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ISSUE 28.5

Business Information for Local and Central Government CABINET RESHUFFLE

LEVELLING UP FOR GOVE

Michael Gove will lead the new Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

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A name change for local government department Following a cabinet reshuffle last month, the MHCLG was rebranded as the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with Michael Gove at the helm. Despite many Conservative MPs remaining unsure as to what levelling up means or looks like, the Prime Minister said that his new Secretary of State for Levelling Up will drive cross-Whitehall efforts to deliver a programme of tangible improvements in every part of the UK as we build back better from the pandemic, and deliver on the people’s priorities. Neither Boris Johnson or Gove outlined what they felt the people’s priorities were, but the latter did describe the levelling up agenda as ‘the defining mission of this government’. On the steps of Downing Street at the end of 2019, new Prime Minister vowed to ‘fix the crisis in social care once and for all’, which goes to show that defining missions can, of course, be misleading.

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A second headquarters in the city of Wolverhampton, recently unveiled, is a good starting point for shifting priorities and pledges away from Westminster and into new communities, but, as the Local Government Association said in its response to Gove’s appointment, the coronavirus crisis has emphatically shown what can be achieved when the government empowers councils to innovate and create new services locally. So, more of the same please, Mr Gove? Michael Lyons, editor

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Contents

Contents Government Business 28.5 15

07 News

38 Conferences & events

Councils urged not to use ‘panic’ phrase; Labour to scrap business rates for fairer system; and social care plan contains nothing to help the ‘here and now’

Scotland has an array of amazing venues, experts, and institutions, and is therefore the perfect destination for association conferences, important corporate meetings, global product launches and incentives

15 Smart cities

Smart city plans can help transform several areas of society, from energy efficiency in public sector buildings to traffic control. Here we look at two cities, Leeds and Bristol, and two areas that are being transformed through smart technologies: healthcare and energy

21 Technology Digitalisation shouldn’t come at a cyber security cost, but it will if organisations are lax about protections, writes Sascha Giese, Head Geek™ at SolarWinds

24 Cabinet reshuffle

After 18 months of the coronavirus pandemic bringing the decision-making of the government into public scrutiny than ever before, a cabinet reshuffle was of little surprise, even if some of the changes were not predicted

27 Housing 2020 was a year unlike any other in recent memory. Jo Richardson says that the social effects of a decade of austerity measures and the economic concerns about the fallout of Brexit created a heightened sense of precarity for those already just hanging on

31 London Build Expo London Build is set for a huge return to Olympia London’s Grand Hall for our live Expo on the 17-18 November. This is going to be one major celebration as we open our doors to the UK’s biggest festival of construction

34 38

34 Green spaces

41 Highways UK Steve Birdsall, CEO of Gaist, provider of roadscape insight and intelligence services, explains the very real possibility of a revolution in road safety

44 Cleaning Show The global pandemic has seen cleanliness and sanitation become a top priority for government officials, business owners and consumers alike. Helping showcase the latest advancements in cleaning practices and technologies, The Cleaning Show returns from 2-4 November 2021

47 Frameworks The Crown Commercial Service’s Estate Management Services framework agreement gives public sector organisations access to a simplified means of sourcing end to end property management services, from consultancy to disposal

53 Frameworks The Crown Prosecution Service improved their user experience with the Technology Services 2 framework. This Crown Commercial Service case study explains how

59 Frameworks The DVLA has procured a new five-year contract through Network Services 2, resulting in increased opportunities for self-serve, automation, scalability and flexibility. Read more from the Crown Commercial Service in this case study

On behalf of the Landscape Institute and The Parks Alliance, Laura Schofield and Theo Plowman look at the role of green space in levelling up opportunities across the country and the potential they have to boost the value that residents attach to their local community

Government Business magazine

www.governmentbusiness.co.uk Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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News

FUEL SHORTAGE

Councils urged not to use ‘panic’ phrase a co-ordinated response’, the government advice sent to local authorities comes after days of long queues at petrol stations which began after fears a lorry driver shortage would hit fuel supplies triggered a surge in demand. The document, labelled ‘considerations for local authorities’, explains that people don’t recognise their own behaviour as ‘panic buying’ and that the use of such phrases can cause panic which can become contagious. Instead it recommends using phrases like ‘filling up earlier than usual’ or ‘changed patterns in demand’. The advice also says councils could encourage petrol stations to take down signs saying that ‘abuse will not be tolerated’, which could lead customers to expect confrontation on arrival.

The Cabinet Office has advised councils not to use the phrases ‘panic’ or ‘panic buying’ when discussing fuel supply problems. Documents seen by the BBC show that the government department’s Behavioural

Science Team also advised against using language that morally judges people buying petrol. Saying that it worked ‘closely with councils on communications to encourage

WINTER PRESSURES

HOSPITALITY

£500m support for vulnerable households over winter

New Hospitality Council to guide the sector’s recovery

Vulnerable households will be able to access a new £500 million support fund to help them with essentials over the coming months as the country continues its recovery from the pandemic. The new Household Support Fund will support millions of households in England and will be distributed by councils in England, predominantly through small grants to meet daily needs such as food, clothing, and utilities. Funding will be made available to local authorities in October. The Barnett formula will apply in the usual way to additional funding in England. The devolved administrations will therefore receive up to £79 million of the £500 million total. Families will also continue to benefit from the energy price cap, recent rise in Local Housing Allowance and increases in the National Living Wage. Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “Everyone should be able to afford the essentials, and we are committed to ensuring that is the case. Our new Household Support Fund will provide a lifeline for those at risk of struggling to keep up with their bills over the winter, adding to the support the government is already providing to help people with the cost of living.” READ MORE

Business Minister Paul Scully has announced that a team of industry experts has been assembled to help England’s pubs, restaurants and cafes to thrive. The Hospitality Sector Council is made up of experts who represent a cross-section of the sector and will identify and oversee actions related to the 22 commitments in the government’s Hospitality Strategy, create sensible solutions using their expert knowledge and assess the strength of the sector. The Hospitality Strategy supports the reopening, recovery and resilience of the sector following the pandemic. This includes

making it easier for pubs, restaurants and cafes to offer al fresco dining by making pavement licenses permanent, and extending takeaway pints in England and Wales until September 2022 to further boost sales. Council members include UK Hospitality CEO Kate Nicholls, Emma McClarkin of the British Beer and Pub Association, Nando’s UK & Ireland Chief Executive Colin Hill, Greene King chief executive Nick MacKenzie, Starbucks UK general manager Alex Rayner and Mowgli’s Nisha Katona. READ MORE

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News

HIGH STREETS

Labour to scrap business rates for fairer system

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced that Labour will cut, and eventually entirely scrap, business rates, replacing them with a new system of business taxation ‘fit for the 21st century’.

At the Labour Party Conference, the opposition party said that it would set up an Office for Value for Money to tackle government waste and introduce a new set of fiscal rules to get a handle on public finances,

as part of their mission to tax fairly, spend wisely and get the economy firing on all cylinders. Reeves said that the party would shift the burden of business taxes to create a level playing field, slamming the current system under the Conservatives as one that punishes investment, entrepreneurships and the high street. Instead, Labour will move forward on tax reform with three key pillars determining their approach: tax fairness, tax efficiency, and shifting the burden of business tax. READ MORE

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Consultation launched on tech to transform travel Measures to expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the UK are among a raft of proposals set out by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps. The government is exploring future plans for a robust and expansive chargepoint network that will allow everyone to make the switch to electric, supporting the government’s commitment to phase out the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. The proposals would support even more chargepoints along motorways, streets and at popular destinations to make them more accessible, as well as helping to ensure they

are inclusively designed so they are easy to use by all. The consultation will also look at how a flexible legislative and regulatory framework could bring new aviation technology to market in a safe, secure and sustainable way. This will create new opportunities in aviation, such as supporting the routine use of drones for deliveries, which will improve accessibility to rural communities, surveying, data collection and search-and-rescue missions. READ MORE

LAND USE

Greenfield surcharge could encourage brownfield development The Environmental Industries Commission has proposed a new ‘greenfield surcharge’ to encourage future brownfield development. In a new report, the EIC says that the proposals for the greenfield surcharge, which would be added to the infrastructure levy proposed in recent planning changes, would see the funds earmarked by local

authorities for infrastructure spending to help mitigate the higher development costs often associated with brownfield. It is argued that brownfield development can help meet ambitions around levelling up, but in order to do so further planning reforms, as well as new tax reliefs and development incentives, are required.

In 2018, four of ten new residential projects in England was on land that had already been developed, and that this proportion has dropped to 20 per cent in 2018 with economies of scale, technical complexities and additional costs and uncertainties, all contributing factors. As well as the introduction of a greenfield surcharge, it also calls for the adoption of the Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC)’s recommendations for longer-term regeneration zones to support redevelopment on complex sites. In addition, it seeks improvements to the economic viability of marginal brownfield projects by increasing land remediation tax relief on sites with fewer than 25 units, and to update the definition of derelict land to incorporate all sites that have been abandoned for more than a decade. READ MORE

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News

SOCIAL CARE

Social care plan contains nothing to help the ‘here and now’

The Local Government Association has warned that the government’s social care plan will do nothing to immediately help the millions of people who draw on and work in care and support.

Council leaders say that the plan contains far too little detail and no action at all on several crucial issues which need to be resolved and that the NHS cannot be fixed without also fixing social care. The LGA says the council tax raises different amounts in different parts of the country, unrelated to need, while social care has already had to meet a £6.1 billion funding gap over the past decade through savings and diverting money from other council services, cutting them faster than they otherwise would have been. Therefore, council leaders believe that the Spending Review needs to provide an urgent cash injection of genuinely new funding to tackle the huge pressures facing the care system now, including on staff pay to help

HOMELESSNESS

BUSINESS

Government must act now on rough sleeping

BCC Forecast: Business investment set to be left behind in record economic recovery

The Kerslake Commission has made 12 recommendations to the government as part of its final report on tackling rough sleeping after the coronavirus pandemic. The Commission, which is chaired by Lord Bob Kerslake, a former head of the civil service, recommends that the government develop a longterm, cross-departmental rough-sleeping strategy, accompanied by an annual review of performance, in order to meet its goal of ending rough sleeping by the end of this parliamentary term. Kerslake also suggests that the government should combat ‘local variation’ in homelessness support by commissioning ‘tripartite’ reviews of performance in homelessness services, which could involve joined-up performance management between local authorities, local delivery partners and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. As part of this, councils would need to produce integrated homelessness and health strategies, as well as rapid rehousing plans, which will require a local assessment of need based on a standardised methodology set by the government. Amongst the other recommendations, the commission says that government should maintain the £20 uplift to Universal Credit and boost to Local Housing Allowance rates introduced during the pandemic, bring about a change of government policy to ensure that restricting non-UK nationals’ access to benefits stops short of causing destitution, and extend the duty to refer to include a number of other government departments, including the Department of Health and Social Care and the Home Office. READ MORE

UK business investment is expected to decline this year despite the prospect of record economic growth, according to the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) economic forecast. The business group predicts UK GDP growth for 2021 of 7.1 per cent, which, if realised, would be the strongest outturn since official records began in 1949. Following robust GDP growth in the second quarter, the UK’s economic recovery is projected to slow into the autumn as staff shortages and supply chain disruption partly limit the gains from the lifting of restrictions in July. Consequently, the UK economy is only expected to return to its pre-pandemic level in Q1 2022 with growth of 5.2 per cent forecast for 2022. The UK’s economic recovery is expected to be driven by historically strong consumer and government spending. Despite signs of renewed consumer caution amid rising coronavirus cases, the momentum from the ending of restrictions is projected to deliver the strongest growth in household

address recruitment and retention, which has been severely stretched to breaking point by the pandemic. The LGA says that addressing the NHS backlog and freeing up hospital beds cannot be done without also fixing social care, which will require additional support for those discharged in the community. Furthermore, the lack of any itemised breakdown of how this share of the levy will be used for social care is creating concern, while urgent clarity is also needed on how much will go to adult social care beyond the three-year period and an absolute guarantee that this will be delivered. READ MORE

spending in 33 years as consumers rundown some of the savings built-up during lockdowns. Government spending is expected to grow by 13.1 per cent in 2021, which would be the strongest growth on record. This includes covid related expenditure such as the vaccine rollout and the test and trace programme. In contrast, business investment is forecast to decline by 2.5 per cent this year. The damage done to firms’ finances by the pandemic, a more onerous tax regime and concerns over the potential for future covid restrictions are expected to weigh heavily on investment intentions, despite the introduction of the superdeduction incentive. Consequently, business investment is forecast to remain 5.4 per cent lower than its pre-pandemic level by the end of the forecast period in Q4 2023. In contrast, consumer spending is projected to be 5.1 per cent higher than its pre-pandemic level over the same period. incentive. Consequently, business investment is forecast to remain 5.4 per cent lower than its pre-pandemic level by the end of the forecast period in Q4 2023. In contrast, consumer spending is projected to be 5.1 per cent higher than its pre-pandemic level over the same period. READ MORE

Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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“Smart City” has become a contentious term – early projects were often expensive, didn’t fully deliver and embedded top-down models in city operation. Nevertheless, the term remains widely used as shorthand for the use of technology in planning and operating cities. A new approach to Smart Cities is facilitated by developments in technology as well as changes to the wider social, political, environmental and economic context. In particular, COVID-19 has led to a re-evaluation of many accepted norms, making now a good time to consider what we want our towns and cities to be like and the potential of technology to deliver policy objectives. What is a Smart City? A Smart City uses technology to make urban life better for people. This means using data and modelling techniques to understand how the planning and operations of the urban environment influence the everyday behaviours of people, and how this then leads to social, economic and environmental outcomes. For example, regular driving to work is associated with higher risk of negative health outcomes, worse air quality, congestion and carbon emissions. The physical and spatial make-up of towns and cities plays a fundamental role in shaping human activity patterns – for example the way streets, land uses, densities and public transport combine to make it more or less easy to walk to work or school. Understanding the influence of the urban environment makes it easier to set realistic, long-term policy objectives.

