After the Downturn

After the Downturn – Managing a Significant and Sustained Adjustment in Public Sector Funding

We have been working with our colleagues at CIPFA over recent months to produce this report (click here). Our report lays bare the challenge facing public services. The need to pay off the UK’s significant debts will mean that public services will no longer be able to continue in their current form. Greater efficiency alone will not be enough to deliver the transformation that is needed. We are arguing for a new deal in public services where people matter more than process and local decision makers are given the freedom to lead.

Our report sets out the potential scale of the funding cuts and puts forward three interdependent strategic options that, if taken seriously, will provide the transformation we need:

• Redefining the relationship between the state and the individual – a reconsideration of three variables: what services are provided by the State and how; the people to whom they are provided; and the way they are funded.
• A significant de-layering of the public sector with many more decisions taken locally with minimal oversight – transferring greater power and responsibility to local authorities and removing much costly central government control and oversight.
• A major initiative to maximise economies by much more effective collaboration between public bodies – driving efficiencies by sharing services between public bodies or across whole sectors.

We appreciate the Government of the day will make some important choices; but we pin our hopes on local democratic systems being able to stimulate and shape this debate in the real places where people live, rather than all being decided in Whitehall.

The next few months will see many kites being flown. The future of public services needs to be shaped by detailed, mature arguments about what really matters to local people, not just Whitehall.

SOLACE and CIPFA members will be at the heart of these debates.

Source: Solace UK

Spending Cuts Reshape Market

Spending cuts will reshape the UK local authority shared services market
By Peter Clarke

A survey sponsored by public sector BPO specialist Liberata has found that spending cuts will drive the shared services market more powerfully but they will also reshape it. Ninety-seven percent of local authority chief officers are planning for cuts in government funding. Over half are preparing for cuts of between 10% and 20%. Thirty percent say that joint working will be a dominant outcome over the next five years, but most are planning to work more closely with other public bodies in their area.

Cuts put sharing services in the spotlight

Thirty percent of local government chief officers see the sharing of services between local public bodies as a possible way of making savings. Nine of the 70 authorities questioned (13%) think that sharing services will be the dominant theme next year, but when the timeframe is spread over the next five years the number rises to 21 authorities (30%). Only 1% of authorities expressed an interest in offshoring services next year. The findings are encouraging to public sector BPO specialist Liberata, sponsors of the survey, which advocates the creation of regional service centres within the UK.

Jason Fahy, Regional Director of Liberata, told Ovum that the survey demonstrates interest in the creation of regional service centres. “The issue is local jobs; some are willing to outsource but want to keep the jobs in their area, but most want to keep the jobs in the UK. The challenge for local authorities is how to balance achieving efficiencies with the impact their decisions have on the wider community. Losing local jobs has a big impact on local shops and the local economy. Councils also have to pay local unemployed people benefits, which increases public costs.”

Total Place refocuses attention on sharing within a geography

The Total Place initiative will map flows of public spending in local areas, and make links between services to identify where public money could be spent more effectively. Nearly a third of chief officers believe that Total Place will see the councils taking more control of locally delivered services in their areas.

The emphasis for sharing services, processes, senior officers and back-office costs is therefore shifting from sharing between local authorities to sharing between public bodies in the same geography. There are still many opportunities for local authorities to share across boundaries, but the Total Place concept has proved to be popular with local authorities. While sharing between local authorities leaves the issue of control to be determined by the governance arrangements put in place, Total Place automatically gives the lead to the local authority. However, some authorities are worried that sharing back-office staff will rob the authorities of their ability to think strategically.

Over half of the councils questioned are prepared to take direct control over other locally delivered services. The sort of services local authorities would like to take over range from the delivery of some aspects of local health services to benefits and jobs advice currently delivered by Jobcentre Plus. About half of councils would like to take control of house building and regeneration from the regional development agencies and the Homes and Communities Agency.
However, 74% of authorities are worried that financial pressures will thwart joint working. Structural change is costly to delivery and delays the search for positive outcomes until the change is in place. Not surprisingly therefore, 43% of authorities think that significant savings can be realised by restructuring services.

