Download or read book Efficiency and reform in government corporate functions through shared service centres written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-03-07 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2004, the Gershon Review recommended that the Government pursue the sharing of services, including human resources, finance, procurement and payroll, to achieve cost savings. It has been up to individual departments to establish their own arrangements and, between 2004 and 2011, eight major shared service centres emerged. The five centres examined by the NAO were expected to cost £0.9 billion to build and operate but, to date, they have cost £1.4 billion. They were also expected to have saved £159 million by the end of 2010-11. While, in one instance Government has achieved break-even in a time consistent with the private sector, its overall performance has been varied and the two centres that are still tracking benefits report a measured net cost of £255 million. Most departmental customers have not acted as 'intelligent customers' and they will need to build in-house capability with enough business and technical understanding to manage the services and work with the centres to achieve efficiencies. Among other findings are that the software systems used in the centres have added complexity and cost; and that, as the use of the centres has been voluntary, departments have struggled to roll-out shared services fully across all their business units and arm's length bodies. The Cabinet Office has recently gained approval for a new strategy and business case. The NAO considers the approach is ambitious and has challenging timescales. The Cabinet Office is actively working with departments on its implementation.
Download or read book Efficiency and reform in government corporate functions through shared service centres written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-07-09 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 2004, central government has sought to reduce the cost of administering finance, human resources and procurement services through sharing back-office functions. In previous examinations the Committee found that the Government had not yet realised the potential to save taxpayers' money. The renewed focus on improving shared services is welcomed. The Committee expects the Cabinet Office to engage constructively with their recommendations. This report considers five of the eight shared service centres. Whilst performing adequately, they had cost £1.4 billion to build and operate compared to an expected cost of £0.9 billion. These five centres were also expected to have saved £159 million by the end of 2010-11. In the event, the Ministry of Justice centre broke-even, the Department of Work and Pensions and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs centres did not track their total savings, and the Department for Transport and Research Councils UK, have reported a net cost to date of £255 million. The current strategy will only be effective if the Cabinet Office demonstrates strong leadership. So far it has been left up to individual departments and their arm's length bodies to decide whether they use shared service centres leading to low take-up. Those bodies which have become customers of shared service centres have retained their own processes resulting in over-complicated systems which also undermine the scope for efficiency. The Cabinet Office should also develop comparable data on the cost and quality of services provided by the shared services centres and should consider whether it can extend its shared services strategy to include other common functions needed by central government departments
Download or read book The Politics of Public Sector Reform written by M. Burton and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-12-11 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive 'bird's eye' account of public sector reform supported by references from over 400 official sources, this book is an invaluable guide to all those in the public, private and voluntary sectors grappling with the twin challenges of managing public spending austerity and the pressure in response to transform public services.
Download or read book Memorandum on the 2012 Civil Service Reform Plan written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-01-24 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The government published its Civil Service Reform Plan (the Plan) in June 2012 (www.civilservice.gov.uk/reform). It followed the publication of the 2011 Open Public Services White Paper (Cm.8145, ISBN 9780101814522) which called for a smaller, more strategic civil service that does less centrally, and commissions more from outside. The Plan has many themes in common with previous initiatives that attempted to reform the civil service, and adapt it to the changing needs of governments and public service users, but is arguably the broadest such reform programme since 1968. This Memorandum is intended primarily to inform the Committee's discussions with the leadership of the civil service about the Plan. Given that the Plan is less than a year old, it is not an evaluation of the reforms in the Plan, the progress made against them, or the implementation arrangements in place. It is designed to support the Committee to engage with the breadth of the Plan, so that they can use their influence to help ensure that its implementation improves efficiency, reinforces Parliamentary accountability and protects value for taxpayers and citizens. The Civil Service, in its present form as of 2012, employs 459,000 people across 106 departments and other bodies. The annual spend on Civil Service pay is £16 billion. The projected cost reduction for the Civil Service, between 2010 to 2015 is £80 billion and the projected reduction in the number of full-time equivalent civil servants over the same period is 110,000 representing about 23% of total staff.
