Archives for April 2014

BOOST FOR OUR PLACE INITIATIVE AS MORE COMMUNITIES GET INVOLVED

Headlines, PublicNet: 24 April, 2014

Over 100 communities have signed up to the Our Place programme which provides support for is designing and and delivering local services that focus on local priorities and reduce costs.

This major expansion of the programme, which brings together councillors, public servants, voluntary and community organisations and the community themselves to tackle local issues and revolutionise the way an area works, follows a successful pilot scheme.

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PARLIAMENTRY COMMITTEE WANTS MORE COMPLAINTS AND BETTER LISTENING

Headlines, PublicNet: 16 April, 2014

PARLIAMENTRY COMMITTEE WANTS MORE COMPLAINTS AND BETTER LISTENING

The Commons Public Administration Select Committee says complaints are valuable management resource, but the culture of denial and failure of leadership in public services in handling them is what leads to failures like the Mid-Staffs hospital disaster.

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Book News, PublicNet: 15 April, 2014

In this book Philippe Deschamps explains how top managers stimulate, steer and sustain innovation.

Innovation leaders promote and address the innovation agenda in their organisation. Through personal conviction or competitive necessity they are obsessed with providing superior value to customers through innovation. They know how to mobilize their staff behind concrete innovation initiatives and do not hesitate to personally coach innovation teams.??For innovation to occur leadership has to be collective.

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WHY SMEs SHOULD WELCOME EUROPEAN PUBLIC SECTOR PROCUREMENT REFORM

Features, PublicNet: 11 April, 2014

Criticism of the processes for procuring goods and services in the UK has grown steadily over the years. Compared to other EU member states, procurement in the UK was more costly and took longer. In this article Pedro Paulo explains the changes being made and he describes the benefits for the different stakeholders.

Government spending in the UK has long been concentrated on vast contracts made with giants among their industry. Large multinational companies continue to win multi-year, multi-billion pound government deals, and smaller firms are left feeling unable to compete.

The European Parliament recently agreed to support a package of new procurement directives which have been designed, amongst other aims, to help European Union member states to cut red tape and boost participation by small and medium businesses in public sector procurement competitions.

With the introduction of a standard “European Single Procurement Document” based on self-declarations, it is hoped that the new directives will make for a simpler bidding process, as only the winning bidder will have to provide original documentation. This document in itself is estimated by the European Parliament to reduce the administrative load on companies by over 80 percent, making it significantly easier for SMEs to bid for public sector contracts.

Additionally, in a move that is hoped to save SMEs up to 60 percent of current bidding costs, the new directives will require public sector organisations to break large contracts into smaller lots which should make them more accessible to smaller businesses.

The UK government has welcomed the support for these reforms, having been working to deliver a number of measures to ensure that SMEs have a greater involvement in public sector procurement. Their aim is that, by 2015, 25 percent of government spend will be with smaller businesses.

The current state of UK public sector procurement

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TROUBLED FAMILIES PROGRAMMES LIKELY TO MISS TARGETS

Headlines, PublicNet: 10 April, 2014

Delivery of the ‘troubled families’ programmes which are designed to turn around the lives of some of the most disadvantaged families is so far behind schedule that targets are unlikely to be met.

The DCLG programme to turn around the lives of 120,000 troubled families by March 2015 is 13% behind its own expectations of performance. By October 2013 it had achieved lasting improvements in the lives of 22,000 families, leaving a further 98,000 to be ‘turned around’ by May 2015.

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UNIVERSAL CREDIT: LANDLORDS SCALING BACK ON RENTING TO WELFARE CLAIMANTS

Headlines, PublicNet: 9 April, 2014

Because of confusion over how rent arrears will be tackled under the Universal Credit, almost four in 10 larger landlords intend to reduce the number of properties they let to welfare recipients according to research from the British Property Federation.

The Federation said that landlord groups, NGOs and Government should all act to reduce the uncertainty of the impact of the Government’s flagship welfare reform after it found that 39% of landlords with more than 10 properties were intending to reduce the number of properties they let to those on housing benefit, when the change comes in.

Universal Credit combines six benefits into a single monthly payment. It is designed to offer greater protection to landlords from rent arrears, but the Federation said today that the result of its survey meant that this message was not accepted by many landlords. It called for greater dialogue between landlords, tenants, NGOs and government to clearly explain the implications of Universal Credit.

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COUNCILS GET CASH FOR TRANSFORMING SERVICES

Headlines, PublicNet: 4 April, 2014

Councils that made successful bids for a share of the £90m Transforming Services fund have received the money for introducing changes which will result in services being delivered differently. Bids have also been invited for a share of the £320m fund which will be distributed over the next two years.

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