Different delivery models

Some local authorities, such as Barnet and Essex, are planning to transform themselves into commissioning councils. Others, such as the London Borough of Waltham Forest, are planning to merge with their local Primary Health Care Trust. Newham, meanwhile, says it has identified potential savings of £70 million of over a three-year period by improving processes.

Source: Ovum Newsletter

Consilium Technologies Secures Six Figure, Five Year Contract with Bolton At Home

Consilium Technologies has recently secured a five year contract with Bolton At Home, one of the leading ALMO's in the UK. The resulting project sees the installation of the market leading Contractor Management solution, TotalRepairs for the Technical Services team including TotalMobile for the field-based craft operatives. The project also incorporates TotalView, Consilium’s web-based management portal delivering critical real time information over the internet about the effectiveness of the service.

TotalMobile sees the replacement of a legacy database that had reached it technical capacity and urgently needed upgrading after issues with hardware. As a result the 3 Star ALMO decided to investigate the best way to maintain their high level of service to their tenants and entered into a procurement procedure to source a best value solution for Bolton At Home.

Alongside the Consilium software, Bolton At Home will be utilising the standard partner integration solution for Opti-Time to enable dynamic scheduling across the ALMO’s resources. The Xmbrace resource engine sits seamlessly alongside TotalRepairs in order to seek the quickest and most efficient way of handling the 95,000 jobs that are received annually from the tenants.

The craft operatives out in the community will be notified of their jobs through Windows Mobile devices harnessing the efficiencies generated through Consilium's TotalMobile solution. Information surrounding the job, timesheets and materials used is collected through the device giving accurate financial information to the head office instantly over the mobile phone network. The result is a quicker service to the tenants and a more efficient workforce responding effectively to the full range of responsive repairs jobs within the ALMO.

The 16,000 gas servicing jobs completed each year will be done so via the TotalMobile Gas Servicing application along with Vehicle Checks (amongst other Health and Safety regulations) to ensure the craft operatives’ protection whilst out on the road. Customer feedback can be collected on site through the device to ensure that the 3 Star service is maintained and improved on.

The 3rd party contractors used by the ALMO will have access to a web-based portal where all jobs can be received and completed. This reduces the load on paper, speeds up the invoice process and ensures quality performance checks on 3rd parties delivering specialist services on behalf of the Bolton At Home.

All in all, this all adds up to a more unified service for the tenant, lower running costs on behalf of the Council and positions Bolton At Home as an innovator in its field and an environmentally aware service provider in an increasingly demanding market.

Bolton At Home commented, "We expect that after go live, the solution will strengthen Bolton At Homes capacity to deliver quality cost effective services and place the organisation in a strong position to capitalize on future opportunities in the housing sector”.

Why Windows Mobile as a Business Platform

It’s not just about the device… it’s about the technologies in place to support your business on a device.

Have you ever been asked the question “why should we choose Window’s Mobile over another platform?” Well, why should you?

Steve Hegendefer (Mobile Evangelist) and Reed Robinson (Mobile Specialist) from Microsoft has tackled this very question head on in a brand new article which discusses the flexibility and scalability of the Windows Mobile platform. Within the article Steve and Reed talk about the no nonsense approach that Windows delivers for line of business applications. They also tackle the issues surrounding competitor applications and question the validity of some of the new applications loaded on to a working device.

Some of the main points that covered include:

· The wide range of devices supported on the platform
· Out of the box integration that will integrate with your current system
· A shopping list of deployment mechanisms for you to choose from
· Leverage your current .Net framework to develop for Windows Mobile

These gurus really have constructed a very thought provoking article around the status and future of the Windows Mobile platform as a Line of Business Application first choice but just don’t take our word for it.

Click here to access the story.

Consilium at HITEX 2009

For all those attending HITEX 2009 come over to our stand and request a closer look at TotalMobile or TotalRepairs at any of the following venues;

Venue: York Racecourse

Date: 6th October 2009

Venue: Aston Villa Football Club, Birmingham

Date: 20th October 2009

Venue: Chelsea Football Club, London

Date: 22nd October 2009

Venue: Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

Date: 5th November 2009

New Consilium Enterprise Mobile Working Group on LinkedIn

Consilium Technologies has created a new discussion area on LinkedIn called the

Enterprise Mobile Working Group.

