here which can also be learned by those who deal with information which may be equally critical, albeit at other levels, including health authorities, local authorities or financial institutions. Indeed there have been a number of high profile cases in the recent

difficult to question the destructive effectiveness of this type of process, such a method is hardly environmentally friendly and relies on all necessary items of equipment being removed from site and transported to a single location. This carries with it the risk of the data going missing during transportation from its original location, not to mention the admin-intensive task of accounting for every item between the two locations.

As the first company in the UK to gain government/CESG authorisation to provide fully-managed on-site disposal and destruction services for end of life computer equipment and classified data up to and including HM government ‘top secret’ (IL6) level, Barron McCann can now provide a more robust solution to this problem.

CESG is the UK government’s information assurance (IA) technical authority, responsible for enabling secure and trusted knowledge-sharing. CESG’s ‘Claims Tested Mark’ (CTM) means that Barron McCann can now deliver safe, secure, guaranteed on- or off-site data and electronic equipment disposal services for any organisation or business dealing in critical or sensitive information, including government agencies and departments, local authorities, financial institutions and NHS trusts. Fundamentally, the accreditation means that government departments no longer have to go through the complex, restrictive and insecure process of arranging for highlysensitive data and storage media up to IL6 to be taken off site for destruction/ disposal at approved reception facilities.

Public sector IT equipment “ has been discovered sitting in third-world scrap yards and rubbish dumps – and yes, the hard drives were still intact

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past where notionally ‘disposed of’ public sector IT equipment has been discovered sitting in third-world scrap yards and rubbish dumps – and yes, the hard drives were still intact! Events like this are at best embarrassing for the organisation involved – at worst, they may present a national security risk and lead to punitive measures being taken. So how can organisations ensure that their end of life IT equipment is properly disposed of?

Historically, government-level protectively-marked information and associated hardware has been despatched to the premises of a well-known aero engine manufacturer, where it is comprehensively destroyed by being immersed in an acid bath. While it is

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INFORMATION ASSURANCE

Secure Data Services from Barron McCann

Accepting that is simply not sufficient to overwrite hard disks to delete their data, such data is now destroyed using CESG-approved lower and higher level degaussers, after which IT equipment is then sent for recycling in accordance with the WEEE Directive. However, although the WEEE Directive calls for a 65 per cent reduction in land fill, Barron McCann believes that reselling IT equipment presents a high risk of residual data being accessed. Consequently, with a target of 90 per cent recycle, devices are processed down to their original material levels for re-introduction into the manufacturing chain. Magnetic hard drive chassis, for

instance, are a good source of aerospace grade aluminium alloys.

This destruction process provides an audit trail for every stage of the data disposal from collection to destruction. Every disk is scanned to provide a real-time audit of time, date, serial number and operator details, if required. For legal and auditing purposes an itemised Data Destruction Certificate is issued, along with a Certificate of Recycling in accordance with the WEEE Directive.

Losses of sensitive data continue to generate headlines and the public sector is finding that it can no longer afford to leave data destruction to un-certified third parties or suppliers who, while they may subscribe to the regulations set out by the WEEE Directive or other criteria, are unlikely to be able to provide fullyverifiable and comprehensive facilities for the on-site destruction of up to IL6-rated data. Data loss – and indeed data theft – has now hit the big time, and the world’s continued reliance on safe and secure access to critical information means that this access must be strictly controlled – even after such data and equipment has reached the end of its usable life.

Secure Destruction & Disposal for all levels of protectively marked and sensitive equipment.

Unique CESG Certified on-site services for destruction of data up to and including Top Secret (IL6).

Secure List-X destruction facility.

Fully Audited and Trusted Managed Service.

Conforms to Data Protection Act and WEEE regulations

Barron McCann Technology Ltd Tel: 01462 482333 www.bemac.com

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S afe and secure N ational I dentity I nfrastructure In late 2008, the Information Assurance Advisory Council (IAAC) released a report on the barriers which currently stand in the way of the UK making further progress in implementing a national identity infrastructure. Here, Dr John Leach of the IAAC, outlines some of the report’s key findings and gives guidance on how government, technology providers and the public can move forward in addressing the challenges inherent in identity management systems.

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he on-going transformation of the UK into a digital society is leading to the development of secure identity management infrastructures.

The private sector’s interest is to develop commercial services suitable for use by the public at large. Central government’s interest, as articulated in its 2005 report Transformational Government: enabled by technology, is for government services increasingly to be delivered electronically.

The user or citizen, however, also has interests. Their interest is for portable electronic identities and to minimise the number of different identities they need to create and manage. Under the pressure this creates, we can confidently anticipate that the various national-scale identity management schemes (IMS) which are emerging within the public and private sectors will start to coalesce. Much as individual banks’ ATM networks came together in the 1980s leading to the creation of a national ATM infrastructure, the many national-scale IMS currently being developed will come together leading to the creation of what might be called a National Identity Infrastructure for the UK. This infrastructure will take the form of a variously integrated mesh of public and private sector large-scale identity management schemes bound together by a number of central bodies, structures and processes, collectively serving and supporting a wide variety of personal, commercial and governmental identity-based needs.

For this coalescing of IMS to take place, there needs to be agreement on

the common requirements which each of the constituent IMS must satisfy. Without such agreement, we risk public initiatives such as the NIS and the many private sector initiatives that are being delivered remaining as isolated islands of localised identity infrastructure. Created at great effort and expense, they will provide only

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those barriers can be overcome. It brought these insights and recommendations together and has created an IAAC Identity Assurance Roadmap for the UK. Central government has, for several years, been sponsoring R&D to identify standards and solutions for national IMS. Much of that work has been focused at a technical level. However, the most significant challenges which the UK faces with the development of national-scale IMS do not reside at a technical level. The main challenges are, and need to be addressed as, policy and social issues. They relate to understanding the role of trusted identities within a future digital society, to understanding the ways in which trusted identities will be used in support of diverse commercial, social and national purposes, and to understanding what is needed to maintain the public’s confidence in national identity schemes given that it is the public’s personal identity data which is being used.

IAAC is possibly unique in having looked at these challenges as combined policy, social and technological challenges.

Among its many recommendations, it calls for the UK to articulate a vision for the function and uses of identities in a digital society, for the government to develop a comprehensive Identity Governance Framework to ensure the public’s support for national identity schemes, and for the development of an enabling foundation which will allow the public to engage with national IMS safely, securely and with confidence.

The recommendations made within IAAC’s report are addressed primarily

For this coalescing of IMS to take place, there needs to be agreement on the common requirements which each of the constituent IMS must satisfy

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limited economic and social benefit. To arrive at such a situation would mean that an opportunity had been lost to address the longer term needs of the UK digital society in a coherent, effective and efficient way.

It was in response to this concern that, in 2006, the Information Assurance Advisory Council (IAAC) embarked upon a two-year programme of work looking into the issues relating to the creation of a successful national identity infrastructure.

Through collaboration with government, the private sector and academia, IAAC improved our understanding of key issues such as the role of government in assuring identities, the concerns and needs of the citizen, critical objectives for a successful national infrastructure, and more. On the conclusion of its work in late 2008, IAAC released a report providing its view of the barriers which currently stand in the way of the UK making further progress in this area, and its recommendations for how

INFORMATION ASSURANCE

As Chairman of the Information Assurance Advisory Council (IAAC), I am delighted to be associated with this report on the conclusion of the Council’s Identity Assurance Programme, carried out over the past two years.

The nature of information usage and handling is changing, but our approach to managing it is not.

Government departments are still assimilating the full implications of the wide range of major issues raised in the reports that followed the recent, serious, data losses. These contained many common themes that are equally applicable to the private sector. Each loss has undermined the

confidence of individuals in the ability and commitment of government departments, agencies and their private sector service providers, to protect their personal data.

No area can be more sensitive to individuals than that of assurance that data relating to their identity is safe in the hands of government.

This report is therefore most timely, making a significant contribution to understanding the fundamentals of Identity Assurance. For each of us this represents a challenge. What are we, individually and collectively, to do to develop and disseminate this knowledge? How can we do this effectively, in order to increase the level of professionalism and self-confidence among individuals at home and at work?

In commending this thought provoking report to its readers, I make a direct link between the importance of developing this knowledge, and that of imparting it, effectively, to the widest possible community of users and managers across the UK. This will be a major theme for IAAC over the coming months.

Sir Edmund Burton Chairman, Information Assurance Advisory Council

to the UK government. The necessary leadership has to come from the UK government, and though much of the research and development work needed should be conducted in collaboration with other sectors of the UK, it will require UK government sponsorship, facilitation and co-ordination. IAAC, in support, has laid a foundation of many ideas which it believes are crucial to the UK developing safe and secure national identity-based infrastructures.

IAAC’s recommendations will also be of great interest to other parties active in the field, including technology providers, digital identity service providers, and subject matter experts. They are of most significance, however, to the public at large. It is the public who is, in all of this, the principal subject at the centre of the digital society and the main recipient of its benefits. It is also the public who is the main bearer of its risks.

To find out more about IAAC, and to obtain a copy of IAAC’s report on the conclusion of its two-year programme of work, please go to www.iaac.org.uk

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INFORMATION ASSURANCE

IA

and T ransformational G overnment – squaring the circle John Ellis is, a senior strategist for Symantec in the UK is responsible for the development of Symantec’s Intelligence Guided Computer Network Defence (IgCND™) and Integrated Information Assurance Operations Centre (IAOC) concepts.

Here, he explains how agile information assurance is critical to enabling transformational government.

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n 2001 local authorities were invited to submit their first ‘Implementing Electronic Government’ plans and additional funding was made available to support those plans.

Over the following three years there was almost a revolution in the delivery of government services with the introduction of online portals, one stop shops and integrated back end information systems among many initiatives. Over the last eight years the drive to deliver properly joined up services, more swiftly and more efficiently, to the public has delivered some amazing changes in how we engage with government.

Last month I renewed my tax disc online. Within ten minutes I had identified myself, confirmed I was still the keeper of my car and entered my credit card

details; all the necessary checks were carried out and my disc was in the post the next day. In all, an efficient, quick and easy transaction that only required me to trust the system with my details and credit card number. And this is where we hit a problem – trust.

All of our progress in achieving the transformational government strategy is underpinned by the simple assumption that the public trust us to protect their information. In recent years this trust has taken a battering with lurid headlines of millions of records and hundreds of laptops lost and secret documents left on trains. As a result I would argue that restoring that trust is central to our ability to continue to deliver efficiencies and improve operational services through the use of information technology.

The last year has seen a complete overhaul in central government of the

by SOCITM and other bodies and great progress has been made across the government.

The problem is that we frequently still see information assurance as a constraint on new ways of working and the implementation of security as an additional cost to already expensive projects. The requirement is to change the way we see information assurance from being a costly constraint in building systems to being a key enabler in recovering and improving the trust of the public to use the services and thus deliver the benefits we planned. In other words we need to align how we approach information assurance with the transformational government agenda.

This change in approach and perception is about making information assurance as agile as our organisation. Within Symantec we have developed a simple set of four principles to help.

requirement is to change the way “ The we see information assurance from

Principle One. Agile Information Assurance (IA) must be coherent with the operational needs of the organisation The Poynter report into the loss of the data disks from HMRC identified that one of the main causes for the loss was that the operational practices of the team responsible were not aligned with the security policies in place. It is exactly this friction that is often the cause of data policy breaches and also reinforces the perception that information assurance is a constraint rather than an enabler of services. Agile IA requires us to design our

being a costly constraint in building systems to being a key enabler in recovering and improving the trust of the public to use the services and thus deliver the benefits we planned

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approach to information assurance following the Data Handling Review.

Reams of excellent and up to date guidance have been produced from the Cabinet Office, CPNI, CSIA and CESG. Best practice guides have been produced

INFORMATION ASSURANCE

security procedures around how we do business rather than being imposed upon them.

Principle Two. Agile Information Assurance (IA) must be holistic An organisation’s Information Assurance plan should spread beyond the boundaries of the network. It must consider backwards along the supply chain to include suppliers and service providers. It should consider forwards to help protect its customers and it should look sideways to include its partners.

Much of this will require collaboration and information sharing rather than imposing standards but without a joined up approach gaps will appear and the risk of a breach will increase. Equally we need to put as much, if not more, emphasis on the education of our staff and partners and ensuring proper processes are in place rather than relying on technology alone to protect the information we hold in trust.

Principle Three. Agile Information Assurance (IA) must be risk based Resources are tight and there are multiple demands upon them. Therefore to ensure you are getting the best possible benefit from any investment

in IA it is worth conducting a detailed and comprehensive information risk assessment first and comparing it with a best practice benchmark. A good assessment will cover not just data protection but also resilience, compliance, infrastructure, staff and partners amongst others and should provide a plan for future activity that aligns with and supports the overall information strategy.

Principle Four. Agile Information Assurance (IA) must be proactive Organisations need to take action before a risk becomes an issue. Not only does this improve trust it also costs less in the long run. In order to be proactive an organisation requires both a good understanding of its own risks and also good intelligence and information about the threats it faces.

The government WARP scheme provides such an early warning capability while commercial intelligence sources such as Symantec’s DeepSight system delivers up to date technical threat assessments and mitigation strategies.

Agile Information Assurance is central to enabling transformational government.

By improving trust it increases take up of services and thus delivers efficiencies. By

being holistic and coherent it protects not just the organisation but helps protect the wider community and aligns good practice with our operational activities. By being risk based and proactive it is both dynamic and objective as the threat environment changes. These four principles together offer a high level framework to view how your organisation is aligning information assurance with your information strategy and shows that agile IA is an enabler to be embraced rather than a constraint to be suffered.

Contact us at: www.symantec.com/publicsector

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T he CESG C laims T ested M ark

on

the local government list Effective Information Assurance (IA) is essential to deliver Transformational Government. Here, the CCTM Secretariat explains how the events of April this year represent a shift in the way that local authorities fulfil their IA requirements.

E

arlier this year in April there was a marked shift in how local government organises and procures for information assurance needs. Of course it was a milestone month for all English and Welsh local authorities seeking connection to GCSX, which will enable secure data transfer between government departments, agencies, health and the police. It was also a month when the CESG Claims Tested Mark was seen to help local authorities, and vice versa, as local government procurement boosted industry vendor interest in getting CCTM certification and product recognition for GCSX. GCSX assists CCTM and vice versa To reach stage 5 of GCSX and complete a local configuration prior to going live, the actions required of a local authority include procuring local hardware, configuring and testing local hardware, training staff and initiating services over GCSX. ‘This is part of the reason that the industry vendors are enquiring at CCTM’ comments Peter Hayes, Head of the CCTM Secretariat.

Full details of GCSX are found at www.govconnect.gov.uk GCSX will be a key component in transformational government and this is where CESG intends the Claims Tested Mark to be part of the solution. The CCTM scheme can help considerably in providing claims tested solutions to help with compliance through the purchase of assured products and services that

have already been claims tested at the appropriate assurance levels. As Hayes noted: ‘we saw a record number of CCTM Awards in the period to April, and that month also saw a record level of new applications entering the scheme’.

For the year to April 2009, CESG, the Information Assurance arm of GCHQ, has operated the CESG Claims Tested Mark and the local government sector is seen as a major beneficiary of this. CCTM is aimed at products and services to meet assurance requirements at Government Impact Levels 1 and 2, for purchase by central government and the wider public sector – local authorities, education, the NHS, police and criminal justice.

knowing that products have been tested through a scheme run by CESG. This will not only help with Government Connect, but will continue on to the Public service Network, (PSN) programme’.

Comments Brett: ‘the Local Government Data Handling Guidelines have attempted to translate the central government guidance to take into account the differences in local authorities which do not have accredited systems or networks. Part of the compliance requirement is to give local authorities a choice of assured products and services, through the CESG Claims Test Mark’.

All of the Local Government Data Handling materials and resources are available through the IDeA website, www.idea.gov.uk/datahandling.

The CCTM scheme can help “ considerably in providing claims tested

Information Assurance defined Information Assurance (IA) is the confidence that information systems will protect the information they carry and will function as they need to, when they need to, under the control of legitimate users. ICT systems and the information they hold must be secure and reliable to ensure public confidence in dealing with an e-enabled modern government.

Effective IA is essential to deliver the government’s Transformational Strategy as a service enabler which will enable efficiencies across government ICT systems and support more customerfocused delivery. Many organisations use commercial off-the-shelf information security products and should consider:

solutions to help with compliance through the purchase of assured products and services that have already been claims tested at the appropriate assurance levels

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LGA insights As one closely involved in the outcomes, Mark Brett, Information Assurance Advisor with the Local Government Association comments: ‘I firmly believe the CESG Claims Test Mark is a key enabler to a standards based approach for product and service assurance at the lower impact levels. The scheme gives buyers the confidence of

INFORMATION ASSURANCE

• How can you be sure that these will meet your requirements?

• Do the products you buy really do what they say?

• Whichever sector you work in, you need to ensure that you take a pragmatic, appropriate and cost effective approach to the risk management of information.

The CCTM scheme provides a government quality mark for the public and private sectors based on accredited independent testing, designed to prove the validity of security functionality claims made by vendors. In more colloquial terms, the CCTM scheme is designed to assure public bodies that a product or service ‘does what it says on the box’.

Additionally, the CCTM scheme provides compliance testing against technical standards for de-gaussing (data erasure) set by CESG in its role as the UK National Technical Authority for IA. Benefits of CCTM for local government procurement: • Clear and trustworthy information: details of claims and test results are

published. This information gives you the facts you should be aware of when making your decision to buy.

• Independent testing: testing is performed by independent Test Laboratories accredited to an international standard, ISO/IEC 17025.

• Proof of claims: the claims the vendor is making about security functionality are checked and a summary published on our website.

• Rapid and cost-effective: the whole process takes less than12 weeks with testing typically taking about a month.

This means that CCTM can fit within IT procurement timescales, or can be part of a vendor’s commitment when bidding.

Since launch, over 40 industry vendors have entered the scheme, with near 50 awards. Hayes comments that: ‘a dozen awards have been for services, not products, and this is one of the unique features of CCTM’. Throughout 2009 and beyond, the CCTM scheme is being widely promoted and introduced to customers and vendors alike.

For information and award listings in CCTM visit: www.cctmark.gov.uk or email: secretariat@cctmark.gov.uk

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S ecurity

transfusions

How do healthcare organisations apply security so that it protects systems and data without interfering with users’ everyday work? As an example, Nick Lowe, Check Point’s managing director for Northern Europe, highlights the work the company has done with NHS Blood and Transplant.

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rimum non nocere – first, do no harm – is a fundamental principle in healthcare. The same principle should also apply in devising and deploying an IT security solution. While no organisation wants to risk damaging data losses, the security solution should also not interfere with or hinder users going about their everyday computing tasks. In effect, the security should be delivered as near invisibly as possible, without the user being able to affect it.

The reasoning behind this is simple.

If you make security transparent, then it’s much more likely that systems and data will stay protected.

All too often, data losses and leaks are blamed on individuals downloading sensitive data that they shouldn’t have, or failing to protect data on a laptop or USB memory stick. But this thinking diverts attention away from the real problem.

While an individual’s actions may have breached security policies, it is unlikely that there was malicious intent involved.

In all probability, the users were just trying to do their job a little quicker, or work a little smarter. Can they really be blamed for that?

Avoiding the blame game I would say the real issue is this: why was it left up to the individual to decide what data should be protected, and how that protection is applied? Shouldn’t the IT department share some responsibility for making security difficult to apply, or for failing to ensure that policies are adhered to by users?

So it’s no good playing the blame game. An effective security solution enforces security policies with products, to remove from users the responsibility of deciding what data needs protecting.

If the data needs securing as part of a process – such as copying data to a laptop or storage device – it’s done automatically, without the individual having to worry about it.

Sounds simple, but how does an organisation go about deploying this kind of data security solution to all its employees? An excellent example is NHS Blood and Transplant.

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In addition to dealing with blood donations, NHS Blood and Transplant conducts new research into improving the safety of blood and blood products, and the ways they can be used to help save lives. Storing confidential personal data as well as sensitive research data means it is imperative the organisation has a fail-safe data security solution in place. Access security to its organ transplant application for staff across the UK is also critical.

NHS Blood and Transplant already had a robust laptop and PC security solution in place. However, they needed to enhance protection for sensitive data to comply with latest government directives on data security in the public sector.

Adam Ataar, Network Security & Operations Consultant at NHS Blood and Transplant said: ‘Our laptop and PC security was already strong, as we used Check Point’s Integrity 6.5 solution for firewalling, intrusion prevention and endpoint policy compliance. However, we needed to deploy full disk encryption and port protection functions to further enhance security. And with 1,000 laptops and 500 desktop PCs across the UK, the solution had to be easy to manage, without adding complexity either for users or the IT team.’

We needed to deploy full disk encryption and port protection functions to further enhance security. And with 1,000 laptops and 500 desktop PCs across the UK, the solution had to be easy to manage

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Data security matters NHS Blood and Transplant is responsible for collecting, processing, storing and issuing approximately 2.1 million blood donations per year from its 15 blood centres in England and North Wales.

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The security transfusion Following an evaluation of solutions from several vendors, NHS Blood and Transplant chose to deploy Check Point Endpoint Security. This is the first single agent for total endpoint security that combines the highest-rated firewall,

INFORMATION ASSURANCE

network access control, program control, antivirus, anti-spyware, data security and remote access. Designed to protect company laptops and PCs against malware, data loss, and other threats while enabling secure remote access to the corporate network, the solution was chosen for its ability to deliver comprehensive security in a single software agent that is easily deployed and managed from a single console.

Endpoint Security has enabled NHS Blood and Transplant to further protect the data on its fleet of laptops, desktop PCs and USB storage devices against malware, data loss and theft. Its full-disk encryption feature means NHS Blood and Transplant employees don’t have to make any decisions about what data needs protecting.

Adam Ataar said: ‘Users shouldn’t be given the responsibility for deciding what should and should not be encrypted, or to maintain security policies. These policies have to be enforced by solutions, as transparently as possible from the user’s viewpoint. That’s exactly what the Check Point solution does.’

Protecting mobile data It also gives full control over data written to USB devices and removable media, as well as controlling which types of removable storage devices can be used on the organisation’s network.

‘We use the granular control of Endpoint Security’s port protection function. Each member of staff is given their own fully-encrypted 2GB USB drive, and use of all other removable media is blocked. This enables us to

keep information flow fully traceable and secure, while enabling users to work efficiently,’ continued Ataar.

Adam Ataar reports that both deployment and ongoing management have been seamless and easy for users and the IT team. Additionally, by reporting on the security status of each laptop and PC, Endpoint Security also allows any required upgrades or policy issues to be identified and addressed directly by administrators from the central management console.

Another key issue for NHS Blood and Transplant is to protect documents and emails that users are working on when away from the office, without compromising security or usability.

Endpoint Security includes both data security for preventing data loss and theft and a VPN client which provides secure remote access for employees working offsite. This delivers greater flexibility by allowing employees to work securely online when out of the office; ensuring sensitive data continues to be protected.

Looking to the future NHS Blood and Transplant plans to migrate its secure remote access to the VPN functionality in Endpoint Security, from the Citrix Access Gateway solution it

currently uses. Adam Ataar says this will further simplify security management and deliver long-term savings.

This type of granular control and application of policies ensures that data flows in a traceable and secure manner, while enabling users to work efficiently.

It ensures that the security solution truly does no harm.

Find out more about how to secure data on mobile devices contact Check Point.

Tel: 01256 374560 www.checkpoint.com

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D igital B ritain

By Stephen Carter - Minister for Communications Technology & Broadcasting The Digital Britain project has been tasked with establishing a clear and achievable strategy to secure Britain’s place at the forefront of the emerging global digital economy. The Interim Digital Britain Report, published in January, identified 22 specific actions and four key themes.

F

irstly, the indispensable need to guarantee the UK’s digital communications infrastructure – wired and wireless – as the digital public transportation networks for the 21st century. High bandwidth, super-fast broadband is being promoted by our competitors.

It is a major source of innovation – in telemedicine, in virtual world training, simulation and education, in cloud computing and the wide range of new information and creative industries that it enables.

Secondly, assuring British digital content for those digital transportation networks, content that speaks to us of our concerns,

narratives news about our polity and place in the global village.

Thirdly, the need for a Highway Code for those digital transportation networks. Rather than ‘regulation of the internet’, it needs to be something more delicate that adequately reflects the need to create a balance between freedom and mutuality, privacy and control and security and access. This poses a challenge for the traditional structures and line accountabilities of government. These are, unsurprisingly, not structured around the internet which can throw up common issues but which appear in different guises in different parts of many individual departments, and which can result in a series of isolated initiatives but fails to deliver a strategic response to the big questions.

These are dilemmas and complications that are not unique to the UK, governments across the globe are wrestling with them and they are increasing in significance everyday.

Fourthly, the related issues of a more universal broadband take-up and a 2 megabits minimum universal service

and the public time and money.

This government has worked hard over the last decade to modernise itself, adopting new technology, making more public services available online and improving the way it manages information as a strategic resource. By comparison with many other governments we are not doing badly, whether in adoption, procurement or public service. But other governments are not the right benchmark.

The changing needs of our citizens and businesses are what we must measure our progress against.

The 70 per cent of individuals who are online at home and up to 99 per cent online at work are adapting to the digital world at a much faster pace than government, central or local, and their expectations have risen accordingly. A gap is opening up between individual citizens’ and businesses’ expectations of what broadband technology can do for them and the public sector’s ability to exploit and use those same capabilities. We need a radical step change in the way we think and act to prevent that gap becoming unacceptably wide.

We have been among the leaders in putting public services online and moving towards the goal of seamless service delivery. Directgov now delivers a wide range of services getting more than 14 million visits each month. But too often online public service is an adaptation of the analogue paper-based process in an ‘us-to-them’ mode. It has not led to the sort of necessary business process re-engineering we have seen in

The 70 per cent of individuals who are “ online at home and up to 99 per cent online at work are adapting to the digital world at a much faster pace than government

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commitment – the information age equivalent of the minimum wage. Both will be crucial if we are to make the move towards a wide-scale delivery of public services online – saving the government

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the best bits of the private sector, where the public sector starts from the needs, patterns and modus operandi of the individual citizen or business and designs the service around that. We need to enhance personal and business identity management to provide truly personalised public service, built around the individual’s own circumstances.

New opportunities are emerging all the time for government to engage with people in the online world. Every day, hundreds and thousands of people come together online to solve problems and exchange ideas on public policy issues – whether raising children, tackling debt or seeking health advice. The government has yet to find a way to successfully tap into this, to use information to democratise and enhance public service.

The Power of Information Task Force’s report, key to the agenda of Digital

Britain, recognises and begins to address that challenge and how we harness the digital information created in the public space for the wider economy and public good. But this too needs a significant re-think of analogue trading fund models that seek to monetise and exploit that information on a monopoly basis.

We also need to look at the way government talks to itself. There is a huge amount of knowledge and expertise in Whitehall, but we are failing to harness that in the most effective way. Techniques such as internal blogs, wikis, discussion forums and shared workspaces, all of which are still rare in government, but if used properly could have a significant positive impact on policy making.

We face a complex set of challenges if we are to create a truly Digital Britain – both in securing the next generation of infrastructure and putting the necessary

frameworks in place and encouraging near universal adoption of broadband

by UK households and how we structure ourselves and interact with individual citizens, communities and businesses.