Drivers of future urban change Urban policymaking is being transformed by two key factors: climate and health. As many as 75 per cent of England’s local authorities have declared a climate emergency and are developing road maps to reach zero carbon; the Welsh Assembly has adopted the Well-being of Future Generations Act, stating that all decisions consider their long-term impacts; voluntary reporting on UN Sustainable Development Goals has been adopted by cities including London; and the NHS has adopted a long-term plan based around prevention, place and technology. These same drivers are guiding the development of Smart Cities technologies, for example Space Syntax’s Walkability Index of the UK, which highlights the physical factors required to encourage low carbon mobility. Smart Cities applications throughout a project lifecycle Any project, from idea to outcome, must go through several stages, including policymaking, planning and design to construction, operations and maintenance. Earlier Smart City solutions (and many Digital Twin solutions) focus on later stages, for example managing city traffic lights using live traffic flow data. Such solutions can improve performance but will not fundamentally address the reasons why so many people are driving in the first place. Understanding why and where something happens requires not only technology solutions but domain expertise to explain the way that cities work. This means

thinking about cities as systems of systems: of street connections, land use attractions, transport links and service infrastructures; then being able to analyse how each system works in isolation, and in combination with the others. The National Digital Twin programme proposes an ecosystem of connected digital twins to foster better outcomes from our built environment. To make early policy and planning decisions, while still enabling operational decisions to be made later on, requires inter-operable technologies that match suitable levels of data and processing power to the stage of the project. Technology such as Space Syntax’s Integrated Urban Model makes it possible to do this. Using aggregated, anonymised data it is possible to see whether more vulnerable populations live in worse areas, to explain why, then to prioritise areas for intervention and specify improvements. This enables three policy directions, to: design better new places which support different behaviours; recognise existing problem areas and target physical interventions in response; and identify how to mitigate existing physical conditions through non-physical methods. Are these technologies available to policymakers? Yes: strategic, data driven, decision-support tools have been developed; accessible, webbased engagement tools are available; city systems data is published. Unlike earlier Smart City solutions, many new technologies have been developed by individual SMEs in ways that allow integration with other tools. Instead of creating a one-size fits all solution that is expensive and potentially difficult to adapt, future Smart City solutions are being constructed from an interoperable ecosystem of tools and datasets. Smart City 2.0 Recognising the opportunities technology has to deliver societal benefits, while addressing earlier criticism, the term “Smart City 2.0” has emerged. Smart City 2.0 focuses on delivering better outcomes, informed by and open to community engagement. While this approach is ambitious and requires wider change, UK companies have the technology, knowledge and experience to deliver Smart City 2.0 solutions, helping create cities that improve outcomes for people and the planet. L FURTHER INFORMATION

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Space Syntax helps public sector organisations at different stages of their smart city journey, providing datasets, decision support tools and training

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Smart cities

Leeds, Bristol and growing the smart city agenda Smart city plans can help transform several areas of society, from energy efficiency in public sector buildings to traffic control. Here we look at two cities, Leeds and Bristol, and two areas that are being transformed through smart technologies: healthcare and energy In 2015, Innovate UK challenged 30 cities to show how they could work with local businesses and partners to improve urban living and working using new technologies. each city was awarded £50,000 to investigate its ideas and to come up with a proposal for a large-scale city demonstrator – showing how different systems in a city could be integrated and how new technologies could be used to deal with challenges in areas such as transport, housing, health, energy and pollution. The funding was part of Innovate uK’s urban living programme. The winning authority, Glasgow, secured an extra £24 million to demonstrate how technology can make life in the city smarter, safer and more sustainable. It is focusing on four key areas – active travel (cycling and walking), energy, social transport and public safety. Three other cities, Bristol, London and Peterborough, also won £3 million each to progress their work. Virtually every city that took part reported that they would either progress some projects as a result or received other major benefits from taking part. Leeds and smarter healthcare SMART LEEDS is the Leeds City Council-led programme created to identify and deliver new technologies and innovative solutions to

jobs, the elderly and those with underlying help make Leeds the best place to live, work health conditions. The need for innovation and visit. Like any other city, Leeds has its and realising its benefits for local people challenges, and the programme highlighted by reducing health inequalities and driving four key priorities: health and well-being, economic growth, has intensified. As a report housing standards, climate emergency and from Leeds Academic Health Partnership travel and transport. stresses, it’s now time to scale fast. Leeds is home to some big healthcare sector With the global medical technologies market organisations such as NHS Digital and the forecast to grow significantly to more Department of Health, as well as being than $675 billion by 2022 and with the location for one of the largest venture capitalist investment teaching hospitals in Europe. Leeds in UK healthtech reaching a Alongside being home Teachin record high of $2.35 billion to more than a fifth of g H ospitals NHS Tru in 2020, Leeds Academic the UK’s digital health Health Partnership jobs, this makes the the larg sts is one of est teac says that the time is city ideally placed to hospita ripe for Leeds City focus on healthtech ls in Eu hing Region to capitalise and innovation. Only rope, treating around on these trends. last month, a range of m illion pe 1.5 The new initiatives major new initiatives o include a Healthtech launched across and em ple a year plo Catalyst, linking to Leeds and Leeds City 20,000 ying expertise from industry, Region marked a dynamic staff academia, the public new era for transforming sector, investor networks and healthcare and accelerating entrepreneurs to stimulate innovation economic growth. and commercialisation. This will include access The pandemic has hit people from the to: information, advice and guidance; practical city’s most deprived areas the hardest, advice such as product pitching, being along with those from black and minority investor-ready and economic modelling; E ethnicities, those in low paid or low skilled Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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In addition, there are two highlights to take a look at in Nota from July 2021; 1. not only as a Metropolis partner, but Nota is also building up a strong connection in the market in Europe by participating as a member of ITS UK; 2. Sharon Kindleysides, a global expert in ITS(Intelligent Transport Systems) and smart cities and former CEO of Kapsch TrafficCom Ltd., joined as an advisor of Nota in July 2021. ITS UK is the oldest national ITS organization globally, and it aims to promote the international excellence of UK technology, expertise, and solutions. It means a lot that Nota is finding its place in the core organization of ITS market and cooperating with one of the global experts in Intelligent Transport Systems and Smart Cities in the UK. As the first Korean company that managed to start co-promote with ITS UK, Nota will contribute to upcoming technological advancements as one of the global market-leading companies. www.nota.ai

region and beyond include the emerging Living in Leeds programme, which is focusing on the acceptable use of health and care data for research and service planning, and the Leeds Centre for Personalised Medicine and Health, which is developing world-leading ways to help prevent, identify and treat cancer and personalise care to support those who are frail, two of the city’s most pressing health needs. Hospitals of the Future Two state-of-the-art new hospital buildings are being built at Leeds General Infirmary, where they will deliver a range of adult health services and be the brand-new home for Leeds Children’s Hospital. According to Leeds Teaching Hospital, the building is designed to offer our patients modern, individual healthcare based on the most advanced treatments, technologies, innovation and research, and represents a huge investment in the health of our patients and a major step in the development of an Innovation District for Leeds. The trust is planning to start construction in 2023, enabling it to align with the government’s New Hospital Programme and benefit from the collaborative approach of working at scale, allowing it to share its experience with other less developed schemes, in areas such as digital technology, sustainability and modern methods

of construction. Last month, September 2021, architects were selected to design the hospitals with backing given for the Perkins and Will concept. As part of the wider Building the Leeds Way programme, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has identified five strategic pillars that are key to the development of a digital hospital. These must be considered holistically to ensure digital innovation is integrated into every aspect of the hospital experience. These are: patient and staff experience, core infrastructure, smart buildings, digital devices and digital information systems. To best utilise these pillars, work has been undertaken to predict and monitor a persona’s journey through the hospital, which has then been overlaid with ‘swim lanes’ of activity. The trust says that tracking a persona’s journey helps to identify their specific needs, challenges, emotional satisfaction and ‘moments of truth’ – points of contact with the trust where an impression is formed. Analysing this can then identify opportunities to influence physical design and digital solutions. Such an approach helps the hospital to clearly articulate the future digital opportunities for the trust, combining a ‘smart’ building, information systems, data and information in a seamless way. E

Smart cities

 and workforce skills and training. Led and managed by Leeds Academic Health Partnership, the free-to-join Healthtech Catalyst will support all other major, new initiatives to help drive forward new levels of collaboration, investment and pace for healthtech innovation in the region. Another initiative is Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust’s Innovation Pop Up. Situated in Leeds General Infirmary, this is a dynamic new approach to nurture and accelerate the innovation, adoption and spread of health technologies within the hospital setting. Unmatched in the North of England, it is already attracting businesses to locate in the city and the region and is a first step towards creating a world-class centre for healthcare innovation, as part of the emerging innovation district in Leeds. Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the largest teaching hospitals in Europe, treating around 1.5 million people a year and employing 20,000 staff. Industry innovators are already using the Innovation Pop Up to work closely with NHS staff – to understand what the hospital needs and to co-design the technological solutions. Conversely, NHS staff can develop their own ideas and, with industry partners, identify what will best improve patient care. Chris Herbert, Director of Operations, Research and Innovation at the Trust, said: “We are particularly interested in artificial intelligence, wearables, technologies that make care pathways smoother and more efficient, and in sustainability. But we don’t have all the answers. We are always receptive to new ideas from industry and to explore with them new options that we can co-develop.” Other programmes being delivered by the Leeds Academic Health Partnership which will improve health and economic growth in the

Bristol is Open was set up as a joint venture between Bristol City Council and the University of Bristol, to develop a ‘test-bed’ programmable, digital infrastructure, that launched in April 2015

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efficiency, mobility and technology solutions in city districts. Alongside San Sebastian in Spain and Florence in Italy, Bristol and the Replicate team are seeking to accelerate the deployment of innovative technologies, organisational and economic solutions to significantly increase resource and energy efficiency, improve the sustainability of urban transport, and drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in urban areas. The project focuses on three main areas: energy efficiency, sustainable mobility and ICT Infrastructures. On the first priority, Bristol is using the programme to help people in the areas of Ashley, Easton and Lawrence Hill trial new technologies to help them save energy and money. This area is the largest in Bristol with 50,600 residents. According to the Replicate Project website, in Bristol alone 160 measures have been installed by Warm up Bristol to 151 Homes in the above-mentioned partnership area, including loft insulation, boiler upgrades and solar PV systems. These simple additions will help homeowners save money of their energy bills, whilst helping to reduce the carbon footprint. Replicate participants are currently trying internet connected appliances, like smart tumble dryers, dishwashers and washing machines connected to a home hub. These have been delivered by Bristol City Council. 151 homes have had smart appliances installed in Partnership area, with the appliances managing their own

energy consumption, whilst an ‘Eco Home’ is being used as a demonstration space for Smart Home Innovations. Having the two appliances, tumble dryers and dishwashers, electricity energy savings in households are estimated at up to £150 per year. The Purpose of District Heating Project is to provide a lower carbon and more efficient heat by linking together the operational Heat Network connecting 13 social housing blocks with a new network powered by a Combined Heat and Power Engine. By linking the two energy centres the whole system will better utilise the low carbon heat from providing more efficient and cheaper heat across the network. The Bristol pilot has connected the existing system of the Redcliffe Network to the council’s offices in 100 Temple Street, where a new energy centre is being constructed to provide low cost heat to the buildings within the locality. The new scheme provides 17,235Mwh of energy, with an additional 4,332Mwh of energy supplied per year post-Replicate. More recently in its Five-year Smart City Strategy, Bristol City Council also outlined plans for the development of a councilwide data and information strategy and the installation of smart sensors on streetlights connected to the Bristol Operations Centre on 10 per cent of the city’s streets. L

Smart cities

 Bristol and smart energy Bristol has shown good momentum in reducing direct carbon emissions by 36 per cent between 2005 and 2017, totalling 900 ktCO2 (the total of greenhouse gas in kilotonnes of carbon dioxide) – an annual average of 75 ktCO. To meet the 2030 goal, the rate now has to increase to 1.6 times faster in the next 12 years to an average rate of 120 ktCO2 of carbon saved each year. Bristol City Council believes that to meet the 2030 goal, Bristol needs to insulate 73,000 homes, install 96,000 new heat pumps and make 68,000 district heating system connections by 2030. Bristol is Open was set up as a joint venture between Bristol City Council and the University of Bristol, to develop a ‘test-bed’ programmable, digital infrastructure, that launched in April 2015. Following funding from Building Digital UK’s, Super-Connected Cities programme, the initiative researched a number of smarty city innovations, including CCTV analytics, 5G and Big Data Analytics. From this research a number of projects were born, including the Big Clout project, which evaluated Internet of Things, cloud computing and Big Data applications, and the 5G Smart Tourism project, which deployed 5G, to provide CCTV feeds, trial crowd analytics and apply millimeter wave technologies for pop-up event control. Bristol City Council also pursued an initiative labelled the Replicate project, in which Bristol was a lead city, deployed energy

FURTHER INFORMATION www.leeds.gov.uk www.bristol.gov.uk

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Advertisement Feature

Location Intelligence: Delivering digital transformation in local and regional government Esri UK is the market leader in these technologies, working with over two thirds of UK councils on digital twin and other transformation projects

London Borough of Harrow’s digital twin built with Esri ArcGIS and Cyclomedia data

Local and regional government in the UK faces ever increasing pressures from challenges as diverse as climate change, planning, housing, and citizen engagement. Budgets are also under pressure, with traditional income streams disrupted by the pandemic and the societal changes that have precipitated from it. To rise to the challenge, councils and regions are increasingly implementing digital transformation programmes, by applying the latest disruptive technology available; not just automating existing processes but taking the opportunity to completely rethink how to deliver services more efficiently to public benefit. A key part of many of these transformative initiatives is location intelligence, primarily because almost everything that government does is rooted in, affected by, and applies to specific geographic areas. If government is going to create places that people are proud of and want to live and work in, then datadriven decisions based on the realities of each locality are essential.

new digital twin of the borough will mean planning can view properties alongside planning applications, highways can verify that street works have been delivered and the council tax department can carry out remote property inspections – all using a single, accurate, up to date version of the truth.