You can join it here.

Please feel free to click on the link and sign up - we will be distributing information on news

from the mobile working technology market as well as updates on our own product

TotalMobile.

We hope to see you there.

St Leger Attain Full TPAS Accreditation

Congratulations go to St Leger Homes for attaining their full TPAS accreditation - one of only 15 organisations to receive this award in the UK.

See the full article below...

A Doncaster housing organisation has received prestigious accreditation – proving that tenants are at the heart of everything they do.

St Leger Homes of Doncaster – the organisation that manages around 21,000 homes for Doncaster Council – has just been awarded TPAS (Tenant Participation Advisory Service) accreditation. It makes them one of only 15 housing organisations in the country to receive this award.

It highlights that the company works with tenants getting their views on the services they provide, ensuring that tenants have the opportunity to help shape the way the business develops.

Tenants are involved in all levels of the company including Board member representation to focus groups, input into the tenant newsletter and in all forms of consultation.

John Young, Chairman of the Board at St Leger Homes, said: “This accreditation is a great achievement. It acknowledges that the company listens to tenants and is willing to implement their preferences.. We are always encouraging tenants to come on board and help shape the company – their views and comments are crucial to us. I congratulate all those involved in obtaining this significant award.”

Michelle Reid, Chief Executive of TPAS said, “I’m delighted that St Leger Homes of Doncaster has joined the growing family of organisations who have achieved TPAS quality accreditation. Our award is recognised by regulators, landlords, and tenants alike, and demonstrates a measurable commitment to putting tenants at the heart of services. Beyond that, the award celebrates the fact that people across all areas of the organisation are connecting and communicating, in order to achieve great communities in which people want to live.”

Source: 24Dash.com

Councils Poised to Cut More Jobs

This BBC article below shows the extent at which the current financial climate is starting to take an effect in the public sector.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8194546.stm

So the idea of using technology to make sure that service levels to the public stay the same has never been more relevant as stated by Colin Reid, Consilium's Chief Executive.

According to the LGA “Town Halls are being hit by the perfect storm” They are set to see income reduced by £4bn and demand on their services greatly increased as they help more and more people struggling with mortgages and business rates.

It has never been more important for them to do more with less and a proven way to do this is to effectively manage your mobile workforce. TotalMobile from Consilium has delivered productivity and efficiency savings of between 20-40% for a range of Local Authorities.

For more information on TotalMobile, head over to our website for more information about how our solution can make a positive and direct impact on your workforce productivity.

A TOTAL Case Study: Chelmer Housing Partnership

How Chelmer Housing Partnership (CHP) have used TotalMobile to increase productivity, increase efficiencies and provide an enhanced service.

CHP’s in-house repairs team provide repairs for approximately 7,000 homes using a team of 30 operatives. In May 2008 they adopted TotalMobile as a replacement to their in-house developed mobile solution in order to boost productivity and control the flow of information more effectively.

Read the full article here

Six Town Hit 5000 Refurbishments

Six Town Housing is celebrating the refurbishment of the 5000th property as part of their work to ensure that all tenants in Bury live in a home which meets the Government’s Decent Home Standard.

The 5000th property to be improved was at 31 Hillside Road, Ramsbottom. Work was undertaken at the property by Six Town Housing’s partner constructor, P. Casey and Co, to replace the kitchen and bathroom as well as install a new central heating system.

Six Town Housing have been allocated Government funding, amounting to an additional £27 million, to improve housing stock across Bury and ensure homes meet the Decent Home standard by Government’s deadline of December 2010.

Six Town Housing will have invested £33 million over the last four years with a further £11 million is to be invested by 2010 as part of the decent homes programme. These improvement works target homes that currently fall short of the decent homes standard.

As part of the programme Six Town Housing have commissioned the replacement of kitchens, bathrooms, central heating systems, re-roofed properties and installed loft insulation. Six Town Housing have delivered the programme in partnership with Bury Council as well as their Partner Constructors and GM Procure.

Source: http://www.askbury.co.uk/

South Somerset announces New Homes

South Somerset District Council has announced that 400 new affordable homes will be built across the area before 2011.

The council believes the news will bring good news for people in need of housing, the local economy and for those working in connection with the building industry.