Download or read book Whitehall Effect written by John Seddon and published by Triarchy Press. This book was released on 2014-05-11 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Seddon explains how successive governments have failed to deliver what our public services need and exposes the devastation that three decades of political fads, fashions and bad theory have caused. With specific examples and new evidence, he chronicles how the Whitehall ideas machine has failed on a monumental scale - and the impact that this has had on public sector workers and those of us who use public sector services.
Download or read book Organizing for Coordination in the Public Sector written by P. Lægreid and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-30 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection focuses on public sector coordination, key aspect of governments' have sought to tackle contemporary policy challenges. By guiding the reader through 20 case studies of novel coordination instruments from 12 countries, the compendium gives valuable lessons for achieving better coordination of public policies.
Download or read book Improving corporate functions using shared services written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-11-29 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Corporate services provide often vital support to the delivery of effective and efficient public services, and cover such areas as finance and accounting, human resources, procurement, information technology, facilities and estates management. Sir Peter Gershon's review of public sector efficiency (available on the HM Treasury website, http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/C/A/efficiency_review120704) identified benefits from shared services, but found that departments' efficiency targets did not include savings specifically from shared corporate services. This NAO report has been conducted to take account of developments between the 2004 Spending Review (Cm.6237, ISBN 9780101622728) and the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review (Cm. 7227, ISBN 0101722729) on shared services and focuses mainly on finance and human resources, which are generally the more developed areas of shared service in the public sector. The publication is divided into four parts, and looks at general and specific areas, including: the potential of shared services in the public sector; the problems of customer satisfaction experienced by the NHS and HM Prison Service with shared services; the variable progress across government; the lack of a clear overview from the Cabinet Office on shared services. The NAO has also set out 9 recommendations, including: public bodies should streamline their corporate service processes in line with best practice; they should also improve how they analyse the performance of their corporate services and whether there are more cost-effective ways to obtain such services; Departments should increase public transparency of corporate service performance.
Download or read book Integration Across Government written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-03-13 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each of the areas in the Whole-Place Community Budgets scheme has identified potential benefits from taking a more integrated approach to frontline services, focusing on outcomes like preventing avoidable hospital admissions or reducing reoffending. Greater Manchester, which covers ten local authorities, has estimated net savings of some £270 million over five years, while in West Cheshire savings of £56 million are estimated for the same period. In general, government has only limited information for identifying opportunities for integration or making an assessment of costs and benefits, which is needed to support the case for integration. In some instances where government has identified integration opportunities, benefits have not been achieved because of implementation difficulties. While the centre of government has recognized the importance of integration, it does not have clearly defined responsibilities to support or encourage frontline integration initiatives across government. It is early days for Whole-Place Community Budgets, central government and the four local areas have worked together effectively to assess the case for local service reforms. The true scale of potential benefits will become clear only if projects are implemented and evaluated robustly. Foundations have been laid but continuing collaboration - including sharing of data - between local and central government and delivery partners is essential to maximize the potential of Whole-Place Community Budgets. Accompanying this report, the NAO has released a case study looking at the four Whole-Place Community Budget areas, finding that these areas have taken a positive first step in assessing the case for integration (HC 1040, ISBN 9780102981339)
Download or read book Improving the delivery of animal health and welfare services through the Business Reform Programme written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-07-18 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 2005-06 and 2011-12, the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency spent £103 million (from the agreed budget of £123 million) on reforming the way it delivers animal health and welfare service. The Business Reform Programme was designed to improve the quality of the Agency's data, upgrade its ICT, standardize and automate its processes, and enable private vets to submit bovine tuberculosis tests online. It is now forecast that the Programme will be completed by 2013-14. The Programme has been strongly managed over the last few years and the Agency has made tangible progress in addressing some key challenges at the same time as achieving cost reductions, £4 million to date. In addition to reducing headcount by 119 full time members of staff, over halfway towards its final forecast of 214, new ICT is enabling staff to share data across offices, helping the Agency to generate better information on costs and performance and helping the Agency work more efficiently. Despite reducing the number of staff tracking the movement of cattle testing positive for bovine TB from 43 to 28, the number of tracings carried out in a year rose by 24 per cent. However, there have been issues with the implementation of the new ICT, and only 11 of the 497 private veterinary practices signed up to submit bovine TB test results online are currently doing so. The final stages of the reform programme are critical for securing the full benefits of the new ICT
Download or read book Value for Money in Government Sweden 2013 written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2013-04-30 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report presents the results of the assessment of the organisation of the central government of Sweden.
