News Summary of Collaboration and Shared Services from 10th February 2016

And so, the layer of collaborative transformation staff to support combined authorities begins to grow!

The advert for the Managing Director, Tees Valley Combined Authority was published last week marking the external recruitment of a new layer of leadership and project management teams that will glue the £multi-billion combined authorities and devolution projects together.

Almost 1,000 people across the UK will be needed to fulfil these full-time roles and they are unlikely to be loaned from under-staffed councils or partners. If you have been through the Shared Service, or Collaborative Transformation, Practitioner programmes then you are exactly the kind of people they will need to recruit, for these projects to be successful.

 

The benefit for you, is that these are jobs are likely to last for a time, as the combined authority structures are built-up. Compare that, to the continued management and staff reductions with-in organisations as public sector budgets continue to be cut or frozen.

 

SSA will continue to post these kinds of jobs on our website, but there is no harm in you subscribing directly to public sector jobsites, just to keep your eye on the local ball. To have SS(PRAC)™ or CTPrac™ on your CV will do you no harm when applying either! We are just putting dates together for post Easter sessions if you would like to step onto the programme.

Here is the news update from the last 7 days...

 

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The new SSA Collaborative Communications Toolkit seminar is on 26^th February in London. This new toolkit and one-day seminar, is for Communications and Programme Managers who are responsible for shared service/devolution multi-partner, multi-stakeholder communications, often with limited resources or specialist skills. Click here to see the contents and journey map.

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Devolution

Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016

Here are full details of the sections in the Act. Read more >>>

Using built assets for successful devolution

It’s a topical question, in the context of devolution deals and the government’s announcement in the spending review that councils will be allowed to keep money raised from asset sales to reinvest in local services, and will be set targets for asset sales. Read more >>>

Deadlocked Yorkshire devolution: Who will blink first?

With no end in sight to the deadlock blocking the government's ambitions for sealing devolution deals for Yorkshire it could be a case of who blinks first. Read more >>>

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Health & Social Care

'Nothing of this scale has been tried in Wales before': plans for £60m wellness village gather pace

Plans to regenerate a Carmarthenshire town with a £60million ‘Wellness and Wellbeing Village’ are some of the most innovative the country has seen, say health bosses. Read more >>>

Care Act ‘increasing tensions’ with NHS trusts over social worker integration

Report finds integration in mental health is facing 'unprecedented challenges' as budgets tighten. The pressure on councils to deliver on their Care Act duties is ‘increasing tensions’ over deals to integrate mental health social workers in NHS trusts, research has found. Read more >>>

Patients with long-term conditions need a joined-up NHS

Transforming the care of long-term conditions is the key to ensuring the financial sustainability of the NHS. But although there is wide agreement on what needs to change, progress towards achieving it is painfully slow. Read more >>>

Are you a care worker? If so the days of hourly pay might be over

A radical plan by Glasgow City Council to stop paying for social care by the hour has been criticised as forcing care users to pay the price of fair wages for care workers. Read more >>>

New Health and Social Care Partnership launched in Fife

The launch of Fife’s new Health and Social Care Partnership was officially marked at a conference yesterday. Created by Fife Council and NHS Fife, the partnership is part of the Scottish Government’s ambitious programme... Read more >>>

North-east care merger on track

Work is on track to unite NHS Grampian and councils across the north-east to improve health and social care. New Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) for Moray, Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City will be formally established in April. Read more >>>

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Blue Light Collaboration

Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Police are 'too different' to join forces under devolution

Nottinghamshire Police would "look to the south" if they considered merging forces, according to a prospective police and crime commissioner. Read more >>>

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News Summary of Collaboration and Shared Services from 3rd February 2016

We have been commissioned by the LGA to refresh the LGA Shared Services Map and would like to hear from you if you have used the LGA Map to make contact with other organisations to learn from  their collaborative working experiences. Email me if you would like to share your experience.

 

2016 is warming up and there is plenty of news from the last 7 days that we can all learn from. In addition, there are some interesting jobs for you to consider….

 

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Devolution

New Devolution Act fails to grant councils the true freedom they need to function, says City Constitution expert

The new Devolution Act restricts local Councils to Whitehall’s terms rather than granting them the freedom they so desperately need to function appropriately, according to Dr John Stanton, a constitutional law expert at City University London. Read more >>>

Wales devolution: Reject 'flawed' Wales Bill, AMs urged

Plans to give more powers to Wales are so flawed AMs should reject them altogether, a team of academics and former senior civil servants has said. More say over energy, transport and the assembly's own elections are on offer. Read more >>>

Councils divided over devolution deal in North Midlands

Up to four councils would not be prepared to sign up to the devolution deal in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire as it stands today, our sister magazine The MJ has learned. Read more >>>

Devolution to support Devon and Somerset growth

A Devon and Somerset devolution deal could support the creation of 163,000 jobs and provide a £4bn uplift to the economy by 2030, according to council and business leaders. Read more >>>

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Local Government

Coventry chief exec calls for debate over "outdated data sharing protocols"

Martin Reeves believes "devolution, combined authorities, and the whole shifting tectonic plates" offers prospect of a new discussion over data sharing protocols. Read more >>>

Frontline services threatened by ‘radical shake-up’ in council funding

Funding changes will push councils to breaking point and place existence of local services under threat, the Local Government Association (LGA) is warning. Read more >>>

Sturgeon says council deal will secure living wage

Nicola Sturgeon has defended the funding deal for Scottish councils - and called on them to implement the Living Wage for care workers. The first minister urged councils to accept the funding package on offer and work together in tackling low pay. Read more >>>

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Health & Social Care

Don't give them a bed, give them a chair: a new twist on an age-old problem

In December, after her third fall in a few months, Doris Carpenter was admitted to Rochdale infirmary. Carpenter is 84 and lives alone, but she is increasingly unsteady on her feet, and if she falls, she hasn’t the strength to get up again. Read more >>>

My life, a full life: Sharing the success of the Isle of Wight Vanguard Project – Karen Baker, Isle of Wight NHS Trust Chief Executive Officer

Karen Baker looked at the Isle of Wight’s unique health economy and the challenges and opportunities a whole system approach presents when it comes to delivering ‘My Life is a Full Life’, the Isle of Wight’s Vanguard project. Read more >>>

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Blue Light Collaboration

Fire and police chiefs in role swap as government pushes for collaboration

Fire chiefs with no experience of fighting crime could head police forces in a drive to increase collaboration between emergency services. Read more >>>

Shared blue light hubs will be new trend

Wigan's sharing of emergency services headquarters could be a template followed across the country as part of cost-cutting plans. Read more >>>

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