The figure is being announced by the council, which over the last three months has attracted nearly £18m in Homes and Communities Agency funding, and has itself contributed close to £1m to help bring forward major new development.

Most of the affordable homes will be built over four main sites – the recently announced Lyde Road in Yeovil, where work will begin on 169 affordable homes by the end of 2011 and a further 124 in the following years as the site is built out, 107 between two sites in Wincanton at New Barns Farm and Deansley Way, and a 62-home sheltered housing scheme at Jocelyn Park in Chard.

Over 350 of the new homes will be for rent and provide much needed accommodation for those in greatest housing need.

The council has worked with five housing associations including Yeovil-based Yarlington Housing Group, formerly known as South Somerset Homes and three private developers to make progress on these schemes this year.

The council’s housing spokesman, Cllr Ric Pallister, said: “The key in this unpredictable economic climate is to establish the funding and support that developers need before they can confidently go ahead and build essential affordable housing.

“This is exactly what South Somerset District Council has been working to achieve and the 400 homes announced is just the start. We are not just talking about these developments, they are reality and we have secured the funding needed to make sure they actually happen where they are desperately needed.

“There was a desperate shortage of affordable housing across the country before the current recession but the situation is now much worse and the backlog of unmet need is increasing. “According to the latest National Housing Federation’s “Home Truths” publication, South Somerset outperformed all district councils in the South West in delivering new affordable housing, and is again bucking the trend and making real progress in difficult times.

“It’s only April and fully funded schemes totalling around 400 homes are already secured and in the pipeline and more will come forward as the year progresses. This is one of the council’s top priorities and we will not stop working to address this important issue for our residents.”
The news is expected to be received well by those working in the construction industry and people in housing need.

Cllr Pallister added: “There are over 3,500 households currently awaiting housing or rehousing in South Somerset of which some 1,000 are in priority need - the demand is high and growing.
“As everyone knows, building new housing is not something that can be done overnight but we’re pleased to be moving steadily along at a rate much higher than the vast majority of councils across the country.

“It is good news for all. You just have to think of all the tradesmen involved such as scaffolders, plasterers, kitchen fitters, electricians and decorators to realise that new housing development also represents a lifeline to the building industry in the current recession.”

Source: Chard & Ilmister News

Six Town Smash Customer Satisfaction

Well done to Six Town Housing who have delivered some fantastic results in their yearly customer satisfaction survey. With over 36% of the randomly selected 2,500 tenants responding, the results have shown improvements across the board.

Six Town Housing use Consilium's products to run and support their repairs and maintenance teams who service the ALMO's 8000 strong housing stock in Bury, Greater Manchester.

Read the full article here...

Tom
(Business Development Manager)

Incommunities Rasing The Standard

A great report from the Yorkshire Post was published yesterday outlining the efforts of Incommunities and their plans to build 144 new homes and renovate more than 1000 houses over the coming months, pouring more more than £49Million in the local economy.

As Bradford's largest Social Landlord and users of Consilium's TotalRepairs and TotalMobile product this goes against the grain of the current financial climate and sees the emergent role of Social Housing leading the way on housing policy and tackling the ongoing issue of raising living standards.

The Bradford Standard (which set targets way above the Decent Homes Standard) has laid down a demanding challenge. However, with the efficiencies experienced through the implementation of mobile working, Incommunities have reduced the reactive workforce significantly whilst retaining high levels of customer satisfaction. These operatives were then reassigned to the planned maintenance and renovation teams to help deliver their community focused service.

"As the area's biggest social landlord we are committed to helping to meet the growing demand for high quality social housing and provide homes of first choice.

"We are also fulfilling the promise we made at Stock Transfer in 2003 to modernise our existing stock for the benefit of our customers and a large part of this new investment will go towards continuing to make improvements to peoples homes and their quality of life."

Geraldine Howley - Incommunities Chief Executive

Source: Andrew Robinson, Yorkshire Post

Read the full article here.

Or alternatively watch the video below. This Video Case Study was filmed shortly before Bradford Housing Trust became Incommunities and details how Consilium implemented mobile working in one of the largest Social Landlords in the north of England.

