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Councils
strike a new deal on post
 THE centre has helped a group of councils in the region to
strike a new deal that could save up to £1million a year on postal costs.
The authorities put their postal services out to tender and have
agreed a contract with TNT Post.
The £1million saving adds up to 20 per cent of the total
postal bills of the 17 local authorities who were involved in the tendering
exercise.
However, there could be further savings to be made as, under the
agreement, TNT will further reduce their charges when more than 12 local
authorities sign up to the agreement.
Councils who take up the agreement have until March next year
to switch from their present suppliers to TNT Post.
Neil Hind, the NWCE's procurement
programme director, said: "Inspiring local authorities to work
together is one of our strengths. This agreement shows what can be achieved
when councils collaborate effectively."
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Lock
on to the Docking Station
 THE NWCE's ground-breaking
documents store has gone national!
The Docking Station is now available as a link on all nine
Regional Centres of Excellence web sites.
The successful first phase has also received national exposure
in a press release that outlines the work of the North West Standards Group
and their colleagues in the other three Centres of Excellence who have also
been involved with the project.
The Docking Station provides council officers with a
blue-print for buying. It contains a fully validated suite of contract and
tendering documents that council officers can use when searching for new
contracts.
Olly Baker, standards group project manager, said: "The
Docking Station is a ground-breaking project. The existing paperwork can be
a bureaucratic nightmare and a barrier to many potential smaller suppliers.
The new standardised documents will save time and money, and increase the
diversity and competitiveness of the supply market."
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 EVER wondered how to successfully engage citizens in a
consultation process or run an e-auction that delivers real savings?
These
lessons and more can be learned from the experiences of other north
west councils who have taken part in these projects and more in
the case studies section of the web site.
Warrington
Borough Council hosted an e-auction for wheelie bins that saved around
£1.2million for the nine councils taking part while the East Lancs Partnership created several successful ways to
get younger people involved in consultation processes.
The updated case
studies are available by clicking this link.
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 SUSTAINABILITY is here to stay and the NWCE is funding an
innovative event aimed at giving councils a comprehensive view of how
sustainability affects them.
The agenda
has now been published for the sustainable procurement awareness event at
Aintree Racourse on December 6.
The day will
reveal some key areas that councils may not yet have considered. For
example, following on from the Audit Commission's Key Line of Enquiry,
councils' performance ratings could be affected by their approach to
sustainable procurement.
Said Neil Hind,
NWCE procurement programme manager: "Sustainability needs to be a
significant factor in councils' approach to tackling CSR07. This event
covers a broad spectrum of areas relating to sustainability and should give
delegates a greater knowledge about the work that needs to be done to
effectively tackle the sustainability agenda."
For further
information about the event and to register, see the Events Section below.
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Web
wonder for local authorities
 THE Business Improvement Package (BIP) website - a joint
Centres of Excellence and CLG initiative - has been improved
with the addition of new material.
BIP provides resources to support councils to deliver improved and
transformed services and to achieve savings during the CSR07 period and
beyond.
BIP aims to provide a one-stop-shop for those who
want support with business improvement. It provides a wealth
of freely available good practice materials such as templates, guidance,
case studies, and to other sources of support.
Colin Cram, Regional Director of the NWCE, said: "This
is a really useful toolkit that covers a wide range of local authority services
and I would encourage councils in the north west to make use of this
resource."
Visit the
BIP website here.
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Health and Social Care News
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The
right toolkit for the job
 SOCIAL care representatives from 17 north west councils got the
low-down on a new national care costing tool for adult social care this
week.
The NWCE held two, half-day events to explain how the toolkit is being
developed, how it will work and the potential savings for councils.
The toolkit will help councils deal with the challenges of increasing
demand and spend on residential and other care, provide a united approach,
both between councils and care management and procurement departments, and
lead to a more consistent approach.
The delegates were given the exclusive chance to join the pilot phase of
the project, which will take place over the next few months and will
involve over 70 councils nationally. The toolkit will be launched
nationally in March 2008.
As all places for these events were taken, any representatives who missed
out can view the
presentation here.
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Magnificent
seven on the money
 A SUITE of seven guides to help councils save cash have been
launched by the Regional Centres of Excellence National Procurement
Programme.
The On the Money guides cover seven key areas for making
savings - energy, fleet, fuel, ICT hardware, print, telecoms and
translations.
Each guide contains details of framework agreements that are
open for use by local authorities. For example, there's a telecoms
framework that offers a 32 per cent discount on private data circuit
products and a translations framework that reduces the average cost of a
translation by 50 per cent, compared with standard prices.
Electronic versions of the guides are available
here.
Hard copies will also
be available. Please contact the NWCE on 0161 342 4080 to register for
a copy.
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Final
cut for efficiencies
 CLG have now published the final version of the Local Government
Value for Money Delivery Plan, which sets out the route for delivering the
3 per cent per annum savings required in CSR07.
Access the report on the Department's website at: http://www.communities.gov.uk/
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Telecoms
workshop
November
23, 2007, Wigan Investment Centre
 MANY local authorities are feeling the effect of new billing
and other charges introduced by British Telecom.
This
session will look at how councils can reduce these charges and possibly
reduce their invoice values with BT.
For more information click here.
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Sourcing
sustainable solutions - Meet the Buyers
November
21, 2007, Manchester
 THE NWCE will be supporting a sustainable procurement event
in Manchester in November.
Sourcing Sustainable
Solutions - Meet the Buyers will provide delegates with the opportunity to
meet suppliers who can provide innovative environmental and sustainable
products and services.
A unique feature of the event will be pre-arranged meetings with suppliers,
selected according to delegates' criteria. Delegates can tell the organiser
their specific areas of interest, when booking, and the information will be
used to research and identify suppliers that match their criteria. On the
day of the event, delegates can take part in a series of private,
pre-scheduled meetings with the pre-matched suppliers.
The event on November 21 is free to attend for buyers. For further
information and/or to book a place click here.
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Sustainable
procurement conference
December
6, 2007, Aintree Racecourse
 THE NWCE is hosting a sustainable procurement conference to consider
the latest information and discuss the suppliers in this area.
Delegates will also be given
the time for discussion and debate on the way forward for the north west
region.
For more information and to register click here.
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The
3rd Annual NwEGG Conference
New
Frontiers for Transformation
December
12, 2007, Manchester Central
 The 3rd Annual NWeGG Conference
promises to be an explosive event!
For a 38ft rocket
- the SKYBOLT - will take centre stage at the conference that will look at
'New Frontiers for Transformation'.
The SKYBOLT is the
brainchild of Manchester man Steve Bennett and Starchaser
Industries. Steve is proof that, with determination and a will to succeed,
anyone can turn vision into reality and he'll be explaining at the
conference how pushing the boundaries can often lead to the achievement of
the seemingly impossible.
There will also
be a host of other speakers at the event who will be discussing how
the transformational government agenda can also go beyond the norm to
create public services that are fit for the 21st Century.
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North West Centre
of Excellence
Room 5.15,
Council Offices, Wellington Road, Ashton-under-Lyne OL6 6DL
www.nwce.gov.uk
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