Built environment Planning, highways, parking, regeneration schemes and estates management are leveraging Geographic Information Systems (GIS) which deliver location intelligence in practice, to create interactive digital twins, often with 3D visualisations. Harrow council has recently built a full 3D digital representation of their area, that can be viewed alongside geospatial data such as street furniture, council tax records, planning applications and Ordnance Survey data. This

Health and well-being There is an on-going focus on health and well-being in communities, especially with the challenges that the pandemic has brought. Homelessness is a continuing problem in many areas and addressing that requires constant innovation of approach. These too are geographic problems, where the location and the context are key factors in understanding the situation and finding effective data-driven solutions. Esri UK prepares and manages large statistical indicator data sets and

Environment and climate Environment, air quality and climate change challenges are also inherently location based and GIS enables real time monitoring of, for example, where air quality issues happen across the region, including location, extent, and time. This enables the causes and possible mitigations to be identified. Real time dashboards can intelligently process environmental sensor data and automatically focus in on areas of concern. Sea and river levels can similarly be modelled and monitored. The Scottish Government has used GIS to assess the future impact of coastal change, including which of their infrastructure assets will be at risk.

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delivers community information systems, local observatories, and knowledge hub websites for clients as fully managed services. These data observatories are relied on by Public Health teams to inform data-driven decisions. Social care is another area where digital transformation is driving faster delivery of services to citizens. Oxfordshire County Council has undertaken a significant transformation project around sourcing homecare packages for vulnerable clients. Citizens and democracy Another important area is citizen engagement and community functions, for example elections, housing, education and leisure. GIS technology is used by councils including Watford Council and Tunbridge Wells Borough Council to communicate with citizens about elections and the location of polling stations. Norwich City Council enables citizens to find services close to them using GIS to power the MyNorwich website. In education, Norfolk County Council is using GIS to transform and optimise School Transport Planning for SEND pupils and the London Borough of Newham is taking an innovative approach to transforming the schools admissions process. Housing planning, provision, construction, maintenance, and tenant-engagement has been digitally transformed in recent years, with GIS technology enabling everything from predictive maintenance planning to surveying tenants and collaborating on the developing of community. Transformative technology – webinar series Location Intelligence delivered through GIS is at the heart of strategic digital transformation across local, regional and devolved government. To find out more about the diverse applications across government, register for our upcoming Government Webinar series: esriuk.com/GovWebinars or contact us on 01296 745599. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.esriuk.com

Technology

Digitalisation shouldn’t come at a cyber security cost Digitalisation shouldn’t come at a cyber security cost, but it will if organisations are lax about protections, writes Sascha Giese, Head Geek™ at SolarWinds Digitalisation has become increasingly external factor influencing an organisation’s crucial to the way governments and public risk exposure, the rise of distributed working is sector organisations serve populations and a key concern for IT professionals. Almost one communities. The past year and a half has in five (18 per cent) respondents identified demonstrated how vital digital strategies are a distributed workforce and employee for providing resources, sharing information, relocation, as well as remote work policies, and working efficiently. But increased as risk concerns, and 15 per cent flagged the digitalisation also means increased risk. New exponential growth of data due to new work technologies are new avenues of attack for from home needs. cyber criminals, and the impact of a breach can be immense. Four months after its Mitigating cyber risk ransomware attack, for example, Ireland’s IT professionals are aware they must assemble Health Service Executive is still dealing with sophisticated defences against cyber risk. the consequences. The SolarWinds report saw 40 per cent of It’s clear every tech professional must put IT professional respondents rank security security at the heart of their work, and and compliance in their top three public sectors must do all they can technologies most critical to to mitigate IT risk. The security managing or mitigating risk It’s clea challenge is even bigger in within their organisations. a post-pandemic world Thirty-five per cent ranked every te r ch profess where digitalisation artificial intelligence i o n a has accelerated and and machine l m security ust put (AI) remote working is learning in their top a t t h e their w widespread. According three, followed by ork, an heart of to research from the network infrastructure, d publi sectors c must d SolarWinds IT Trends automation, DBaaS Report 2021: Building solutions, and ITSM hey can o all t to a Secure Future, while and/or ITAM solutions mitigat e IT risk security breaches are still (25 per cent, respectively). perceived as the biggest But the report also

highlighted the barriers to adoption and implementation of security technology. When discussing challenges, almost half (48 per cent) of respondents said currently offered IT management solutions lack features or functionality to meet tech professional needs. Forty per cent pointed to lack of IT management solutions and tools available within their organisation, as well as poor management and lack of direction, as barriers to adoption. Integration problems were also identified as a problem: 40 per cent of respondents reported that while some of their monitoring or management tools were integrated to enhance visibility across their IT environments, other tools still existed in silos. Practical ways to shore up security If public sector bodies want to increase digitalisation without decreasing cyber security, they should look at three key areas. First, it’s important for organisations to adopt an integrated security system. Integrated security helps improve network visibility, so IT teams can spot threats more quickly, and allows tech professionals to seamlessly and efficiently manage their network. Organisations should be looking to create a E

Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Advertisement Feature

Shield_PMS_2013

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Working from anywhere with Philips monitors During the on and off of lockdowns and WFH periods, the new normal proved that productivity does not have to suffer and can even be improved, when employees are set up with the correct equipment. Our future will include WFH in some shape or form, and this means that workstations will have to adapt to this reality as well. Philips monitors featuring a USB-C connector offer an easy solution to turn a laptop with a small display into a full desktop setup through just a single USB-C cable. The USB-C connection is enough to power the laptop, extend or mirror the laptop display and create a multi-monitor setup, while enabling the use of a full-sized keyboard and mouse setup thanks to the monitor’s USB hub. The result is a productive workstation, run by the laptop, which can be easily transported to work from anywhere when needed. Flexible working from anywhere Philips monitors’ 243B1JH (24” – 1080p) and 273B1JH (27” – 1440p) are suited especially for the governmental institutions which need to overhaul of their IT infrastructures. The monitors are packed with a colour accurate IPS panel and a USB-C docking station with up to 100 W Power Delivery, RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet input and a DC output to power

mini-PCs such as Intel NUC. It also features an infrared, 2 MP Windows Hello capable pop-up webcam which supports a secure login with facial recognition and to be employed in today’s inevitable online meetings. To increase security in government institutions, the webcam can be tucked away behind the panel. The innovative “hybrid” solution includes a Y-split USB-A/USB-C cable, so older devices without USB-C can also be connected easily with the common USB-A connector and video signal carried via DisplayLink technology. To fulfil the UK’s commitment to a greener future, the monitor is equipped with eco-friendly and energy-saving features such as a PowerSensor and LightSensor. Philips monitors’ upcoming 23.8” screen 243S1 with Full HD resolution offers a sleek, 3-sides borderless IPS panel that offers true and rich colours and wide viewing angles. It also packs a fully ergonomic, height-adjustable stand and fitted with a USB-C port, supporting up to 65W power delivery. Thanks to its DisplayPort output port, a multi-monitor setup can simply be driven using a single USB-C cable from a laptop. Philips monitors’ innovative technologies help the government sector set their employees up for success, at home or at the office.

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To outsource or not to outsource Public sector organisations have a choice when it comes to improving cyber security – they can outsource security responsibilities or retain them in-house. Working with a reputable, proven third party can be a good solution for many as it makes high-level defence easy and

Technology

 multi-faceted solution to address their specific needs: this could include keeping network users safe by choosing devices or applications with certain levels of built-in security or making strict security settings the default in their application suite. Secondly, regular penetration testing is crucial to identify weak security spots and vulnerabilities. Cyber criminals are constantly looking for new ways to outsmart security systems, and attacks can go undetected even when organisations use log management and signature-based deep package inspection. To combat this, organisations should use testing solutions that come with an intelligence feed to cover these unknown, ‘zero-day’ threats. Finally, automation is a critical weapon in a security team’s arsenal. Automating security processes allows organisations to continuously monitor for threats and is especially useful for those with limited resources. For instance, an organisation can use tools to constantly scan web applications from the outside to identify vulnerabilities and threats. However, spotting a threat and acting on it are two very different things. Infrastructure is needed to allow possible threats to be quickly neutralised and teams alerted, so risk and damage is minimised.

A SolarWinds report saw 40 per cent of IT professional respondents rank security and compliance in their top three technologies most critical to managing or mitigating risk within their organisations affordable and gives an organisation access to the latest security technologies. Yet some public sector organisations will need to keep everything in-house and for these bodies, managed software solutions work well, although they must be careful to choose the right ones. The best solutions will incorporate automation, proactively identify threats, and analyse data from threat reports to block future attacks. Digitalisation shouldn’t come at a cyber security cost, but it will if organisations

are lax about protections. Whether using in-house or third-party solutions, public sector bodies need to ensure their security is integrated and automated, and they’re conducting regular testing, so they’re not laying themselves open to attack. If digital transformation is the goal, security needs to be the starting point. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.solarwinds.com

Are You Prepared? ISDN / PSTN Switch-Off 2025 Have you considered what exposure or risks the ISDN / PSTN Switch-Off 2025 poses to your organisation? Your telecoms network will have been built historically on these technologies. However, what you are using and where it is located may be an enigma. Voice calls, security, well-being and any equipment reliant on these services will be affected. The longer action is delayed, the more problematic the situation may become. From a completely independent viewpoint, Segmentation Group, with our depth of knowledge in legacy services, can help you gain clarity and remain in control.

Call us on 03300 240480 for a free consultation or email us at info@segmentationgroup.com www.segmentationgroup.com/isdn-/-pstn-switch-off-2025

Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Cabinet reshuffle

Jenrick departs cabinet in Johnson’s long-expected reshuffle After 18 months of the coronavirus pandemic bringing the decision-making of the government into public scrutiny more than ever before, a cabinet reshuffle was of little surprise, even if some of the changes were not predicted On 15 September it was announced that notice due to the spread of coronavirus, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson was anticipating problems began for the South Staffordshire the arrival of his cabinet at Downing Street, MP when the government decided that where the familiar sight of comings and exams for the 2019/2020 academic goings would play out before the year would not go ahead. cameras, with some ministers Exams were We can leaving their posts and some controversially based reaching new heights. on Ofqual-moderated see how Unsurprisingly, Chancellor teacher assessments w ith the Rishi Sunak, Defence rather than on investm right Secretary Ben Wallace and moderated exam e nt thes previou Home Secretary Priti Patel results. In August e kept their jobs, and, equally last year, as students places csly neglected unsurprisingly, Gavin learnt of their grades, a n myriad provide a Williamson and Domic Raab it was revealed o fp left their offices, albeit with that approximately outcomositive different destinations ahead. 40 per cent of results e Williamson, perhaps more were below the teacher than most, has been the centre assessment, and Williamson of continual controversy during the seemed unable to defend the pandemic. A former Defence Secretary algorithm used as a fair method, or at sacked for leaking confidential National least as the fairest of methods available. Later Security Council information, his position never that month, Williamson retreated and conceded seemed one for the long-term and for many that the algorithm method for calculating it was a little shocking he remained at the A-Level results would be abandoned, and Department for Education as long as he did. teacher assessments would be used instead. Having announced that schools in England Boris Johnson backed him and he kept his job. would close from 20 March 2020 until further Exams were then cancelled again in 2021, but

BUSINESS INFORMATION FOR LOCAL AND CENTRAL GOVERNMENT | www.governmentbusiness.co.uk

Gavin Williamson

not until after his department’s most senior civil servant and the head of the exams watchdog both resigned over his poor decision-making. He also oversaw dramatic u-turns on getting all primary school pupils back to school and free school meals during the holidays. According to

data from ConservativeHome, Williamson was the least popular member of the cabinet with Conservative party members by quite a distant. Another to lose their position was Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab who has overseen the poor mishandling of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. He faced cross-party criticism for remaining on holiday in Crete while the Taliban marched back to power, especially when it came to light that he failed to call the Afghan government to discuss the evacuation of translators stranded in the country. Unlike Williamson, Raab remains in the cabinet, taking over at the Ministry of Justice, as well as acquiring the new title of Deputy Prime Minister. Robert Jenrick

Jenrick, Raab and the new Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Another casualty of the reshuffle was Robert Kendrick, who said that it had been a ‘huge privilege’ to serve at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government. Jenrick had been Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government since July 2019, taking over from James Brokenshire, but, last year, was one of a number of ministers accused on ‘cronyism’, following publicised links to a Conservative donor. It was also claimed that Conservative councillors approved a planning application for an extension to Jenrick’s townhouse despite officials

objecting to the scheme three times over its damaging impact in a conservation area. Equally damning, Jenrick’s constituency of Newark was awarded funding by his department through the Towns Fund as part of a process that the Public Accounts Committee argued was opaque and not impartial. His successor is also no stranger to controversy. Following the appointment of Michael Gove, the government announced that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will become the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, giving Gove the extra responsibility of overseeing the government’s Levelling Up agenda. The change coincided with former Bank of England Chief Economist Andy Haldane being appointed as the new Head of the Levelling Up Taskforce, which was jointly established by the Prime Minister and Gove. As part of the move, Gove will drive crossWhitehall efforts to deliver a programme of tangible improvements in every part of the UK as we build back better from the pandemic, and deliver on the people’s priorities. Downing Street has also confirmed that, as part of his appointment, Gove will have responsibility for UK governance and elections and will take on the additional title of Minister for Intergovernmental Relations, working closely with the Territorial Offices and leading coordination with the devolved administrations on the Prime Minister’s behalf.