Tom
(Business Development Manager)

The CBI Report

(To all of you who have just come to the blog from our e-shot make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed - there's instructions in earlier posts on how to do that. Then we can send you the updates from this blog rather than you having to come to us).

More and more we see mobility becoming crucial in cutting costs whilst also being central to the Green agenda. Now it appears that the CBI have come out urging the treasury to start focusing on encouraging technology that's green and still delivers a return on your investment.

The CBI is also calling for a review into lengthy procurement regulations that can halt the uptake of this technology in the public sector. Certainly that's very valid point in that if emissions need cutting immediately, waiting a year to purchase new technology is hardly the best way to go about dealing with our carbon footprint.

Given our long involvement with mobility in the public sector, the efficiency and green agendas have always been closely linked to the way in which we approach the design and deployment of our solutions so this isn't exactly groundbreaking news for Consilium.

However, it does show that mobility solutions - either tactical or enterprise could be on the verge of making some serious headway with Councils should the CBI be successful in exerting their influence over Alistair Darling.

See the summary report below.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which represents UK business, has called on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to use the Budget to push ahead with shared corporate services in the public sector and reduce procurement delays for major contracts as a means of saving £2.5 billion. It wants to see greater efficiency in the public sector. It also wants to see £500 million to fund technology innovations that will help accelerate the shift to a low-carbon economy.
Digital agenda centre stage

In its letter to the Chancellor on efficiency, the CBI’s decision to focus on efficiency, shared services and accelerating the shift to a low-carbon economy puts IT centre stage. While this is pleasing to the software and IT services (S/ITS) sector as a whole, and especially pleasing for suppliers to the public sector, the longer-term message the CBI has conveyed is not so heartening. The CBI wants to see more public spending now to stimulate the economy, but less public spending when the recession ends. If adopted this would help suppliers in the short term and cause issues in the future. Suppliers would therefore be well advised to prepare for even tougher times to come in the public sector at the end of the recession. Indeed, the Chancellor delivered this message himself in the November pre-budget statement.

The CBI’s February forecast shows economic activity contracting by 3.3% this year and remaining static next year. It believes that recovery will be gradual and protracted. It estimates that public sector net borrowing will peak above 10% of GDP, while unemployment will reach 3 million in 2010.
Shared services

The CBI is right to give yet another push to shared services. Sharing core back-office services between government departments could save public money without impacting on front-office functions or services. To date we have seen some welcome piecemeal developments, but their scale has been nothing like what was expected following the push that the Gershon efficiency review gave to the idea back in 2004. If the government does follow up the CBI initiative, suppliers are well equipped to address the shared services agenda, once they have overcome their surprise that something big has finally happened.
Green agenda – more immediate opportunities

The green agenda presents more immediate opportunities to the S/ITS sector. A dramatic and speedy reduction in carbon emissions is now deemed essential, with many looking to IT solutions as the only way forward in the short term.

The CBI’s push for investment in the green agenda is something that is more likely to get a ready response from the government. There is a big role for IT to play in delivering this agenda, so suppliers are well advised to take it seriously.

The green agenda is gaining real traction, especially with the Obama administration in the US taking the matter very seriously. Scientific opinion is of the view that early projections of the rate of climate change were far too optimistic. Even Sir Nicholas Stern, who carried out the review of the issue for the UK government, says he was too optimistic.

Suppliers would be well advised to understand the green agenda and identify areas where they can contribute. As the green agenda moves centre stage it becomes more important as a commercial opportunity. It will not just be about ‘greening’ existing offerings but also looking at new, innovative opportunities.

Source: www.cbi.org.uk

Forms, Forms, Forms

Here's a very interesting post from 'The Social Care Experts Blog' and I think it sheds some light on the current methods of data collection within Social Service delivery...

"Spending more time with clients and using our discretion rather than box-ticking will help prevent the tragedy of more Baby Ps. Now the initial media frenzy over the death of Baby P has subsided it is possible to have a more sober look at the situation.