However, if successful, the rewards of shifting to digitally-delivered public services are likely to be substantial – both in terms of cost savings and quality of service.

Digital Britain: The Interim Report www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/ broadcasting/5944.aspx

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I n the world of T elecoms it ’ s like landing on the moon As flexible working becomes more prevalent, public sector organisations need to understand how to overcome the challenges that this increased mobility poses. Bruce Cooper, Head of Local Government Solutions, Cable&Wireless, explains how Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC), a flexible working solution, offers better cost control, gives staff greater productivity and reduces administration overheads – and why introducing FMC technology across an organisation need not be a major IT project.

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umans are mobile. We are always on the move and in the public sector, where service is paramount, people simply can’t be tied to a desk.

Organisations that provide the tools for colleagues to embrace mobile working, are often more productive. But this mobility often comes at a price; we abandon our cost-effective desk phones completely in favour of the convenience of the mobile.

The challenge is to allow people the freedom to move around while keeping telephony costs to a minimum The technology to converge your voice and data networks is nothing new. In fact, you can buy an internet phone in your local supermarket! The mobile, however, is not being swapped for ‘voice over IP’, (VoIP) technology.

What people want is one phone to fit all.

Enter Fixed Mobile Convergence, or FMC. FMC is convergence at its very best – a service that works as a landline in the office, by carrying mobile traffic over your data network. Once in range of your own mobile base station, your call charges reduce significantly, or are free.

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calls seamlessly roam onto a national mobile network.

The economy of a landline, the flexibility of a mobile FMC liberates the mobile in your pocket. Here are three clear ways that it can help:

A recent piece of research in the public sector found that the average information worker receives 51 messages a day across 7 different media

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FMC gives one telephone, one number and one bill– providing the flexibility to implement as much or as little as you need across your organisation.

When you step outside the building, the

1. One device FMC allows you to give more mobile phones or BlackBerrys to your staff. They can keep in touch with colleagues and customers using one device with one number and one voicemail which stays with them wherever they are.

2. One supplier You’ll have one bill for your fixed and mobile calls and one accountable telecoms partner. Better still, we will manage everything proactively and guarantee the service level in your building.

3. More for your money Around 50 per cent of all business calls made in the office are internal and about 50 per cent (and growing) are made on mobiles. Why let these become an expense? With FMC these calls will be free, reducing your overall phone bill.

Getting the job done FMC also liberates your buildings, removing the restrictions on office planning and desk location. This can reduce the cost of accommodation, cabling, travelling expenses, desktop changes and space reserved for office

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moves, but the real saving comes from getting it right first time.

A recent piece of research in the public sector found the average information worker receives 51 messages a day across 7 different media. All those missed calls, voicemails, distracted colleagues and ‘telephone tag’ sessions add up to a big productivity cost.

One network, one number, one bill, one phone… how simple is that ?

What FMC is not, is a major IT project.

The technology has been created to be easy to deploy. Better still, it brings all your communications together in one package so that problem solving is much more straightforward and administration overheads are slashed.

It also gives you more control. We’ve created a dedicated web portal so that you can manage and make changes to your service. You’re assigned your own dedicated migration team to integrate FMC with your existing networks and our expert engineers will manage the mobile cells in your building proactively.

As end users, your staff will be given replacement Cable&Wireless SIM cards

for their phones or BlackBerrys. From there, the devices will function as before but with the data and calls passing over your organisation’s secure data network.

Ultimately, FMC could replace the need for a desk phone altogether.

Always in touch, even when everyone else has no signal The public sector is expected to be there when everyone else has a problem.

FMC is the contingency solution you could be looking for because you are connected to the heart of the network. In fact, you have the best of both worlds – you will have unparalleled mobile coverage in your office and, with small indoor GSM pico cells, there will be no reception black spots.

However if, in the unlikely event there is a problem with your in-building network coverage, the phones will automatically roam onto our national network so you won’t be missing important conversations because of dropped calls.

One day, all phones will work this way – why wait?

For more information on FMC, Secure IP Voice, Remote Access services and Managed Video Conferencing services as part of a comprehensive flexible working portfolio please contact us.

Bruce Cooper Head of Local Government Solutions Cable&Wireless Tel: 0800 3160590 Email: bruce.cooper@cw.com www.cw.com

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T he

role of local authorities in rebuilding the superhighway John Ames, of the Digital Communications Knowledge Transfer Network (DCKTN), explains what broadband users can expect from future technology – and how local authorities can ensure that users in rural areas can access the same services as users in towns and cities.

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ot long ago, the only way you could access the internet from home was over a dial-up connection. Response times could be painfully slow, so you were very limited in what you could do. To speed things up, people often accessed websites without downloading the graphics.

Then broadband came along and the world began to change. According to one source, 1.5 billion people now have access to the internet – almost a quarter of the world’s population. More than 43 million of this fast-growing community live in the UK and they spend huge amounts of both time and money online. About £43 billion was spent through Britain’s websites in 2008 – 25 per cent more than was spent the year before.

But impressive as these statistics are, it’s clear much more is yet to come. As Lord Carter commented after launching his Digital Britain report in January 2009: ‘We are in the middle of a quiet revolution that affects all of our lives, at home and at work’.

Bit by bit, Britain’s information superhighways will be dug up and replaced. In some areas, people can already access the internet at speeds about 1,000 times faster than those we

all ‘enjoyed’ a decade ago. Both Virgin Media – operator of the country’s largest cable TV network – and BT have promised services that will deliver tens of megabits per second to homes and offices across the UK. And mobile phone companies and satellite-based broadband suppliers are competing to connect people in places cables and phone lines cannot reach.

All this begs an obvious question: what will people and businesses do with all the extra bandwidth?

The Digital Communications Knowledge Transfer Network is working to find out and to identify factors that could speed (or delay) deployment.

In March, it began the process by bringing 80 people together at Adastral Park, the BT research centre near Ipswich where pioneering work on fibre-optic networks, broadband and other staples of modern communications was done. Those present included business leaders, local authority representatives, service providers and technologists – people from across the East of England with a keen interest in our broadband future.

those who had been closely involved in the development and deployment of today’s broadband services admitted that projections of how they would be used had often proved wrong.

That said, there was general agreement that applications would evolve to fill whatever capacity could be made available – at least for the foreseeable future.

Many of the applications envisaged were extrapolations of those in use today. Those at the meeting predicted big increases in home working and the use of video-conferencing and other dataintensive services, for instance. Businesses could cut the costs of deploying and managing IT systems if PCs could be replaced by much simpler devices designed to access the applications they need online.

Outside the workplace, attendees thought the shift from standard broadcast TV channels to more flexible ways of viewing programmes would gather pace.

High-definition TV programmes would be available on demand, and people would be able to make and share programmes of their own, also in high definition.

The video-conferencing technology used in business today could start to appear in homes, helping families keep in touch with friends and relations.

Opportunities to improve education, healthcare and other public services were also identified. Attendees foresaw interactive services that would help both children and adults develop new

1.5 billion people now have access to the “internet – almost a quarter of the world’s population. More than 43 million of this fast-growing community live in the UK

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So what did they tell us? Inevitably, they were cautious when it came to predicting exactly how the broadband services of the future would be used by businesses and consumers. Even

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skills and telecare services that would improve health and standards of living.

Information about levels of pollution could be gathered and used to adjust the medication of patients with breathing problems, for example.

But while advances like these could deliver big benefits all round, speakers noted that the relatively poor performance of current broadband services was already putting those who live and work in rural areas at a disadvantage. Things people in urban areas can do in seconds can easily take those in the countryside ten minutes or more.

The opinion of the meeting was clear – superfast broadband must be available as soon as possible to everyone who wants it.

About a quarter of the UK’s businesses are based in rural areas and, as a nation, we simply cannot afford for them to be held back. But service providers are driven by return on investment. As a result, new technologies tend to be deployed first in towns and cities.

Decisions made in the public sector – and in particular by local government – could change this. Councils are looking

for ways to reduce their costs and cut their CO2 emissions, for example. Home working kills both birds with one stone.

By reducing the need for office space, it saves money and cuts the CO2 emissions related to heating and lighting. It reduces the need for council staff to travel to work, saving them time and money and reducing their carbon footprints. And studies suggest that home workers are much more frugal than their office-based colleagues, using as little as half the electricity per person and far less paper.

So home working could be good for local authorities, their tax payers and the environment. But to exploit it to the full, you need plenty of bandwidth to and from employees’ homes – more than is available in many places today.

If the attendees who came to our meeting at Adastral Park are anything to go by, no one expects the improvement of broadband services to be funded from the public purse. But the way councils and others spend their money could have a big impact. Home working is an example: if suppliers were confident of public bodies’ plans to adopt it, they might choose different areas in which to invest.

John Ames is the domain expert for broadband access at the Digital Communications Knowledge Transfer Network, a government-funded body set up to create and share knowledge and expertise to keep the UK at the forefront of the digital revolution.

DCKTN will be holding open forums in Bristol, Glasgow, Belfast, Leeds and Cardiff later this year. www.dcktn.org.uk.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT REVIEW I 23

ICT

L ocal

government at the heart of a D igital B ritain Many people within local government will be taking a close interest in the progress of the ongoing Digital Britain strategic initiative in order to understand the potential societal, commercial and operational benefits which are envisaged under this important programme. Aidan Roberts, of Huawei Technologies, explains.

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here is no doubt that over time local government will see the effects of an initiative designed to make more government services available online, promote social and digital inclusion, create a platform which can improve internal governmental working practices, achieve cost savings and enable ‘UK PLC’ to prosper within a challenging macro-economic climate. Several studies have already highlighted the benefit of significant job creation possibilities by embracing a more electronic future.

However, what may be less well understood is that local authorities may have a crucial, more direct part to play in making Digital Britain become a reality.

Necessarily, the scope of Digital Britain focuses upon improving the performance of – and affordable access to – the UK’s underlying broadband infrastructure.

It recognises that broadband is the critical transport mechanism and by encompassing wireless (mobile) and wireline (fixed) under a strategic framework, the programme will ensure that technology and engineering become enablers rather than act as constraints.

The challenge therefore moves from being one of policy and technology, to one of investment. In short, the vision of a Digital Britain will be realised when the business case works, and this is where local authorities have a part to play.

Today, few question the logic of public agencies having investment and policy control over capital intensive common infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, railways, schools and hospitals.

However we have seen a steady stream

of governments around the world recognising the benefits afforded by developing a broadband platform as a key part of the nations’ infrastructure.

As private business cases and models have become constrained due to market pressure and financial belt-tightening, governments together with the private sector, have started to implement joint investment programmes. The Australian, Singaporean and Japanese governments are just a few examples where this approach has been implemented.

To date, telecommunications investment, driven by strong innovation and competition has created a marketplace where consumers and businesses have benefited from many cycles of new services delivering greatly increasing bandwidth for decreasing proportions of their disposable income or budget.

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experience, including sophisticated business applications and Web 2.0 content such as video streaming, social networking, instant messaging, ‘mashups’ and high speed file transfer.

If the momentum and consequential economic growth generated by telecommunications is to be maintained, a step-change in infrastructure investment is required to deliver truly ubiquitous, highspeed broadband access services. In order to move to the next generation of both fixed and mobile higher speed broadband technologies, the industry faces daunting challenges on two fronts.

Firstly, the traditional business case approach rests upon the variables of unprecedented levels of investment (in this case primarily in fibre optic deployment, spectrum licences and electronic equipment) against uncertain per subscriber revenue returns.

Current announcements and industry projections indicate that while the business case works for densely populated metropolitan areas, the law of diminishing returns would leave a large proportion of the population (and an even larger proportion of the UK land-mass) unable to access these higher-speed services.

Furthermore, densely populated areas would be over-served as multiple companies with over-lapping networks compete for a finite market, while others become under-served and disadvantaged.

It is this concern, through the mechanism of a Universal Service Obligation (USO), that the Digital Britain initiative aims to mitigate. But while end-

However, what may be less well understood is that local authorities may have a crucial, more direct part to play in making Digital Britain become a reality

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In a very short space of time the industry has moved us from GSM and low-speed mobile data services to 3G smartphones and broadband dongles, from narrowband dial-up internet to extremely fast fixed broadband services.

This degree of innovation has given us all access to a more beneficial and richer internet, information and media

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About Huawei Technologies Co, Ltd.

users will see geography-independent pricing and minimum performance levels, telecoms operators will have to manage a highly geographic cost base.

The second challenge for telecoms companies is to remain relevant and differentiated in a world where users are attaching increasing levels of importance (and therefore spend) to communications devices, applications and content.

Global and regional ‘Over the Top’ brands such as Google, Facebook, Apple and BBC iPlayer – none of whom are constrained by the same per subscriber revenue model – are increasingly shaping internet usage patterns and by extension, telecoms infrastructure costs.

In a market where telecoms companies are struggling to retain subscriber loyalty and relevance over and above providing ‘cheaper, fatter pipes’, justifying tomorrow’s investments (whether they merely extend the footprint of existing technology or are for the ultra high-speed next generation) will be an unprecedented challenge.

It is here that local and other government agencies can help to stimulate and sustain economic growth and assure the future wealth of their constituents by investing in the next generation of what has become an economically and socially essential

infrastructure. These agencies operate in a macro economy that differs from the micro economic constraints of the commercial telecommunications industry.

Return on local government investment in next generation infrastructure will be defined in terms of increased levels of employment, higher tax revenues and GDP and can be measured over longer and more meaningful periods of time.

There are a number of such investment programmes to be found in education, research and community projects in the UK and across Europe. The JANET educational and research network funded and operated by UKERNA in the UK is a well established example. Other projects include the Hudiksvall city project where local government has secured EU funding to seed a centre of research and technical excellence in rural Sweden. This project has reduced unemployment and grown the local economy. Several other municipalities in Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany have partnered with telecoms companies to deploy high-speed fibre infrastructure in this way, making the area more attractive to employers and employees alike.

For the vision of Digital Britain to become a reality it seems clear that a new approach to investment models, involving new stakeholders with complementary

Huawei Technologies is a leader in providing next generation telecommunications networks, and now serves 36 of the world’s top 50 operators, along with over one billion users worldwide. The company is committed to providing innovative and customized products, services and solutions to create long-term value and growth potential for its customers.

For more information, please visit www.huawei.com agendas and priorities, will be required.

Local government has an essential part to play in making Digital Britain a reality.

To find out more contact Huawei Email: digitalbritain@huawei.com Tel: 01256 865300

LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT REVIEW I 25

CASE STUDY

OITUK

and local government As cash-strapped councils across the UK face ever more complex demands on their range of services, they are increasingly turning for help to IT providers like OITUK, a small company with the flexibility to meet the most complex of demands.

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ITUK has been working with public sector clients for over a decade and has invested heavily to learn and adapt to the cultural and management landscape of the public sector. C-Cube solutions from OITUK have won a clutch of awards for projects in the local government and health sectors in the last few years, proving that OITUK has evolved to meet the demands of the public sector. While larger IT providers are less flexible, OITUK can respond quickly to the demands of its clients.

Stop, look, listen, is OITUK’s mantra when dealing with public sector clients.

OITUK’s view is that local authorities want help with the application of technology.

It’s no use simply selling an off-the-shelf package – the C-Cube solutions are based on the results of consultations with public sector staff, ensuring that systems are shaped to the demands of OITUK’s customers, not the other way around.

Planning for success Faced with a 2006 deadline set by government, Arun District looked to OITUK for a solution to put their whole planning process online Traditionally, plans are created using oversized A0 paper folded to A4 size. With a typical council dealing with several thousand applications per year, placing these online presented a logistical challenge.

‘OITUK proved they were more than able to meet the requirements,’ said Arun Council planning consultant Maureen Chaffe. ‘For every challenge that was presented by the planning department, OITUK responded with a detailed proposal.’

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With the new system, plans are scanned, indexed and posted on the council’s website within days of being submitted. Proposals are listed by the week in which they are submitted. Any user of the site can submit views or comments on proposed developments via the website. Another dimension of the system is a unique online measurement tool invented by OITUK. Using the tool, neighbours affected by a proposed development can see if the work will affect their property.

Benefitting from intelligent e-forms OITUK’s most demanding and technically-challenging project in the public sector was one to design and implement an intelligent benefits application form. Three local authorities – all past customers of OITUK – were looking to significantly cut the time it took to process benefits applications. The incumbent system relied on applicants filling in a 30-page form and sending in supporting documentation. Applications were often filled in incorrectly or supporting documentation was missing.

This, coupled with the delay of documents being sent back and forth via surface mail, created an intolerable situation for all those involved in the process.

The solution was provided by an intelligent electronic form, which allowed applicants to enter only relevant information and steered them away from unnecessary questions.

‘We wanted an application form that was intelligent; that if a person answered a certain question, it would pop the next question,’ said Ian Nisbet of Wealden

District Council. ‘If for instance they had children, then it would ask them if they received child benefit.’

The process of authenticating claims via council officers visiting the homes of claimants was also made easier. During visits, council officers are able to validate the applications on-site, collecting and capturing the claimant’s signature via a tablet PC. This information is then instantly relayed to the council’s central information repository.

‘OITUK enabled us to develop a solution that met our differing needs,’ added Ian. ‘If we went to a bigger supplier, we would have been offered an off-the-shelf solution which would have not met our requirements, which would have been more expensive and which we would have had little input into. The form we developed can be amended by us and enables us to produce other e-forms.’

These two public sector case studies represent the very essence of OITUK’s success in providing workable solutions in areas with very different needs and applications, but with the same level of dedication and quality outcome.

To find out more please contact Vijay Magon – Managing Director Tel: 01908 677752 www.oituk.com

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IT

disposal : environmental and social implications

In a world where our day-to-day existence is increasingly managed electronically and conducted online, data security is an often neglected, yet unavoidable factor of modern life. Malcolm Watson, General Manager for Remploy e-cycle, explains.

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ith limited data-secure IT disposal options on offer to UK organisations and even less available to the individual, earlier this year the editor of Which?

Computing magazine encouraged PC owners to destroy the hard drives of their old computers with a hammer to help protect against identity fraud. But as specialists in the safe and ethical disposal of IT equipment, we responded urging consumers not to follow the misguided anti-fraud advice, which is disproportionate, misinformed and environmentally unsound.

Destroying IT equipment is wasteful and goes against the EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive which was introduced to minimise the environmental impact of waste electrical and electronic equipment which ultimately ends up in landfill sites.

Furthermore, the total decimation of a hard drive prevents it from ever being put to positive use again.

Remploy e-cycle believes that while data protection and the potential for information to fall into the wrong hands is worrying, it would be naive for anyone, company or consumer, not to simultaneously address the associated issues of environmental and ethical disposal options with which data security is so intrinsically linked.

In 2007, Remploy e-cycle spoke to a number of companies about their own data security measures in relation to the refreshment of IT equipment. It found that more than three-quarters of the 350 organisations questioned, including many

of the UK’s leading financial organisations, sold or gave away computers. Alarmingly less than a quarter (23 per cent) admitted to having cleansed the data sufficiently to make it irrecoverable, while 38 per cent confessed to having merely reformatted the drives. Just 22 per cent had overwritten them once and 45 per cent were unable to demonstrate whether the data held on their redundant hard drives had been destroyed. Astonishingly, only 12 per cent were able to claim to have destroyed data in their redundant IT equipment to a required standard.

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be redeployed within the clients own businesses, sold on or donated to charity on the clients behalf.

If a PC cannot be refurbished its individual components are recycled to the point where nothing of the original equipment remains. We use similarly secure processes to remove personal data from PDAs and other devices containing memory entering our processing facilities.

Having recognised the lack of options for consumers when it came to the disposal of the old PCs, Remploy e-cycle extended its previously business-only service to the general public.

And, from February of this year has piloted a six-month trial whereby each of the company’s four processing facilities – Porth, South Wales; Preston, Lancashire; Barking, Essex and Heywood in Manchester – began accepting hard drives from individuals.

The company is also exploring a national initiative to make its secure IT processing services widely available to consumers in the longer term.

The only true way to ensure complete data erasure on a PC or laptop is to wipe the hard drive using specialist software But the fact remains, simply reformatting or overwriting data once or twice will still allow much of the data to be accessed. So, as destruction remains an unsuitable alternative, what options are actually out there?

The only true way to ensure complete data erasure on a PC, or laptop is to wipe the hard drive using specialist software. At Remploy e-cycle we use software called Blancco, approved for the cleansing of British government data and exceeding every standard set by the US Federal Government. We also protect all goods we receive from clients by collecting, tracking and auditing each item throughout the repair and refurbishment process. Once permanently wiped of all pre-existing data, Remploy e-cycle arranges for the equipment to

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Remploy e-cycle Tel: 0845 602 0645 Email: sales.ecycle@remploy.co.uk www.remployecycle.co.uk

LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT REVIEW I 27

ICT

H ow

to do green when you are in the red Green IT was on everybody’s lips last year – that is, however, until the recession bit us. Now, it seems, we are in somewhat of a dilemma. Jos Creese, Head of IT for Hampshire County Council and Chair of the LG CIO Council, explains.

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n the one hand, it remains good to be green, and there is still plenty of evidence to suggest that being more green in IT management and procurement can be more efficient. At the same time, the realities of the recession mean that public finances are under the microscope and this forces sharper questioning about whether green policies genuinely save money, not just the planet.

Of course, public and private sectors alike are unlikely to suggest that saving the planet and sustainable policies are not a Good Thing, but many organisations will be reassessing their fashionable green IT strategies to ensure that they do not adversely affect their short-term financial position. It is also true that many of the promoted examples we have seen in recent years appear to lack some business rigour that would actually strengthen their wider adoption and priority for us as individuals, organisations and nations.

We all have a responsibility to protect our world for future generations, and IT has a key role to play in this. We also have to meet the Carbon Reduction Commitment, since failing to meet these new targets can result in harsh financial penalties. But the public are confused, and at times so are we and our politicians.

For example, are biofuels a good thing or a bad thing, given changing agricultural

methods across the world? Is it right to buy a new car and scrap an old car given manufacturing and disposal costs, even when a new car is much more fuel efficient and green in its manufacture?

Is it more environmentally friendly to work from home or to travel to an office designed to be energy efficient and shared facilities? There is even a debate about whether disposable nappies are better than terry towelling nappies. The answer to all these is… it’s not clear cut.

Therefore, if recessionary pressures force a hard look about the practical realities of green IT, this is no bad thing. Admittedly, it may encourage a degree of short termism, but I also think that as things gradually move to a bit more stability and realism about the depth of the recession, we will be able to plan further on the basis of a real

realities of the recession “ The mean that public finances

impoverished, our arable land will become denuded and there will be increasing risks of side effects from intensive animal rearing. We also know that demands for energy are not sustainable with current technologies. Unless we solve these problems, the challenges of global warming, rising food and energy prices, may lead to tensions between nations.

It is not all ‘doom and gloom’. Science and technology hold the key to many of these global problems: for example, to change working practices to reduce resource consumption, to accelerate effective exploitation of renewable sources of energy, to design and manufacture products and services in such a way that reduces the disposable society in which we now live.

Local authorities should consider taking advantage of grants available (eg through the Carbon Trusts’ Salix Finance scheme) and matched funding being made available for IT projects which can

are under the microscope and this forces sharper questioning about whether green policies genuinely save money, not just the planet

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understanding of the pros and cons of different green IT proposals.

With rapidly growing global population demands for greater equality across the world, and expansion in China and India in particular, the wider pressures are not going to go away. For example, without more sustainable approaches to food production, our seas will become

ICT

headquarters building has reduced printer ratios from 1:4 to 1:27. We have saved significantly on electricity consumption through the use of ‘thin client’ and virtualised or consolidated technologies.

We are even moving our data centre into our new headquarters building and re-cycling heat which will save up to 70 per cent of otherwise wasted energy in the colder months. Any member of staff with broadband access can access their office services securely from home, reducing the need for commuting or supporting flexible working. We are using ‘thin client’ laptops and virtual PCs, again reducing direct carbon costs and increasing flexibility of working. show a clear carbon saving. These factors can significantly alter the attractiveness of an otherwise doubtful business case for change. In my own council, Hampshire County Council, we have a Green IT Plan spanning data centre to desktop tools, focused on measurable outcomes such as reduced energy consumption. Our new

So the bottom line of doing green, when you are in the red must be: • Add rigour to your green practices and policies, and share best practice where it clearly saves money and time.

Such examples as reducing travel costs and both carbon footprint and energy consumption through activities in data

centres such as virtualisation speak for themselves; • Demonstrate more conclusively or provide clear guidance on practices. proven to have a positive effect, and then encourage these through appropriate incentives. For example, being clear when commuting or home working are desirable.

Ultimately, it is for governments to help the public to understand their individual and collective responsibilities in this respect, and it is for the public sector in the UK to set a national lead working with the private sector, especially maximising the potential of technology.

For more detail please contact Email: lgciocouncil@socitm.gov.uk

LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT REVIEW I 29

ICT

G reen

your ICT and gain savings The need for local authorities to decrease their costs, power consumption and their carbon footprint is a pressing one, yet when councils look to do so, the printer fleet and spend is often neglected. Christian Grauwiler, Head of IMS at Konica Minolta, outlines how common issues in fleet management can be overcome.

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raditionally, print fleet management has concentrated on driving down the cost of the hardware and prints, while keeping the number of printers the same. Little work has been done to investigate the full needs of an organisation when aiming to reduce its printing services carbon footprint – needs that include considering whether the right devices are being used for the right reasons and ensuring that each machine is used regularly enough to make it cost and performance efficient.

The point at which having a printer becomes necessary is rarely defined, nor is it clear how far someone should be prepared to walk to get to a printer. What is clear, however, is that the need for individuals to have their own printers is no longer just a cost issue – it is also a power consumption issue.

On top of this, few consumables stores are effectively managed, recycled or responsibly disposed of. We often find that an inventory of consumables has built up – sometimes running into thousands of pounds worth – for printers that no longer work or that have been scrapped.

This is a huge waste of resources.

Green advantages of the Konica Minolta IMS division’s Managed Print Service (MPS) Process Konica Minolta promotes efficiency through analysis and understanding of our clients’ requirements. We will look at the entire printing fleet of an organisation, understand what is being used and how often and reduce the number of devices.

More efficient devices are installed, the latest generation of Konica Minolta products, use around 65 per cent less energy than its predecessor. Under utilised devices are removed, which can bring big benefits to an organisation – as a recent audit of a sizeable public sector organisation illustrates. We monitored the organisation’s print usage over six weeks and found that of 400 devices, 37 hadn’t printed anything and 32 had printed less

We’ve found that by simply informing staff that their printing is being monitored, print output can reduce by as much as 20 per cent. Software offering features such as Pull Printing are not a new solution to excess or needless printing, but an effective one. Pull Printing delivers the benefit by ensuring users walk to the printer they have sent their job to and input an authentication code to start the print.

We believe that reductions of more than 50 per cent can be achieved by applying our methodologies. Our carbon reduction audit and remodelling helps to achieve government targets by mapping users’ printing needs, enabling fleet reduction through effective machine placement and waste reduction through policies such as Pull Printing or Rules Based Routing.