Cabinet reshuffle

Michael Gove

Other notable appointments The same polling that found Williamson as the least popular member of the cabinet with Conservative party members found that Liz Truss was the most popular. Following a stint as International Trade Secretary as the UK seeks to arrange a number of new trade deals in its post-Brexit future, Truss has been made Foreign Secretary. Anne-Marie Trevelyan has replaced Liz Truss as International Trade Secretary, returning after losing her place in the cabinet when the Department for International Development was scrapped. Former Minister for Health and Social Care and I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here contestant, Nadine Dorries, has been made Culture Secretary, with the previous Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden being promoted to Conservative Party co-chairman, meaning that he will attend cabinet as minister without portfolio. Following his leading role during the pandemic as Minister for Vaccines, former Business Minister Nadhim Zahari replaces Williamson as Education Secretary with Education Minister Michelle Donelan seeing her role promoted to one that now attends cabinet. Elsewhere, Simon Clarke has been appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and will also attend cabinet. Others to keep their posts include Health Secretary Sajid Javid, Works and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey, Environment Secretary George Justice and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.gov.uk

Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Advertisement Feature

Connecting people and places to make the world work better: The new ISS purpose and value proposition ISS looks to understand the needs of our diverse customer and client groups and create solutions to deliver their outcomes and objectives

As a world-leading workplace experience and facility management company, who delivers FM services to over 60,000 customers across more than 30 countries, ISS understands that people make places and places make people. We therefore see our people as placemakers who care. They connect our clients’ people to the workplace and deliver placemaking solutions which foster environments that think, give and work. Ultimately, by creating these spaces, we can significantly enhance the workplace experience of the people we serve. This, in turn, ensures better business performance and makes life for our customers and their people more productive, enjoyable and easier. Through our innovative placemaking approach, ISS can support government sector businesses to redefine their workplaces as they start to reopen, ensuring we meet new and evolving demands. For example, we know that budget pressures on government organisations will continue to grow, as well as the demand for revised, agile and safer workplaces. Therefore, to foster new workplaces that can meet these requirements, we have leveraged our operational knowledge to develop a comprehensive portfolio of intelligent placemaking solutions. These centre around outcomes that futureproof your people and places and drives safety, well-being and productivity.

The company’s redefined purpose and value proposition can be defined as ISS helps create places that work, think and give. Our placemaking approach focuses on creating workplaces that: Work – We ensure the workplace functions and operations are fit for purpose and that users feel safe, secure and supported as they go about their business. Think – As the boundary between work and home life blurs, our customers’ teams are requiring more than functional workplaces, they want a complete experience. To achieve this, we create personal and experiential workplaces that offer services tailored to individual needs. Give – With no discernible boundary between work and life, customers require places that give – places where people are at the core. We foster such places by: delivering high standards; providing intelligent solutions; and ensuring our customers are served by people who care. Delivering your purpose Our people are our business and we are proud to call them Placemakers. They make workplaces fit for our clients’ purpose by implementing placemaking solutions that deliver tangible outcomes. These contribute to better business performance and an enhanced user experience. Achieving your objectives ISS looks to understand the needs of our diverse customer and client groups and create solutions to deliver their outcomes and objectives. We develop evolving partnerships that are based on our customers’ key drivers. We also develop and leverage best

practice through our Operational Excellence Department, which captures our service achievements across several contracts. This includes national government, defence, pharmaceutical, healthcare and private sector contracts. We then cascade this guidance across all sectors to ensure we comply with industry standards and regulations, as well as evolving contractual and government targets. Integrating innovation to deliver better results We have considerable experience in delivering innovation across our contract base. We leverage the latest technology and business intelligence from our global presence. By combining it with market trends and data, we provide solutions that enable our clients to get the most from their estates, facilities, and staff. Enhanced customer journey planning, leading to better experiences Through ISS’ touchpoint integrated service delivery model, we can plan and curate the experiences of each site’s occupants more effectively. We map out the journey of users and design placemaking solutions across all services that enhance the occupier’s journeys. This way, we can embrace and lead on the government’s ‘Great Places to Work’ initiatives by shaping solutions to meet the changing needs of your occupiers. We are also currently supporting our customers with initiatives that embrace new ways of working and consider the changing shape of workplaces. For example, ISS Signal, our workplace consultancy, has been working with our customers to create several solutions. This includes our new enhanced cleaning regime; ‘PURE SPACE’, which uses scientific monitoring to mitigate the spread of Covid-19. Significantly, this solution provides building users with confidence that their workplace has been sanitised to a standard that is safe, clean and free from infection. Sustainability In response to a growing focus on climate change, we have strengthened our sustainability approach to drive environmental stewardship and social value. For example, we have created an environmental outsourcing division: ISS Sustainability; innovated the Sustainable Workplace Programme; and defined a set of sustainability targets. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.uk.issworld.com enquiries@uk.issworld.com

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Housing

Homeful – our hopes for homes in the future 2020 was a year unlike any other in recent memory. Jo Richardson says that the social effects of a decade of austerity measures and the economic concerns about the fallout of Brexit created a heightened sense of precarity for those already just hanging on When the Covid-19 pandemic started to impact Longer term solutions the UK in March 2020, the resulting lockdowns Prior to the vaccination programmes, the and restrictions snapped the slender threads to strongest protection against Covid-19 jobs and housing for many. But 2020 was also a was safe, secure, affordable and clean year of adaptive practice, collaborative working, accommodation, and it remains an important learning and sharing ideas. defence against disease, as well as helping to We saw this with remarkable effect through support physical and mental well-being. the ‘Everyone In’ initiative to offer We do not want to see the achievements emergency accommodation of 2020 reversed, and yet there are to anyone sleeping on the widespread concerns about the streets. Government ending of ‘Everyone In’ and the Covid-1 figures for 2020 harsh impacts of ending the laid bar 9 show a significant uplift to Universal Credit. reduction in As a society, we should extrem e the e the numbers of instead seek to embed the h e a l t h inequal homeless people gains made by focusing ities for people sleeping on on providing longer term e the street, as a solutions for individuals homele xperiencing ssness i result. Homeless and families stuck in UK and n Link reported temporary accommodation; elsewh the that the number as well as continuing with ere of households prevention work in the assessed as homeless housing sector. This will require or threatened with insight and leadership from central homelessness (62,250) fell by government in terms of longer-term 9.2 per cent compared to the previous resourcing for properly affordable housing for year, but the number of households living in rent. Local authorities, housing associations temporary accommodation (95,370) rose by and key partners have demonstrated their eight per cent. agility in responding to the emergency of Covid-19 laid bare the extreme health bringing people in from the streets during the inequalities for people experiencing pandemic, temporary solutions were found homelessness in the UK and elsewhere. with the backing and financial support from Not only do people who are homeless have central government. worse health than others, but particularly When we imagine a vision of strong those experiencing street homelessness and intelligent leadership now, we see a have severely limited access to basic government which stands firmly behind a hygiene facilities and healthcare services, commitment to ‘level-up’ and demonstrates compounding existing health problems. this through its actions – resourcing providers

of safe, secure and affordable housing to build the rented homes needed, and recognising the need to uphold levels of universal credit to ensure citizens do not fall further into poverty. To truly understand how we move to a situation where housing is seen as a home, and not as a temporary space, we must look beyond the emergency response to Covid-19. Key housing challenges which lie at the roots of the homelessness crisis have not gone away – the shortage of affordable housing supply, inadequate Local Housing Allowance rates and over-reliance on temporary accommodation. While significant injections of funding from central government have produced results in the past, short-term funding will always lead to short-term solutions. There is another way – a strategic, longer-term, housing-led approach to resolve and prevent homelessness. A housing-led approach provides people experiencing (or at risk of experiencing) homelessness with stable, appropriate accommodation and any necessary support as quickly as possible. This approach (sometimes called ‘rapid rehousing,’ particularly in Scotland and Wales) turns the traditional response on its head by removing the conditionality attached to accessing a home. For people at risk of becoming homeless, a housing-led approach means housing providers and support agencies doing preventative work to bring in the necessary support and advice to help maintain their current home. Any system of support must be broad and deep enough to respond to the many interconnected issues that can sometimes lead to homelessness – such as family breakdown, early-life trauma, mental E Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Homeful The Chartered Institute of Housing’s Homeful action research campaign seeks to explore housing-led approaches to resolving and preventing homelessness – it provides an opportunity for housing providers to come together across the sector to share ideas about what we can do – what we will do. Homeful is a blend of the words ‘home’ and ‘hopeful’, it is about what can and will be done to end all forms of homelessness for the future. There are two key aims at the heart of the Homeful action research campaign. Firstly, understanding how we can resolve homelessness by providing affordable, stable housing, along with the necessary wraparound, non-conditional support that each person requires. Secondly, considering how

To truly understand how we move to a situation where housing is seen as a home, and not as a temporary space, we must look beyond the emergency response to Covid-19 we can prevent homelessness by bringing support and advice to each person to help them sustain their tenancy, while leveraging the expertise and professional standards of the social housing sector to work with multiple agencies to help keep people in their home. The most effective housing-led approach of all is one which supports people in the home they already have and enables them to avoid reaching a crisis point by accessing the necessary services. Poverty and deprivation are long-standing drivers of housing inequality and homelessness, requiring agile and supportive responses from local authorities and housing providers. There are a number of examples of good preventative practice in the social housing sector and the Homeful campaign will draw key lessons from these to share. The Homeful campaign seeks to build on the successes of the pandemic response by engaging with housing and other agencies to collate and share evidence and support for housing-led solutions to homelessness and rough sleeping. The action research campaign begins in Autumn 2021 and concludes by December 2022. Its goal is to include as many housing providers, homeless organisations, local authorities, partner agencies, charities, service users and people who have experienced homelessness across the UK as possible. Imagine the resource of

Housing

 ill health, substance misuse and repeated contact with criminal justice systems. A truly housing-led system is one that can quickly offer stable accommodation and support, no matter how complex an individual’s personal situation. Homelessness is a scourge on a modern wealthy country like the UK. The most visible pinnacle is rough sleeping – but there are many more people who are experiencing ‘hidden homelessness’, living in unsafe, insecure, unaffordable or short-term accommodation. The social housing sector already does much to provide homes and support for people. But we can and should do more, to take both a housing-led response to resolve homelessness, and a support-led approach to prevent it. There is much to learn from the Housing First model, but this project looks further than that to include the variety of housing-led initiatives and the programmes designed by social housing providers to prevent homelessness.

practical examples, enhanced networks and connections to share and learn we can create if we bring our heads together.

If you’re interested in contributing to the Homeful Chartered Institute of Housing campaign, please visit www.cih.org/homeful to read the campaign launch report, and email homeful@dmu.ac.uk if you have information, good practice examples or ideas you’d like to share. This campaign specifically seeks to demonstrate what social housing providers are doing and can do, and it will have the voice of lived experience at its heart. There is also a fundraising element to the campaign which individuals and organisations can join in. The fundraising is in aid of End Youth Homelessness – a UK wide movement of local charities working with young people experiencing homelessness. Please visit www. justgiving.com/campaign/homeful for further information and for the opportunity to make a donation, or create a linked fundraising page, if you wish. L Jo Richardson is President of the Chartered Institute of Housing and Professor of Housing and Social Inclusion at De Montfort University. You can follow her on twitter @socialhousing FURTHER INFORMATION www.cih.org/homeful

Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Surveytech: Technology for Surveying

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London Build Expo

A festival of contruction in the centre of London London Build is set for a huge return to Olympia London’s Grand Hall for our live Expo on the 17-18 November. This is going to be one major celebration as we open our doors to the UK’s biggest festival of construction Much more than just your average can get involved with major construction construction event, London Build is an awardprojects in the UK as you connect with winning show and is regarded as one of the industry experts and senior representatives largest and best construction exhibitions from government, architects, major developers, around the globe. Come meet, network and housing builders, and tier 1 contractors. do business with thousands of London’s top contractors, developers, architects and more. Six conference stages This year London Build features: hundreds London Build plays host to six conference of exhibitors, more than 500 speakers across stages: The Future of Construction, BIM and six stages, over 200 CPD sessions, exclusive Digital Construction, Fire Safety, Diversity free-to-attend networking events including and Inclusion, Sustainability and The Meet the Buyer, Women in Construction and Built Environment Hub. Each Diversity in Construction, Humans of year sees thousands Construction Gallery, entertainment, of professionals Hear fro m live music and much, much more. attend, as they leaders London Build is the ultimate come to learn d r i v ing change platform for networking and about the latest i n t he UK’s constru connecting with thousands of developments, ction in senior-level decision-makers, and d u a s t the D try innovations buyers and influencers from case studies, i v and Inc ersity across the UK’s entire built from leading lusion environment. Discover how you industry experts.

stage

Hear from leaders driving change in the UK’s construction industry at the Diversity and Inclusion stage. Here you’ll get the opportunity to hear from a diverse and wide range of speakers, talking about how they are striving to make the UK’s built environment an inclusive industry. At the Future of Construction Stage you can hear all the latest news on developments, innovations and project opportunities in London. The BIM and Digital Construction Stage sees panellists discussing all things digital, as they highlight the latest trends and innovations in digital construction, whilst you can learn from fire experts from leading contractors, civil engineers, industry bodies and more, as they discuss fire regulation, legislation and innovation Post-Grenfell, on this year’s Fire Safety Stage. Finally, the Sustainability Stage features sustainability experts from leading contractors, engineers, architects and developers, with panels E

Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Crystal Units Ltd represents the many facets in today’s demands for innovative glazing. Modern architecture requires sophisticated glazing to accommodate the creative enhancement of each building, while incorporating the environmental requirements to keep carbon footprints to a minimum. Crystal Units offers a wealth of expertise with a creative team boasting impressive technical knowledge. We understand how to integrate sustainability, ecological restrictions and aesthetic requirements and no two projects are the same. The continued expansion of Crystal Units towards innovative glass solutions has made us the preferred choice for many leading architects, glazing specialists, homeowners and designers. With innovative architectural

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Women in Construction The UK’s largest meeting of Women in Construction takes place at London Build each year. The annual Women in Construction Networking Event, in partnership with NAWIC, is free-to-attend for all. Learn from an inspiring panel of industry leaders as they celebrate the successes and discuss the challenges facing female AEC professionals. Network with fellow professionals and feel inspired by the diverse stories that make up one of the most exciting industries. Alongside a line-up of panellists, London Build works with an amazing team of Women in Construction Ambassadors who are furthering equality in the built environment. Join these architects, engineers, designers

Each year sees thousands of professionals attend, as they come to learn about the latest developments, innovations and case studies, from leading industry experts and diversity champions at the networking event to hear what they’re doing to make lasting change. Ambassadors include Eleanor Measham, Architectural Designer at ADAM Architecture, Nicola Coppen, infrastructure coordinator at Westminster City Council, Rashidah Ambali, HR Business Partner at Morrison Utility Services, and Alison Nicholl, head of Constructing Excellence, BRE. Diversity in Construction London Build is excited for the Diversity in Construction Networking Event to return in 2021. The annual Diversity in Construction Networking Event is free-to-attend for all. Learn from an inspiring panel of industry leaders as they celebrate the successes and discuss the challenges facing BAME, LGBT+ and female AEC professionals. Network with fellow professionals and feel inspired by the diverse stories that make up one of the most exciting industries. Alongside the line-up of panellists, London Build works with an amazing team of Diversity Ambassadors who are furthering equality in the built environment. Join these architects, engineers, designers and diversity champions at the networking event to hear what they’re doing to make lasting change. Diversity Ambassadors include Clara Dip Wan Cheung, associate at Foster + Partners, Harry Levey, internal communications manager for Network Rail, Jenny McLaughlin, project manager at Heathrow, Prachi Rampuria, co-founding

London Build Expo

 discussing topics that include COP26, Net Zero and Healthy Buildings and Spaces. The Built Environment Hub is the place to go to expand your connections, as you get the chance to network with thousands of attendees at exclusive free-to-attend events, such as Women in Construction, the largest meeting of Women in Construction in the UK. This session offers professional individuals the chance to learn from a panel of established experts, discussing the untapped opportunities for women working in construction. The hub also hosts Diversity in Construction, a networking session where visitors can make connections and feel inspired. Here they will get the opportunity to meet a panel of diversity champions from all across the UK’s built environment, who will be discussing the key issues surrounding diversity and inclusion within the construction industry. London Build Expo is free to attend and promises to be two fun-filled days of highlevel content, networking opportunities and endless entertainment.

Director at EcoResponsive Environments, and Abimbola Louise Long, Multi-Cultural Affinity Network Co-Chair, Balfour Beatty. Humans of Construction The Humans of Construction exhibition will display photography featuring the most influential & inspiring professionals working in the UK’s built environment. The gallery showcases an artistic and educational insight into the diversity, character and fabric of the UK’s construction industry! The individuals featured in the photographs will come from a fascinating range of backgrounds in the industry, including; visionary CEOs that have risen to the top; pioneers that have innovated the industry; architects that have designed iconic landmarks; people/individuals/humans that have broken down barriers in this traditionally mono-cultured industry; students showing incredible promise; selfless charity workers; unsung heroes; leaders of the future, and more. Beneath each photograph will be snippets of the life story of the human in the photograph to provide the story behind their face. Furthermore, in some instances, there will be contact details for you to reach out to them or their LinkedIn QR code for you to scan and connect online. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.londonbuildexpo.com

Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Green spaces

Investing in green spaces and levelling up the UK On behalf of the Landscape Institute and The Parks Alliance, Laura Schofield and Theo Plowman look at the role of green space in levelling up opportunities across the country and the potential they have to boost well-being the value that residents attach to their local community The current government was elected on a pledge to address regional inequality and to level up the country. Yet the actual policy framework that will deliver these changes remains nebulous. The central idea is to bridge the North-South divide by increasing productivity in underperforming cities. Levelling up the economy should be about helping struggling places, the old-school ways of doing this could be investment in public works, grey infrastructure and creating jobs. When in Hartlepool Boris Johnson described it as ‘more jobs and investment, better public services.’ However, the real hints of the government’s policy so far have a mishmash of agendas, from defeating the scourge of chewing gum and making McDonald’s take charge of its litter to devolution deals for cities. With nothing concrete in policy terms, there is still chance to think differently and avoid treading the same paths. We cannot afford to invest in carbon-intensive projects. With the end of the lockdowns and re-opening of the economy finally in sight it’s tempting to wish everything would just get back to normal. However back to normal is not an option. ‘Back to normal’ is a return to communities starved of green space. ‘Back to normal’ is a return to terrible health inequalities. ‘Back to normal’ is a lurch back into climate and biodiversity crisis. Build back better Strangely, the pandemic has showed us that change can happen. We’ve seen a massive drop in air pollution and carbon emissions - albeit briefly and involuntarily. We’ve seen people work through isolation and find new ways to convene and collaborate. We’ve seen the world come together to develop a vaccine. We have learnt a remarkable amount about Covid-19 in a very short time. People working in many branches of science and all corners of the world have gathered and analysed information with astonishing speed.

Count – The Case for Parks outlines how parks We have an opportunity, both here in the can tackle these 21st century challenges. There UK and around the world, to ask what ‘build are projects that are both ‘shovel-worthy’ as well back better’ truly means. To build for justice as ‘shovel-ready’, and a huge number of existing as well as sustainability. To build a better places in dire need of funding. Investment of future – to create a new economy and a £1 billion annually over the next five years new normal. Humanity urgently needs to would ensure existing green spaces and new devote as much effort to addressing our ones deliver for people, place and nature. fractured relationship to nature. Unless we Following the most recent meeting of the repair it, humanity will face consequences Parks and Green Spaces All-Party Parliamentary even worse than this pandemic. Group (APPG), centred on the Five Year Review A huge part of this will be protecting and of the Select Committee Inquiry into the enhancing the landscapes we already have and Future of Public Parks, the chair Liz Twist MP ensuring that new spaces maximise their benefit wrote to Clive Betts MP, chair of the Housing, for health, climate and nature. Greener Recovery, Communities and Local Government Select the Landscape Institute’s landmark Autumn 2020 Committee, formally requesting that the select policy paper, urges the UK government to seize a committee be reconvened ‘in order to assess ‘once-in-a generation chance’ to invest for a truly what has changed since the inquiry and where green recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. things are still failing or going backwards rather It describes the role the landscape sector can than forwards’ and noted that it would ‘also play in delivering a sustainable economic be an opportunity to hold the government recovery, whilst also tackling climate change, to account in respect of the commitments it and what more the government must do to made as a result of your Committee’s inquiry’. facilitate this. Furthermore, during the Covid-19 lockdown, parks and green spaces provided Five principles a lifeline for millions. Rightly championed as To achieve a truly sustainable recovery, crucial assets to maintaining people’s physical government investment and regulatory reform and mental health, they became a vital part following the pandemic should: take a natural of the national response to the pandemic. But capital approach to new infrastructure and they need support. Therefore, there is also a housing investment; invest in maintenance supplementary paper; Green Recovery and renewal of existing places; set for Parks and Green Spaces. higher and fairer standards for Parks and green spaces We can green space; invest in natural need significant see how investment which with the righ matches their role as t in vital national assets. these p vestment These places are neglect reviously pivotal in helping to ed build our resilience provide places can am to climate change: of posit yriad cooling our cities, iv stopping air pollution outcom e and reducing health e inequalities. Making Parks

Image © Cator Park Kidbrooke HTA Design

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In practical terms, these five principles set out to: · Accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy, with natural capital in decision-making. · Re-orientate targets and incentives for Local Planning Authorities towards a broader set of placemaking outcomes, and ensure that the new planning reforms help deliver these. · Extend net gain policies in the Environment Bill to cover a broader range of outcomes and development types, including infrastructure. · Rebalance infrastructure spend from capital to operational to ensure places and buildings can be greened, managed, and maintained. · Embed requirements for living roofs and walls into national planning policy and consider financial incentives for their provision, including equalisation of VAT rules to encourage retrofit of existing buildings and infrastructure. · Enable a step-change in sustainable drainage by mandating sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) as the default option for all new development - especially those supported through public investment. · Support data standardisation and integration in the built environment, including for embodied carbon.

Cator Park in Kidbrooke Village To further develop these principles, in March this year the Landscape Institute held its Greener Recovery Festival, a week of online CPD sessions demonstrating how landscape practice can combat the climate emergency, increase biodiversity, and restore the natural environment. A Landscape Institute Award winner in 2020, Cator Park in Kidbrooke Village is a recent example of how the right kind of investment in parks and green spaces can lead to a fantastic array of positive outcomes, for climate, the local community and for nature. The project was an ambitious HTA Design LLP led reshape of an 8ha park in Southeast London. It returns nature to the city and challenges the perception that urban brownfield development cannot contribute to the wider ecological and biodiversity network, while creating successful spaces for the community. The new park offers a legacy for the local community and the wider area that will bring people together and form a sense of identity. The proposals introduce a diverse habitat mosaic with destination sculptural play space, while creating corridors for wildlife and people through the site. Mitigating the environmental impact was a key driver for the design and delivery of the park, from the early concept stages throughout the detailed design, as well as the sourcing of materials on site. The utilisation of 30,000m3 of demolition material in sculptural mounding reduced waste and reduced inputs.

Prior to redevelopment, the park was dominated by buildings, roads, amenity grassland and scattered trees. Now the same area boasts ponds, meadows and native hedging. The baseline habitats and new habitats post completion were showing a 161 per cent biodiversity net gain. We can see how with the right investment these previously neglected places can provide a myriad of positive outcomes. Furthermore, the pandemic has shown us that parks and green spaces are key resources and deserve more investment and recognition. In May 2020, the boards of The Parks Alliance and the Landscape Institute agreed in principle to bring their organisations closer together. The goal: to create a stronger voice, avoid duplication of efforts, and better support the parks and green space sector. Recognising the huge potential of urban green space, we have brought together more than 40 partner organisations and leading practitioners to create the new Parks and Green Space Network. The new Network will support parks leaders to provide a stronger and clearer voice for parks in the UK, and work towards the LI becoming the ‘professional home’ for parks. L

Green spaces

solutions to climate change; and create a step-change in green skills, digital, and data.

For more information, please contact parks@landscapeinstute.org FURTHER INFORMATION www.landscapeinstitute.org

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Conferences & events

Scotland’s business events sector is on a journey Scotland has an array of amazing venues, experts, and institutions, therefore the perfect destination for association conferences, important corporate meetings, global product launches and incentives The global pandemic has seen a shift in how event planners choose a destination for their business events. Price and accessibility remain significant factors however a destination’s reputation for tackling issues like climate change and human rights is just as important to event organisers and strategists. For years Scotland has welcomed the world’s greatest thinkers, pioneers, innovators and leaders to its many international congresses, conferences, and meetings.

For while the country is renowned for its history and heritage, breath-taking scenery, and warm welcome, it is also a land of ground-breaking pioneers, with worldleading institutions and innovators that can drive social and economic transformation. It has an incredible history of innovation and invention, and on the foundation of this legacy Scotland has become a world leader in renewables, engineering, electronics, technology, life sciences and marine exploration. These Key Sectors

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are driving its economy into the future, bringing investment and opportunity. Global events VisitScotland’s Business Events campaign Journey to Change – which is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development goals – highlights the innovation, skills and developments taking place within Scotland that have the potential to tackle global environmental, economic, and societal challenges.

for promoting sustainable growth in the ‘meetings and events’ space by the Global Destination Sustainability (GDS) Index. The GDS-Index scores cities by measuring and comparing the social and environmental sustainability strategies, policies, and performance of participating destinations and by sharing best practice from around the world. COP26 will be a carbon-neutral conference and will meet the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change sustainability requirements for the delivery of the conference as well as supporting Scotland’s commitment to decarbonise by 2050. One of Glasgow’s world class venues, the Scottish Event Campus (SEC), was selected as the venue for the global climate conference. With five interconnected exhibition and meeting spaces and a combined area of over 22,500sqm, the campus on the banks of the River Clyde includes prime event venues such as the iconic 3,000 seat SEC Armadillo and The SSE Hydro – a 14,300 capacity concert, sporting and special events arena. With its Green Tourism Award, the venue has a best-in-class food strategy, championing high quality, environmentally friendly local suppliers in areas such as fruit and vegetables, meat and bread, whilst committing to reducing kitchen wastage to under one per cent of food purchases by 2025. A leader in driving progressive change in the events catering market, SEC was

the first accredited ‘Healthy Venue’ in the world by the World Obesity Federation. Scotland’s world class venues are not confined to the cities. Indeed, the five-star luxury Gleneagles Hotel, in Perthshire, which played host to the Solheim Cup, has an exciting new hotel wing, Ochil House, creating a flexible range of meeting spaces, breakout rooms and event zones for groups of up to 100. And the iconic sporting and country estate is launching its first ever city outpost at St Andrew Square in Edinburgh with a luxury 33-bedroom Gleneagles Townhouse. Remaining in the Scottish capital, Hickory is an award-winning catering and events business with a focus on quality, creativity, innovation, and a track record for outstanding events. The business was one of the first to be awarded Green Tourism’s Green Meetings accreditation for its corporate events and in recognition of its ongoing commitment to help tackling climate change. In the north-east, P&J Live is Scotland’s latest state-of-the-art events venue. Designed to be a living environment to attract people and wildlife to the area, it has a network of more than 7km footpaths connecting it to the surrounding area and is powered by Aberdeen’s food and garden waste. At 48,000 square metres of multipurpose event space, it is the largest event complex in the north of Scotland. Worldclass conference and exhibition halls, a superior arena, spacious hospitality boxes and a high-end restaurant and combined with two on site hotels including the adjoining 4-star Hilton with 200 bedrooms and, the Aloft Hotel with 150 bedrooms.

