This programme is now available to view on egovtv.tv, the online television channel for public service modernisation. It looks at the application of a new electronic procurement and tendering system designed to reduce procurement costs and simplify administration.
The “Public Procurement Platform” provides for catalogue procurement and manages the tendering process. It enables a greater number of suppliers to be engaged and streamlines record keeping. 

More towns and cities in England are to get a chance to bid for part of a 140 million pound investment in cycling. Among the proposals is an expansion of the Cycling Demonstration Towns project and the creation of the first demonstration city.
The package includes 110 million pounds of new money on top of the ten million already allocated to cycling promotion in each of the next three years. 

A local government think tank is calling on councils to sign up to its voluntary carbon trading scheme as a way of showing they can set the pace in tackling the effects of climate change. The call from the Local Government Information Unit follows the last of a series of roundtable meetings it has organised about developing a trading scheme. 

By Amy Kates and Jay R. Galbraith
The book is a hands-on guide that provides managers with a set of practical tools to use when making organization design decisions. Based on Jay Galbraith’s widely used Star Model, the book covers the fundamentals of organisation design and offers frameworks and tools to help leaders execute their strategy. 

Making transactions on-line is more efficient than posting a cheque or taking cash to the town hall, but another incentive to boost on-line activity is that it is a way to reduce the carbon footprint. A new report from Communities and Local Government demonstrates that moving activity on-line has a significant impact on reducing carbon dioxide emissions. 

Research commissioned by Leicester University gave criminals the opportunity to express their views on crime deterrents. The majority admitted that a hi-tech invisible liquid, which can only be seen under ultra violet light, is the most effective way to stop them in their tracks. Burglars are automatically sprayed with a DNA-style code that lasts for months, linking them directly to a crime scene. The forensic technology is also used to ‘code’ valuables. 

The new national bus concession, starting on 1 April 2008, will extend free off peak bus travel for those over 60 or disabled, to any local bus route in England. Previously, they could only travel free within their local area.
The Department for Transport has launched a publicity campaign to make people aware of the new concession and is looking to councils to promote the scheme locally. To help local publicity the Department has developed a toolkit with advertising and publicity templates. 

Some 80 per cent of people mixed socially with people from different ethnic or religious groups at least once a month either at work, at a place of education, through a leisure activity, at a place of worship, at the shops or through volunteering. In the over 75 age group this perception of cohesion was 91 per cent, but for the under 34s it was only 77 per cent. 

Strategic service delivery partnerships between councils and the private sector can bring benefits, but the risks are extremely high. This is the conclusion of the Audit Commission which warns that councils should consider a partnership as one of a number of potential options to meet the challenge to increase efficiency.
Over half of councils say that they are engaged in, or considering, a service partnership in areas such as council tax collection, IT and property management. 

By Andy Bagley
Changes to the Assessment Framework from April 2008 could leave local authorities unprepared and ill equipped to deliver against performance targets. Fewer targets do not mean less performance measurement, it means focusing measurement on the things that matter. The author describes how local authorities could run the risk of failing to achieve key government targets if they do not have the right working methods and measures in place to deliver performance success.