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What is clear is that Konica Minolta corporate green benefits the need for individuals to have their Konica Minolta is very active own printer is no longer just a in progressing its environmental policies and has a strong cost issue – it is also a commitment to being a responsible power consumption issue company and supplier. It is important

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”

than 200 sheets. Each of these machines was switched on permanently – in fact, prior to our audit, the organisation had told us that it was important that all the printers were kept in place. This is not an untypical case and shows the wastage of power, machines and consumables that can occur when an organisation has no print policy. People rarely realise that print devices can cost more to power than they do to buy.

that Konica Minolta’s policies are real and active, and not just rhetoric.

In 1997 Konica Minolta was the first UK company in the industry to achieve ISO14001, the International Standard for Environmental Management, and conducts a full Environmental Aspects review every three years, which includes internal environmental audits. We undertake a continuous review of recycling streams for head office and regional offices and a full analysis of

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the company’s carbon footprint Konica Minolta staff are given full training on environmental awareness, which is passed on to the community via our green partnerships. Through our local community outreach project we are developing a training programme for local primary schools to promote positive social behaviour with the emphasis on green issues.

Our products and services also reflect our commitment to continuously improving the impact on the environment.

For example, Konica Minolta’s Simitri HD (High Definition) Toner is an upgraded version of the polymerised toner.

Compared to a conventional pulverised toner, polymerised toner requires less energy during the manufacturing process, thereby reducing CO2 generation by more than 30 per cent. In addition, Simitri HD is made of smaller particles than conventional toner, which are capable of fusing and fixing at a temperature about 20 C lower than conventional toner – this can cut users’ energy consumption by 30 per cent.

Reducing the power consumption of devices in standby mode has been an important environmental goal for Konica Minolta. We have introduced induction

heating technology, which directs heat to the fuser roller electromagnetically to increase the temperature more quickly than conventional methods. This results in efficient energy conversion from electric power to heat, reduction of device warm-up time, and lower standby power consumption – in fact, savings of up to 90 per cent can be made.

Konica Minolta has invested extensively in transforming the company’s waste processes. In 2007 we opened the Greenhub recycling centre to deal with the large amounts of cardboard, polystyrene and other waste our warehouses create. Packaging is transformed into raw materials for use by other manufacturers – diverting 11.5 tonnes of polystyrene and 46.8 tonnes of cardboard from landfill a year.

We also recycle office products, mobile phones, IT products (under the WEEE Directive) and other waste – ultimately sending less than five per cent of the company’s waste to landfill.

Even our engineers are deployed in the most environmentally sound way via our planning tool called Click. Normal practice is to send the nearest engineer to the job. However, this engineer might not have the correct parts, will have to

order them in and come back for a second visit. Click matches the nearest engineer who has the correct parts – which reduces carbon and fixes the device faster.

Konica Minolta likes to take the lead with green issues. We constantly strive to offer the best in environmental products and services, so that our clients can reap the benefits by saving power, time, resources and money.

Christian Grauwiler – Head of IMS Tel: 01908 200400 Email: christian.grauwiler@ konicaminolta.co.uk www.konicaminolta.co.uk

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SUSTAINABILITY

EMS:

beware – your savings can go down as well as up Nick Blyth, Senior Environmental Adviser at the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), warns that neglecting or abandoning Environmental Management Systems (EMS) can result in savings being lost.

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savings can go down as well as up and whichever sector you are in, a neglected or abandoned EMS opens the way for hard won savings to be lost or even reversed. Addressing this, the concept of ‘continual improvement’ is central to all major recognised EMS schemes with the Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle to ensure that annual savings are both preserved and built on. The need for a maintained and effective EMS has never been so

here is increasing recognition that good environmental performance makes good business sense. In business, robust environmental management has reaped many benefits ranging from improved eco-efficiency and cost savings to meeting stakeholder expectations, ensuring legal compliance and taking advantage of new market opportunities.

At the heart of successful environmental management lies the Environmental Management System (EMS); a structured approach for achieving and maintaining good environmental practice.

Local authorities are realising their own EMS benefits, achieving genuine financial savings but also providing the framework to engage staff across departments as well as the opportunity to work through supply chains with a wide range of suppliers and partners. It is more thorough than ad-hoc approaches such as recycling paper, using low energy light bulbs, or installing low-flush toilets because it puts systems in place to ensure that the council has a genuine and positive impact on the environment.

As the economy shows, however,

certifier accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS). Alongside ISO 14001, the position statement identified two other EMS schemes that complement the standard; EMAS and BS 8555 (with accredited inspection though the IEMA Acorn scheme).

EMAS is a voluntary EU wide scheme using ISO 14001 as the EMS framework but goes further in its requirements for performance improvement, employee involvement, legal compliance and communication with stakeholders. Uniquely EMAS requires organisations to produce an independently verified public statement about their performance. A number of UK local authorities have developed and secured EMAS, the most recent being East Riding of Yorkshire Council (May 2009). In the UK, IEMA is the competent body for EMAS, responsible for registering organisations that comply with the relevant EMAS requirements and maintaining a public register of registered organisations (www.emas.org.uk).

BS 8555 (Acorn approach) allows phased implementation of an EMS leading to full certification to ISO 14001 or registration for EMAS. Breaking up ISO 14001 into specific stages makes it much easier for organisations with limited resources to put in place an EMS and also enables them to proceed at their own pace. It is primarily (but not exclusively) aimed at small and medium sized enterprises and a range of ‘public’ organisations have registered including several Groundwork Trusts, Birkbeck

concept of continual improvement “ Theis central to all major recognised

EMS schemes with the Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle to ensure that annual savings are both preserved and built on

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strong, especially as all organisations (public or private) face a stream of new expectations, from organisational reporting through to the obligations of the Carbon Reduction Commitment.

So what are the options?

The international standard for EMS, ISO 14001, outlines the main features of the EMS process (also outlined on www.iema.net/ems). ISO 14001 specifies the requirements necessary to help organisations systematically identify, evaluate, manage and improve the environmental impacts of their activities, products and services. In 2005, Defra published a government position statement on the use of EMS. The document recognised that an EMS should be audited by an independent

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SUSTAINABILITY

University of London, Buying Solutions and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue. The Acorn Scheme can provide accredited certification for each stage of BS 8555 and ensures that data has been independently validated and that the information they provided to stakeholders is both credible and reliable. The Acorn scheme can also be used very successfully in green procurement and can help manage supply chains more effectively (www.iema.net/ems/acorn_scheme).

Complying with legislation An effective EMS should deliver legal compliance on an ongoing basis. Through regular evaluations, organisations know for themselves their compliance status.

Should things go wrong, a robust EMS provides for a comprehensive root cause analysis into the management failure and preventative action to be instigated to remedy the issue.

Registration to EMAS offers maximum credibility in terms of an organisation’s compliance status. At the time of registration, the environmental regulators (Environment Agency in England and Wales/SEPA in Scotland and relevant local authorities) are consulted by the EMAS competent body (IEMA) to

make sure that they are satisfied the organisation is not in breach of statutory regulatory requirements.

Greening the supply chain Supply chain leaders such as local authorities, may use EMAS or the phased approach of Acorn inspection as a risk-based tool to engage their supply chains in environmental management.

Organisations that are certified to ISO 14001/registered to EMAS have a commitment to identify environmental aspects and to determine those that are significant which should be addressed as a priority by the organisation’s environmental management system.

Consideration should be given to aspects related to the organisation’s activities, products and services which may include the environmental practices of contractors and suppliers. As part of the procurement process, organisations can use Acorn to manage the performance of their suppliers and set the ‘Phase’ that they need to achieve (depending on the environmental risk they may pose). This can be accompanied by a specific date for achievement with supply chain leaders able to monitor their progress through the web-based Acorn register.

Something for everyone Depending on needs, a suitable EMS option is available for all. Many local authorities have already sought certification to EMAS or developed an EMS on the lines of ISO14001. For others however, an extensive EMS might not be achievable in the short term and as such Acorn (BS 8555) might offer a suitable inroad to environmental management.

Whatever the choice, engaging in environmental performance improvements will help your authority to reduce environmental impact, achieve and sustain savings and secure a range of positive outcomes from supply chain initiatives through to staff and public engagement.

www.iema.net

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SUSTAINABILITY

G reening

your supply chain

Achieving the Local Government Sustainable Procurement Strategy is a wholly desirable, worthwhile and ethically sound commitment. But in practical terms, how can Local Government Procurement Professionals make the most effective contribution to the green agenda? Catherine Golds, Head of NQA explains.

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nderstandably, many pressures exist on local government and meeting the needs of the community it serves while achieving diversity, equality, community cohesion, sustainability and demonstrating value-for-money is a significant challenge.

Local government procurement practitioners, therefore, need a practical and reliable method to identify suppliers with genuine green credentials who will contribute to achieving the ambition of the sustainable procurement agenda.

With so many organisations making green statements in their PR and marketing materials, the increase of ambiguous green terminology – or greenwash – is raising doubt over the credibility of such claims.

Many major consumer brands make green claims to enhance their reputation; it is to be expected that a certain level of creative licence is used to create the perception that their products are eco-friendly, sustainable or other ubiquitous and vague but convincing terms.

These highly visible organisations, often cited as pioneers, have a significant influence over the way in which many other organisations, including businessto-business suppliers, go about reporting their environmental performance.

The problem is that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and other forms of reporting have a direct influence on the choices made by procurement professionals who do not have the time or resource to fully investigate the validity of claims – eg the hidden trade off, lack of proof, ambiguity, or irrelevance of claims.

Clearly this raises a challenge of how to identify reputable organisations with a quick sure-fire method of validating their commitment and investment in improving their environmental performance. They need a recognisable mark of trust; a badge or certificate. But with so many badges which one do you ask for?

Organic, Fair Trade, Zero Carbon, European Ecolabel, Sustainably Sourced and Recyclable imply the environmental credentials of a product. However, it is easy to misplace trust in a supplier that itself fails to meet its obligations.

So how do you make a reliable and robust judgement on the environmental credentials of a supplier without falling foul of greenwash?

truly global environmental management system standard.

The standard is built upon a framework that promotes: • Management commitment • Legal compliance • Effective management of impacts • Continual improvement The emphasis on ‘effective’ and ‘continual’ means that organisations with certification cannot stand still. They must continually demonstrate through a rigorous and ongoing cycle of audits that they are actively improving their environmental performance.

Under the certification regime, it is unacceptable for a supplier to simply monitor and evaluate their performance – it is what they actually do with the information that matters.

If they identify a significant impact, they must take appropriate action as a condition of certification.

Local government procurement “practitioners, therefore, need a

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practical and reliable method to identify suppliers with genuine green credentials

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The answer is through accredited certification against the nationally and internationally recognised standards BS 8555 and ISO 14001. Just ask for their certificate and if in any doubt call their certification body for confirmation of the validity and scope of their certification.

A robust framework of environmental management systems standards is well established and ISO 14001, first launched in 1996, was revised in 2004 as part of its continual improvement. It has now achieved 154,572 certificates of registration in 148 countries making it a

Certification enables the Procurement Practitioner to: • Identify credible organisations • Pre-select suppliers • Save time on due diligence of approved suppliers • Build a portfolio of suppliers with genuine environmental improvement programmes • Affect change through supply chains • Drive the sustainable procurement agenda at their own pace By insisting that suppliers carry accredited BS 8555 or ISO 14001

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certification, Local Government procurement professionals will witness genuine and sustainable environmental improvements in a way that enables suppliers to achieve business benefits such as: • Improved profitability through cost reductions • Reduced risk of pollution incidents and related clean up costs • Compliance with legislation and identification of new legal requirements • Improved brand image with proven environmental credentials

This can be achieved without burdening suppliers with excessive demands because they can implement a management system that suit their needs, resources and budgets which is especially important in today’s economic climate.

When the Environmental Management System (EMS) has been implemented, the supplier can then be assessed for certification. This should be undertaken by a certification body that is accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS).

Accredited certification bodies, such as NQA, are themselves subjected to robust assessment to ensure that their competence, integrity and impartially is maintained.

To find out more on how certification can assist your supply chain management contact NQA.

Call NQA’s certification experts on 08000 522424 or email ems@nqa.com

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real commitment to reducing carbon John Fiennes, Director of the Sustainable Buildings and Climate Change at the Department for Communities & Local Government (CLG), highlights the steps government is taking to tackle climate change, and the role that local authorities should be taking to ensure success.

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limate change is the biggest environmental challenge facing the world today and we all need to take urgent action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide.

Lord Stern’s report published in 2006 highlighted the cost to the world economy of delayed action.

More recent reports from leading scientists and economists have underlined the urgency of the issue.

The Government is taking action.

The Climate Change Act 2008 set legally binding – and challenging – targets on the UK Government to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 and by 26 per cent by 2020 from a 1990 baseline. As part of this, we will need radically to reduce carbon emissions from homes, currently 27 per cent of the total, and non-domestic buildings, a further 17 per cent. I describe below some of the steps being taken to tackle these by central government. Success also depends on local government playing a key role.

Zero Carbon New Homes One of the most challenging items on the Government’s agenda is achieving the target for all new homes to be zero carbon from 2016 as set out in Building a Greener Future: Policy Statement 2007. Zero carbon means net zero carbon, across the year, taking account of all energy uses in the home as well as imported and exported energy. We have recently concluded a consultation on detailed definition, and will set out conclusions later this year. Tighter energy efficiency standards for new homes will play a major part in reaching the zero carbon target. We aim to achieve high energy efficiency by progressively tightening Building Regulations, and we will be consulting on changes for 2010.

end, the Zero Carbon Hub (www. zerocarbonhub.org) has been established jointly with industry to break down practical barriers to meeting the zero carbon target, share knowledge and to address skills shortages. The Hub’s work is overseen, at a strategic level, by a senior stakeholder group, jointly chaired by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Minister for Housing and Planning, and Stewart Baseley, Executive Chairman of the Home Builders’ Federation. The Local Government Association and Town and Country Planning Association represent the local government and the planning community on the group.

Code for Sustainable Homes We are also learning from our experience of the Code for Sustainable Homes. The Code is a national standard which assesses the sustainability of a home in six levels, covering energy as well as water, waste and recycling. It is now mandatory for all new developments to get a rating against the Code or declare they have not been rated. The energy levels of the Code mirror expected future regulatory standards, while other aspects currently describe good practice.

Government is helping to develop the market by requiring all homes that are designed and built with public money or on public land to be built to standards above the regulatory minimum. As people build to the Code, there are real opportunities for creative thinking and innovation in designing energy efficient products and building techniques which can also work to ‘green’ existing homes.

There are real opportunities “ for creative thinking and innovation

in designing energy efficient products and building techniques which can also work to ‘green’ existing homes

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The effectiveness of Building Regulations relies on whether people comply and the role of Building Control.

So we have also consulted on proposals for changes to the Building Control system designed to both improve compliance and further reduce the burdens associated with the system.

The journey to zero carbon represents a major transformation in the way that homes will be built. Industry and government will need to work together to make that transformation. To that

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Non-domestic buildings Achieving the zero carbon standard in new non-domestic buildings presents a huge challenge because of the diversity of the stock. The government will be consulting later this year on its ambition to achieve the zero carbon standard from 2018 for new public sector buildings and from 2019 for the private sector.

Existing homes Over 70 per cent of the housing stock that will exist in 2050 has already been built and many existing homes have been built to energy efficiency standards which are far lower than those achieved today. While much has already been done through the Decent Homes programme, Energy Efficiency Commitment and the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target, to improve the energy efficiency of existing homes – and reduce energy bills – there is more to do if we are to meet the UK’s emissions targets. The Heat and Energy Saving Strategy consultation paper sets out the government’s proposals to help millions of existing homes to

benefit from energy saving and low carbon measures. The Community Energy Saving Programme consultation sets out government proposals aimed at stimulating further energy efficiency measures in our deprived communities.

The role of local government: • Regional and Local Planning committees and officers have duties to put climate change firmly at the centre of good local planning, with the publication in December 2007 of the Climate Change Planning Policy Statement, a supplement to PPS1.

More recently, the Planning Act 2008 introduced new duties on planners to take action on climate change; • Building Control officers will be working to ensure compliance with increasingly rigorous standards in the Building Regulations. They will have access to more stringent enforcement powers for those few persistent and repeat offenders. The Code should help with this, showing what future changes in regulation may look like now and how building highly efficient homes requires understanding from Building Control and Planning;

• Energy managers, and those involved in procurement, will be expected, under the EU Energy Services Directive, to play an exemplary role in the management of their own estate by taking up cost effective improvements in energy efficiency.

The reduction of emissions through, for example, the procurement of more energy efficient equipment and vehicles will benefit local communities directly and also release financial savings. This can help demonstrate value for money and effective use of resources in the context of the Comprehensive Area Assessment.

This may sound daunting. But it will bring benefits too. For example, action to reduce emissions from the local government estate will mean that local authorities should reap greater rewards under the Carbon Reduction Commitment, a mandatory emissions trading scheme to be introduced for large energy users (see www.defra.gov. uk/carbonreduction). And authorities who reduce emissions from their own estate and local areas should also realise the improvements in climate change indicators within the Local Government Performance Framework.

Delivering these changes will require commitment and focus. But, as Lord Stern pointed out in his report, taking action now is the best way to prevent far greater expenditure, disruption and environmental degradation in the future.

For more information visit www.communities.gov.uk www.defra.gov.uk/carbonreduction www.zerocarbonhub.org

LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT REVIEW I 37

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H ousing

leads the way

The energy used to heat, light and run our homes accounts for a third of all of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions – around 153 million tonnes. In an effort to meet ambitious cuts in emissions of 60 per cent compared to 1990 levels by 2050, the government wants all new homes, including local authority housing, to be zero carbon by 2016. Andy McDowell, National Business Development Manager at Pilkington, explains how energy efficient windows can help contribute to this aim.

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s the first decade of the new millennium draws to a close, it is becoming clear that 2010 will be an important year for the house building industry. It marks the date when the latest changes will be made to Part L of the Building Regulations for England and Wales. The government’s CLG (Department for Communities and Local Government) has a well-publicised timeline for improving the requirements of Part L in stages up to 2016. New dwellings will require energy and carbon reductions of 25 per cent by 2010, 44 per cent by 2013 and 100 per cent by 2016.

In the case of replacement windows, CLG has indicated that, because the requirements in Part L 2006 were effectively unchanged from 2002, substantial improvements from 2010 onwards are expected. This had already led forward thinking developers and architects to incorporate the substantial benefits of triple glazing into new, lower carbon properties – thus often offsetting the need to invest in costly renewable technologies.

As the regulations tighten, in new homes at least, the move to triple glazing, as in much of continental Europe, is inevitable – still optimising both thermal insulation and passive solar gain benefits.

For existing dwellings and domesticstyle buildings, Window Energy Ratings (WERs) were a main way of demonstrating compliance in 2006, with an E rating being required in replacement windows and D in extensions. It can be assumed that these levels will be increased in 2010 (expected to be a C rating for both),

and the intention is probably to move towards an A rating requirement in 2016.

The scheme simplifies the specification of windows to enable the concept of energy efficient glazing to be understood by both the trade and consumers. Those that are rated C or above are eligible for accreditation under the Energy Saving Trust’s Energy Saving Recommended Scheme. The scheme’s symbol has become a marker for consumers to identify which products, from washing machines to fridges, will save energy and cash off their fuel bills.

U-values are also an option for demonstrating compliance for replacement windows and windows in extensions under the current Part L. However, it is not known whether this will continue much after 2010 because WERs, due to their more accurate reflection on

“

frame design is severely restricted.

One simple way for house builders to meet Part L is to install energy efficient glazing such as Pilkington energiKare™.

This glazing incorporates both a low emissivity glass (Pilkington K Glass™) and a low iron float glass (Pilkington Optiwhite™) which, combined, allow the sun’s heat and light to pass through the glass into the building, while at the same time stopping heat escaping.

Now, the Pilkington energiKare™ glazing range has been expanded to offer a wider range of energy-saving products, which include: Pilkington energiKare™ Classic Pilkington energiKare™ Classic is the original Pilkington energiKare™ unit.

This is capable of achieving a minimum C WER in most framing systems.

Combining Pilkington K Glass™ and Pilkington Optiwhite™ IGU with an Argon gas filling or a warm edge spacer, it meets all current building regulations and expected minimum compliance for 2010, as well as being twice as energy efficient as normal modern double glazing.

As the regulations tighten, in new homes at least, the move to triple glazing, as in much of continental Europe, is inevitable – still optimising both thermal insulation and passive solar gain benefits

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energy performance, are regarded as superior and more reliable. For a further period at least, window U-values will remain as WERs become more established and accessible to all. Centre pane U-values however, a poor indicator of total window energy efficiency, are likely be an allowable demonstration of compliance only for historic buildings, where choice of

Pilkington energiKare™ Plus This is an upgrade from Pilkington energiKare™ Classic, the original energyefficient glazing system from Pilkington, and can achieve a WER of A or B, depending on the framing system. Using a combination of Argon gas filling and warm edge spacer, it can incorporate the new Pilkington K Glass™ OW product if a

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higher rating is required, as well as exceed current and future building regulations.

Pilkington energiKare™ Triple This is the choice for the best possible WER performance and highest levels of energy efficiency in low and zero carbon new homes. These high performance triple-glazed units optimise the balance between U-values and g-values to maximise energy efficiency and permit the maximum allowable daylight. Comprising two panes of Pilkington K Glass™ (or Pilkington K Glass™ OW), and a third pane of Pilkington Optiwhite™ with Argon gas fill, it exceeds WER A rating and Passiv Haus requirements. It also has very low U-values, high solar gain, and is suitable for low and zero carbon homes and for use in new builds.

Pilkington energiKare™ Legacy Using advanced Pilkington Spacia™ technology, this is the world’s first commercially-available vacuum glazing. It allows the manufacture of extremely thin glazing which can be fitted in old frames, maintaining the original appearance of historic buildings. It combines the thermal

performance of a conventional modern double glazed unit with the thickness of single glazing, offering the opportunity to improve energy efficiency in traditional buildings. It is also suitable for other applications where use of thinner, lowweight glazing is desirable, such as sliding box sashes and secondary glazing.

The changes to regulations will have repercussions for the housing industry. It will create a greater emphasis on energyefficient products that government and local authorities will have to adhere to in the construction of new housing projects.

This will in turn prove to be very beneficial for households, with these new products helping them to save money on their fuel bills and contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions across the UK.

For more information, please visit www.pilkington.co.uk/energikare

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T he C ode for S ustainable H omes – lessons learnt BRE’s recent Information Paper outlines the lessons learnt from the first attempts to build to the higher levels of the Code for Sustainable Homes. Here, Chris Gaze, Director at BRE Global, explains the results and gives guidance for local authorities looking to increase the sustainability of building projects.

thermal performance and sustainability.

‘Sustainably sourced windows and doors with low U-values, which are also Secured

by Design approved, are available,’ says Gaze. ‘For these projects they were all sourced from outside the UK, but UK fenestration suppliers are catching up.’

T

he Code for Sustainable Homes measures the sustainability of a new home against nine categories of sustainable design, rating the whole home as a complete package. It uses a 1 to 6 star rating system to communicate the overall performance of the building and sets minimum standards for energy and water use at each level. Developers of demonstration homes on the BRE Innovation Park were among the first to try to build to the higher levels of the Code – and the lessons learnt have been explained in our four-part Information Paper.

2. Energy, overheating and ventilation The companies involved on the Innovation Park took varying approaches to Code compliance when making the necessary choices about energy sources, ventilation and the potential for overheating. Focusing on either low or zero carbon energy sources or on

turbines, biomass and CHP. A range of other energy technologies were also tried at the Park, such as gas boilers which can be used in designs for Code Levels 1–5, solar thermal panels that are relatively cost effective and therefore popular sources of renewable energy, and heat pumps that can offer low-energy heating and hot water provision if matched to appropriate building types and heating strategies.

The Innovation Park houses demonstrated that appropriate shading, thermal mass and ventilation can minimise overheating. Shading, for example, can be improved with external shutters, balconies and canopies, while thermal mass can be increased by using additional heavy panels, tiles and plaster skim onto blockwork. Using louvred and meshed ventilation panels in windows increases natural ventilation while maintaining security. Placing bedrooms downstairs helps to keep them cooler.

of demonstration homes “ Developers on the BRE Innovation Park

were among the first to try to build to the higher levels of the Code

The four parts of the Paper cover: 1. Building fabric Experience gained at the BRE Innovation Park shows that simple house designs are easier to make airtight, as are large panel construction systems with few joints. ‘When approaching airtight house design it’s wise to recognise the difficulty of achieving low air permeability on site, and take this into account at the planning stage,’ says Chris Gaze, one of the Information Paper’s authors. ‘The aim should be to make the whole house airtight with a robust primary air barrier.’

Windows and doors must be specified and installed for airtightness, daylighting and solar gain as well as 40

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energy efficient fabric, and using a range of construction types, materials, and ventilation and cooling strategies, their combined experiences covered many of the challenges and options now facing UK housebuilders.

Achieving Code Levels 5 and 6 demands the use of ‘renewable’ energy, either generated communally, or through micro-generation at each house.

Micro-generation was used at the Innovation Park, with photovoltaics proving likely to be the most appropriate method of generating electricity. If energy is generated communally other methods become viable such as larger wind

3. Water Water use can be reduced while minimising the effect on the end user by using aerated showers and taps to increase perceived flow rate without increasing water use, and kitchen taps that have a water brake at the mid-flow allowing kettles etc to be filled at the higher flow rate. Where flow restrictors are fitted to tapware, care must be taken to ensure they have been installed and set correctly. Water supply pipework should be sized and designed to minimise dead-legs and run-off times. Careful specification of white goods can save water and earn points under the Code.

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Ecohomes outside England

In addition, water butts that collect water from the roof are an easy and effective way of obtaining credits under the Code, but must be fitted with functioning overflows. Rainwater from roofs should be taken directly to storage tanks without using open or grated gullies.

4. Architecture, construction and material sourcing It is easy to assume that the Code is mainly about reducing carbon emissions and conserving water, but there are also heavily weighted credits available in such areas such as ecology, which includes build density, and health (including

daylighting). The Code encourages efficient use of the building footprint, and housing more than two storeys high will nearly always obtain credits for this.

Balconies provide private/semi-private space – 1.2 per cent of the overall credits available in the Code – and can also offer some solar shading. Mono-pitch roofs lend themselves to the mounting of solar panels. Kitchens and living areas placed upstairs have better access to daylight, while bedrooms – where daylight is less important – located downstairs are cooler in summer, which can help residents to sleep more comfortably. Rooflights are particularly effective for daylighting, but

While the Code for Sustainable Homes applies to new housing in England, BRE Global’s Ecohomes scheme is used in Scotland, Wales and elsewhere to provide an authoritative rating. Ecohomes covers new, converted or renovated homes, and covers houses, flats and apartments. Ecohomes assessments can be carried out at both the design stage or post construction for new build and major refurbishment projects and BRE Global is now considering an extension and enhancement to the latter through the creation of a specific Code for Sustainable Refurbishment.

For further information go to www.breeam.org/ecohomes. if too many windows are specified this will impact on the heat loss (and solar gain) of the building fabric.

The form of a building can cause problems in construction. Curves, for example, can be expensive to construct and difficult to seal for airtightness – large roof spaces can also make achieving good airtightness more difficult.