First, as Professor Colin Pritchard has noted, child protection services in England and Wales are among the most effective and most improved in the world. Despite this ... one telling fact is that 80% of social workers' time is spent form-filling rather than seeing their clients." (Source: Steve Rogowski)

The ICS system is going to come under some serious scrutiny and I think in many ways, it will be justified if found to have introduced an unprecedented amount of bureaucracy into service delivery. Reports from the front line of social care and social work professionals does seem to indicate that the nature of their role has been changed by the introduction of various technologies over the years.

This is nothing new. Technology often is the easy target in these situations but has the introduction of a new IT system within social work changed the very nature of the job?

I'm not too sure it's that simple.

Technology exists to support people's roles in order to help them do their jobs. The whole point of introducing a new system is to maintain a high standard of delivery in the most cost effective way, with a growing population and reducing budgets. What IT isn't designed to do is change the actual role of the social worker and morph it into something new.

More investigation will be needed but surely enterprise mobility has a role in all of this? In order to remedy these 'form filling' exercises isn't the answer to simply find a better way to collect the information at source and in a structured manner that doesn't require any re-entering at a later date? This would also mean that the critical information that is being collected can be securely made available to the right people at the right time (and not sitting on admin's desk in paper format where it's no help to anyone).

In this day and age when technology should be preventing the rise of administration overheads in government services, we see reports like the one above appearing that lead us to question where our taxes are going.

I think the reality is that the ICS and the providers of those systems have most likely pulled together extremely useful software packages that are capable of sharing data with the relevant authorities in line with the government rules and regulations that have been created through the Childrens Act 2004 and the more recent Adult Services changes. This notion however, works on the assumption that the data was easy to get into the systems in the first place.

By the sounds of things, that's the issue. So ask yourselves the question:

"How am I getting my data into my systems (or even better 'when' am I getting my data into my systems)?"

And can a mobility package allow your workforce to deliver the services they are trained for?

Tom
(Business Development Manager)

Welcome to the Ctechs Blog

Hello and welcome to the Ctechs blog and the newly relaunched website!

This is the section of the website where we are going to be posting news, information and media surrounding mobility and the impact it can have on your service delivery.

One of the things we have noticed that's missing on the net is a blog that demystifies what mobility is all about for the people who could really benefit from using this technology.

There's numerous technical bloggers out there who post plenty of content for fellow developers but really there's nothing explaining what mobility means for the users and why you should care.

We are going to be collecting information from a wide range of sources and compiling it all here for you to read.

From news on the latest handsets, updates from Microsoft and of course the progress we are making with our own products and software, our weekly updates should keep you well aware of what's happening in the sector.

Given that a wide range of people in both the public and private will be subscribing to the blog Tom has posted a quick overview of what blogging is all about (including what to do with RSS feeds for the uninitiated) so if you're not an expert already please see the other post for getting started.

Colin
(CEO)

The Consilium Blog and RSS Feeds

Given that quite a lot of our subscribers are going to be coming from a range of different sectors I thought it would be useful to explain blogs and RSS feeds, just in case this is the first time you have come to read one in earnest.

Our blog will be updated regularly with a host of information surrounding mobility and the efficiencies that it brings to workforces once implemented.

Blogs tend to be added to on a regular basis with what's happening to their area of specialty - not dissimilar to a diary in many ways.

Due to the frequency of these updates it can be difficult to stay in touch with more than a handful of blogs unless you use what's known as an RSS feed.

You can subscribe to our RSS feed through your web browser (or on the link on the side of this blog) which means that you don't always have to check the website to see whether we have added anything new - our website content can come to you.

You have probably seen the icon above in your address bar for certain websites over the past two years or so. This icon means the website or blog you are reading is capable of sending you it's information as it's updated. All you need to view this information is an RSS reader of which there are plenty.

The obvious one would be Microsoft Outlook which would pull in feeds just like email - this may be the quickest way for you to catch up on what we are doing.

Alternatively there are a numerous online programs that can help organise all of your feeds together - I use Google Reader which is great but also BlogLines, Newsgator and Netvibes are popular too.

You can even add us to your Google Homepage.

Just click on the ''subscribe' link in the box on the left of this blog or head into your web browser address bar and follow the instructions. As we add more posts, you'll be notified and can read them at your own leisure.

Really Simple Syndication - hence the name, RSS.

If you want more help check the video below which gives you a one minute overview of what this is all about.

Tom
(Business Development Manager)