Conferences & events

For several years, Scotland’s credentials have seen it attract some high-profile global events and its venues are becoming a driving force in sustainability. Prior to the pandemic, between 2018 and 2019, the country welcomed more than 130,000 delegates to association conferences. Attendees included researchers, academics, entrepreneurs, industry leaders – a cohort of delegates at the forefront of their sectors. In the same period association events and conferences contributed more than £206 million to the Scottish economy, with repeat visits and extended stays contributing a further £11 million. Edinburgh hosted the first TEDSummit out of North America in 2019. Held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, which houses one of Europe’s most technologically advanced meetings and events spaces, it brought together around 1,000 of the most engaged members of the global TED community for performances, workshops, outdoor activities, and mainstage talks. It is a venue which has placed sustainability at the heart of every event it hosts as part of its new programme, Step Change – committing to making an environmental, societal, and economic impact. Heading west and Glasgow will host for the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference. Scotland’s largest city is ranked in the top five cities in the world

History and stories Scotland is renowned for its history – indeed it is one of the main drivers for visitors – and conferences and meetings can get a flavour of the country’s rich and fascinating past with the many heritage venues on offer. These range from its castles – Stirling, Dundas and Edinburgh to name just a few – country houses, such as Hopetoun House in West Lothian and Winton House in East Lothian, to its five-star attractions, including the National Museum of Scotland and the Royal College of Surgeons. Next year, Scotland celebrates the Year of Stories putting a spotlight on the wealth of stories inspired by, written, or created in Scotland. From icons of literature to local tales, the year aims to encourage locals and visitors to experience a diversity of voices, take part in events and explore the places, people and cultures connected to all forms of our stories, past and present. Scotland has an array of amazing venues, experts, and institutions, therefore the perfect destination for association conferences, important corporate meetings, global product launches and incentives. So now is the time to start your journey. L FURTHER INFORMATION businessevents.visitscotland.com

Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

The Complete Package

PROUD TO PARTNER

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Highways UK

How vehicle sensor data is underpinning a revolution in road safety Steve Birdsall, CEO of Gaist, provider of roadscape insight and intelligence services, explains the very real possibility of a revolution in road safety In the past decade, the role of data within the Advancing road safety built environment has changed dramatically. Today, a new development is set to further An explosion in the information available to deepen our understanding of the network and infrastructure asset owners and operators, facilitate a huge step forward in road safety. the emergence of technologies and digital Data captured from sensors within regular processes such as BIM and digital twins and passenger vehicles can now be used to advances in analytics, have transformed how provide on-the-ground ‘live’ detail about road we understand the world around us. friction, road roughness, temperature, and For those managing and interacting with surface defects. our roads, this data revolution is starting to As an example of how this data could be unlock benefits including optimising network used, the implications for the winter-market performance, driving efficiencies and – particularly are huge. Decision critically – improving safety. making by Winter Duty The richer the level of information Managers over when Today, and insights available to roads and how to treat decision-makers, the greater the the network has a new develop depth of analysis, the better traditionally informed they are and the better been based on to furth ment is set er deep positioned they are to respond Road Weather u ndersta en our to defects and challenges on Information networ nding of the the network. Systems, k This data is not just becoming which though a huge and facilitate step fo available to the decision maker. time tested, rwa in road Road users will soon be able have well safety rd to access real-time information documented about the condition of roads. limitations.

But armed with this next-level of dynamic data – combined with other reliable data sources such as radar and satellite images – those responsible for managing our roads networks and keeping them open and safe during the winter period will be far better informed and empowered to predict and plan their interventions. Take gritting routes. With this rich data, our knowledgeable and experienced winter service managers will have at their disposal far greater detail of how gritting routes are responding to treatment and how drivers are experiencing travelling on those gritted routes. Fed into a winter service strategy and used to combine with and complement other winter specific features, this information can be deployed not just in one season but to drive continual improvement for future years. This will provide evidence to quickly respond to key questions such as what parts of the network should we treat? when should we treat them? and what treatments should be carried out? E

Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Are you and your supply chains ready for Net Zero? New government policy brings an urgent requirement to monitor, measure and manage your supply chains

The Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 06/21 outlined the ‘Net Zero’ target: “The UK Government amended the Climate Change Act 20081 in 2019 by introducing a target of at least a 100 per cent reduction in the net UK carbon account... by 2050.” The PPN detailed how to take account of suppliers’ Net Zero Carbon Reduction Plans in the procurement of major Government contracts. PPN applies to all central government departments, their executive agencies and non-departmental public Bodies. EPPM tools for sustainability analytics and reporting Enterprise Process Performance Management (EPPM) creates context that allows you to visualise, monitor, measure and manage your processes, supply chain journeys, and controls by exception, directly in an interactive BI solution. EPPM tools will not only allow you and your supply chains to plan for your carbon reduction targets but will bring a deeper understanding of the initiative and a capacity for greener decision making to all involved.

EPPM facilitates visualisation, exploration and comprehension of all processes (stories) in your organisation / supply chains. Avoiding silo-based data analysis, that might otherwise result in dysfunctional carbon reduction decisions. Understanding supply-chain processes is a crucial part of both organisation wide understanding of the carbon reduction initiative as well as data literacy. It enables employees to connect the data with activities and understand the real environmental impact of their data-driven decisions. Removing the need for expensive and complex tools. Emissions targets An EPPM solution allows for a journey of discovery, having the intelligence to optimise your organisational processes and move you towards your emissions targets. EPPM tools allow you to not only visualise your targets but also model and optimise your process change. Applicable across any industry, and the supply side of any functional process; billing, procurement, operations, and accounting. EPPM supports a seamless governance and user experience ensuring that collaborating across controls and people has never been easier whilst bridging the data literacy skills gap. Adopting a process intelligence approach that is both SIMPLE and FAST to deliver, allows you to collaborate on; issues, ideas, and improvement opportunities across; people, process, and systems. An organisation’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate advantage towards your emissions targets.

Supply chain performance management for carbon reduction Get the right quantity and quality of materials (or services) to the right place at the right time, for the right department, and at the right price. No matter what your role, if you have a supply chain then it’s vital that you have a system of logistics management processes to guide how that supply chain operates. Procurement Understand and optimise your procurement processes across your organisation; product, suppliers, departments, teams, and people, for; need, vendor selection, purchase requisition, purchase order, invoice, and payment. Mitigate supply risks early by being alerted when vendor carbon reduction performance drops, allowing you to find an alternative, greener supplier. Current emissions reporting Centrally schedule, generate and deliver reports to a variety of recipients, with filtered information customised to the user. Reports can be scheduled or run conditionally, encrypted for secure distribution, and delivered through a variety of channels including email, file transfer, and web. This also includes on-demand reporting so you can view your carbon data at any time. Colleagues across the organisation that adopt EPPM can engage and add professional context such as data, text and documents to any part of a process. Whilst at the same time; removing silo-based spreadsheets, creating discussion, ideas, and creating new opportunities that can be collaborated through workflows and approvals in a simple and powerful way. In conclusion Meeting emissions targets and reaching NetZero is truly a collaborative undertaking, going beyond the organisation and through supply chains. 2050 might seem far away, however new milestones will continue to arise, with reporting on supply-chains being one of the first. By utilising EPPM tools your organisation can make changes efficiently and reach the end goal. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.differentia.consulting

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Highways UK Steve Birdsall will further explore how vehicle sensor technology is transforming asset managers’ approach to road safety at Highways UK, which is running at the NEC in Birmingham on 3 - 4 November. Highways UK sets out to bring together the people responsible for planning, developing, managing, maintaining, and future-proofing the nation’s roads networks, by combining a high-level multi-stream conference together with a major services and suppliers-led exhibition. It rapidly established itself as the sector’s must-attend event and the highlight of the highways industry’s annual calendar. Highways UK’s success is built upon bringing together, at scale, the influencers and decision makers across the sector to identify how to deliver the roads infrastructure the country needs, while at the same time, achieving positive outcomes for the economy, society and the environment. Steve Birdsall will take place on the panel on ‘Is AI-enabled vehicle sensor technology the greatest development in road safety since the

Steve Birdsall will further explore how vehicle sensor technology is transforming asset managers’ approach to road safety at Highways UK, which is running at the NEC in Birmingham on 3 - 4 November seat belt?’. Other contributors to the session include Björn Zachrisson from Nira Dynamics in Sweden and Paul Boss, chief executive of Road Surface Treatments Association. Notable names On 3 November, Andy Street, Mayor the West Midlands, will provide the welcome to the show before a State of the Nation panel will see Nick Harris, chief executive of National Highways, the Department for Transport’s Jill Adam and John Larkinson, chief executive of the Office of Rail and Road UK speak in the Main Theatre. Victoria Higgin and Christopher Taylor, from National Highways, will use their session on digital roads to explore how National Highways creates a safer, smoother, greener strategic road network through the digital transformation of how we build, maintain, run and connect with drivers who use our roads. Higgin will also speak in the Tech & Innovations Theatre alongside PA Consulting’s Warwick Goodall to present insights from the Digital Leaders Forum, who come together periodically to share experiences on how to best utilise developments in digital tech for the good of the highway sector. Local roads and net zero Why are there so many organisations facing the local roads market? Who’s in the tent and what do they do? Is there potential to be greater than the sum of the parts? Darren Capes, Intelligent Transport Systems

Highways UK

 So how does it work? The real time datasets consist of a combination of tyre-road friction readings, ambient temperature and windscreen wiper speeds from passenger vehicles traversing the road network. This is then used to create a set of map layers to give winter maintenance professionals access to a level of detailed information with which to inform their decisions. The readings are all mapped using GPS and timestamped and are never the result of data from one vehicle – there is an established minimum threshold of vehicles from which data is drawn. The real-time dynamic datasets will be accessible for the first time to local authorities and networks from Safecote, a Gaist partner, through its BM Roads System.

Policy Lead at the Department for Transport will analyse the issue with Paul Boss, chief executive of the RSTA and ARTSM’s general secretary Kealie Franklin. What does net zero compatible transport infrastructure look like? Achieving carbon budgets and net zero requires transport emissions to fall dramatically in the 2020s. In this context as a highways industry our decision making process must factor in what types of infrastructure are delivered, how they are delivered and when. This requires a robust understanding of the carbon impacts of transport infrastructure across the project lifecycle and its relation to carbon pathways. In this presentation WSP will explore what is net zero compatible transport infrastructure and how this must be delivered, drawing on best practice, emerging policy and case studies. There will also be several local authority perspectives shared on the second day of the conference, with Transport for London’s Glynn Barton looking at the need for better infrastructure for active travel and Gloucestershire County Council’s Colin Chick looking at how high highways support the delivery of local authority services. There will also be a sessions sharing the findings from ADEPT’s ground breaking Live Labs programme, including key lessons learnt from the eight projects trialled in phase 1. L FURTHER INFORMATION https://bit.ly/3idRg8i

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The Cleaning Show

Highlighting new cleaning and sanitation practices The global pandemic has seen cleanliness and sanitation become a top priority for government officials, business owners and consumers alike. Helping showcase the latest advancements in cleaning practices and technologies, The Cleaning Show returns from 2-4 November 2021 The show, organised by the British Cleaning Council and Quartz Business Media, is set to attract more than 7,000 senior cleaning professionals from across the contract cleaning, facilities management, healthcare, hospitality, retail, and public services sectors – making it the UK’s largest and most important event in the cleaning and hygiene sector. And, as the first event in the sector to take place since the UK’s national lockdown was lifted, attendees will be able to connect, learn and discover new products, services, and suppliers at a critical time as businesses across the UK prioritise cleaning protocols to ensure returning staff and customers remain safe.

one of the biggest and most credible APPGs to be established with a total of 53 MPs and three representatives from the House of Lords already members. With the profile of cleaning and hygiene never having been so prominent, this presentation will look at the work of the APPG and its critical role in keeping cleaning and hygiene at the top of the political agenda. Other highlights include Jamie Wright, managing director of Incentive QAS Ltd who will delve into the critical role of the cleaning industry post-pandemic. He’ll address the importance of focusing on public safety, as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, and why an emphasis on the importance of front-line staff continues into the new normal. Lessons learnt during the In this presentation, Jamie will global pandemic explore how the cleaning Reflecting on lessons learnt industry as a multi-faceted One during the global pandemic sector can work in key foc and celebrating the hard cohesion to promote work and achievements the importance of the con us of of cleaning professionals the essential services program ference across the UK, The that it provides to m e t w raining i l l b Cleaning Show conference keep people safe. e within opportunities programme makes an Elsewhere, the clea eagerly awaited return. It Sebastian Bachelier, industr ning will provide a platform for programme manager y attendees to learn and discuss and project lead for the latest developments, and the the Recognised Service critical next steps for an industry on Providers at The Living Wage the frontline of public health and safety. Foundation, and Charlie Mowat, Demonstrating the growing importance founder and CEO of The Clean Space will of the cleaning and hygiene sectors to public come together to discuss how cleaning has safety, a dedicated session exploring the critical shifted from an invisible workforce to one of key role of the new All-Party Parliamentary Group workers, and why the Real Living Wage matters (AAPG) will be led by Jim Melvin, group chief now more than ever. With a record number of executive of The Exclusive Services Group Ltd organisations publicly signing up to the Living and chairman of The British Cleaning Council. Wage Foundation and with a growth in demand Inaugurated earlier this year and sponsored for front line workers in cleaning, catering and by the British Cleaning Council, the group is security, they will provide food for thought