Full details of these and many other issues are given in the BRE Trust sponsored Information Paper, Applying the Code for Sustainable Homes on the BRE Innovation Park, Parts 1-4, which is available from www.BREBookshop.com

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E.ON’ s

drive for a sustainable energy future

E.ON is supporting Registered Social Landlords’ efforts to reduce tenants’ energy bills and is spearheading the growth of renewable technologies. Richard Scott, Head of Marketing for E.ON Sustainable Energy Solutions, talks about some of the company’s recent achievements.

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ustainable Energy Solutions is part of E.ON UK, one of the UK’s leading power generation and supply companies. Since 2007, we have been working closely with our business customers, ranging from private landlords to local councils, and from public to private developers. We’ve been helping them to design, build and install power generation solutions that will deliver the low carbon environment we all need.

The regulations and legislation designed to create a sustainable code can be daunting. So we’ve been assisting customers – from social landlords to Barratts, Britain’s leading housebuilders – to achieve the government’s Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4. And we’re working closely with other customers, on, for example, Building Schools for the Future (BSF), creating an online Energy

Educate Pack linked to Key Stages 1-4 of the National Curriculum. This enables teachers to educate pupils on the benefits of low carbon technology as a stepping stone for a sustainable future. We’ve also installed a number of microgeneration technologies in schools, many of whom have been assisted by the Low Carbon Building Programme (LCBP) Phase 2 grant.

We’re one of only two major energy companies in the UK approved by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reforms (BERR) to offer this grant, giving our customers a discount of up to 50 per cent of the cost of installing low carbon technologies. The grants are available to public sector and charitable organisations purchasing and installing ground source heat pumps (GSHPs), biomass boilers and small wind turbines.

We’re now a market-leading expert in low carbon energy solutions because of our development of bespoke solutions from microgeneration to district heating.

We’ve seen a dramatic increase in

accreditation and innovative generation technologies like E.ON’s HeatPlant.

HeatPlant, exclusively developed for us by our manufacturing partner Calorex, is an innovative, low carbon and costeffective ground source heat pump (GSHP) that extracts naturally occurring heat from below ground. HeatPlant provides heating and hot water – and saves the tenants of previously coal-heated homes up to two thirds on running costs while reducing carbon emissions by up to three quarters.

Those savings are based on the heating, cooking, light and power costs for a 100m2 house compared to the tariffs that were in force at 10 January 2007.

Of course, some of the cost savings may come from increased comfort and overall heating efficiency that results in reduced energy consumption.

Understanding the low carbon energy needs of Registered Social Landlords is very important to us and our work in developing sustainable solutions, like HeatPlant, is a continuous effort. The Carrick Housing, Orbit Group and Mendip Housing Association projects are examples of this effort and the way in which our expertise and technologies like HeatPlant, combined with trust in the E.ON brand, have helped to reduce the energy bills and carbon emissions of the many tenants of our Social Landlords. Perhaps more importantly, and through a partnership with the Orbit Housing Association and our funding of the cost of installation, Lighthorne Heath in Warwickshire was selected as a ‘trailblazer’ area, entitled to the free installation of HeatPlant.

HeatPlant, exclusively developed “ for us by our manufacturing partner Calorex, is an innovative, low carbon and cost-effective ground source heat pump (GSHP) that extracts naturally occurring heat from below ground

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the demand for us to provide low carbon energy over the past 18 months, especially from the social housing sector. This has been driven by a combination of factors – changes in the economy, our own LCBP

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HeatPlant HeatPlant operates in the same way as traditional technologies.

A thermostat controls the temperature and timing of the hot water and heating system.

The lessons we have learned from this trailblazer exercise have helped to shape a national initiative we launched that has resulted in our becoming the UK’s first energy supplier to provide free installation of GSHP central heating and hot water systems for means-tested customers on state benefit* and who live in coal-heated properties without a mains gas supply.

In Cornwall, and in partnership with Carrick Housing, over 280 HeatPlant units have been installed in individual dwellings previously powered by coal or oil or that

had all-electric heating systems.

We’ve worked closely with Carrick Housing to ensure their tenants understand the benefits of this low carbon technology. Our own account managers arranged for tenants to visit HeatPlant installations elsewhere, supported landlord briefings and produced informational literature.

The success of this exercise is reflected in the fact that Carrick Housing have now invited us to install HeatPlant in a further 300 of their properties and undertake the same informational programme with the tenants of these homes.

Designing, installing and managing new low carbon energy solutions is at the heart of what we do. We’re often approached by public bodies for advice on how best to create such solutions and discussions with them have led to a number of exciting working relationships.

I believe we have the wealth of experience and skills that registered social landlords

*Qualifying benefits include – Income Support, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit (not including single occupancy reduction), Income-based Jobseekers Allowance, Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance, State Pension Credit,War Disablement Pension (which must include Mobility Supplement or Constant Attendance Allowance), Child Tax Credit (where the relevant income is less than £15,592), Working Tax Credit (where the relevant income is less than £15,592). Households must currently be heated by coal and have no mains gas supply.

Groups of six or more households will be eligible for free installation.

The water passes through the pipes that are laid underground, absorbing the earth’s heat before returning to the HeatPlant boiler where it delivers the heating and hot water needed in each home. Because it uses ground heat, a naturally-recurring resource, HeatPlant is a renewable generation technology and exclusive to E.ON Sustainable Energy Solutions, experts in low carbon energy. demand of an energy service partner as they continue their own search for low carbon, cost-effective solutions for their properties and tenants. We are committed to sharing our expertise with them.

For more information about E.ON Sustainable Energy Solutions and how we can help you, please contact the SES Team Call us on 0800 615 687 lines are open 9-6 Monday to Friday or email us at: ses@eonenergy.com www.eonenergy.com/sustainable

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mail services

P ostal

savings help cut council costs Post and postal services are very much in the spot light: not just within the media, but within public sector services and bodies across the UK as cost savings from postal competition become increasingly apparent. Combined with a flexibility of service, customers enjoy lower costs and better services from more tailored products being offered by newer postal operators.

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or example, TNT Post has created new services, dedicated regional offices and public sector account teams specifically for local public sector organisations. These teams focus on the niche needs of a government body through to the lengthy and complex procurement process of changing a supplier in the public sector.

Public sector bodies can now access preferred suppliers, including TNT Post, through national government and local authority purchasing consortia. These include OGC, (Office of Government Commerce), NHS NSS Procurement and APUC (Advanced Procurement for Universities & Colleges), as well as local bodies such as Procurement Scotland. This provides the assurance that suppliers, such as TNT Post, have already gone through a competitive tender process, in line with EU and UK regulations, saving organisations time and resource that would otherwise be spent checking this.

With cost and efficiency central to the local government agenda, local councils, such as East Renfrewshire Council based at Giffnock near Glasgow, have been looking for ways to save money on their mailing solutions while improving efficiency of delivery and customer service.

Jim Livingstone, Corporate Procurement Manager at the council, turned to TNT Post to meet his organisation’s mailing needs after comparing the company’s services against other private sector mailing solution providers as part of a Buying Solutions pilot scheme. The council mails out more

than 8,000 items per week across East Renfrewshire. Most of the council’s mail is pre-sorted on site, with less than 15 per cent sorted remotely, and less than 5 per cent sent first class. These considerable volumes meant that East Renfrewshire needed firm assurances that a new mail supplier would be able to cope. These assurances were provided by the fact that TNT Post has fifty public sector customers in Scotland alone.

Working closely with Jim and his colleagues since February 2007, TNT Post’s dedicated public sector account team in Scotland developed and implemented a three-year programme to meet the council’s needs, with predicted savings

machines or carry out other activity to process the mail.

Livingstone notes: ‘The cost savings achieved in the last two and a half years have been outstanding and our mail room staff are delighted with the service.

So much so that we would not consider going back to using franking machines internally. We’re actively trying to increase our postal efficiencies so that further cost savings can be achieved on behalf of our residents.’

Unite in shared services As shared services and unitary authorities become increasingly attractive propositions for local authorities, Wendy Thomas, post room supervisor for Shropshire Council explains how the council’s three new sites now work under one postal contract with TNT Post: ‘In April this year, five district and borough councils merged with Shropshire County Council to form a unitary authority known as Shropshire Council, based on multiple sites. Before the merger, two of the district councils already used TNT Post under their own contract arrangements, but we have now brought the services together.’

Under the new structure, the council sends volumes of a 1,000 items per day through TNT Post, using Royal Mail for 1st class and special delivery. To raise the efficiency of mail further, Thomas has led an education programme over the last year and a half – to be extended across the sites – to help cut 1st class mail by 25 per cent, from 50 per cent of all mail,

Suppliers, such as TNT Post, have “already gone through a competitive

tender process, in line with EU and UK regulations, saving organisations time and resource that would otherwise be spent checking this

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on mailings reported by departments of up to £105,000 between 2007 and 2010. These savings have and will be deployed elsewhere in the organisation to contribute more directly to the council’s core purpose of public service delivery.

The savings come from a variety of sources, with nearly £50,000 being cut through the absence of a need to lease and maintain franking machines.

Additionally, considerable savings have been made in staff time as there is no longer the need to run the franking

mail services

sending items through TNT Post’s two-day service instead. ‘To achieve this, we’ve had to re-train people in mail formatting and stationery use. Not only has this reduced the costs associated with first class post, but it has considerably reduced the time and resource that was previously needed to frank these items before we switched them over to TNT Post’s two day service.

In turn, these postal guidelines have helped minimise ‘dirty post’, where the address is wrong or there is no postcode.’ adds Thomas.

‘While it is early days to measure results across all three sites, in the first

year of the district council working with TNT Post, we identified savings of £40,000. Across all three sites, the potential savings are clear.’

Beyond the post room Following the success of competition in the mail market, TNT Post is increasingly looking to further innovate the market, beyond pure ‘access’ where it collects and handles mail before passing it to Royal Mail for final mile delivery. For example, organisations can now track, monitor and reduce their environmental impact of mailings through carbon neutral mailing

services. In addition, smaller or more remote public sector subsidiaries and offices can create mail electronically and simply ‘click’ to have the mail printed, enclosed and delivered, without ever having to physically handle the mail item through TNT-it.

While barriers still exist within the market, TNT Post is committed to bringing the full benefits of postal competition to local councils across the UK, helping to redeploy essential public sector spending into services that directly benefit local communities.

For more details on our public sector services visit www.tntpost.co.uk

LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT REVIEW I 45

ESTATES

I nstant buildings from B uying S olutions Local authorities face demands to provide additional space for office workers, for school classrooms and nurseries, libraries, leisure, catering and a whole host of other facilities used by council employees and the public. The demand can come from a multitude of situations from damage to existing facilities, to staff relocations and special events. Buying Solutions explains how a framework agreement for modular buildings can ensure that the provision of public services remains uninterrupted.

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hen it comes to the provision of public services, the show just has to go on. In emergency situations, or when there simply isn’t the time or budget to wait for traditional new builds or refurbishments, where do councils go for a solution that can provide flexible accommodation, kitchens and ancillary services – and a quality environment – that often needs to be operational in a matter of days – if not sooner?

A good place to start is the Modular Portable Buildings, Kitchens and Associated Products framework agreement from Buying Solutions.

This national procurement arrangement provides access to seven carefully selected suppliers of multi-purpose modular portable buildings and kitchens available in various designs, materials and configurations, both single and multi storey.

Individual bespoke solutions can be provided from full turnkey or on a project basis through to individual services such as design, regulations, foundations, site works and all associated services. There are also a variety of payment options available. Each supplier has been subject to a rigorous EU-compliant tendering and evaluation process, to ensure they offer the quality and range of services required by the public sector. This allows organisations to bypass the time and costs involved in conducting a full procurement exercise themselves. Given the speed with which portable modular buildings are often required, this is a major benefit for customers.

The framework agreement also includes a multi-source option, giving customers extensive choice and the facility to run Further Competition, dependant upon their requirements and internal rules.

Buying Solutions recognises that each customer requirement is unique and the framework agreement has been structured so that new products and services can be incorporated as they become available, offering significant flexibility for customers.

differentiate from permanent structures.

This result can be achieved at relatively little additional expense and does not delay delivery.

‘Buildings can be provided with the highest levels of interior fit-out in line with customers’ specific requirements. For example, classrooms can be provided with computer/AV trunking and other teaching facilities for staff and students or kitchens equipped to meet the most stringent health and hygiene standards’.

Total dedication When a fire destroyed 95 per cent of the original school buildings at Avon Valley School in Rugby, Warwickshire during the summer holidays, only an old sports hall and a recently constructed brick building were left intact.

The school needed to be operational for the start of the new school year in September to teach its 1,000 students, meaning a race against time for all involved. After a two-week consultation and planning period, Portakabin, one of seven Buying Solutions suppliers, agreed the final design and layout of the interim campus with the school and Zurich Municipal.

Throughout August, 44 classrooms, kitchens, a dining hall, library, ICT suites, changing rooms and toilets were constructed. Portakabin provided a complete solution, including climate control systems for the ICT suites, access ramps for the classrooms, a comprehensive fire and security alarm system and classroom furniture.

August, 44 classrooms, “ Throughout kitchens, a dining hall, library,

ICT suites, changing rooms and toilets were constructed. Portakabin provided a complete one-stop-shop solution

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Expertly designed ‘Modular portable buildings offer a fast and cost-effective response to the demands faced by many local authorities’, says Buying Solutions’ Category Specialist, Dave Richardson.

‘Modular buildings no longer have to look like boxes. They are quality and flexible buildings that can be manufactured off site in steel or timber and delivered in pristine condition where they are assembled on site and are ready for use far faster than conventional structures. More units can be added or all taken away as quickly as they arrived.

‘They are now expertly designed and specified to fit neatly into their surroundings and are often difficult to

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ESTATES

Mark Braine, Headteacher at Avon Valley School, was pleased with the results: ‘Portakabin provided us with all the buildings, furniture and services in a very short space of time. This enabled us to have students back in school as quickly as possible – in fact, only one week after the official start of term.

‘We are all delighted with the new school, and the facilities in some areas are more up to date than we had before.

My thanks go to Portakabin for the excellent service we received from the very beginning, and for their total dedication to this project’.

Amazed Meanwhile another Buying Solutions supplier PKL Foodservice supplied a complete kitchen and restaurant facility to North Middlesex University Hospital (NMUH) to provide temporary catering facilities during a major re-build of the hospital. The Trust was keen to minimise disruption to those areas of the hospital

that remained operational, so provision of high quality catering facilities was a key criterion.

Dining facilities within the complex include a main restaurant for over 100 people with hot and cold serveries and a coffee shop area. These areas are served by a full open plan production kitchen with separate cold storage, dry storage and potwash areas. There are also separate food preparation areas for the staff restaurant and for the preparation of food going to the hospital wards.

In all, the facility, which was installed in just six weeks, serves more than 5,000 staff, visitors and patients a week and produces around 250,000 meals a year for the hospital wards. Ancillary facilities include customer toilets, staff changing and showering facilities and an office area for restaurant management. Each section of the restaurant and dining complex was pre-fabricated at PKL’s production facility and delivered to site in modules for assembly in situ.

It is anticipated that it will be in use for approximately 39 months during the re-build of the hospital.

Contracts Manager Dominic Donylal said: ‘This is one of the best temporary kitchen and restaurant facilities we have ever had. Customers are amazed at the quality of the facility when they enter the restaurant area and experience the bright, cheerful environment. It’s easily as good as many high street restaurants.’

For more details about the Modular Portable Buildings, Kitchens and Associated Products framework agreement, visit the Buying Solutions’ website: www.buyingsolutions.gov.uk or call the Buying Solutions’ Customer Service Desk on 0345 410 2222.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT REVIEW I 47

case study

P ortakabin

provides rapid relief to flood hit school

As a Buying Solutions accredited supplier, Portakabin saves its public sector customers the lengthy tendering process that would be compulsory when procuring modular buildings. Bob Forster, Head of St David’s Primary School in Gloucestershire, explains how contracting Portakabin to supply emergency accommodation for the school not only saved time and money, but allowed education services to continue uninterrupted thanks to the company’s rapid response.

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n Friday July 20 2007, the last day of term, St David’s Primary School flooded. More than 6.5 inches of rain fell in 24 hours and flooded the entire ground level of the school with over a metre of water.

During the course of the afternoon, staff could only watch as the water rose steadily from the drains and forced evacuation from the building. Fortunately none of the 250 children were onsite as we were running a staff training day, but by this point it was very clear that there was no possibility of the school re-opening in September – the building would need a complete refit. To enable the children’s education to continue uninterrupted, we needed emergency accommodation.

Several options were considered: we looked into moving to unoccupied premises, such as the town’s fire service college, or erecting temporary buildings

on the local cricket ground, but these ideas were discounted. Re-fit of the school would need proper supervision, and that would not be possible if we were not nearby. It was decided that we would place temporary buildings on the school site.

By the following Monday morning, architects from AMSTAM GBC (who were appointed by the Diocese) were already onsite. They quickly assessed the situation and brought Portakabin on board.

‘I couldn’t have been more impressed,’ said Tim Bircher, Associate Director at AMSTAM GBC. ‘At 2pm on the Monday I went to look at the damage, and by 10am the next day Portakabin staff were onsite and had sourced 18 building units.

In three to four days the base plan for the site was in place.’

branches and preparing the land for the modular buildings, laying pipework and cables, took about a fortnight. By the end of the second week, Portakabin buildings were starting to arrive on site.

‘Access to the school site is very difficult,’ explained Tim Bircher, ‘and Portakabin had to be creative in how they delivered the buildings to the school.

Lorries would not fit through the gates, so cranes were employed to lift the buildings over houses nearby and into position.‘ Portakabin supplied us with 12 separate classrooms, an office block and a staff room – these 14 buildings were Titan buildings, the largest relocatable building in Europe. We also installed three Portaloo Junior toilet blocks (which are specially designed for primary school children) and one Portaloo block for staff. On the advice of the local authority, Portakabin also supplied a large three-module Duplex building to be used as a school hall – which proved an invaluable afterthought, as it was the only place in which the whole school could meet.

Four weeks after the flood all Portakabin buildings were in place, which left just two weeks for everything to be connected and internal fittings to be completed. Portakabin has extensive experience of fitting out schools and undertook the majority of the work – about 10 of their employees were on site at any one time and gave sound advice on fittings, fixtures and furniture.

The team manager, Brendan Cornick, did a superb job and the entire team was excellent to work with.

At 2pm on the Monday I went to look “at the damage, and by 10am the next day Portakabin staff were onsite and had sourced 18 building units.

In three to four days the base plan was in place

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”

The project required a tremendous amount of planning and so, in partnership with Portakabin, we set up a temporary office in town to coordinate the work.

Portakabin provided a complete project management service, from planning to service connections and fittings. The aim was to complete installation by the time school started in September.

The groundwork, such as removing

CASE STUDY

About Portakabin Limited Portakabin Limited manufactures high-quality modular and relocatable buildings to buy or hire, for use as offices, classrooms, health centres and more. All new buildings include five-year product and 20-year structural warranties.

‘Portakabin undertook the entire job of fitting out the classrooms,’ said Tim Bircher. ‘The company’s experience in this area left me free to get on with refitting the flood damaged buildings.’

We used the temporary school buildings for eight months, during which time the entire two storeys of the flood damaged school building was refitted and modernised (the Diocese took the opportunity to upgrade the premises while we were off them) under our supervision. We finally moved back into the school at the end of April 2008.

All temporary buildings were removed from the site over the course of a weekend. Portakabin knew from

experience that this would cause minimum disruption to the children and to us.

The biggest benefit from working with Portakabin has been that the company enabled continuity of education. The company’s knowledge, organisation and speedy response to disaster gave us sound educational provision for eight months and I would wholeheartedly recommend the company – a sentiment echoed by architect Tim Bircher: ‘I had never worked with Portakabin before and I have to say that I would certainly use them again – this was an emergency situation and the company responded rapidly and provided an excellent, comprehensive service.’

Plus, we have developed a ‘one-stopshop’ service to take care of your entire project. This range of optional services includes project management services, climate control systems, quality office furniture, fire and security systems as well as access ramps and steps and data communications systems.

Portakabin is an accredited Buying Solutions supplier to the public sector. Using the agency can save you up to 77 days and has delivered cost-savings to its customers of more than £500 million.

To find out more about Portakabin products and services, please call us on: 0845 200 1111 (Sales) or your local Hire Centre on: 0845 355 0350

LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT REVIEW I 49

TELEHEALTH

T he

next stage for care in the home and community

The NHS PASA telecare framework agreement (NFA), awarded in 2006, identified innovative technologies and solutions to allow healthcare to continue in the home – vital support for an ageing population. Re-procurement of the telecare NFA takes place this year and will build on the current agreement to continue to enable individuals to live longer independently.

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ith the population of people over the age of 65 and above estimated to increase from 9.3 million to 16.8 million over the next 50 years, it is critical that an infrastructure is developed to help support the ageing population, people with long term conditions and those that are vulnerable.

Telecare and telehealth technologies are seen as key to helping support the delivery of health services in the home and in the community, as opposed to hospital care.

Telecare describes any service that brings together health and social care directly to a user, generally in their homes, supported by information and communication technology. Equipment includes detectors, monitors and alarms tailored to meet the needs of the user.

The telecare project began in 2005 when the Department of Health (DH) and NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (NHS PASA) partnered to devise a national sourcing solution for telecare to support the delivery of the preventative technology grant and government policy in health and social care.

Following an OJEU tendering exercise, the project management group undertook detailed research to understand the dynamics of the market. This included identifying innovative solutions and establishing a baseline to measure cost/ savings. The NHS PASA telecare national framework agreement (NFA) was awarded in June 2006 with 15 suppliers on a four year basis covering telecare equipment, installation, maintenance, monitoring and response services in support of the

Department of Health’s vision to build a strong telecare infrastructure.

To date over £70 million worth of transactions have been placed through the NFA, and it is expected that during the next 12 months we will see an annualised figure of around £45 million. At present 86 per cent of total spend is attributed to telecare with telehealth and assistive technologies making up the remainder.

avoid the need for further competition – this reduces timescales and costs and the standardised approach to pricing and quality standards ensures the Agency delivers the best solution.

• Supports the once only principal and ensure that suppliers within the market do not need to increase product prices to cover future overhead costs for responding to local tenders.

• Suppliers benefit from a nationally accepted method of procuring goods and services and a route to market that includes all public sector bodies.

Telecare describes any service “ that brings together health and social

care directly to a user, generally in their homes, supported by information and The current framework has communication technology been very well received in the public

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”

Benefits of the national framework agreement • Service users can be assured that they are procuring goods and services from a framework that has been established through a robust competition and an EU compliant process.

• Delivery of DH policy.

• Transparency – consistent pricing, with a national pricing structure established.

• Product and service – a comprehensive range of products and services available from suppliers via the NFA. • Supports existing systems and innovative solutions – the NFA includes existing telecare/community alarm products and innovative telehealth solutions.

• Procurers through the framework

sector. It has delivered huge savings, created a market-place and won a CIPS award in 2007.

Moving forward The current NFA expires in May 2010 so NHS PASA has started the re-procurement based upon a detailed consultation. This process builds on the in-depth research captured during the first

TELEHEALTH

phase of the agreement. There are five primary groups that have been/are being consulted with: 1. current suppliers 2. potential suppliers 3. user groups 4. current users 5. potential new users.

The consultation process has been,

to date, a fantastic opportunity for the groups to have their say on what they would like included in the new framework, build upon the success of the existing framework while also taking into consideration the less successful aspects.

The NFA is designed to fully support the need and requirements of the public sector in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The process through which the new framework will be procured will be EU compliant and conducted through the restricted process.

The aim of re procuring the telecare framework is to continue providing; products, services and savings to the NHS trusts, councils and other public sector bodies throughout the UK.

Timeline for the re-procurement The current time line for the re procurement of the NFA is as follows: Consultation period

Up to May 2009

Publish OJEU notice and pre-qualification questionnaire

June 2009

Pre-qualification analysis

July/August 2009

Invitation to tender publication

September/October 2009

Invitation to tender analysis

November/December 2009

Award and implementation

January – May 2010

It is intended that there will be a three month lead in from awarding the new framework through to the current framework expiring in May 2010.

For more information about the current telecare NFA or the planning process for the next stage contact: Mark Etherton – Category Specialist (Telecare) Email: telecare@pasa.nhs.uk www.pasa.nhs.uk/PASAWeb/ Productsandservices/Telecare/

LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT REVIEW I 51

CASE STUDY

A

lifeline for independent living The government initiative, Building Telecare in England, enables local authorities and health services to develop telecare services and help thousands of older people to live independently for longer. John Chibnall, Business Development Manager at WELbeing, explains how merging the Lifeline services of Wealdon District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council has resulted in such a high level of service that the resulting company, Wealden and Eastbourne Lifeline (WEL), has been appointed to the NHS PASA National Framework Agreement for telecare services.

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n February 2005, Wealden District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council established Wealden and Eastbourne Lifeline (WEL), a not for profit company created to merge and externalise the councils’ existing Lifeline services.

The aim of the merger was to strengthen the local telecare network and create an organisation dedicated to promoting and providing a complete telecare solution that would interface with other community services within East Sussex.

The company was set up in consultation with service users, NHS trusts, social services, voluntary organisations, housing providers, local authorities and the wider community. We work with all stakeholders to develop responsive and effective services that promote independence, dignity, choice and social inclusion.

Under the NHS PASA National Framework Agreement, WEL provides a complete telecare service inclusive of the following elements (supplied as individual interoperable packages or combinations of interoperable packages):

• Outgoing check and reassurance calls • Supply and installation of domestic telecare and telehealth systems including instruction and guidance on use of systems • Ongoing testing, programmed and responsive maintenance carried out remotely and on site • Mobile response services to communities including specialist lifting capability

as part of the overall package of care and support. This model ensures that information from the telecare system is used effectively in reviewing and planning care needs, so that the independence and quality of life for system users is maximised. Medical alert parameters for all telehealth system users will be agreed and kept under review in consultation with the system user and with the referring medical team.

WEL and East Sussex County Council provide tangible evidence of the benefits of using the NHS PASA National Framework to buy telecare and telehealth services. East Sussex County Council was awarded £922,434 to support the development and roll out of telecare services. Services began in March 2007 and continued with grant funding until March 2009, when the service was mainstreamed.

Telecare is widely supported by local policy, including the East Sussex County Council Business Plan, the Adult Social Care Three-Year Plan, the Joint Commissioning Strategy for Older People and the Local Area Agreement.

An Equalities Impact Assessment for the service has also been completed.

To ensure that the service is sustainable, we have also promoted the service to health professionals, social services staff and the voluntary sector.

From March 2007 to March 2008, 80 awareness raising sessions were run and about 14,000 leaflets were distributed.

Initially, the service was targeting professionals, but will now actively encourage people to refer themselves for

We wanted the service to be “ sustainable, which would require effective

partnership working between the County Council and WEL – in promoting the service, investing in training of specialised staff

• 24/7 manned telecare response centre providing control centre based monitoring and response for community alarm and telecare home sensors; vital signs and lifestyle monitoring systems and telehealth monitoring systems. Our contact centre deploys Tunstall Telecom PNC5 telecare monitoring system, which interfaces with a comprehensive range of tried and tested telecare sensors and monitoring devices.

