News Summary of Collaboration and Shared Services from 5 February 2014

Blue Light Transformation

Well, the list of who won the £25m from the Blue Light Innovation has now been published and is available by clicking here.

Just to remind you, the Police Innovation Fund will be worth up to £50 million a year in 2014 & 15. However, last week, the Home Office released a taster fund of £20 million to Police and Crime Commissioners.

It looks like most police forces in England and Wales received a share of the money which, in classic Whitehall style, is top-sliced from future policing budgets. We have already been approached by two forces who want to run the Shared Service Practitioner sessions for capacity building their project team, which makes sense. Here some examples of projects:

Control room merger for Warwickshire and West Mercier police and fire services ‘an option’

Government funds may be used to help Warwickshire and West Mercia Police forces and the fire services of both regions share resources for their control rooms. Read more >>>

PCC Sets Up Community Innovation Fund

Police and Crime Commissioner for Wiltshire and Swindon Angus Macpherson is commissioning community and voluntary initiatives through his £1 million Innovation Fund. Read more >>>

Sussex and Surrey police team up to bag funding

A joint bid for government funding made by Surrey and Sussex Police is set to improve public online services across the two police forces. Read more >>>

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Highway Code Updates

 

Happy birthday to the Social Value Act! There are still many blank stares from our students on the SS(PRAC) programme when we cover this Act and its implications for shared services, in the Highway Code Of Shared Services session. It impacts on all public-sector funded bodies in England and here is an example of the SVA in action in the Housing sector…

 

The Social Value Act One Year on…

Melanie Mills, SEWM CEO and Tim Edwards, Group Head of Regeneration at The Aspire Group discuss the impact of the Act on its Anniversary. Read more >>>

Also in the Highway Code, for your section on trade union policy on TUPE in relation to shared services, this is a useful understanding of the TUC position on the TUPE changes that came into play last Friday. Did you know there are up to 40,000 TUPE transfers made in the UK each year?

Weakening TUPE law will put hundreds of thousands of workers at risk, warns TUC

Government changes to the Transfer of Undertakings and Protection of Employment (TUPE) will drive down pay and conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers and… Read more >>>

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Local Government

I am a bit embarrassed. I keep referring to shared service working in Scotland, Wales and England and have never referred to the Isle of Man Government’s work in this area. Here is news published this week…

Isle of Mann - £4m to be saved by sharing services

The government is planning to save more than £4 million a year by sharing back office and support functions. Read more >>>

Mainland local government continues to be active in collaborative working too…

Job cuts expected as councils combine to save money

Jobs are ‘likely’ to be cut as two councils strive to make more savings. But councillors were keen to praise the contribution of staff as they seek to bridge a budget gap of over £4million. Read more >>>

'Active discussions' underway on Tri-borough ICT procurement framework expansion

Leaders at the Tri-borough shared services programme are in "active discussion" with five other London local authorities about joining its framework allowing councils to purchase IT services and resources cheaply, consistently and efficiently. Read more >>>