BUSINESS INFORMATION FOR LOCAL AND CENTRAL GOVERNMENT | www.governmentbusiness.co.uk

on why now is the perfect time to champion the real Living Wage in employee contracts. One key focus of the conference programme will be training opportunities within the cleaning industry. Delia Cannings, director at Environmental Excellence Training Development Ltd, will lead a session on training opportunities, focusing on apprenticeships and funding. The presentation will include a review of the current needs of the cleaning industry with a focus on the lessons learned during the pandemic and will provide recognition of the contribution cleaning teams across the world made as we battled to recover. Elsewhere, Neil Spencer-Cook, COO at BICSc, will be joined by his colleague Michelle Iland, marketing and events manager, to deliver a session titled ‘Training and delivery styles for cleaning service providers’. The session will provide commercial cleaning providers with a holistic look at the various training options and their benefits, and what could work best for their organisation. Preventative cleaning in a post-pandemic future On the show floor, more than 60 leading cleaning suppliers are already confirmed to exhibit, including returning exhibitors, Evans Vanodine, Numatic, ICE, Karcher UK, MITIE, Nilfisk and Killis. Attendees will have the opportunity to test and source new and exciting products from these exhibitors, along with companies joining the event for the first time, including Apex Supplies, Team Software and WEPA Professional. With new and recently launched innovations on display, attendees can find the solutions to help them meet the increasing demands for heightened cleanliness and sanitation in a post-pandemic future. For example, ICE, the UK’s largest independent provider

of cleaning equipment, will be on hand to showcase its wide range of future friendly cleaning solutions. Among its newly launched products, ICE unveiled its new UV Bot – the latest in its co-botics range designed to advance autonomous cleaning through innovation. It enables the operator to add disinfectant and set tasks before the self-driving UV bots begins its work. It is complete with 3D obstacle avoidance and 360° UV-C and ultrasonic dry mist disinfection. One of the largest specialist cleaning providers in the UK, MITIE Cleaning Services, will demonstrate the importance of clean, safe environments for maintaining the productivity and well-being of customers and employees. The award-winning company works across a wide range of sectors including government and defence, healthcare and education, technical services, business services to private sector clients in manufacturing, transport, retail, providing essential services and deploying industry leading technology to create safe and effective workspaces. Among the first-time exhibitors joining the show is WEPA Professional which will showcase its new Satino disinfection range. Offering premium solutions for hand hygiene in public spaces, Satino by WEPA disinfection stands offer touch-free sensor control, combined with quick installation and uncomplicated handling. Ideal for medium and highfrequency use, the range is ideal for a wide range of applications in hotels, offices, production facilities, medical practices, retail and more. New to 2021, attendees can also find out more about floor care without compromise using Timberline Cleaning Equipment – available exclusively in the UK through Apex Supplies. While TEAM Software will highlight its leading software for security, cleaning and facilities management companies, designed to help manage the workforce and back office systems. Demonstrating excellence New for 2021, the Cleaning & Support Services Association will be hosting its 2021 CSSA Innovation Showcase in a dedicated pavilion at the event to highlight and celebrate the industry’s most innovative cleaning products, services and initiatives. Prior to The Cleaning Show, the CSSA will hold an Innovator’s Pitch with a panel of leading industry experts who will review and interview all entrants and select those to be exhibited at the Innovation Showcase itself. Jim Melvin, chairman of the British Cleaning Council, said: “This past year has more than demonstrated the importance of the cleaning and hygiene industry, which reacted and helped significantly and professionally in safeguarding and protecting the public in order to ensure that the UK’s commercial and public spaces are safe.

The Cleaning Show

Reflecting on lessons learnt during the global pandemic and celebrating the hard work and achievements of cleaning professionals across the UK, The Cleaning Show conference programme makes an eagerly awaited return “Continuing to spearhead innovation, the industry has quickly adapted to all of the emerging challenges, and we are truly excited to return to the ExCeL, London as the first physical event for the sector to demonstrate our collective collaboration in continuing to drive the industry forward at such a critical time.” Stuart Dacre, event director of The Cleaning Show, added: “We are delighted to reunite the industry face-to-face to network, learn and discover the latest innovations at the UK’s largest and most important event in the cleaning and hygiene sector. We know that both our exhibitors and attendees are eager for the event to return, and we have worked hard to ensure they can do so in confidence by creating a safe environment to reconnect and do business. With a host of industry experts confirmed to discuss the latest trends in our conference programme, exciting new product launches, competitions, world record attempts and more… it really will be an event that no cleaning professional can miss.” L FURTHER INFORMATION www.cleaningshow.co.uk

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Advertisement Feature

A single source building design consultancy The integrated multi-disciplinary team at Align Property Partners has over a decade of experience in delivering a wide range of building projects across many sectors services We will align your aspirations with our expertise to ensure these become a reality.

Align Property Partners (APP) is an experienced integrated business of architects, building surveyors, project managers, mechanical and electrical engineers, structural/civil/highways engineers, quantity surveyors, estate surveyors, and CDM advisors. Our multi-disciplinary team has over a decade of experience delivering a wide range of projects from refurbishments to new builds. We have achieved ISO 9001 & ISO 14001 accreditation, as well as being corporate chartered members of professional bodies including the Royal Institute of British Architects. We continue to grow through our success, having delivered over 1,000 projects with a capital value in excess of £500 million over the last ten years. We are constantly moving our business forward by continually developing our staff and utilising the latest technology, including Building Information Management. We support regional businesses by establishing local supply chains as well as promoting further training and employment opportunities to the community via our apprenticeship scheme and structured sponsorship. Our vision APP ensures collaborative working is at the heart of what we do to ensure your project is a success. Our teams prioritise understanding your needs at the outset so that we can clearly define the expected outcomes. This way we can manage your budget, programme and approach to risk, to deliver the best value project. We aim to be the property consultant of choice, recognised for delivering high quality, excellent value solutions and a leading provider of professional design

Project management With our background as a multidisciplinary built environment design consultancy, we will collaborate with you from the outset of a project to understand the initial requirements, develop concept proposals, initiate feasibility and viability studies; through to implementing design solutions, procurement, construction, commissioning, handover and operation. Architecture We work in partnership with our clients to generate real added value, providing responsive design solutions, to deliver a collaborative result. Our experience covers a wide range of projects throughout the design process. We incorporate all Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) work stages into your project. We are experienced in Passiv-haus design, low carbon and green energy solutions. Building surveying At APP our building surveyors listen to what our clients want and provide them with services that are creative, efficient and sustainable. We provide professional advice on property and construction, completing detailed reports for clients to advise them on the restoration and maintenance of existing buildings. We also work on the design and development of new buildings to meet and exceed client needs. Mechanical and electrical APP provide sustainable and innovative solutions, producing mechanical and electrical services that are creative, energy efficient, cost effective and easy to maintain. We provide feasibility and business case studies, BIM modelling, sustainable design, surveying

and technical reports, financial control and building service commission management. Estates Within the APP estates team, we have over 150 years accumulated experience in property. We aim to work alongside our clients to implement an effective asset management programme through adopting a long-term approach, and to optimise their property portfolio in line with service delivery requirements. APP provide strategic portfolio reviews, condition and compliance surveys, asset valuations for capital accounting purposes, general valuation advice delivered by RICS Registered Valuers, development appraisals feasibility studies, disposals advice, general estate management, acquisition and property search services and compulsory purchase and compensation advice. Quantity surveying APP provide cost effective, focused and innovative solutions ensuring clients’ interests are protected from start to finish. APP provides estimating and cost planning, value engineering, preparation of tender documentation, tender assessment, reports and recommendations, on site and final account cost control and management, reinstatement cost assessments and whole life and life cycle cost studies. Structural & highways Our experienced Engineers develop innovative and affordable solutions to a wide variety of projects, overcoming the intrinsic challenges with the Client by providing a comprehensive advisory, feasibility and design service from conception to completion. APP provides option appraisals, design, procurement, management and assessment of geotechnical Investigations, structural surveys and assessments, substructure design, preparation of drawings and specifications and technical audits. Health & safety Our dedicated team of CMaPS Accredited CDM professionals possess the skills, knowledge and experience to undertaken both health and safety site inspections and more thorough site safety audits to support the client with his CDM responsibilities. Inspections and audits can be undertaken at project commencement to ensure appropriate project setup including welfare provision or at key stages throughout the contract to ensure the contractor is meeting safety standards and upholding client expectations. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.alignpropertypartners.co.uk

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Frameworks

Improving estate and property management in the public sector The Crown Commercial Service’s Estate Management Services framework agreement gives public sector organisations access to a simplified means of sourcing end to end property management services, from consultancy to disposal Based on the earlier RM3816 Estates professional services agreement, the RM6168 Estate Management Services agreement combines traditional estate management services with innovation and technology advancements, creating a ‘one stop shop’ solution. Through providing services at the right cost, this three-year agreement enables organisations to reduce property costs, release unwanted property assets, identify savings and opportunities to generate income from land and buildings, adopt innovative and lean process principles, deliver social value that is relevant to their needs and engage with an integrator services provider. Public sector organisations can access a wide range of estate services across seven lots, including: total estate management; estate (property) management; agency and lease management; surveying and strategic advice; valuation and compulsory sale orders; business

rating services and integrated workplace; and ability to tailor further competition will management services; and integrator services. make sure this supports individual delivery The agreement is free to use and considerations, such as SMEs streamlined, meaning that users and your own social value can access a comprehensive priorities. T h e One range of external suppliers, There are 45 Public E more than a third of whom suppliers on this s t a te progr are small and medium agreement, establisamme is an sized enterprises, providing a through a further broad range of programhed national competition process or Royal Institute m e d elivered in partn direct award. Further of Chartered LGA an ership by the competition is estimated Surveyors d t h to take around six accredited e O Govern weeks, depending on the suppliers ment P ffice of roperty w size and scale of the need. that have ithin th e Ca demonstrated Office binet Individual delivery capacity, capability considerations and expertise in their Estates Management Services respective lots. Lots are is designed for a wide range of priced by services provided, customers, and, as such, the lot structures so there is a chance to reduce price E Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

There’s potential in every space. You just have to know how to realise it. We work in every dimension of commercial real estate, delivering unparalleled estate management services to the UK public sector. Our industry leading market insight, integrated services and expertise in Central Government, Local Authorities, Infrastructure, Homes, Education, Health and Defence means we can help you unlock the power and potential of your real estate.

Amanda Clack

Jo Linwood-Barnes

Head of Public Sector

Framework Lead

Further Information Info.RM6168@cbre.com

Learn more at cbre.co.uk/publicsector

The Crown Commercial Service’s Estate Management Services framework agreement gives public sector organisations access to a simplified means of sourcing end to end property management services lease renewals & lease regear; disposal of land, freehold and leasehold property of any property by any person; lease consents; lease surrender and regrant; dilapidations; wayleaves and easements; licences for alteration and landlords consent; vertical real estate; arbitration services; Building Information Modelling; and Government Soft Landings. Lot 4: Surveying and Strategic Advice has 31 suppliers, and covers: development surveys, studies and strategy; technology based surveys, studies and strategy; environmental surveys, studies and strategy; dilapidations

Frameworks

 through further competition. The Crown Commercial Service says that the higher focus on quality also allows you to achieve, build upon or discharge social value, environmental and modern slavery policy. Lot 1: Total Estate Management has 19 suppliers, and covers: estate, asset and property management; treasury services; estate (property) management; agency and lease management; surveying and strategic advice; valuation and compulsory purchase orders; and business rating services. Lot 2: Estate (Property) Management has 24 suppliers, and covers: estate, asset and property management; treasury services; vacant property management; moveable equipment asset management; and estate management support services. Lot 3: Agency and Lease Management has 29 suppliers, and covers: acquisition of land, freehold or leasehold property; pre-acquisition survey or more detailed technical due diligence inspection and report for freehold or leasehold property; acquisition outline feasibility study; rent reviews lease breaks and lease expiries;

surveys, studies and strategy; estate surveys, studies and strategy; and procurement managed services. Lot 5: Valuation and Compulsory Purchase Orders has 25 suppliers, and covers: valuation; and Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPO). Lot 6: Business Rating Services has 16 suppliers, and covers: general administration; full payment management; rating appeals; rating relief; and rating audits. Lot 7: Integrated Workplace Management has eight suppliers, and covers: system support operational and strategic Workplace Management as configured to the Buyer’s E

Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Delivering Integrated Workplace Management Soutions Systems, data analytics, performance management and technological innovation is the core of our Strategic Service Integrator, designed to deliver integrated workplace management solutions to the public sector VISIT BELLROCK.CO.UK FOR MORE INFORMATION Bellrock Property & Facilities Management is a named supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s Estate Management Services (EMS) framework, delivering Strategic Service Integrator solutions within framework Lot 7 - Integrated Workplace Management.