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”

It was important that we set telecare up as a mainstream service rather than a pilot, so that take up was adequate for the appropriate cascading of the service.

We wanted the service to be sustainable, which would require effective partnership working between the County Council and WEL – in promoting the service, investing in training of specialised staff, and in the ongoing implementation of evolving technologies.

Individual telecare/telehealth contact assessments, support plans and response protocalls were agreed with service users, carers and the multidisciplinary team. Working in partnership with social services, the NHS, independent housing and care providers we sought to make sure that our services are delivered

CASE STUDY

Mary Jones – Welbeing telecare profiler Julie Coe – Welbeing telecare installation technician John Chibnall

Keith Hinkley, director of adult social care, said… …‘Why go into residential care if you don’t need to? Telecare allows us support people to stay in the home they love, in the midst of their own community – and all this at a fraction of the cost. the services, in line with Putting People First and Self Directed Support.

We have conducted extensive reviews of our service and found that all our commissioners and providers feel that the service has been developed with mainstreaming in mind – this includes support for WEL from senior management and inclusion in the Local Area Agreement targets. This commitment to continuing the service, rather than seeing it as a short term pilot, has helped to build confidence in the system and to ensure that systems were put in place to support longevity.

Seeing telecare as a mainstream service helped the team to promote it as a normal part of care packages, something that could be relied on in the long term.

WEL is the only provider of telecare to East Sussex County Council, which has allowed strong relationships to be built with all referrers and commissioners – and has ensured that we are consistent in all that we do. The result is one comprehensive programme, rather than piecemeal pilot projects across the county.

Another key to WEL’s success is the dedicated project management team within the county council, which promotes the service. Without these people committed to WEL, it is unlikely that such a comprehensive awareness raising campaign could have been run – and this could have impacted on services.

WEL has also developed a specialised team to implement the telecare service.

Telecare involves a great deal more specialist knowledge than standard Lifeline packages – technicians must be able to install smoke alarms, motion detectors and sensors linked to lighting and alarms, while at the same time having the skills to deal sensitively with vulnerable and elderly people and their families.

Investing in this specialist team has enabled WEL to provide a high volume of complex installations. And of course, being appointed as a supplier to the NHS PASA Framework Agreement underpins the success and sustainability of a project that has helped countless users to maintain their independence and dignity – and remain living in their own home.

Wealden and Eastbourne Lifeline (WEL) is a not for profit company limited by guarantee established by Wealden District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council in February 2005 to facilitate the merger and externalisation of the Lifeline services previously operated by the respective councils. The company started trading on 1st October 2005 and is a supply partner to NHS PASA on the National Telecare Framework Agreement working towards the major government initiative, Building Telecare in England.

For East Sussex, which has the highest percentage of very elderly residents of any county in England, it’s great news. We currently have in excess of 1,600 users and this number is growing all the time.

By investing in this technology, we’re making significant cost savings, which can be ploughed back into other front-line services – to support people with more acute needs, for example.

And, the feedback from those using telecare in their homes is extremely good. People love the fact that they can retain their independence and still feel safe and secure.’

To find out more: Email: info@welbeing.org.uk Tel: 01323 644422 www.welbeing.org.uk

LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT REVIEW I 53

TELEHEALTH

T he A ssisted L iving I nnovation P latform As the population of the UK ages, it throws up a number of challenges to the decreasing number of working age people supporting them. Social and health services must adapt to cope, and technology will be invaluable in bringing care to the home. David Calder, the Knowledge Transfer Manager for ALIP at Health Technologies KTN, discusses research that is being done into telehealth, solutions that could make a real difference, and invites you to participate in ALIP’s projects.

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t’s been rather alarmingly called a ‘time bomb’, but most readers will be well aware of the demographic challenge we face, that an increasingly large ageing population will rely on a shrinking number of economically active people to provide essential social and healthcare support services. In the UK the number of people aged below 16 has now dropped below the number of people of pensionable age, and the fastest growing age group is the over 80s.

The result of this will be change in the way these services will be delivered; emphasis will move toward the delivery of care closer to, or indeed within, the home. Ever greater use of technology is required to help with this shift, and to help develop peoples’ capacity for self-care.

In the UK, the Technology Strategy Board has set up an ‘Innovation Platform’ to ensure that an appropriate

technological response is catalysed across all the contributing sectors. This is in recognition of the seriousness of the issue, but also the potential for wealth creation offered by an effective solution.

Before the launch of the Assisted Living Innovation Platform (ALIP) in November 2007, a group of stakeholders carried out comprehensive technology roadmapping. This scoping activity highlighted the potential for the use of telecare and telehealth (ehealth) systems to help meet the future challenges. To support the theoretical and anecdotal evidence concerning the efficacy of ehealth services, hard data from large scale randomised control trials is currently being gathered through the Department of Health’s Whole System Demonstrator (WSD) programme. This major study encompassing 6000 users will start to report over the next 12 months. The trial is based around the existing technology and service models, which although adequate for the purposes of the WSD programme, are not suitable for future national provision.

the need for cultural change within the health and social care professions, the need for new training and professional development programmes, and a greater need for availability of information about the technology available as well as some technology gaps.

ALIP is funding Research and Development (R&D) – £6 million over three years – looking at the user centred design of products and systems to support ageing, infirm or chronically ill individuals to live independently, including the updating of technology from analogue to digital platforms, looking at power consumption for sensor technologies, the use of existing devices such as TV set-top boxes and the building-in to the devices of some aesthetic appeal.

A further tranche of projects funded to £7 million, will carry out far reaching R&D into future systems to ensure that home-based healthcare systems do not result in a new form of social exclusion. The new platforms must work anytime-anywhere. ALIP’s R&D programmes are bringing together leading edge knowledge in telecommunications with telecare and telehealth experts, combining an end2-end systems approach in communications with an end-2-end systems approach in assisted living from referral and assessment through user-centered service design, right through to response management systems. The collaborative research will essentially bring together the assisted living community with leading communications technology players.

Technology Strategy Board has set “upThe an ‘Innovation Platform’ to ensure that

an appropriate technological response is catalysed across all contributing sectors

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The roadmapping also identified some significant barriers to the implementation of new service models and some of the potential side-effects of moving away from traditional approaches. It highlighted

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TELEHEALTH

The question of interoperability of products and systems, and the development of new standards to accommodate ‘plug and play’ functionality is also under the spotlight and the Continua Health Alliance is addressing standardisation issues, although it is not itself a standards making body. There needs to be a greater coming together of equipment suppliers, with providers of ICT, including the new wireless systems, to bring greater clarity to the marketplace.

The reasons for the relatively low technology base and slow emergence of a clearly defined market are largely not technical, but are due to the absence of a business model for investment and a cohesive market demand from the health and social care service.

The low-cost low-energy sensors and devices being developed for assisted living must combine with advanced telecommunications technologies to address the care and support needs of the 21st century. It is also becoming increasingly clear that early adopters of the technology are already seeking out solutions on merit, so worried relatives or those interested in helping themselves, are contributing further fragmentation of

the market. Another problem is that the current funding/reimbursement structures are simply not geared-up for telecare or telehealth, since these concepts cross numerous lines of demarcation between Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs), Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and Local Authorities (LAs).

Of particular importance is an engagement with the stakeholder communities, some of whom may be unaware of the impact that a move to ehealth could have on their budgets and resource profiles, or how they will have to interact with other agencies, new and existing businesses and the emerging user groups. PCTs, LAs and care-home providers will find themselves working more closely, sharing information, and the flow of funding is likely to change as a new paradigm is realised. Of course, the patient-user is central, but those administering, prescribing or seeking out and buying the future solutions should also be aware of, and able to influence, the activities and priorities of this important national programme.

In order to encourage, and disseminate in this complex scenario, the Knowledge Transfer Networks (KTNs) have been used to spearhead a structured

knowledge transfer activity. By aligning the cutting edge R&D, social impact studies and business/economic models, ALIP Knowledge Transfer aims to ensure that all aspects of this important topic are included in the development of real-world solutions.

To learn more about ALIP – which could include participation in future workshops, seminars or the 2010 annual conference – should register with the Health Technologies KTN at: www. healthtechktn.com and take a look at the dedicated website for ALIP knowledge transfer: www.alip-healthtechktn.com or contact the Technology Strategy Board.

To learn more about the Whole Systems Demonstrator Programme please visit: www.wsdactionnetwork.org.uk

LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT REVIEW I 55

FINANCE

in

B uilding capability P ortfolio M anagement

The public consultations draft, Portfolio Management, draws on research including the Cabinet Office report Benchmarking Reliable Delivery; information from OGC Guidance on Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices (P30); and updates to the OGC Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity Model (P3M3). Here, the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) discusses how Portfolio Management can be used to meet strategic objectives.

P

rogrammes and projects have dominated the headlines in recent years, becoming the focus of an organisation’s ability to manage change.

But how can organisations really be sure that the programmes and projects they are delivering are the right ones? Can senior management be sure that customer needs will be met, that strategic objectives will be delivered? Can government departments be certain that their visions and targets will be achieved?

In times of rapid change, budgetary constraints and high risk, it is shocking that some organisations continue to waste effort and resources by delivering the wrong programmes and projects.

This is where Portfolio Management will help. Portfolio Management is critically important because it ensures that the ‘right’ programmes and projects are started and the ‘wrong’ ones are not (or are stopped if already underway). The right programmes and projects are those that make the greatest contribution to an organisation’s objectives and targets.

Figure S2.0

Portfolio Management: what is it?

Portfolio Management is a coordinated collection of strategic processes and

decisions that together enable the most effective balance of organisational change and business as usual.

OGC’s Portfolio Management guidance provides flexible principles, including senior management commitment, alignment of the organisational governance and strategy together with the use of a portfolio office model working within a culture that is motivated to change. The Practices are grouped within two cycles: the Portfolio Definition Cycle and the Portfolio Delivery Cycle. When the Practices are used to complement existing organisational structures they help facilitate key Portfolio Management activities, such as prioritisation, balancing, planning and controlled delivery, at organisational and unit level. Portfolio Management is most effective when done ‘topdown’ across an organisation as a whole, although some improvements will be seen wherever it is applied within an organisation. While Portfolio Management will be more effective where robust programme and project management structures exist, this is not a prerequisite. Portfolio Management will be effective whenever it is used, irrespective of an organisation’s programme and project management maturity.

Adopting Portfolio Management is a big step for everyone involved, particularly the senior management board, who must be the Portfolio Management champions, and in today’s economic climate must recognise that using Portfolio Management is non-negotiable.

Portfolio Management: why bother?

The most recent Cabinet Office research1 identified that organisations

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who adopt a Portfolio Management approach realise benefits through the following factors: • More of the ‘right’ programmes and projects being undertaken • Removal of redundant and duplicated projects • More effective implementation of programmes and projects • More efficient resource utilisation • Greater benefits realisation • Improved transparency, accountability and organisational governance • Improved communication between senior management.

Portfolio Management Cycles All Portfolio Management activities can be grouped into two cycles: Portfolio Definition and Portfolio Delivery. Both of these have to be constant due to the ever-changing environment in which the organisation operates. This model (see Figure S1.0) encapsulates the cyclical and constant activities of Portfolio Definition and Portfolio Delivery.

In practice, Portfolio Management can be used at many different levels within the organisation. At the organisational level of Business Change Management (the totality of an organisation’s Change), at directorate level, within specific business units and within individual Programmes.

Portfolio Management is NOT A number of misconceptions cause confusion and detract from the successful implementation of Portfolio Management: • Easy to implement. Implementation brings about Changes to Management Board decision making and

Figure S1.0

FINANCE

•

•

•

•

•

•

Organisational Governance processes.

It is critical that the person or team leading the development of Portfolio Management has the necessary skills and experience.

A group of ‘Project people’ that sit in isolation and produce a plan every year. Portfolio Management must integrate seamlessly within the Organisational Governance decisionmaking and Strategic Planning process.

Programme or Project Management on a bigger scale.

Programmes and Projects focus on implementing Change in the ‘right’ way; Portfolio Management is about choosing the right Change in order to realise the agreed Strategic Objectives.

A process that the management board pay lip service to. Portfolio Management creates a transparent evidence-based environment that will provide the mechanism to inform management board decisions.

A rigid, bureaucratic or individual process. Portfolio Management is a group of flexible processes (existing and new) which, when used collaboratively, enable effective decision making.

A list of all existing projects or programmes. The portfolio contains current and future Changes that have been prioritised, scheduled, endorsed by the Management Board and aligned to the strategic objectives with benefits, resources and dependencies identified.

A bureaucratic process that prevents or stops programmes or

projects for no reason. Portfolio Management will clearly highlight which programmes or projects are not adding value to strategic objectives.

Portfolio Management links business as usual and strategy Figure S2.0 represents this relationship in a simple concept: ‘Run the business, change the business’, describing how Portfolio Management and business as usual can collaboratively realise strategic objectives. Portfolio Management controls the changes to business as usual. When changes are successfully implemented, business as usual improves and benefits are then realised. The benefits realised from business as usual are managed

by Portfolio Management. It is this cyclical relationship between Portfolio Management and business as usual that achieves the strategic objectives.

Portfolio Management ensures that decisions are made collaboratively, in the context of the whole organisation, and by the appropriate people.

How do changes link to strategy?

In almost every case, an organisation’s strategic objectives identify some form of improvement. Linking changes to the strategic objectives can only be achieved via the benefits realised by implementing the change. In order to successfully realise benefits from the Portfolio, two critical prerequisites must be satisfied: • A strategy must exist, containing welldefined and agreed strategic 1.

Benchmarking Reliable Delivery, June 2008.

objectives with targets and measures.

• Every change must have a justifiable business case clearly defining the benefits in sufficient detail to enable alignment to strategic objectives.

Effective Portfolio Management requires an organisational strategy containing well-defined and agreed strategic objectives with associated targets and measures (or, if you are implementing PfM at a departmental or team level, departmental or team objectives).

The guidance, Portfolio Management, aims to provide organisations with principles that will make a difference in a short time.

The P3O model provides a focal point for defining a balanced portfolio of change and ensuring consistent delivery of programmes and projects across an organisation or department.

It can take many forms, all of which are explored in the guidance, from a single, all-encompassing portfolio office to a virtual office made up of a permanent hub supported by temporary programme/ project offices.

The P3M3 model assesses the maturity of an organisation’s capabilities in portfolio, programme and project management. It is a framework that can be used to assess current performance and to put in place improvement plans with measurable outcomes that are based on industry best practice.

More information can be found at: www.ogc.gov.uk/delivery_lifecycle_ portfolio_management.asp

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T he N ational P ortfolio M anagement F ramework The public sector portfolio management resource Kevin Hopps, Managing Director of BPM, provider of specialist technology services to the public sector, explains how the National Portfolio Management Framework (NPMF™) can be used to help public sector organisations gain a total view of investment and manage it proactively in a single, secure data source.

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nder the Operational Efficiency Programme launched by the Treasury, public sector organisations are challenged to realise £15 billion annual savings. This should be achieved by standardisation, simplification and sharing across the cross-cutting areas of government spending – for example, in IT, procurement, finance and estates.

A step towards achieving these targets is to increase the transparency of your organisation’s portfolio of programme and project investments, and to plan, deliver and manage change in a joined up way.

This allows for proactive management of the portfolio as a whole, within a department, across departments and organisational boundaries that together will enable the most effective balance of organisational change and business as usual.

However, to become transparent certain barriers must be overcome. First, is the fact that a dissimilar approach to the planning and control of projects within and across organisations will lead to inconsistent processes, terms and definitions, measures and reports. Second, information being stored and managed in multiple locations will create problems when users try to generate consolidated reports from which accurate analysis can be performed.

Portfolio Management Framework (NPMF™) is the UK’s largest portfolio management implementation. It’s a web hosted portfolio management service that allows authorised users secure access to a single source of project information, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Designed in collaboration with public sector organisations – including those of the Mayor of London – NPMF™ is a pre-packaged solution built around best practices, including proven business processes, preconfigured software, training and support for practitioners.

The product builds upon best practice principles advised by the OGC.

provides the basic principles to embed in organisational process, using standard terms and data definitions, together with common measures and reports to facilitate rollup planning and reporting.

(See diagram, right). Our Common Approach divides portfolio management into two cycles: 1. The planning cycle In the planning cycle a single project inventory is gathered that consists of new project requests together with existing projects. Objective criteria are applied to identify which new projects should be undertaken and which existing projects should be continued.

In support of government’s move “ to a shared services culture our software

2. The tracking cycle During the tracking cycle the performance of projects is monitored throughout their delivery to provide an overall assessment of performance and health.

is delivered as a web hosted shared technology service that all UK public service organisations can access Common Technology.

About the NPMF One of BPM’s technology service offerings is in public sector portfolio management, developing and providing technology to give public sector organisations a holistic view of their investment portfolio and overcome the barriers mentioned above. Our National 58

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BPM designed NPMF™ around key themes from Transformational Government. In support of government’s move to a shared services culture our software is delivered as a web hosted shared technology service that all UK public service organisations can access and leverage.

Common Approach At the heart of BPM’s solution is a Common Approach to portfolio management that can be followed at different organisational levels and across organisational boundaries. This

Web hosting the solution enables public sector organisations to easily connect with each other quickly and securely, enabling them to collaborate on projects across boundaries at portfolio – as well as programme – level, through following common standards and practices for information management.

It also enables them to share and reuse technology components which is key to keeping costs low.

Support Service NPMF™ is supported by a robust framework to ensure that the solution is effectively managed once it has been

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Common Approach

About BPM

implemented. Our support team is at hand to help embed the framework across organisations. The team provides each organisation with practice support, running tutorials to train team members how to use the service and progressively transforming all related processes. The aim is to enable effective collaboration and the sharing of knowledge across communities, while establishing effective improvement initiatives.

We also provide an online self help portal which gives users support and guidance such as: • • • • •

Online training Support and discussion forums Standard operating procedures Communications and news FAQS and top tips

Benefits NPMF™ gives organisations secure access to a single record of project information 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

For the first time, organisations are connected over a single, secure national system in which they can effectively share

information on new project proposal and existing projects.

This increased transparency allows improved coordination and decision making by the management team in their planning and control of programme and project investments.

It also increases the productivity of project resources through standardising their execution of projects.

Why NPMF™?

NPMF™ is a pre-packaged solution that can be deployed to your desktop in ten days or less without placing demands on local IT resources.

It reduces the up-front cost of installation by up to 80 per cent in Year One and results in a shorter payback period and higher ROI. Designed with input from public servants, the solution is the UK’s largest and most successful portfolio management solution that is scalable to meet national needs.

Ultimately, NPMF™ is about joined up government, providing the technology, support and resources to achieve this vision.

BPM is a specialist provider of technology services to the public sector. We provide solutions that are delivered as web hosted shared services to central government departments and local authorities.

BPM’s clients span the public sector from the Greater London Authority, including the Mayor’s Office and Transport for London, and councils across the UK. Our approach is pragmatic, with a focus on senior level value-add and is always focused on achieving the best possible outcome for our clients.

BPM – Public Sector Portfolio Management 83 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0HW Tel: 0203 008 7805 Email: info@bpmcsi.com www.bpmcsi.com

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P rosperity

and protection : better local regulation

In challenging economic times, caused by a global crisis in financial markets, the role of regulation has become a contested subject. There are renewed calls for deregulation, while others call for greater, more prescriptive regulation. Jane Martin, Director of Policy and Engagement and Deputy Chief Executive at the Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO), takes a look at the debate, and how better local regulatory services can deliver prosperity to all.

improve the co-ordination, consistency and effectiveness of local authority regulatory services – trading standards, environmental health, licensing and fire safety – in order to deliver prosperity and protection for all.

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he debate should not be about more or less regulation, but about better regulation – how to ensure that regulation is proportionate, accountable, consistent, targeted, transparent and based on a comprehensive assessment of risk. Better regulation drives prosperity and supports protection for communities and compliant businesses – it is not a simple question of balance; a supportive business environment does not equate to increased risk for individuals and communities. Rather, prosperity and protection can be addressed as mutually supportive concepts. Thriving businesses create vibrant high streets and support the wider prosperity of local communities through employment and investment, while regulatory activity that targets high risk and deliberate non-compliance can protect compliant businesses by removing any competitive advantage achieved by non-compliant businesses.

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Building a new relationship LBRO is working with partners across the local regulatory landscape, recognising that better regulation relies on an intelligent understanding of the relationship between government, regulators, business and consumers.

Now, more than ever, local regulatory services provide local authorities with an important tool to work with businesses to move towards recovery and growth.

There are a number of ways in which local authorities can positively contribute.

The government is proposing a new duty on local authorities to assess the economic conditions of their area in the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill currently going through Parliament. This duty will include consultation with district councils and other partners.

Local authorities also have a new duty to involve representatives of local people, including businesses, in the general exercise of their functions. These two new duties provide a new context for local authority regulatory services and the contribution they can make to economic assessment and regeneration.

Not only do they already have significant intelligence on local economic activity, but the direct relationship they have with local businesses puts them in a position to further support and advise

businesses – especially new businesses – and in turn advise the local authority on their local assessment.

Building a new relationship between the regulators and the regulated presents the challenge of seeing businesses, whether compliant or not, as customers of regulatory services. It is building an appropriate trust relationship that encapsulates the attitudes required for better regulation, supported by a conscious move from the inspectiondriven compliance control methods encouraged by a centrally-driven agenda towards the more business-aware and citizen-engaging approach fostered by a focus on local need and risk assessment.

Supporting recovery To maximise the contribution of regulatory services in supporting businesses towards recovery, there are four issues to consider: • The provision of business support and advice • The collection of local business intelligence • Targeted interventions • Responding to local priorities and local business needs Regulatory services are often the visible face of local authorities in business communities. Over half of the face to face interactions between local businesses and local authorities are through local regulatory services officers. Through this direct relationship, regulatory services already offer information and advice on regulatory matters. This is an opportunity

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to improve signposting to wider support and guidance from the local authority as well as partners. Small businesses already acknowledge the importance of such local advice. The Primary Authority scheme, established by LBRO under the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act to develop consistency of regulatory advice to businesses across the country, provides another means of support.

Regulatory services can also build a good understanding of the needs of local business communities, including any particular needs of small and medium enterprises and ethnic minority businesses. This intelligence should be considered as part of the new duties to consult and assess economic conditions.

In this way, an improved information flow can be established and sustained to the local authority and its partners. A synergy should be developed between the local economic assessment and an effectively targeted approach to enforcement.

A more innovative approach to compliance with regulation should reflect local needs, aligned to local and multi area agreement themes, and should reflect the priorities for local economic sustainability and stimulating business growth. Each of these areas should be

underpinned by the better regulation principles, a drive for continuous improvement, the need for efficient use of resources, and a focus on outcomes.

Building a world class system Better regulation requires a clear focus on regulatory outcomes, a better understanding and application of risk, and an improved relationship between the regulators, the regulated, and the beneficiaries of regulation. This means: • Better regulations, based on a better understanding of business and consumer behaviour and identifying levers for change to make markets work more effectively • Better regulators, ensuring officers are equipped with appropriate skills, knowledge, and business understanding, to enable them to operate with sound judgement and discretion, to target their efforts intelligently for maximum impact • A more strategic systemic approach to regulation, which takes account of the regulatory interventions and sanctions available to design solutions for better regulation with are most appropriate for the desired objectives

LBRO is working with partner organisations, especially local authority regulatory services, to achieve these outcomes which we hope will deliver better local regulation and realise prosperity and protection for all.

Jane Martin is Director of Policy and Engagement and Deputy Chief Executive at the Local Better Regulation Office, a non-departmental public body accountable to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills through the Better Regulation Executive. LBRO’s advice and guidance for local authorities on how better regulation can support businesses towards recovery will be launched at the end of June 2009.

A copy of the document and further information on LBRO can be found at www.lbro.org.uk.

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C onfident

procurement as standard

Local authorities spend a great deal on procurement – and in these difficult times are under pressure to make the most of their budgets while guaranteeing value for money and quality services. Jon Murthy, Marketing Manager at the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), explains how using procurement standards can decrease risk and increase innovation.

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ver the last few years councils in the UK have made significant strides to take advantage of more effective procurement. These improvements have been supported by the National Procurement Strategy, the Gershon Review and the actions described in the Roots Review that are being implemented by the Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnerships (RIEPs).

The sums spent on procurement by local authorities are enormous. According to a study carried out in 2007 by the then Regional Centres of Excellence (RCEs), it found that £42 billion is spent by local government on external contracts, representing over 40 per cent of all its total expenditure. Given the scale of the

spend, it is essential that councils continue to improve the quality, delivery and cost effectiveness of local services through better procurement practices.

innovative ways to carry out their procurement activities.

Standards have played an important role in procurement for many years. They provide an agreed model for business to follow and they give a clear indication to the purchaser that the products or services they buy or use can be trusted and are fit for purpose.

While undoubtedly offering the procurer valuable insight and a level of confidence about a particular business, in many areas – especially where the risks are high – standards are not sufficient of themselves.

Conformity assessment services, such as testing, inspection, calibration and certification all play a vital role in underpinning and demonstrating compliance with procurement standards.

This gives procurers and users additional confidence in the goods and services concerned. Independent testing, inspection and certification, when used as a proportionate response to risk, are important weapons in the procurer’s armoury.

However, there is a further link in the supply chain that needs to be considered.

In order for procurers to have confidence in the work carried out by these assessment organisations, they themselves also need to be independently assessed and verified. This is where accreditation comes in, as the most effective way to ‘check the checkers’.

The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) is the sole national accreditation body recognised by government for the assessment and

standards and accreditation can “helpUsing local councils to find more effective,

lower risk, and innovative ways to carry out their procurement activities

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As part of the essential infrastructure supporting business and public sector procurement, standards and accreditation can and do make a key contribution to this agenda. Using standards and accreditation can help local councils to find more effective, lower risk, and

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About UKAS‌ The United Kingdom Accreditation Service is the sole national accreditation body recognised by government to assess, against internationally agreed standards, organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services. verification, against international standards, of certification, inspection, testing and calibration activities. UKAS now accredits 1,500 laboratories, over 150 certification bodies and 240 inspection bodies across an increasingly diverse range of disciplines.

There are numerous examples of where accreditation interacts with the services contracted by local authorities, such as the testing of construction materials, surveying for asbestos, electrical safety, and waste management. It is clear that accredited testing, inspection and certification to recognised standards play a key role in supporting modern procurement practices.

As an example, carbon emissions are considered as part of the planning process for major procurement projects within Wiltshire County Council. Contracts with a significant environmental ‘risk’, including high value contracts are scored on the basis of environmental policy and all major contracts include a requirement to achieve UKAS-accredited environmental management system certification.

A similar strategy is adopted by Hampshire County Council to safely manage asbestos in their housing stock and schools. UKAS accreditation is a pre-requisite when choosing a supplier

to ensure the quality, reliability and impartiality of the work.

To achieve a wider understanding of the contribution accreditation can make to the procurement agenda and other areas of local government enforcement and monitoring, UKAS has an active programme in place aimed at raising awareness within business and government. In partnership with the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, UKAS has carried out a series of presentations and meetings across a range of local authorities, networks and regional partnerships.

Despite the progress achieved to date, there are still many public sector procurers that are unaware of the confidence that can be achieved by incorporating a system of standards and accredited conformity assessment, in terms of supplier selection, risk management and public confidence.

Accreditation by UKAS demonstrates the competence, impartiality and performance capability of these evaluators.

UKAS is a non-profitdistributing company, limited by guarantee, and operates under a Memorandum of Understanding with the government through the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

If you would like to know more about how UKAS accreditation can support local government procurement, please contact Jon Murthy, Marketing Manager at jon.murthy@ukas.com.

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L ooking

forward to pension reforms The current economic climate, the effect that this has had on investments and heightened public scrutiny puts pension funds under increasing pressure. Richard Wilson, Senior Policy Adviser at the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), outlines the toolkits available to raise standards in the pensions industry and allow balanced assessment of the funds’ performance.

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n the pensions world the last two years have been somewhat volatile to say the least and never more so for the Local Government Pension Scheme and the 99 pension funds that administer and participate in the scheme in England, Scotland and Wales.

In addition to implementing the new look scheme in 2008 (England & Wales) and in 2009 (Scotland), the funds, with assets of £116 billion and 3.5 million members, have also had to deal with a volatile economic climate and the impact it has had on their investments as well as increasing public scrutiny. Looking forward, while the latter two factors are not going to go away in the short term, there also remains the future challenge of the pension reforms due in 2012, including auto-enrolment and personal accounts.

The economic climate has affected the investment performance of all UK pension funds including those in local

government. Deficits in the private sector are estimated to be c£200 billion (March 2009) and while the last actuarial valuation (2007) of 65 local government schemes showed a combined deficit of £20 billion, this deficit is expected to have increased because of the fall in worldwide stock markets since then.

Currently, local government schemes have a higher exposure to equity markets than private sector schemes, for example, around 30 per cent of their assets are invested in UK equities compared with around 24 per cent for the UK’s private sector funds. However, local government schemes are able to take a long-term view

vast majority of funds believed that the consultants understood their scheme and provided appropriate investment solutions. In addition, these funds felt they were provided with clear explanations for trustees (elected councillors) pension managers and other relevant staff. A clear indication of satisfaction was that the vast majority stated they would recommend their existing investment consultancy to another pension scheme.

So while there was lots of good news about funds being content with their managers, under the ethos of Best Value local government schemes cannot simply rest on their laurels, especially when the survey indicated some areas for improvement do exist. These included getting better value for money out of consultants and getting more pro-active advice.

One of the National Association of Pension Fund’s (NAPF) core objectives is to promote best practice and raise standards within the UK pensions industry, which includes local government pension funds – many of which are our members. In that vein, the NAPF launched a range of assessment tools in 2008 to help both trustees and pensions managers develop a greater understanding of UK investment

economic climate has affected “theTheinvestment performance of all

UK pension funds including those in local government. Deficits in the private sector are estimated to be c£200 billion

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as they need to be able to pay benefits in forty to fifty years time so they are accustomed to managing short-term fluctuations in the stock market.

As well as reviewing the allocation of assets in the current economic climate, UK pension funds will be looking to the performance of their investment consultants. Earlier this year, the NAPF asked pension funds, including local government schemes, for their views on this subject. The average length of time that a consultancy had provided investment advice to a local government fund was eight to ten years and the

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consultancies and how to assess services provided by them to pension fund clients. The NAPF toolkit would also allow comparisons between different consultancies to be made.

The four tools included a survey (with the updated 2009 survey covered above) but also a balanced scorecard, comparative data analysis and Best Practice Principles. The idea behind these tools like any other performance assessment model is to allow trustees and pension managers to step back and coolly assess the performance of those they entrust to give them professional advice.

A range of Best Practice Principles were developed which covered the key client service areas of investment advice, technical competence, communication, education and training as well as fees and administration. These principles are aimed at focusing the minds of trustees and pension managers on the core issues they face in managing pension schemes and how their investment consultants were responding to the challenges arising from those core issues. With the pressures of time, investment performance in the current climate and the recent changes to the LGPS, the principles give trustees a framework within which to take a step back and form an assessment of professional advice received.

The third tool is a balanced scorecard which allows pension funds to record how they perceive their investment consultants have performed across a range of client services. The scorecard essentially allows pensions funds to rate their consultancy against a similar range of consultancies, many of whom have endorsed the Best Practice Principles. It can be a useful ‘aide memoir’ of key issues for future trustee board discussions or when trustees or their Investment Committee are conducting a periodic review of the consultancy firm.

The final tool is a Comparative Data Analysis template designed to act in a similar way to a tender document issued by a consultancy during an adviser selection process to provide background information. This approach should allow pension funds to gather both qualitative and quantitative data across a range of consultancies and enable a meaningful comparison between them to be made.

As the toolkit was designed by a cross industry working group, its use by local government funds should therefore come as no surprise to investment consultancies.

In addition to the general pressure on local government pension funds to deliver good investment performance, there is now greater public scrutiny of funds than ever before.

Organisations such as the NAPF, the Local Government Association and the Department of Communities and Local Government have continued to defend local government schemes throughout against criticism. Arguments have included the extensive regulation these schemes are subjected to, the requirement to make responsible decisions and to take independent investment and actuarial advice.

With the turbulent financial climate and the spotlight increasingly being shone on local authority schemes, it has never been more important for trustees and pension managers to not only continue to manage their schemes well, but to be able to substantiate that fact through more transparency of reporting. Using toolkits and continually and coherently assessing the performance of investment consultancies and other professional advisers is one method of demonstrating an ongoing commitment to better management of the LGPS.

NAPF Tel: 020 7808 1300 Email: napf@napf.co.uk www.napf.co.uk

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I nvestment

trends in a new global environment The past 18 months will be remembered as the period in which global financial markets went into meltdown. With many commentators suggesting that today’s investment environment is forever structurally altered, what are the current trends and the potential repercussions of the crisis for pension funds? Rob Bailey, Head of UK Sales at AXA Investment Managers, explains.

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ooking at the market trends over the past 18 months, the most stark, yet predictable result of the crisis has been the flight of pension funds from riskier assets towards ‘safer’ havens.

To this end, as the financial crisis unfolded, a dramatic sell-off in risky assets took place, most notably in equities. Overseas equity markets, including Europe (ex-UK), Japan and the US ended the year down around 40 per cent each in local currency terms. UK equities held up marginally better falling around 30 per cent. The drastic unwinding of collateralised debt, particularly among financials, combined with the credit crunch saw corporate bond markets also end 2008 in negative territory as credit spreads (the additional yield over government bonds to compensate for illiquidity and higher default risk) reached levels not seen since the Great Depression. Ultra-safe government bonds in comparison were

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the key beneficiaries of investor de-risking in the second half of 2008, with investors seeking safety at any price. The UK gilt market returned approximately 13 per cent on the year.

For UK pension funds, 2008 also represented a year of sharp declines in overall assets under management, down approximately 20 per cent overall. This sharp fall was largely the result of falling markets, however, notably, a number of asset managers also experienced significant client redemptions triggered by poor relative performance. Noninstitutional private clients, for example, prompted some of the largest outflows.

Typically, these clients have a shorter time horizon than institutional pension fund investors; they are, therefore, quicker to react to weak performance.

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assets with scheme liabilities. What is also interesting is the similarly increased allocation of UK schemes towards corporate bonds, despite significant underperformance over the past year. This seems to be the result of a belief that the asset class is currently undervalued.

Equity asset allocation continued to fall in 2008. This is hardly surprising given the magnitude of the declines in equity markets over the period. Interestingly, UK equities continue to experience disinvestment by UK pension schemes.

Exposure to local market equities has fallen sharply over the past five years, as investors have increasingly chosen to allocate to overseas equities, attracted by broader diversification and the greater potential for managers to add alpha through varied country, sector, stock and currency exposure.

Property markets continued to slide in 2008 and at a much faster rate than in 2007. The IPD UK property index ended 2008 down over 20 per cent. Allocation to this asset class by UK pension funds has remained largely static over the last 3–5 years (adjusting for market returns) and is still heavily biased towards the domestic market. While UK pension funds have expressed an increased interest in investing overseas, this interest has yet to be matched by substantial asset flows. Meanwhile, the allocation to alternative asset classes by UK institutional clients, including hedge funds, infrastructure, private equity and commodities, has increased over the past five years as pension funds have sought diversification away from more traditional asset classes. With this said, the increased

For UK pension funds, 2008 also represented a year of sharp declines in overall assets under management, down approximately 20 per cent overall

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Asset allocation in a new investment environment In terms of asset allocation strategies during 2008, for UK institutional pension funds, bond investment dominated with the asset class now representing around 40 per cent of UK schemes’ overall asset allocation. The increased bond proportion is largely the result of the flight to safety and subsequent strong returns relative to equity markets over the past year.

However, it is also a function of the need for pension funds to better align invested

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Source: Hymans Robertson ‘Market Briefing Survey 2009’

correlation across risky assets witnessed in 2008, has meant that many investors are questioning the diversification benefits of investing in alternatives. However, it is likely that the move to alternatives has merely stalled and will resume once conditions normalise.

Active versus passive management Following the poor relative performance experienced by many active managers last year, the debate over active versus passive management has raised its head once more. It seems passive, indextracking managers have seen substantial inflows over the past year, a trend that is continuing as clients are attracted by their greater predictability of outcome (in relative if not absolute terms) and lower fees. This is a trend that is often seen during times of market uncertainty.

Equally, it is one that tends to reverse, with greater allocation towards active managers as markets begin to recover and show positive returns. However, not all active managers underperformed in 2008, with some institutional asset managers delivering strong relative returns; nevertheless, more failed than succeeded

in 2008, particularly in the equity space. The reason for the weak median performance of active managers can be split into a number of key factors: • Most investment managers’ quantitative risk measurement systems rely on historic price trends and volatility to predict future risk. Many of these systems underestimated the impact on risk from the spike in market volatility experienced in early 2008. This failure to ‘size’ risk accurately resulted in many managers unknowingly running excessive levels of portfolio risk, which in a number of cases led to underperformance.

• Many active managers who employ a fundamental ‘bottom-up’ approach to stock selection suggest that this strategy was largely unrewarded in 2008 as markets traded on macro and sentiment factors. This led to indiscriminate selling, with good and bad sectors and stocks sold randomly amid the panicked flight to safety.

• As liquidity ground to a halt in 2008, investors were forced to sell off more liquid assets, depressing prices. Some

argue that this forced selling, more than anything else, led to sharp stock and sector underperformance.

• A number of managers got it wrong, buying up assets that looked attractive but which were in fact overvalued.

In summary, 2008 was a year of trauma for institutional funds, as financial markets unwound in catastrophic fashion.

Further pain is likely in the near term as global recession takes its course. More positively, the massive policy interventions and stimulus packages of governments around the world are promising in terms of rebuilding investor confidence and encouraging recovery. What’s more, the dislocation that has occurred across markets over the past year means that, for skilful active managers, the potential investment rewards available over the coming year could be substantial.

AXA Investment Managers www.axa-im.co.uk

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HUMAN RESOURCES

F orces

at work

The country’s largest workforce – local government employees – is under pressure from three directions. The recession is forcing redundancies in some areas, creating new recruitment challenges, and increasing demand for services. The Audit Commission’s Katie Smith asks if councils can square the circle and make sure their workforces are fit for the future.

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f all the money spent in the public sector in England, one pound in every four is spent by a council.

And half of that – £55 billion a year – is the wages bill for the nation’s largest workforce, 2.2 million local government employees. These are the teachers, carers, firefighters, engineers, librarians, registrars, archivists, archaeologists, conservationists – doing jobs that touch all our lives, involving everything from planning to pest control, bins to business rates, lollipop ladies to lottery funding, residents’ parking to recycling, streetlights to school meals.

And at a time when some citizens and their service providers are tightening their belts, the downturn and demographics have conspired to increase demand for services like benefits, housing, elderly care and state school places.

Councils are finding it harder to fill vacancies in some of these areas, yet at the same time jobs are being shed across local government as a whole – 6,700 in the last six months according to the latest Local Government Association figures.

Three in five councils have made staff reductions in the last six months and a similar proportion are planning to cut

posts over the course of the next year. In addition, councils’ incomes are dwindling as they lose millions in reduced parking charges, a development squeeze meaning fewer planning applications and therefore lower fees, lower returns on investments, cash deposits frozen in Iceland, and less rent from council housing as hard-pressed tenants default.

Pressing concerns about the recession have distracted many councils from an essential task – planning their future workforce needs. Last June, as recession just started to bite, the Audit Commission published a timely national

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noting that the top performing councils are more likely to be those with forwardlooking plans for staff recruitment and retention. Among the successes highlighted in the report, were councils’ efforts in reducing sickness absence by 6.7 per cent over the last four years – the equivalent of a workforce boost of 6,000 full time employees. If this trend continues it could release additional productive time worth an estimated £150 million a year.

However, all but 13 per cent of councils reported that they had difficulty in recruiting and retaining professional staff. Bills for unfilled vacancies can soon rack up, as the advertising and interviewing process costs an average £7,750 per job. Plugging the gaps with agency staff can also be costly. But there is room for optimism. One council managed to save £3.8 million or 40 per cent of its agency staff costs, and Walsall managed to reduce advertising costs for social workers from £10,000 to £360 per appointment using e-recruitment.

Pressing concerns about the recession have distracted many councils from an essential task – planning their future workforce needs

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report Tomorrow’s People: Building a local government workforce for the future, which concluded that workforce planning is ‘too often viewed simply as an operational ‘human resources’ responsibility of limited relevance to strategic objectives.’

The report called for councils to act to prevent a skills crisis, warning that vital areas such as adult care and environmental health would find it hard to meet future demands unless more council chiefs take a long-term view of workforce planning.

Only one in four English councils, it says, have adequate or effective workforce strategies and systems,

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Local government not only serves an ageing population, but it has an ageing workforce itself – one in three council employees is within a decade of retirement, and 70 per cent gained their qualifications more than ten years ago.

It also seems that the private sector is attracting all the bright young things, with only one in four under 25s choosing public service as a career. Fast-moving technology and innovation are changing the skill sets required, so perhaps it is time for a new emphasis on adult training, and a drive on making council work more attractive to school and college leavers, like Hounslow’s apprenticeship scheme ‘Learn and Earn’.

A range of extra materials support Tomorrow’s People, with many councils already using them as a catalyst for getting workforce issues higher up their local agendas. ‘Did you Know?’ is an eyecatching graphic presentation which uses surprising facts to engage any audience about workforce issues. It is designed to be shown at the beginning of a meeting or workshop to spark debate. There are also 11 case studies, and a booklet and DVD of ‘Workshop Materials’ containing

a ‘pick and mix’ menu of activities to help with the running of workshops for senior staff, and to address the high-level issues raised in the national report.

Workforce planning is now the subject of a new Key Line of Enquiry (KLOE 3.3) which will feed into the use of resources assessment of councils under Comprehensive Area Assessment, the revolutionary new multi-authority and user-focused assessment regime already underway across England Tomorrow’s People pulls no punches, warning of a demographic time-bomb and saying that, without action, the pressures on our workforces may expose some councils to a risk of services failing.

It is all cause and effect – for example, unless councils recruit 25 per cent more adult carers by 2020, fewer vulnerable adults will be able to lead independent lives in the future, and more will need to enter an over-subscribed private care home sector, or become dependent on local authority care funding. Recruiting fewer planners means a slower planning process which puts the brakes on building affordable housing, which can in turn exacerbate local housing problems and

homelessness. In the world of local government, almost everything is linked.

Workforce planning really matters, as much as any other element of a council’s strategic future-proofing. Predictable elements like demographics, and unpredictable elements like the economic downturn, serve only to highlight the need to get a move on in shaping future workforce needs.

www.audit-commission.gov.uk

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CASE STUDY

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recruitment master plan

Managing a council’s temporary recruitment spend and ensuring that staff are trained and retained is a challenge – a challenge that is evolving as the economy changes. Nicola Allen, Strategic Procurement Manager at Plymouth City Council, discusses the benefits that outsourcing temporary recruitment to a managed service provider has given the council.

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lymouth City Council had always managed its own temporary recruitment, with varying degrees of success. An internal temporary recruitment agency (TRAP – Temporary Recruitment Agency Plymouth) dealt with clerical, admin and care posts, but there were no standing agreements with any other providers for other agency staff (such as industrial, management, etc).

The council is made up of many buildings across the city, and managers in each were able to source temporary staff from any agency by picking up the phone and speaking to whichever provider they thought suitable. There was no standard process and so temporary staff could be employed for any reason – for example, if a department had a particularly heavy workload then they could take on a temporary member of staff to ease the burden rather than balancing work patterns internally to cope with the extra work. The council had little control over temporary recruitment as a whole.

Information on temporary recruitment practices in the council was difficult to find, so it was not easy to keep track of all the different costs. Budget holders were aware of costs but dependent on staff using the correct costing codes and there was no orderly management information. Nobody kept track of, or knew why, temporary staff were being used. Trying to review our operations was therefore a huge task.

The project to introduce a managed services provider began at the same time the council implemented a strategic

procurement department. We decided that by outsourcing we could solve our recruitment and management issues – through using a master vendor, the council would gain control of temporary recruitment and keep track of total acquisition costs.

Six companies were invited to tender for the temporary recruitment contract.

During this process Pertemps proved to be very proficient, and demonstrated a sound understanding of the council’s requirements. The company identified our key challenges and outlined how it would tackle them to reduce risks.

Representatives came into the council for two days to take detailed notes, then gave us a proposal based on these findings to show us how they would increase efficiencies. This proposal gave clear, specific and innovative solutions to each issue.

We also agreed six competitive rates of commission for staffing, which are fixed for the term of the contract.

The contract was awarded in April 2006 and we quickly saw a number of benefits. The most tangible, of course, is the cost savings – the council saved £224,237 in the first six months of the contract, which increased to savings of £2.5 million after the first three years.

The council has reduced risk, because all temporary staff are Pertemps employees, rather than ours – for example, if a temporary member of staff takes time off sick, it is Pertemps’ responsibility to replace the worker, which means that the council does not lose out.

The contract has also allowed the council to streamline the temporary recruitment process by making it easier to take staff on directly. If we take on a temporary member of staff and decide to make them permanent, the temporary to permanent fee is waived.

The council is now more visible in the community – Pertemps has set up an office in the city centre that deals specifically with the council’s recruitment.

Importantly, we now have total control over our temporary recruitment.

Having just one provider instead of many means that we only need one process, which is much easier to manage. There is a structured format, with regulations – a temporary recruitment form will go to our HR department, and from there on to Pertemps, so reducing time spent by the management and stopping unnecessary temporary staffing requests. Pertemps

council saved £224,237 in the “firstThesix months of the contract, which

increased to savings of £2.5 million after the first three years

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Any provider would face a massive challenge taking over the council’s temporary recruitment. We had a large number of people working through a number of different agencies and Pertemps detailed exactly how they would migrate these staff, with case studies to support the proposals.

However, the council disbanded TRAP prior to contract implementation

CASE STUDY

a one-stop-shop for public sector resourcing Pertemps Recruitment Partnership (Pertemps) has a dedicated public sector team focused on delivering resourcing and recruitment solutions into central and local government. Our belief is that, instead of stand-alone solutions for temporary and permanent recruitment, the two should be addressed together, building ‘talent pools’ and providing a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all recruitment requirements. This delivers greater savings and efficiencies and promotes the public sector as the employer of choice across the community.

This one-stop-shop approach, where Pertemps is contracted as a recruitment and HR partner, tackles the root causes of skills shortages by putting in place resourcing, training and development strategies. Resourcing solutions are applied to categories of workers according to current market conditions.

Working in partnership helps to address key public sector agendas including diversity and regeneration while delivering efficiencies. We develop true working partnerships with our clients, the local workforce and communities to the benefit of all, addressing local skills, training and recruitment issues.

Historically, procurement has focused on temporary recruitment contracts, while HR has tended to retain control of the permanent recruitment process. In isolation the two ignore the potential to share the talent that is applying to work in the local authority.

By bringing permanent and temporary recruitment under a onestop-shop solution Pertemps delivers additional outputs and savings by: • Shortening the permanent

recruitment process and reducing the dependency on temporary staff used to cover permanent positions • Managing the use of temporary workers strategically • Developing pools of high quality workers across all skill sets • Providing solutions to address the skills shortages in key areas, including care and housing Pertemps is already talking with a number of existing clients where they deliver master vendor contracts about evolving the solution to include permanent recruitment.

As the master vendor, Pertemps builds strong relationships across the client base and develops a detailed understanding of individual directorates’ needs, culture and objectives. It is not just about filling temporary bookings.

This HR and consultancy approach has helped clients to up skill their workforce, reduce attrition, cut absenteeism, increase productivity and delivered valuable savings. In addition, Pertemps works to enhance the image of the authority as the local employer of choice, reaching across the community to remove barriers to work. The ‘isms’ such as ageism, racism, sexism, etc are removed from the recruitment process.

On one particular contract we have worked with over 250 local out of work people in the past 12 months to address their training needs and put them back to work within the local council. This demonstrates the benefits of involving and employing local workers within the contract and developing a partnership approach to recruitment with Pertemps.

recruits in accordance with our job specs, holds regular review meetings, deals with second tier suppliers, organises CRB checks and ensures that health and safety is complied with. We can be involved as much or as little as we need to be and have up to date management information at our disposal.

The contract has been successful and we certainly would not go back to our previous temporary recruitment methods.

Outsourcing our recruitment has been a learning curve for all involved but ultimately, what the contract has given the council is firm control of temporary staff, costs and information, and decreased risk.

Peter Dixon Head of Public Sector Business Pertemps Recruitment Partnership Tel: 01676 525 141 Email: Peter.Dixon@pertemps.co.uk

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C hanges

in performance management The practice of performance management is continually evolving. Here, Angela Baron of the CIPD discusses the history of the process and what we can expect to see from performance management of the 21st century.

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erformance management is not a new concept. The idea of measuring how well individuals perform has been around at least since the third century when the emperors of the Wei dynasty in China had an Imperial Rater whose task it was to evaluate the performance of the royal family.

Industrialisation accelerated interest in measuring performance. The speed at which a machine could be operated or the time taken to complete a task was translated into a monetary value and nothing of course greased the wheels of industry better than the accumulation of wealth.

The first formal monitoring systems are attributed to Frederick Taylor and arguably the principles of Taylor’s work can still be seen in mechanised tasks.

He certainly influenced the merit rating scales which were a popular method of rating employee performance well into the 1970s.

Now it’s not so much how fast or how efficiently a task can be done but how knowledge is acquired and deployed that is important. Performance management is a more inclusive process integrated with other practices such as career management, talent management and development.

The CIPD has been researching the practice of performance management since 1993 and we have seen a seismic shift in the way in which practitioners approach the area. In the early 90s there was little understanding of the concept as a holistic process – although many of the tools associated with performance management such as appraisals or performance related pay were already sophisticated in their application. Michael Armstrong and I writing at that time concluded performance management would occur when the following activities were present:

In the 21st century it is “ largely accepted that the route to

accountabilities and training/learning targets • Using formal appraisal procedures as ways of communicating performance requirements which are set on a regular basis • Linking performance requirements to pay especially for senior managers It was rare at that time to find all of these activities occurring together. The most common were appraisal or objective setting but usually operated in isolation of other HR practices such as communication or career management.

Subsequent research in 1998 found that the situation has changed substantially. Not only were more of the activities described above occurring simultaneously but performance management was most likely to be viewed as a continuous process rather than an annual activity. Although it was still often a collection of interlinked tools rather than a single system we could now define performance management as: ‘a process which contributes to the effective management of individuals and teams in order to achieve high levels of organisational performance. As such, it establishes shared understanding about what is to be achieved and an approach to leading and developing people which will ensure that it is achieved’.

The nature of this process was heavily influenced by either pay or development.

Pay led performance management was driven by the desire to pay according to performance and dominated by tools to measure output. Development led performance management was driven by

organisational performance and growth is to create high performance, high commitment work systems underpinned by high trust relationships with managers

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• Communication of a vision to all employees • Setting departmental and individual performance targets which are related to wider objectives • Conducting formal reviews of progress towards these targets • Using the review process to identify training, development and reward outcomes • Evaluating the whole process to improve effectiveness • Expressing performance targets in terms of measurable outputs,

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the desire to develop individual to their maximum potential and characterised by strong links to development and career management and an interest in competence or capability of the individual.

When Michael and I revisited the area for the CIPD in 2005, we found that much of the actual practice of performance management had changed very little. However what had changed significantly was the way in which this process was integrated with other HR practices and business process and the greater emphasis placed on management behaviour. Although we had witnessed a shift in the application of performance management away from HR to the line in previous years, only now was it seen as a process by which management behaviour could be shaped and within which the line manager relationship could be framed.

As one of our interviewees for the research commented: ‘We expect managers who lead this organisation to behave in line with the stated core values. So the competencies reflect the values, and the individual performance management assessments are invited to assess how far managers are behaving in line with core values.’

Another stressed that performance management was the primary means by which they ensured a line of sight,

between strategic goals and individual activity and behaviours: ‘It’s about creating a line of sight between what the individual does and what the organisation needs’.

In the 21st century it is largely accepted that the route to organisational performance and growth is to create high performance, high commitment work systems underpinned by high trust relationships with managers defined by understanding and mutual co-operation.

With the old carrot and stick approach to management long consigned to the scrap heap the greater pre-occupation with employee engagement and commitment has cemented the place of performance management as the centre piece of communication between manager and individual.

This shift has resulted in performance management being perceived as a continuous process rather than a discrete event. So performance management can be differentiated from appraisals as something that is on-going rather than a once yearly event. As such, to be effective it has to be underpinned by open and honest communication between managers and individuals and a relationship based on trust.

So it’s been a long journey and whether the Imperial Rater would

recognise performance management in its present form will probably never be known. But it seems that finally performance management has acquired a central place in the link between the activities that individuals carry out day to day and progress towards achieving strategic organisational goals.

We can expect to see this link strengthen in the future as performance management cements its position as the primary vehicle to align individual effort with organisation outcomes and by doing so ensure that employee engagement and commitment are channelled into organisational success.

This article is based on the CIPD discussion paper History and Foundations of Performance Management which can be found at: www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/perfmangmt/general/_hstprfmngt.htm

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U nderpinning high performance Angela Probert, Director of Organisational Development at SOLACE Enterprises, outlines how the keystones of organisational achievement can be integrated into intelligent organisational development.

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rganisational success may depend on a commitment to continuous refinement and development, but knowing where to start can be difficult. At SOLACE Enterprises, we have developed a flexible framework for assisting organisations to use proven performance management techniques to break negative behaviour patterns and achieve lasting change, while improving quality and value for money.

What does success look like?

In today’s complex public sector, with high expectations for cost-effectiveness, user satisfaction, community engagement and end-to-end delivery – not to mention Comprehensive Area Assessment and a raft of other inspection processes – defining and delivering success is a challenge. Success looks different now to ten or even five years ago; organisations can’t stand still or work in isolation from key partners. Our research has identified that high-performing organisations and strategic partnerships have particular characteristics: • Aspirational. Clear about purpose, focused on results, able to strike the balance between stretch and stress.

• Well led. Giving practical expression to the high level aspirations.