One Public Estate The One Public Estate programme is an established national programme delivered in partnership by the LGA and the Office of Government Property (OGP) within the Cabinet Office. The programme began in 2013 with just 12 areas, but now sees the LGA working with more than 300 councils on projects transforming local communities and public services right across the country. The initiative provides practical and technical support and funding to councils to deliver ambitious property-focused programmes in collaboration with central government and other public sector partners. At its heart, the programme is about getting more from our collective assets - whether that’s catalysing major service transformation such as health

and social care integration and benefits reform; unlocking land for new homes and commercial space; or creating new opportunities to save on running costs or generate income. This is encompassed in three core objectives: creating economic growth (new homes and jobs); delivering more integrated, customerfocused services; and generating efficiencies, through capital receipts and reduced running costs. In June, new One Public Estate and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government funding was set out to create 19,000 jobs and 17,000 new homes. Funding was awarded for over 160 projects across England, which will aim to deliver over 17,000 new homes, 19,000 new jobs and save taxpayers £34 million as the UK government continues on its mission to build back better and level up across the country. Funding was awarded through the Land Release Fund (LRF) and the One Public Estate programme, which works with 97 per cent of councils in England. The LRF funding will support councils to regenerate mainly brownfield sites by providing capital funding for the provision of infrastructure work which will enable them to bring these sites forward for much-needed housing. Projects include: £1.04 million for projects in North Yorkshire for land remediation and infrastructure works to bring forward land

for around 140 homes in Harrogate, Skipton and Knaresborough; and £776,000 for a project in Gloucestershire to redevelop the derelict Brimscombe Port site in Stroud which will deliver around 150 homes as part of wider canal regeneration creating jobs, new enterprise opportunities and a nationallyimportant destination for canal tourism. £10 million has gone towards projects that support collaboration between local and central government and the wider public sector, aiming to achieve greater levels of efficiency and improve service delivery. Awards include: £360,000 for projects in Cumbria, including bringing local authorities, the NHS and other key partners from the leisure sector together to deliver shared leisure and health services that will free up much-needed space in hospitals, reducing running costs by an estimated £390,000 per year; as well as £95,000 for a project in Norfolk to redevelop a town centre site in Great Yarmouth. It will deliver a library and lifelong learning hub, while also bringing together library, children’s and advice services, adult and community learning. It will include higher education provision and also release land for up to 89 new homes. L

Frameworls

 requirements and shall provide the required IT systems, application hosting, implementation, training, support and security for the management of the Services; help desk - the supplier shall provide a Helpdesk facility, which shall be the single point of contact for all Service Users in relation to all Workplace, Property and FM related Service requests; performance management, analysis and reporting - the supplier shall have the capability to provide a comprehensive and flexible reporting solution to cover the functional, operational and strategic aspects; and innovation, technology and data.

FURTHER INFORMATION www.crowncommercial.gov. uk/agreements/RM6168

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argonandco.com

Leading the way. Transforming business. Argon & Co is a global management consultancy that specialises in operations strategy and transformation. With expertise spanning the supply chain, procurement, finance and shared services, we work together with clients to transform their businesses and generate real change. Our people are engaging to work with and trusted by clients to get the job done.

How we can help you Business structure Business case development Business process re-engineering Change management Digital, technology and cyber Regulatory advice Social value Strategy and policy

Frameworks

Improving user experience with Technology Services 2 The Crown Prosecution Service improved their user experience with the Technology Services 2 framework. This Crown Commercial Service case study explains how

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutes criminal cases that have been investigated by the police and other investigative organisations in England and Wales. The independent organisation works from 14 key regional sites with links to courts and police forces across the UK. The CPS decides which cases should be prosecuted and determines the appropriate charges in more serious or complex cases, and advises the police during the early stages of investigations. Approximately 6,000 people work for the CPS across England and Wales in a variety of roles. Almost half employees are lawyers, who are responsible for deciding whether to prosecute cases, and represent the Crown in many hearings in the courts. The rest work to assist prosecutors preparing cases for court, or in other professions

provided across all the CPS ICT suppliers. including operational delivery, finance, Despite the fact that they operate human resources, communications across a multi-supplier and digital and technology environment, the CPS wanted services. Techno to ensure that their user The CPS required a logy experience was seamless, service desk provider S e rvices 3 and that users had who could manage launche access to the help and all of their service d i n July 2021 a support they required. user contacts, critical operational services four ye nd runs for Technology integration and contracars. Call-off Services 2 management (SIAM). t d u ra can be framework The organisation also from twtions The Technology Services required the supplier o t seven y 2 framework agreement, to receive, triage and ears o which expired in September, manage calls to resolution, covers ICT services from along with reviewing the strategy and service design incidents raised and suggesting through transition to operational E continuous improvements to the services Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Journey4 are delighted to be named as a supplier on the Crown Commercial Service’s Management Consultancy Framework 3 (MCF3). Lot5 HR for the following services; Capability development Cultural transformation Dispute management Diversity and inclusion Employee relations HR functions, process and design HR policy Performance management Training and development Organisational design and/or workforce planning

For more information visit www.journey4.co.uk email info@journey4.co.uk or call 0800 448 0526

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Service desk: the 24 hour a day service provided a single point of contact for users seeking assistance relating to any ICT services. It is responsible for logging tickets from multiple channels including phone calls, email, WebChat and the self-service user portal, as well as managing incidents through to resolution by co-ordinating with other suppliers operating in the CPS’s multisupplier model. IT service management (ITSM): services to configure, manage and maintain the

Despite the fact that they operate across a multi-supplier environment, the CPS wanted to ensure that their user experience was seamless, and that users had access to the help and support they required ITSM. This includes incident management, problem management, service level/ priority management, request fulfilment management, service asset and configuration management, knowledge management and service level and MI reporting. Managing the multi-supplier operational environment: operational service management and monitoring across all services relating to the ICT environment, the CPS and other suppliers. This includes managing major incidents to resolution, managing cross-supplier problem

Frameworks

 deployment. This includes large project services up to top secret classification. The CPS used the CCS Technology Services 2 framework to find a supplier who could meet their requirements. CGI’s 5-star certified service desk was successful in securing the contract.It acted as the single point of contact for users to obtain assistance and support for all ICT services within the CPS multi-supplier environment. CGI were able to provide CPS with the following solutions:

management process and maintaining the master configuration management database (CMDB). Supplier provided services: delivery of services such as customer satisfaction, IT service continuity management, knowledge management and service, security and issue escalation to support CGI’s own service desk provision. Continuous service improvement: consistently develop to improve the overall service to CPS users. Improvements implemented to date include ticket E

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Payments are hard. That’s why the world’s leading payment organisations come to us.

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The CGI 5-star certified service desk, which is located in the UK, now manages in excess of 13,000 contacts per month for CPS and has helped to deliver a responsive approach during the coronavirus pandemic to facilitate rapid changes in processes and working practices to enable CPS to adapt to evolving business challenges, as well as reduce call waiting times achieved through accurate demand forecasting and workforce availability planning from analysis of call patterns and trends. The CPS also reports reduced timescales for reporting and recommendations on cost reduction, a better user experience through the availability of multiple contact channels, including a user portal with knowledge and self-help articles, as well as operational integration to provide CPS users with a seamless service across its multi-supplier environment. Fiona James, deputy director of Digital, Digital Technology Service at CPS, said: “CGI continues to demonstrate its commitment to CPS, its users and multiple suppliers by

working collaboratively, managing change to minimise the impacts, as well as proactive management of incidents and requests.”

customers at the heart of everything we do to help support the public sector to continue on its digital transformation journey.”

Technology Services 3 framework The Technology Services 3 framework enables customers to procure information and communication technology services across the entire lifecycle; from strategy through to transition and operational deployment. The new agreement builds on the success of the Technology Services 2 framework, which expires in September, adding refinements to the Lots and making it easier and more efficient for customers to procure IT services. The Technology Services 3 launched in July 2021 and runs for four years. Call-off contract durations can be from two to seven years. Philip Orumwense, Commercial Director and Chief Technology Procurement Officer, Crown Commercial Service, said: “Technology Services 3 has been designed and developed using an extensive discovery and consultative process with many of our customers, suppliers, and partners. This framework truly reflects and represents their expectations and provides the platform for the country to build back better with the right mix of quality and innovative suppliers, including SME providers. This is another example of how CCS is putting

Lotting structure The Lots will comprise: Lot 1 – Technology Strategy and Service Design; Lot 2 – Transition and Transformation; Lot 3a – End User Services; Lot 3b – Operational Management; Lot 3c – Technical Management; Lot 3d – Application and Data Management; Lot 4 – Major Service Transformation Programmes; and Lot 5 – Service Integration and Management. Lot 4, covering major service transformations, has been simplified. Market feedback was that the previous securityfocused sub-Lots were confusing and restrictive, and they have been removed. A new Service Integration and Management (SIAM) Lot has been introduced to support customers looking to disaggregate the delivery of their technology services. By using SIAM, customers can manage multiple suppliers of services and integrate them to provide a single, business-facing IT organisation. L

Frameworls

 trending to identify user-training needs, development of ServiceNow dashboards for use by all CPS suppliers and enhancements to major incident reporting.

FURTHER INFORMATION www.crowncommercial.gov.uk

Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Contact centre services transformed using Network Services 2 The DVLA has procured a new five-year contract through Network Services 2, resulting in increased opportunities for self-serve, automation, scalability and flexibility. Read more from the Crown Commercial Service in this case study The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency This online service, which followed the is an executive agency, sponsored by the launch of a new DVLA digital campaign Department for Transport, and holds more to promote its online services, slashes the than 49 million driver records and more amount of time it takes to receive a new than 40 million vehicle records. log book from up to six weeks to around Technology is helping the five days, with motorists able to DVLA transform its services. update their address details The on In April this year it in minutes. was revealed that Alongside this, the service line slashes home movers have DVLA and the Home the am ount of racked up more Office have developed t akes to t i m e than a million technology to allow i t log boo receive a ne transactions in police officers dealing w k under a year with motoring weeks from up to s to arou i on DVLA’s new offences to confirm x days, w nd five online service to a driver’s identity change an address at the roadside. This able to ith motorists u on a V5C log book. now means, in the case address pdate their Since its launch in of motoring offences, d et June last year the officers can confirm minute ails in service has proven the correct identity of a s extremely popular, with driver almost instantly. This over 60 per cent of motorists technology is currently in use by needing to tell DVLA about a change of 18 police forces with plans to roll out to address choosing to use the online service a further 10 police forces across the UK in instead of through the post. the coming weeks.

Contact centre services The DVLA went to market to re-procure their telephony services contract, including contact centre functionality, to deliver a modern communication solution with increased functionality and flexibility, providing a better experience for customers and employees. DVLA were keen to take advantage of the developments in the market since they last updated their system, and decided to take a technology-agnostic approach to their procurement. This allowed them to go to the market with an open tender rather than identify a specific solution, to increase competition and innovation. By focusing on outcomes, suppliers weren’t restricted in their approach to the competition. This led to a diverse response from the market, with bids ranging from on-premise network solutions to fully hosted and also hybrid. The decision was taken to use Lot 10 (Unified Communications) of Network Services 2 for DVLA’s contract. The project team engaged extensively with suppliers through site visits and supplier days. They carried out due diligence by consulting E Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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The Network Services 2 agreement offers customers a range of primary and ancillary services, including: voice and data provision; internet access; Wi-Fi; radio; security and surveillance to use self-service and automation, as well as providing our staff with enhanced and improved communications tooling.” The Network Services 2 agreement offers customers a range of primary and ancillary services, including: voice and data provision; internet access; Wi-Fi; radio; security and surveillance; audio and video conferencing; equipment; and maintenance and support services. University of Manchester The University of Manchester was looking to renew its mobile voice and data services contract, which had been put in place using a CCS framework agreement. They realised that using the technology aggregation service that we offer to customers free of charge would be an ideal way to renew the contract, and seek improved value for money. The CCS aggregation team helps customers make savings by creating opportunities for them to standardise their requirements. The university decided to join a technology aggregation for their mobile voice and data services needs. They joined eight other customers, enabling us to aggregate 16,600 mobile connections in total. The university worked closely with the CCS team, who clearly explained the process and

Frameworks

 with internal experts to ensure that DVLAs requirements could be met through the provision of cloud, hybrid or on-premise solutions. DVLA ran a further competition using Network Services 2 (RM3808). The contract was awarded to Wavenet Limited. The five-year contract will transform contact centre services along with DVLA’s backoffice telephony, beginning with the cloud contact centre deployment. The contract is anticipated to deliver a smaller computer footprint that saves both space and power and offers increased opportunities for self-serve, automation, scalability and flexibility. Rob Holohan, Contact Centre Product Owner at DVLA, said: “From a customer perspective, this technology will deliver a greater choice around how and when customers contact us. A suite of management information (MI) and analytical tools will allow us to effectively measure and continuously improve the service we provide and ensure we are meeting customer needs. “It also gives us a great opportunity to deliver modern customer service tooling for our staff – and by providing a greater understanding of the customer journey it allows us to offer a more personalised and efficient customer experience. The new solution will allow us to revamp our IVRs (interactive voice response), automate some of the simpler enquiries that we receive and provide 24/7 support to our customers.” Justin Griffiths, Project Manager at DVLA, added: “The project will transform our contact centre services through Content Guru’s storm platform. This solution will integrate with our existing web channels and new telephony services. It will provide increased opportunities for our customers

the support available at an introductory meeting. Following this, a detailed early market engagement and benchmarking exercise was jointly carried out. This identified that the aggregated approach could help the university achieve a minimum saving of 40 per cent. Mark Worrall from the Procurement Office at University of Manchester said: “The CCS team provided excellent professional support throughout the process. They aided discussions with internal stakeholders and suppliers. The detailed analysis and engagement provided confidence for university stakeholders. They provided all the information I needed to ensure internal approval to take part in the aggregation \ was secured. “CCS led and managed the procurement process extremely well. We were kept updated throughout, from the drafting of the tender documents to post-contract award. The contract was awarded in April 2021 and we have been able to realise savings of around 50 per cent against our existing deal. This is even higher than anticipated.” L FURTHER INFORMATION www.crowncommercial.gov.uk

Issue 28.5 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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