• Well organised. Ensuring that effort is turned into effective and measurable outcomes.

• Empowering. People are both challenged and supported.

• Able to change. Capable of working in harmony across and between organisations.

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How can organisations achieve real change?

Organisations that achieve real change can break out of limiting ways of working.

They find new directions and strengths while staying true to their values. Lack of success is often characterised by a failure to think holistically; to identify the impact of change across an organisation; to articulate new expectations; to engage stakeholders.

Achieving sustained improvement in performance requires keystones: vision, skills, resources, incentives, action plans. If one of these is missing, it can undermine the successful outcome of a change programme. We use our experience to help organisations and partnerships: • Create a performance culture; • Create momentum for successful change; • Operate collectively and strategically; • Develop a common mindset, with shared purpose; • Translate plans into actions; • Work collaboratively with staff, community, partners.

How can we support performance improvement?

The keystone of our approach to exploring organisational effectiveness is the Change Cycle, which explores how effectively the organisation works, internal and external perceptions, and whether it delivers what is needed. The cycle revolves around these key questions: • How well did you anticipate a change and prepare for it?

• Was change defined and understood across the organisation?

• Was sufficient capacity created to deliver change?

• Was the change process a coordinated and directed activity?

• How has the new approach altered behaviours?

• How has progress been measured and achieved?

• What was learnt and what are the future advantages?

How does our approach give results?

Social Services Scotland. We worked with a range of social service teams to identify elements of performance management and to recommend actions to improve performance management over the longer term. We encouraged managers to understand and actively use performance management to improve quality and value for money. We delivered constructive, straightforward advice on: • Service and divisional plans – to ensure they link activity with priorities for improved performance;

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• The range of indicators of good performance, including formal PIs; • Mechanisms for setting, measuring and managing performance, including geographical comparisons; • Systems for monitoring and reporting performance at different levels throughout the council.

Each programme was tailored to the individual council, their current systems and local context. We started with an in-depth meeting to identify the performance systems in place and the availability of management information in areas such as assessment and care management; financial/activity links for services; HR information; performance indicators; business planning; and complaints procedures.

We then held a series of workshops with managers at different levels to demonstrate effective performance management, discover where data is held and determine how it can be reported.

We also provided support for key managers (with individual coaching where appropriate) to develop guidance for staff and create a performance file. Finally, we prepared a report outlining the strengths and opportunities for improvement, giving short-term support to implement the proposals and achieve informed engagement of managers and staff.

Initial assessment can be completed in 20 days, though this varies from council to council. We can provide extended support to the organisation, by negotiation, to ensure performance is fully embedded.

Partnership Improvement. We also support public sector organisations and partnerships to develop more effective partnership working. We offer peer challenge; a range of programmes and events; and tailored support to build the capacity and capability of all partners to deliver real improvements in local communities. We have developed a number of approaches to evaluate and improve partnership working including a local strategic partnership peer challenge model with Warwickshire University Business School and the IDeA; a performance improvement programme with PricewaterhouseCoopers which includes practical support to improve LSP working; and an Open Strategy programme to help stakeholders to identify, agree and deliver joint goals.

Challenging you to think differently Our role is to challenge organisations to step outside their normal practice. We analyse how and why they do things, then work with them to show how things could be, rather than how things are.

We believe that by changing

perspectives, you can change behaviours.

By changing behaviours, you can create step-change in performance. This is why so much of our performance management work concentrates on the quality of leadership within the organisation.

Leadership is the fulcrum that keeps performance on an upward curve.

If you want to challenge an organisation to work differently, you first must challenge its leaders. How leaders behave, respond to and embrace that challenge will cement organisational attitudes, imprint values and set the tone for the change agenda.

For further information and support on how we can help your organisation to develop and improve, please contact Angela Probert, Director of Organisational Development, on 0845 601 0649.

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T he

importance of leadership development in a downturn

Leadership in a recession requires a change in approach. Here, Anne Bingham Holmes, Richard Masters and Pascoe Sawyers of the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) discuss how local authorities can rise to the challenge by developing leaders who can achieve the best outcomes for the community.

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n a downturn, we need a different style of leadership in local government. The key is building capacity, not just in terms of equipping staff with the skills they need, but also about communicating to them the ethos of the organisation as a whole. If you can get this message across, and employees believe in the ‘product’ of the organisation, then you gain their loyalty and trust, and it enables you to build capacity more broadly across the organisation.

This is essential, because in a downturn local government needs to really show its worth. Instead of battening down the hatches, cutting back on training and carrying out only tasks which are essential, this is the time to focus on some of the intractable issues which make a difference to people’s lives.

Leadership of place takes courage and commitment, but above all it requires skill, and to get this right you need to train

your senior staff and elected members.

Councils which are developing policies on leadership of place include Cumbria, Norfolk, Suffolk and Worcestershire – which is training 25 key people from across the county in relevant skills, including its own leader and CEO,

and work more economically, as well as with a new vision.

Fundamental to this is cooperation and clear understanding between senior council managers, right up to chief executive level, and elected members. We must focus on the two or three points which are most important to the local community – we cannot be all things to all people.

These issues might be very challenging – policing, for example, or health, but we have to show that we can take these things forward. And this means offering the sort of training to staff and elected members which enables them to think laterally, be more adventurous and see what they can achieve best outcomes for the local community.

In addition, the search for efficiency savings and financial constraints make strategic commissioning a greater priority for local authorities, and this also presents a significant leadership challenge, according to organisations like Ashridge Business School. Issues for council leadership include:

Leadership of place takes courage “ and commitment, but above all it requires skill, and to get this right you need to train your senior staff and elected members the chair and CEO of the local PCT and a number of other leaders from across the community, including a bishop. The goal is open-ended, but the ultimate aim is to deliver new thinking about how communities can function, and how organisations across the public, private and voluntary sector can share resources

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• How do you understand the needs of the communities you serve?

• How do you decide if a particular service should be commissioned outside the authority?

• What should this process include?

• How do you ensure that ‘value for money’ balances cost with quality of service to local people?

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sector. It can undermine the services provided, the image and brand of the organisation and the morale and loyalty of members and staff.

Local authorities must also ensure that they do not see commissioning as just a box-ticking exercise. Leading a commissioning organisation makes it even more important that staff and elected members think strategically, and have the vision to make the big decisions, and the knowledge and skills to understand and manage a complex commissioning process, once it is underway.

The IDeA delivers national political and managerial leadership programmes which can help with this, for example, the Leadership Academy, which is aimed at leading councillors, and a number of managerial leadership development programmes designed for chief executives and senior officers.

Our key role is to maintain a commissioning oversight of the leadership development needs of the sector – market making, knowledge capture and dissemination. And we are clearly focusing on developing the evidence-base of leadership development.

The agency will be launching a leadership development Community

of Practice (CoP) later this year, which will include a data-base of leadership development providers, (incorporating the accredited providers data-base of the Leadership Centre for Local Government), information, frameworks and resources on what works in leadership development (return on investment, impact assessment and examples of good practice), and discussion forums.

This is an online resource, which will include guidance notes on what works, checklists and case studies, and a discussion forum including blogs, which will be moderated by the IDeA. The aim of this will be to foster discussion and informal information exchange about what works in terms of leadership development and training.

The aim of the CoP will be to act as a first port of call for those working in commissioning and procurement in local government, helping them to make informed judgments about what is available, and select the most appropriate training and development option for their organisation.

Over the next few months, the IDeA will also be publishing a new set of ‘stories of impact’ which will be available on our website. These will focus on the

impact of participating in leadership development on the individual, the local authority and local communities (seeking to demonstrate the ‘golden thread’ from investment to improvement in community outcomes, and would encourage local authorities to seek to demonstrate this link quite clearly – the ‘evidence base’.)

And finally – no recession lasts forever, and there are already reports that this downturn might be reaching its final stages. It’s essential to continue to invest in management and leadership development if we are to survive the current turbulent times – and ensure that local government is competitive and efficient when we emerge from the recession once again.

www.idea.gov.uk

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P rocuring

leadership development : both sides of the fence Lesley Campbell, a Director at the Office for Public Management (OPM), outlines ways in which clients and providers of leadership and management development (LMD) programmes can improve the ways they work together.

outcomes, underpinned by good procurement practice.

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sk the average local government officer what they think of consultants and, all too often, the response is a frown and a comment like, ‘They always think they know better than us.’ For their part, disgruntled providers are likely to groan about ‘the nightmare of procurement processes’.

While acknowledging this somewhat negative picture, I should say that at OPM we are lucky enough to have been involved in many exciting and successful projects across local government and the public sector. Like many providers, we pride ourselves on good, constructive client relationships and we spend a lot of time reviewing those relationships and looking at our performance at proposal writing, pitches and project management. Clearly it is in our interests to do so. But I would argue that procurement officers – indeed anyone in a client or commissioning role in public services – also ought to engage in thorough evaluations of what works when it comes to the esoteric world of leadership and management development (LMD).

This article is intended to provoke a debate about what works best in commissioning LMD to achieve chosen

The procurement process typically raises dilemmas for clients: • How do we balance cost and quality?

• How can we judge quality through a selection process that is unlikely to include opportunities to see the providers in action?

• How rigorous can selection criteria be for a service that is so personal?

• How can we ensure that programmes are tailored to our specific needs while providing fresh insights?

• How will we know if the programme has worked?

• Who is actually going to deliver the programme: how do we resolve wanting a consistent tutor team but also welcoming the diverse skills and experience different tutors can bring?

• How clear do we need to be about the programme at the outset, as opposed to working together to

As LMD providers, we also face some dilemmas: • How do we maintain quality and still cover our costs, especially in a crowded, competitive market at a time of severe budget constraints?

• How much time do we commit to a lengthy tendering process?

• How much design work is reasonable during the tendering exercise, as opposed to after contract award?

• To what degree can we challenge the brief without appearing arrogant and confrontational?

• How knowledgeable is the client about LMD? • How do we know if we can work well with these people?

An acknowledgement on both sides that these dilemmas exist may help to frame a more constructive dialogue between clients and providers of LMD before, during and after a tender.

Here are some examples of what seems to work.

One local government consortium has specified observation of ‘leadership development in a group setting’ as part of the process and has allowed sufficient time for this to be scheduled. Not only does this provide a real sense of how the providers operate, but the experience can be built on at interview to conduct a real conversation about what works with different groups, what might be similar or different with the contract being bid for and so on. The down side is the additional client time this process necessitates.

When I was on the client side and had consented to be a named referee

article is intended to provoke “aThis debate about what works best in

commissioning LMD to achieve chosen outcomes, underpinned by good procurement practice

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design a programme in a more emergent way?

• How much control or involvement do we want?

• How do we know if we can work well with these people: will they be both supportive and challenging?

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Suggestions for success…

1. Provide an indication of the budget 2. Take up references 3. Invite different delivery options 4. Ask providers for feedback on your procurement process

for an LMD provider, I was contacted by the main client for a new contract who had devised a list of extremely insightful and fair questions about the potential provider. After a half hour conversation, I felt that she had a much better sense of the pros and cons of using this consultancy and the discussion prompted me to make a few changes to my own practice as a client.

A recent tendering exercise invited us to critique a previous (completely anonymised) LMD programme. This encouraged providers (who weren’t told whether or not the programme was deemed successful) to demonstrate the thinking processes behind their own design and fostered a much deeper conversation at interview than would have been the case if we had simply provided an outline programme ourselves.

In a climate where both time and money are in short supply, it is in all

our interests to review our processes and relationships in order to make LMD commissioning work effectively. I am assuming that both parties are engaged in this process because they believe good leadership at all levels is essential to the effectiveness of local authorities, their partners and the communities they serve and that structured LMD interventions make a positive difference. I’m arguing for a more collaborative approach. Let’s work together more openly and understand each other’s perspectives in order to help our local government leaders to flourish and to add public value.

5. Flexible proforma, particularly for costs (including price per participant day) 6. Reasonable time scales including interview date 7. Ask providers for suggestions for interview questions 8. Request presentations which apply theory to specific practice 9. Provide a list of contractual compliance criteria but check later during contract negotiations 10. Encourage dialogue

Lesley Campbell is the Director of Leadership and Management Development for OPM (the Office for Public Management). She spent 10 years as a local authority client for leadership development before her 10 years at OPM on the provider side. OPM is a not for profit, employee share owned consultancy that has worked with public sector organisations for 20 years.

Is OPM on your list of providers? We offer help with organisational development, stakeholder engagement, evaluation and research, leadership and management development, coaching and mentoring.

Please visit our website on: www.opm.co.uk or email Lesley at: lcampbell@opm.co.uk

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W hy

invest in the health and well - being of employees ?

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) estimated that 172 million working days were lost due to sickness absence in 2007, costing employers £13 billion. That direct loss of income is often a key motivator when employers decide to invest in health and well-being programmes, but absenteeism shouldn’t be looked at in isolation. Here, Health, Work and Well-being explains why the benefits of investing in the health and well-being of employees are many and varied.

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successful health and well-being programme will result in reduced absenteeism and staff turnover, leading to increased skill retention, and a reduction in recruitment and training costs. It’s not all about cost reduction.

A successful health and well-being programme, where employee physical and mental well-being is protected and improved, results in sustained staff morale leading to greater workplace engagement, which in turn drives increased productivity. The benefits are significant, whatever the economic climate.

A less tangible by-product of investing time and/or money in the health and well-being of staff is the effect on the employer’s standing in the community.

Word gets around and a healthy reputation means that you are more likely to recruit the best and brightest in the field. It is worth noting that organisations regarded as ‘best companies’ tend to perform better on the stock market and place a high importance on health and well-being programmes:

(measured by looking at parameters such as employee well-being, line management and team-working) have 13 per cent lower staff turnover, less than half the sickness absence of the UK average, and on the stock market they have consistently out-performed the FTSE 100.

So what measures can employers take? They need not be expensive.

An effort to create a pleasant, safe work environment, promoting healthy behaviours where employees feel valued and have a high level of engagement with their work is ideal. Employers can create a healthy psychological environment by promoting communication and social cohesion among staff and line managers and providing interventions to manage health and well-being through specialist support.The government is working on a range of initiatives that will help to support employers, including:

A less tangible by-product of “ investing time and/or money in the health and well-being of staff is the effect on the employer’s standing in the community

• Evidence from the US analysed the relationship between employee satisfaction and long-run stock market performance. The balanced portfolio of the ‘Best companies to work for in America’ earned 14 per cent per year from 1998-2005, over double the market return, outperforming industry and characteristic matched companies.

• Evidence from the Sunday Times’ ‘Best Companies to work for in the UK’ shows that companies who have higher levels of staff engagement 80

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The prestige associated with being a ‘best company to work for’ can be harnessed and has become part of the ‘brand’ for many a successful organisation. Not only can these businesses highlight the economic strength of their thriving workplaces, they can also advertise their social conscience and commitment to their staff, much in the way organisations are looking to exhibit environmental credentials.

The moral and social imperative to invest is strong. We know that a positive, fulfilling work environment protects and improves the physical and mental wellbeing of employees and not only does this directly assist the individual, it also affects the families of employees. Children are the beneficiaries when parents have a fulfilling working life, when they are fit and healthy and can devote time to their kids, free from the stress of an unhealthy work environment. An investment in the health of our workplaces is also an investment in our future.

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• The Business HealthCheck Tool. An evaluation tool to help employers assess the cost of ill-health to their business and the impact of wellness programmes on these costs. The tool will be undergoing a re-design to make it more user friendly.

• A Challenge Fund. Will be set up to encourage local initiatives that improve workplace health and wellbeing, through innovative approaches which ensure worker engagement.

• Health, Work and Well-being Coordinators. To be appointed in the nine regions of England, Scotland and Wales to stimulate action on health, work and well-being issues, offering advice and support to foster local partnerships and engagement.

Employees can also contribute to workplace well-being. Fostering relationships with workmates, committing to maintaining good physical health

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Health, Work and Well-being… …is a government-led initiative to improve the health and well-being of working age people.

by staying active, and recognising the positive effect of good work on well-being can all help to promote health and wellbeing at work.

If government, employers and employees work collectively to improve the health and well-being of workplaces, we will see marked social and economic benefits for all.

Case Study Gateshead Council committed to improve the health and well-being of their workplace after identifying an increasing need to address sickness absence rates.

By consulting with key stakeholders and employees, an initiatives list was established and a preventative model developed through using a trial and error system utilising in-house resources and the local PCT. Their employee survey results showed that there were four key areas to address: stress; smoking; diet and physical activity.

The initiatives plan concentrated around these core issues. Step by step, they built on the successful initiatives to form what is now a positive working culture for their employees. The health and well-being programme included: • Well-being support: free 24-hour telephone counselling helpline; face to face counselling; revision of stress awareness training; stress guidance

• Smoking: banned in council owned licensed premises, council vehicles and within site perimeters of council buildings three years ahead of smokefree legislation; stop smoking sessions • Nutrition programme: five a day licence; increased healthier food options; chilled water provision; weekly weigh in and dietary advice sessions; weekly sale of locally produced fruit and vegetables • Physical activities: health walks; lunchtime walk maps; yoga; flex and tone; light circuit; abs blast; bums and tums sessions; fitness testing • Flexible working conditions: job share, home working, career breaks • Specific campaigns to embed health and well-being messages Benefits to the council included: • Mar 2009: 10.80 days absence per employee, a reduction of 1.60 days from previous year • Formed internal and external partnerships: PCT health trust and other organisations • Awards: Tyne & Wear; European awards; BBC Challenge (Healthiest Large Employer in NE region); BHF Think Fit Challenge (highly commended) • High participation in well-being weeks • Reputation as employer of choice and in acting as role model for community

It brings together employers, unions and healthcare professionals in helping more people with health conditions to find and stay in employment.

A cross-government programme launched in 2005, we are sponsored by five government partners – the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department of Health, the Health and Safety Executive, the Scottish Government and the Welsh Assembly Government.

• Health engagement in workplace transferring to family setting Getting the message out to all 10,000 staff in 400 locations will be vital to the success of sustaining future initiatives.

More pilot programmes are already in place to support employees with spinal or musculo-skeletal conditions and health behavioural problems.

Visit www.workingforhealth.gov. uk for more information about the health and work agenda including useful downloads and relevant case studies.

Visit www.shift.org.uk to find out more about how to combat stigma and discrimination surrounding mental health.

Visit www.iapt.nhs.uk to find out about the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme.

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PPC W orldwide –

working with the public sector in times of crisis With sickness absence costing the UK billions of pounds each year, a change in attitudes is crucial to promote health and well-being in the workplace. Here, PPC Worldwide outlines the support it offers to local government and the wider public sector – and its experience in providing health, well-being and counselling services.

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ame Carol Black, in her recent review, Working for a Healthier Tomorrow, highlighted key issues in the need to support the government led initiative to improve the health and wellbeing of working age people.

• In the UK there are over 172 million working days lost each year through sickness absence.

• The annual economic costs of sickness absence and worklessness in the UK are running at over £100 billion – more than the current annual budget for the NHS and equivalent to the entire GDP of Portugal • Lifestyle factors play a part (obesity and smoking), but mental health problems and musculoskeletal disorders are the major causes • There is currently a real lack of appropriate and timely diagnosis and intervention

• There needs to be a major shift in attitudes among employers and employees – not just in supporting the prevention of ill-health, but also in the active promotion of health and well-being.

• The proposed Fit for Work service

in 2008. We currently support more than 3,000 organisations and over 3 million households worldwide (that’s 1 in 14 employed individuals covered by our services). We have 1,500 affiliate counsellors in the UK alone and over 5,500 worldwide.

Our counselling service is based upon a ‘triage’ process.

Individuals are assessed by a BACP accredited telephone counsellor before continuing with formal telephone counselling, online CBT or face-to-face counselling. Our face-to-face counsellors are extremely well qualified with typically: a masters, three years post qualification experience, BACP accreditation and over 450 hours of supervised practice.

Using our Behavioural Health Model, PPC Worldwide offers support through a positive, proactive, developmental form of assistance to anyone suffering from long term issues such as mental health problems or life events like bereavement or severe relationship issues, as well as support for what can be termed positive life events such as moving home or having a family. We also offer both legal and practical employment advice (supported by a team of 50 solicitors and barristers) and our dedicated team of legally-trained specialist advisors.

Our experience with large public sector organisations means that we are properly equipped to deal with the real issues affecting any organisation – such as mental health problems, long term absence and relationship issues.

PPC Worldwide provides employees with confidential and comprehensive

The annual economic costs of sickness “ absence and worklessness in the UK are running at over £100 billion – more than the current annual budget for the NHS and equivalent to the entire GDP of Portugal

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requires a case-managed, multidisciplinary approach for those in early stages of sickness absence PPC Worldwide – supporting the public sector PPC Worldwide is extremely well positioned within the public sector to deliver solutions and provide effective services in support of the key issues outlined in Dame Carol Black’s review.

With more than 30 years experience, we already provide high levels of clinical skill and expertise to over 60 NHS and local authority organisations through our wide range of products within our Employee Assistance Programme As the leading worldwide provider of Employee Assistance Programmes PPC Worldwide deliver cost-effective solutions supported by exceptional contract retention levels of 98 per cent and business growth of 25 per cent in 2007 and growth of 38 per cent

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information, personal development and counselling services, available 24/7.

PPC Worldwide – working with you in times of crisis Our experience in managing critical incident situations is second to none.

Examples of our work in this area include: London bombings 2005 The terrorist attacks in London on 7 July had a severe emotional impact on a significant number of track staff.

During the clear-up operation, Tube Line staff were working in and around the Underground crash sites and were witness to the devastation and loss of life that had resulted.

We responded immediately and arranged for counsellors to be on-site at four different locations in London on the evening of the attacks. This onsite support continued at all four sites, every day for the next four weeks, totalling 128 on-site sessions and being available to approximately 120 employees.

PPC helped Tube Lines during the immediate aftermath by receiving all outof hours calls to the Emergency Helpline – available to employees calling in to register their safety and for concerned relatives. Every Tube Line employee was offered support and an opportunity to discuss their feelings via a dedicated telephone number.

Formal debriefing sessions were used after the on-site sessions, as a forum to gain feedback from the counsellors about the whole process. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. PPC Worldwide arranged follow-up sessions at each of the sites to enable a full Risk Assessment of the situation and to determine any longterm effects or signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. A number of affected employees have also made use of our individual face-to-face counselling.

Mumbai terrorist attacks 2008 Following the terrible terrorists attacks in Mumbai, PPC India teamed up with another company, HSS, offering counselling to the affected families and Critical Incident support to the police department, all free of charge for a limited period.

In conjunction with promoting our support services via a poster campaign in Mumbai; six local counsellors from PPC travelled to Mumbai to offer Critical Incident support to the policemen affected by the attacks.

Australian bushfires 2009 Alongside providing Employee Assistance services to the entire Western Australian Police Force (7,700 staff), PPC Australia also provides service to the Country Fire Authority, who were faced with the task of managing the devastating

Australian bushfires in February 2009.

PPC Australia took a multi faceted approach in assisting CFA with this Critical Incident. This included 24 hour onsite at HQ as well as onsite in ‘safe’ areas near the fire zones and where temporary accommodation has been set up.

Services include trauma counselling to anyone (general public included) affected.

Also, general supportive counselling was offered to those affected indirectly.

PPC Australia also provides training for management; daily website updates on our services, what the services can offer in this tragedy and how to access them.

For more information about how we can support you, your employees and their families, Contact Catherine Simcox today Tel: 01527 577169 (Monday to Friday 9.00am until 4.00pm) Email: catherine.simcox@ppcworldwide.com

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C hallenges

in the procurement of recruitment services All public sector organisations are looking for the most cost-effective means of buying in recruitment services. Tom Hadley, Director of External Relations at The Recruitment and Employment Confederation, explains the challenges organisations are facing, and trends emerging in the current climate.

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n addition to the procurement of temporary agency staff, the focus is now on the higher end of the recruitment market such as interim management, executive search and agencies specialising in the technology field. The challenge for local government procurement professionals is to understand these very different markets as well as keeping up to speed with forthcoming regulatory changes and other external factors that will impact on the sector.

As the recruitment industry’s representative body, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) has been in regular dialogue with organisations such as the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (CIPS) and sector-specific procurement bodies such as the NHS Purchasing & Supply Agency (PASA).

A recent trend has been the focus on the recruitment market’s higher end as organisations seek to apply the same sort of procurement mechanisms that have been used to rationalise cost.

Inherent in a good strategy is a real understanding of the specific services that are being procured.

A key part of the REC’s current awareness-raising campaign involves showcasing the latest research and data on the specific sub-sets.

The REC’s latest Annual Industry Turnover survey shows that the UK industry is worth £27 billion to the economy. Even in the current downturn, it is estimated recruitment agencies place some 1.2 million temporary and contract workers on a daily basis.

Of these, almost a third are highly skilled flexible workers such as interim managers, IT contractors and finance professionals. The organisations sourcing and supplying them are often highly specialised and operate in very different regulatory and labour market contexts.

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for procurement professionals – in particular with regards to quality control mechanisms and the need to ensure that these smaller businesses are not marginalised in the process.

On the quality side, the REC plays its part by ensuring that all its members abide by a Code of Professional Practice enforced through a Professional Standards Committee which includes representatives from the CBI and the TUC. The REC has also taken the unprecedented step for a trade body of appointing its own assessment officers to spot-check agencies and monitor their compliance with the Code of Practice.

As well as raising a general understanding, the REC is committed to working with procurement professionals to promote awareness of the regulatory environment in which recruiters operate.

For example, the Employment Agency Act (EAA) regulations impose a number of requirements on agencies in terms of data checking responsibilities, the duty of care owed to the workers and the level of information that must be supplied to both employers and workers.

Agencies supplying temporary, contract and interim staff also perform other crucial functions such as checking eligibility to work in the UK and ensuring that Criminal Records checks have been conducted where necessary.

In terms of forthcoming legislation, a key focus is on how the EU Agency Workers Directive should be applied in the UK. These new regulations could

Even in the current downturn, it is estimated recruitment agencies place some 1.2 million temporary and contract workers on a daily basis

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For example, despite the fact that there are more job-seekers out there, finding suitably skilled staff in many sectors remains a real challenge. This will inevitably impact on the cost and speed of getting access to the right staff and needs to be reflected in the procurement of recruitment services.

One key feature is the sheer number and variety of agencies that exist, with an estimate of around 15,000 agencies in the UK. The large number of small, often highly-specialised agencies is a strength but also represents a challenge

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come into force next year and will provide for equal treatment in terms of pay and working conditions between agency staff and direct recruits. One concern is that these new requirements could add a substantial amount of bureaucracy to the provision of high end flexible workers such as interim managers and IT contractors.

The REC represents over 1,000 businesses from this higher end and the priority is to ensure that new regulations that are primarily aimed at protecting workers at the lower paid end do not have unnecessary repercussions on other sectors. In order to lead the debate on this issue, the REC established an Agency Work Commission made up of employers, recruiters and employment lawyers which recently presented its practical recommendations to the Employment Relations Minister Pat McFadden.

Understanding the current and forthcoming regulatory landscape and the compliance costs that agencies must absorb should be a key part of the process when procuring the services of recruitment providers.

The procurement process can also be used to promote best practice that goes beyond legal compliance. In this way,

employers can look for compliance with Industry Codes of Conduct as well as positive commitment in key areas such as diversity and equality.

On this last point, the REC has worked in conjunction with the Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentre Plus in the development of the ‘Diversity Pledge’ to which both public and private sector labour providers can sign up.

At a time when public sector employers are looking to achieve tangible progress on the diversity agenda, using an agency a clear commitment and proven ability to deliver in this area is in itself a big step forward.

The Recruitment 2020 report by the think-tank Demos on the future recruitment landscape concluded that recruitment professionals can play an increasingly central role in helping employers deliver enhanced diversity through the process.

While it is relatively easy to quantify and demonstrate cost savings, it is obviously much more difficult to show how the procurement process has enhanced productivity and performance within local government. However, it is extremely encouraging to see that procurement professionals within it and

elsewhere are increasingly focusing on this ‘value’ proposition.

Another focus area is developing deliverable resourcing strategies that can save costs by ‘displacing’ existing expenditure. For example, procurement professionals have recognised that the use of interim managers provides a costeffective alternative to paying expensive consultancy fees.

Good recruitment – both temporary and permanent – means getting the right people in the right posts at the right time. This in turn is crucial to being able to deliver services to end users and it is often said that the real cost of recruitment lies in getting it wrong.

Recruitment professionals will continue to play a pivotal role in helping to get it right through providing interim managers, highly-skilled contract workers and executive search services.

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation www.rec.uk.com

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CASE STUDY

R egeneration

of the long term unemployed With competition for vacancies increasing, times are tough for job hunters. Investing in the skills of the country’s workforce has never been more important. Kimberly Radford, Recruitment Contract Officer at London Borough of Haringey, explains how a contract with managed recruitment services provider, Hays, not only delivered cost savings, but enabled the council to further its regeneration objectives by giving the borough’s long term unemployed a route to employment in the council.

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he London Borough of Haringey has a diverse social make-up.

Sections of the borough are prosperous, but there are also areas of high unemployment – in fact parts of the borough have been classed among the most deprived in the country. This disparity in social conditions is a great challenge for the council.

Before the council’s contract with Hays, our own recruitment was also becoming a challenge. With no organisation-wide process, departments and teams were individually sourcing temporary staff from a number of recruitment agencies – at one point we were using more than 250 different agencies across the council, each of which had different pricing structures and process requirements. There was no transparency of cost and no control – and a high level of administration. Individual teams would place a staffing request and finance would deal with the invoicing, there was no centralised process or invoicing system.

In 2005 the council decided to tender for a contract for a neutral vender for provision of all temporary workers. The aim of this contract was to gain control of the council’s agency spend and increase savings on recruitment. By coordinating access to the council, it was anticipated that we would improve service, while reducing risk and cost to the council.

We also wanted to help local people get back into work and have long been committed to regeneration – providing work for local residents or finding supply

through local suppliers by proactive engagement and assistance programmes.

It was therefore important that any agency we contracted would be able to proactively engage the community and get local people back into work in a sustainable way.

The contract with Hays started in 2006 through the London Contracts and Supplies Group (LCSG). It’s a five-year contract with the option to extend for two years. Hays already had regeneration schemes in place elsewhere – this was an important extra to all the other benefits we were looking to achieve from using a managed service provider.

in volume (and often seasonal) areas such as kitchen workers, customer service operators, recycling operatives, coach escorts and lifeguards.

The consultant will then meet with government funded training providers, such as Working Links, Positive Employment and Jobcentre Plus, to promote the council as a place of work and pass on detailed information on the skills required. This enables the organisations to provide appropriately trained workers who have been unemployed for over six months.

The regeneration consultant gets details of the induction or training courses that new employees would be placed on and gives this information to the training providers. The providers use the course data to train interested candidates off site at no cost before they arrive for work, resulting in substantial savings for the council. The hiring manager subsequently gets a free 48 hour trial with the candidates before agreeing to any longer term placement. Meanwhile the candidates gain valuable work experience that can be added to their CV, as well as a boost to their confidence by being back in the work environment – which can help them to gain permanent employment in the future.

point we were using more “thanAt one 250 different agencies across

the council, each of which had different pricing structures and process requirements. There was no transparency of cost and no control

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How the scheme works A main goal of the partnership is to reduce the number of unemployed people in the borough, and therefore reduce the number of people claiming benefits.

The contract with Hays is neutral and sustainable. The company dedicated us a regeneration consultant, who meets regularly with the council to gain a full understanding of the council manager’s recruitment needs and the roles that people are going to be placed into – the scheme has been particularly successful

Benefits Broadly speaking, the contract with Hays has enabled all services to be centralised through one facility – the Haringey Temp Resource Centre,

CASE STUDY

provided by Hays Resource Management (HRM). This central team now deals with temporary recruitment, such as staffing requests, invoicing and negotiations with supplying agencies. All existing contracts between the council and employment agencies were replaced with one contract between the council and Hays, with Hays providing new contractual agreements to agencies on our behalf. This has saved the council money and time spent on administration and allowed Hays to negotiate lower agency margins on the council’s behalf, allowing us to make cost savings without reducing individual’s pay.

It has also given us transparency of cost and processes and enabled management information to be provided on the temporary staff population numbers and costs, which can be used for targeted recruitment planning and controlling the temporary staff population within the council, to ensure that temporary staff are used in the most effective way.

The regeneration scheme in particular has given new staff a head start – candidates are already trained before they start work with us, rather than having to undertake several days’ worth of training at the beginning of a contract. This means that they’re confident and knowledgeable when they enter the workplace. The fact

that staff who take part in the scheme have to undertake training before starting work, as well as undergo a vetting procedure by the regeneration consultant means that the people who complete the process successfully are already proven to be dedicated, committed and willing to work hard. An added benefit of the training scheme is that it equips candidates to find further work once their contract with the council is completed.

Under the council’s policy, temporary staff are contracted for no more than three months, (although this contract can be extended on a three month basis if there is a valid business case for the extension). In the past year, 89 people have filled temporary roles through the regeneration scheme, 77 per cent of these are still working with us. A further six workers introduced to us by Hays have been subsequently appointed as permanent council employees.

Since implementing the scheme, Hays’ regeneration consultant has met with about 800 people to help them with their CVs and put them forward to training providers. The scheme has not only made an impact on the number of people claiming benefits in the community, it has provided guidance and training to equip candidates to find work elsewhere.

The regeneration project has been such a success that the council was nominated at the business awards for its recycling work – one of the areas in which our regeneration work has had the most impact. The project is developing over time and the regeneration team are looking to work with training agencies to help up-skill temporary workers while they are in post, so that they can find more skilled, higher paid assignments.

Paul Mallinson, Managing Director Tel: 020 7523 3800 Email: paul.mallinson@hays.com

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S kills

and procurement

By Kevin Brennan, Skills Minister Like other countries around the world, we are currently experiencing difficult times. As government we must do everything necessary to support people and businesses through the downturn and to get our economy growing again. This not only means getting real help to people and businesses now so that we can get through the downturn sooner, but also continuing to invest in our industries and our people so we can emerge stronger.

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t may be difficult to imagine amid the doom and gloom, but beyond today’s global slowdown lies a world of new opportunities for which we must all prepare. Following the downturn, the world’s economy is set to double in size creating major new opportunities for British businesses. But global competition is getting tougher and technological change is happening faster. We can’t afford to stand back as other countries invest and skill-up to win in high-value markets and sectors.

To succeed in the hi-tech, low carbon economy of the future, to drive growth and to secure more jobs in the UK, we need to act now. Britain has the skills, resources and knowledge base to do well and the government’s job is to do everything it can to strengthen our competitive position further. This means creating the best possible conditions in which UK businesses can thrive, removing

barriers to success and offering targeted support to unlock potential in existing and new technologies.

Our nation’s skills will play a pivotal role in ensuring that we can come through the downturn quickly and in a stronger competitive position. A better skilled workforce is a more productive, adaptable and flexible workforce and better able to respond to the challenges posed by ever-greater competition, technological change and new products.

Equally, giving everyone in our society the opportunity to develop their skills throughout their lives find work, progress their careers improve their lives and those of their families.

Government has a powerful role to play in ensuring the UK has the skills it needs to compete and succeed. By making major, long-term decisions on

to routinely considering and addressing skills issues through public procurement.

That means considering skills issues both in letting new contracts, and working with existing contractors on a voluntary basis. To help clients across the public sector in making a reality of these commitments, the Office for Government Commerce recently published a new guide, Promoting Skills through Public Procurement, setting out how skills requirements can be built into procurement processes without compromising the European procurement rules or our own value for money policies.

Within that overarching commitment, we have been working with public sector clients and suppliers in individual sectors to shape and make a reality of more specific commitments that will help address the particular skills issues in those sectors.

Last year, we made the commitment that whenever departments and agencies let new construction contracts, they will look to make it a requirement that the successful contractors have apprentices as an identified proportion of the project workforce. We are already making good progress in realising that commitment.

The Olympic Delivery Authority has made it a requirement that three per cent of the project workforce on all new construction projects on the Olympic Park and Village must be apprentices. The Department for Children, Schools and Families expects to create some 1,000 apprenticeships through the procurement of Building Schools for the Future. And,

A better skilled workforce “ is a more productive, adaptable and

flexible workforce and better able to respond to the challenges posed by ever-greater competition

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investment and the regulatory framework, government can shape and creates future markets, new business opportunities and the demand for skilled jobs. When we make these decisions, it is vital that we take purposeful, decisive action to promote investment in the skills that will drive our future competitiveness.

To that end, government is committed

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the Homes and Communities Agency have committed to include skills training and apprenticeship requirements in the next round of bids for the National Affordable Housing and Property and Regeneration programmes. These are all excellent examples of government recognising the role of their investment programmes in ensuring that the current and future skills needs of the sectors in which they operate are met.

We also recently announced that whenever departments and agencies let major IT contracts they will look to ensure that the successful suppliers have a formal training plan in place for the development of the project workforce.

There is a huge opportunity here too for local government. An annual procurement programme worth some £42 billion provides a unique lever for local authorities to shape demand for skills – and thereby help to address worklessness and drive economic development in your areas.

There is compelling evidence that boosting skills will help local people not only find work, but stay and progress in those roles, helping to address unemployment and the range of social

issues associated with it. Improving skills will also help local businesses to improve their productivity, which will in turn help them – and the areas in which they operate – to survive, thrive and come through the downturn.

Recognising this, the Houghton Review called for local authorities to make greater use of their procurement and planning powers to open up more employment and training opportunities to disadvantaged groups and communities.

Many local authorities are already doing this. The award winning partnership between Sheffield City Council and Kier Group for the delivery of construction works has, through a contractual framework, created over 1,000 employment and training opportunities since 2003 – making a real contribution to the council’s social inclusion agenda.

Ashford Borough Council developed a post-contract voluntary agreement on skills and apprenticeships with its contractors on the £60 million Stanhope housing regeneration project, which has delivered over 20 apprenticeships, plus a range of other skills training and work experience opportunities for local young people and adults.

The opportunities for local authorities to use their unique purchasing power to support skills and training in their locality are significant. In the current economic climate, the case for taking action to maintain investment in our people is even clearer. Many local authorities have recognised this and are taking positive steps to lead in their community. I would strongly encourage others in local government to build on these examples of good practice and take similar action.

www.bis.gov.uk

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D on ’ t just spend on training – prove it works !

Suzana Lopes, EMEA VP Sales and Marketing at Pearson VUE, argues that while training is vital, it’s even more important to prove the outcome with assessment.

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cross Britain today, training budgets are under scrutiny. Yet despite the squeeze from external economic conditions, training is no less vital, and the UK must still strive to invest heavily in the skills of its people.

Where some still seem less willing to invest, however, is in assessment. This seems strange – if a workforce is required by its employer to undergo training, yet does not sit a test for a meaningful qualification or certificate, then how does that employer validate this training? In a world where accountability is ever more in demand, surely trainers would be keener to demonstrate a more tangible return on investment?

At school, it was never in question that what we learned would not be assessed in some way. It is simply accepted here: what would be the point of education if pupils didn’t finish the course with something to show for it?

And in many industries – both public and private sector – including IT, financial services and healthcare, certification is key. Regular updates of recognisable certificates and qualifications are universally acknowledged to be the only way to further career options and personal progression.

Elsewhere, meanwhile, even some of the biggest organisations still lag behind with regard to measuring the results of

their training. But a shift is happening.

More and more are starting to recognise that a ‘happy sheet’, or reactionnaire – a familiar evaluation tool at the end of so many training sessions – is no longer sufficient feedback.

There are many reasons for this shift, and why more and more are budgeting for formal assessment as well as training, in spite of the economic conditions.

The first, and unavoidable, reason is regulation. Perhaps due to an increasingly litigious society, trends are moving towards formalised licensure, codes of practice and professional qualifications.

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Regular updates of recognisable certificates and qualifications are universally acknowledged to be the only way to career options and personal progression

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We now accept that our financial services providers have to be certified in order to practice, and we would not trust a mortgage advisor, for example, if they did not comply with the minimum level of skills required by the FSA. Yet these requirements only came into force relatively recently, and it seems only a matter of time before anyone from hairdressers to car salesmen become required to be qualified, all in the name of protecting the consumer.

One might argue too, that even if your particular sector is not (yet) bound by such codes of practice, you should still minimise risk. This is perhaps the strongest

argument for assessment as strategies become ever more ultra-low risk. Every single member of your staff is to some extent the guardian of your organisation’s reputation – a human error in anything from manufacturing to customer service can not only threaten your reputation, but can also lead to legal action. Training and assessment would clearly offer peace of mind by ensuring a far lesser likelihood of such an outcome.

The evidence that this is happening is all around us – the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is giving devolved power to private companies from McDonald’s to Flybe to act as awarding bodies in their own right.

This means that these employers can train, test and certify their staff to a standard that is officially recognised outside their own organisation – giving them the competitive advantage of setting the best-of-breed benchmark.

Here, then, we see compelling reasons why employers and industry regulators are moving towards integrating testing into their training programmes. But they are not the only ones driving the change.

Employees too are crying out for formal assessment because they want to see that there is a point to the training they are undertaking. They want to see that what they are learning in their job is meaningful, credible, and is helping them to develop rather than to stand still.

At this point, many employers might reasonably ask the question, ‘Why should I pay for my staff to collect qualifications so they can just jump ship and look for

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a better job?’ Experience and research have in fact shown that employees feel empowered and valued when their companies make such an investment in them, and are more likely to be loyal and motivated.

Finally, then, to address the big question. How much time and money is involved? Assessment is certainly not an expensive process – often around 5 per cent of the cost of the training. It ought not to impose too much in terms of time either: a busy workforce certainly doesn’t need to be sitting exams for

exams’ sake, rather, all of the above reasons, point to the need for tailored, job-specific courses and assessments. In addition, the implementation of such tests can be shifted onto external specialists, thus alleviating time pressures on in-house L&D and HR departments. Indeed, if a modern, secure, computer-based test is included with – and integrated into – the training programme, there ought to remain no barriers to prevent candidates from taking on or off-site tests anywhere in the world, to prove their true worth.

Suzana Lopes is the EMEA VP Sales and Marketing at Pearson VUE, the global leader in computer-based testing for information technology, academic, government and professional testing programmes around the world. Pearson VUE provides a full suite of services from test development to data management, and delivers exams through the world’s most comprehensive and secure network of test centres in 165 countries.

Pearson VUE is a business of Pearson (NYSE: PSO; LSE: PSON), the international media company, whose businesses include the Financial Times Group, Pearson Education and the Penguin Group.

Pearson VUE Tel: 0161 855 7000 Email: pvukinfo@pearson.com www.pearsonvue.co.uk

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D ealing

with the challenge of change

According to Harold Wilson during his short tenure ship as Prime Minister: ‘He who rejects change is the architect of decay’.

With this in mind, Deputy Chair of the Interim Management Association (IMA) Jason Atkinson, explores the challenges facing the public sector and the valuable role interim management has to play in helping the sector to achieve change management goals and deliver real business solutions

T

oday, public sector organisations face more pressure than ever to deliver a wide range of services.

That means meeting demand for even higher levels of quality and service and putting resources to the frontline. Quite often these pressures necessitate changing how the authority or body operates – to inject a more commercial outlook, to redefine roles, to eliminate unproductive work habits, or to integrate new processes and procedures and technology to support the business.

It’s a human trait that we are cautious of change. Yet, managers have to be able to introduce and manage change to ensure organisational objectives are met. And, they have to ensure that they gain the commitment and understanding of their people, both during and after implementation. The pressures of change

are often compounded with the need to ensure that business continues as usual.

It’s a strong ask.

For these reasons, it’s important that the way change is managed is carefully considered by organisations. While each situation will be unique, there are still a number of common threads that will help ensure that the transition stands the greatest chance of success. One highly effective way of ensuring any change is managed effectively is by using the services of an interim management consultant.

Interim managers are highly skilled and specialist operators that bring specific experience and a proven reputation for implementation and results. Interims can be placed for a defined period – where a permanent position may be inappropriate within current recruitment/employment policies or more likely, the role is not deemed to be a permanent position.

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motivated and experienced individuals.

They operate to clear objectives which they look to achieve within a set timescale and are expert at joining a team or department and hitting the ground running; delivering results from day one.

Financially, the argument remains sound. Interims are paid to an agreed day rate – with no hidden costs. They operate as selfemployed businesses in their own right. No recruitment fees (which at senior level can be significant), no holiday pay, no sick pay and no pension contributions. Simply a costeffective solution to a business challenge that adds value and needed skills while negating long term costs and overheads that would otherwise impact on the bottom line.

It’s an industry which drives innovation and renovation. And research shows that recognition within the public sector is growing with adoption by many local authorities and healthcare trusts.

It’s a human trait that we are cautious of change. Yet, managers have to be able to introduce and manage change to ensure organisational objectives are met

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In fact, as the public sector demands more flexibility from its workforce interim management is fast becoming THE answer. Consequently the opportunity for this niche pool of specialists is on the rise and it’s now an industry worth an incredible £1 billion.

The business case for employing the services of an interim manager is extremely compelling… Interims are self-

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Case Study: Turnaround Interim delivers major cost savings to NHS Trust Interims are often called upon to deliver major strategic projects, including projects, where millions of pounds are at stake.

One such interim is Ian Gray, who has more than 17 years experience of delivering major turnaround and improvement projects in the private and public sector.

Ian has now been appointed by one of the largest government organisations to undertake a major programme, which is set to deliver significant efficiencies. His current role involves overseeing 15,000 people and working closely with people from every level within the organisation to gain their

commitment and acceptance of the changes needed to ensure major financial improvements.

The former CEO of Tottenham Hotspur has a proven track record in the private and public sector.

Last year, Ian worked at two NHS Trust Hospitals – Mayday University Hospital and Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, where he was responsible for changing their respective financial situations through the introduction of smarter processes.

At Mayday the predicted £9 million deficit was eliminated and at Epsom and St Helier University Hospital, the deficit was reduced by £6 million in just a year.

Established in 1987, the IMA represents the ‘provider’ community within the interim management industry. With 37 members it looks after a substantial number of both large and small established firms supplying to both the public and private sectors.

All IMA members must meet the high standards set by the association, ensuring that clients can be confident they are working with providers with integrity who abide by the IMA code of conduct and its professional ethics.

For more information on Interim Management please visit: www.interimmanagement.uk.com For media enquiries please contact Splash Communications: Caroline Hole Jones or Lindsay McAloon Tel: 01225 318 000 or email lmcaloon@splashcommunications.com

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C ouncil ’ s

labour lost ?

Local authorities have already cut jobs to cope with the pressures of the credit crunch, and more redundancies are expected over the next couple of years. Heather Wakefield, National Secretary of the Local Government Section at UNISON, outlines the difficulties facing the local government workforce and the implications of staffing cuts to workers, the community and the government’s support for gender equality.

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ith the elderly population growing, the consequent need for more and more care workers, five million homeless people on council waiting lists, a crisis in social work and the wider social fall-out from the credit crunch, local government needs its workforce more than ever. So it’s hard to believe that we’re talking about losing tens of thousands of jobs over the next couple of years and that those in high places are calling for councils to stop providing some services altogether, charge more for those they do continue to provide and freeze council employees’ pay. Oh – or outsource to private contractors, who almost always pay less, don’t like pensions and have worse conditions. Or to agencies who rarely offer anything more than the National Minimum Wage.

UNISON members working in local government – and tax payers everywhere – have found themselves looking on helplessly as government has handed out between £150 and £350 billion of their money to banks and building societies who played a reckless game of Russian roulette within the ‘sub prime’ housing market and a deregulated finance sector.

Meanwhile, local government workers – already hard pressed to meet the growing needs of local communities – have found themselves doing ‘more for less’ with each passing year, in a downward spiral of higher demand, fewer staff and worse pay and conditions. Local government workers are not only in the jobs firing line: they are the lowest paid of all public sector workers.

And most of those who are affected by the squeeze on staff are women.

Across the public sector as a whole, women make up 60 per cent of the

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to put something back into their local community. When brighter days arrive, it’s hard to see that too many young people are going to rush in to fill challenging care or education jobs, earning less than 50 pence an hour more than the National Minimum Wage.

So just what is the extent of redundancies in local government? It depends who you believe. In Unison’s local government section we set up our Job Watch exercise in October 2008, in the wake of the credit crunch and the many consequent horror stories about the likely employment fall-out in local government.

So far, we think that the combination of ‘frozen posts’, deleted posts and redundancies totals just over 11,000. And it’s important to note that the squeeze on staffing did not start with the collapse of Northern Rock or misplaced investments in Icelandic banks.

Our survey of 10,000 local government members of UNISON before the credit crunch in the autumn of 2008 threw up the following findings: 39 per cent said that staffing had decreased, while 69 per cent said that workload and pressure had increased. Among these were social workers – even more at a premium now following the Baby Peter tragedy. 56 per cent of them said that staffing had decreased, while 79 per cent reported an unsurprising increase in workload and pressure. It’s hardly surprising then that overall, 60 per cent of our members responding said that morale had decreased over the last year, while service users’ expectations and demands

In most local authority areas, the public sector overall is the largest employer.

In many, councils are the largest source of work. Job loss is therefore a serious issue

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workforce. That becomes 75 per cent in local government, the NHS and education. It’s a fact little spoken about, but one which has serious implications for government’s supposed support for gender equality – and for the future of local government services. The average age of a local government worker is 46.

Many have stayed true to their employers for over ten years, wanting

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had risen. To add insult to injury, 31 per cent worked up to 10 hours overtime, without pay or time off in lieu.

So if things were bad to begin with, they are even harder now – despite the fact that not all councils are facing financial meltdown. Between 2003 and 2008, councils in England alone amassed £12 billion in reserves – a large chunk of which was ‘unallocated’. Not all have suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous economic fortune – as the Audit Commission pointed out in its report ‘Crunch Time’ at the end of 2008.

And the stratospheric job losses predicted have not yet materialised. But threatened redundancies are acting as a handy discipline on staff, who are consequently less likely to complain when faced with pay ‘offers’ like this year’s 0.5 per cent.

The collapse of the economy has provided a very handy cover for those wanting to engage in a spot of labour discipline.

In most local authority areas, the public sector overall is the largest employer. In many, councils are the largest source of work. Job loss is therefore a

serious issue – not just to those who find themselves at the Job Centre, but to local economies. APSE and CLES in ‘Exploring the Economic Footprint of Public Services’ (September 2008) found that for every £1 spent by Swindon Council on its Street Scene service, 64 pence was re-invested in the local economy. 97 per cent of employees in Street Scene lived within the council boundary and they re-spend 52.5 pence in every pound within the area.

The economic viability of many localities is called into question by public sector redundancies.

Richard Murphy from Tax Research UK has calculated that cutting the jobs of 500,000 public sector workers costing £21,000 each to employ, would save just £1,600 per lost job, without factoring in the social consequences for all affected.

Once lost tax revenue, reduced demand

for goods, less contracting out to the private sector, benefit payments and the social upheaval are factored in, he concludes that to achieve a £4 billion cut in borrowing would put 4 million people out of work. As he says: ‘If we want to get out of the mess we’re in we spend.

It’s the only way to reduce government debt at this stage in the economic cycle.

It worked in the 1930s. It will work now.

Let’s do it.’

UNISON – the trade union for all local government workers We’re stronger together, to join us call 0845 355 0845 www.unison.org.uk

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P enna

career transition services

Never before has UK business faced the present combination of circumstances – a looming recession, rapidly shifting commercial opportunities and the continued talent shortage. Each challenge is difficult to overcome in isolation, but combined they produce a unique cocktail demanding potentially conflicting and counterproductive responses.

P

enna’s Outplacement and Career Transition services are designed to support both individuals and organisations through change in the workplace, by offering practical guidance and advice to people at all levels. As the UK’s No.1 provider of career transition services, our support is designed around each client’s needs to be affordable, flexible and sustainable. We also work in partnership to ensure that our support is accountable and adds value.

The challenges Local government is not immune to these forces. Indeed, the recent LGA survey shows that 60 per cent of local authorities have made staff cuts in the last six months and a similar proportion are planning to cut posts next year. Of the councils that made cuts, 70 per cent have removed middle management and frontline staff while 45 per cent have ditched senior management posts. In London, 90 per cent of councils have cut posts and 80 per cent will do so in the next 12 months. Developing strategies to cope with a constantly changing environment will always test the most robust of councils.

At Penna we have the capability and the capacity to support public bodies through these changes, by designing bespoke career transition solutions to meet organisational needs. At an individual level Penna’s career transition support provides essential assistance and guidance helping people quickly reconnect with their chosen career path and take charge of their future.

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and guidance, helping you to implement your change programme effectively and smoothly. We assist with planning, communication, implementation and consolidation of change as well as equipping your line-manager community with the skills to ensure that the changes are effective, long-lasting and achieve the desired organisational objectives.

What is the value?

Whether offered as part of a large scale restructuring programme, or to support one individual who is leaving the council, Penna’s Career Transition service not only allows councils to demonstrate their people values but also helps them to: • Protect your employer brand, avoid litigation and reputational damage • Improve staff retention and performance • Maximise employee engagement and build staff loyalty • Increase productivity – focuses the organisation on delivery (minimise the dip) • Align staff to the overall council strategy

Redundancy is going to be a difficult time for any individual and research shows that early intervention has a high impact on both well-being and future employment potential in addition to the morale of your remaining staff.

Public sector experience We work across the local government landscape with a variety of interventions such as: Organisational Change (Cornwall, Trafford), Improvement & Capability building (North Yorkshire), Attractions & Retention (Stoke, Telford & Wrekin), Managing Change & Personal Development (Government Office Network), Career Management (Audit Commission), Flexible Resourcing – interim (Peterborough).

Penna is on key frameworks for outplacement with both central government, such as DWP and CLG, and local government, such as the London Borough of Haringey and Surrey county council. Call to find out how we can support you.

At Penna we have the capability to advise on how to manage your talent in a restructure. We suggest some basic guidelines underpinning this: 1. Re-appraise current talent and reshape to meet future needs 2. Start consultation early 3. Engage staff fully 4. Use retention strategies 5. Invest in development

Philip Webb – Head of Public Sector Tel: 07747 843354 Email: philip.webb@penna.com Call Penna on 0800 0281715 or visit our website at www.penna.com