Download or read book Value for Money in Government Australia 2012 written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2012-06-13 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report presents the results of the assessment of the organisation of the central government of Australia. The study looks at reforms that are aimed at improving the quality of services (more value) and efficiency (less money) in central government.
Download or read book The Impact of Government s ICT Savings Initiatives written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-01-23 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to the National Audit Office, in 2011-12, government spent an estimated £316 million less on ICT than it would otherwise have done. The main challenge, however, will be to move to the delivery of ICT solutions that reform public services and the way that government works. The government announced in October 2012 that, subject to audit, it had already saved £410 million from its savings initiatives in 2012-13 and expected to save a further £200 million by the end of March 2013. The appointment of commercial experts has helped departments to claw money back, renegotiate contracts before they expire and, overall, spend less on ICT than they otherwise would have done. However, weaknesses in data held by the Cabinet Office have meant that the £348 million of savings reported by the Cabinet Office for 2011-12, resulting from its initiative to manage ICT suppliers as a single customer, could not be validated. To date, moreover, the Cabinet Office has measured only cost savings and has not published measures of the wider impacts of its initiatives. The department is starting to take steps to consider risk and performance on a more holistic basis, which should provide it with more information on wider impact. Views are mixed on the effect of reform on government's relationship with ICT suppliers. Suppliers consulted by the NAO were frustrated at the slow pace of change and the focus on cost-cutting, rather than exploring innovative opportunities to redesign public service and put services online. There have also been comments from government on resistance by suppliers to change
Download or read book Digital Britain 2 written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-03-28 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the government strives to get everyone using online services, it must make sure it doesn't ignore people without internet access. This group of approximately 4 million people is skewed towards those aged over 65, in lower socio-economic grops or iwth disability. The Cabinet Office needs to make sure it understands these people's needs better and move forward with its plans to support them. They must not be put at a disadvantage because they either can't or don't want to go online. In some cases, fewer than 50% of transactions are completed online. To achieve its expectation that 82% of transactions are completed online, the Cabinet Office needs to understand better and break down the barriers that stop people with internet access from using online government services.
Download or read book Improving the Efficiency of Central Government Office Property written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-08-31 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Central government office estate comprises over 5 million m2 of space and costs around £1.8 billion a year to run. Rationalisation of the estate therefore offers the public sector the chance to secure significant efficiency savings. From 2004 to 2010, central government departments have made savings of around £100 million each year on the cost of offices however government's use of space is still relatively inefficient. The Government Property Unit was established in 2010 to accelerate efficiency savings from the estate, but it has not provided the leadership necessary to deliver an effective cross-government approach. Until property is seen by departments as a cost as well as an asset, the vast potential savings will not be realised. The Unit needs to make it in the interests of departments to work together and, to do so it needs the support of the Treasury, which so far has been far too passive. Three further areas where the Unit needs to show far greater leadership are also highlighted. First, the bulk of public sector estate belongs to local government and the Unit needs to ensure that central and local government work more collaboratively. Second, the Unit needs to centralise property ownership and start to negotiate terms with major landlords on a more standardised basis. Finally, consolidating the estate will inevitably lead to the mothballing of buildings and current market conditions are making it difficult to re-let surplus space. There is, though, no point in the Government simply holding property in the hope of a future rise in property prices
Download or read book Off Payroll Arrangements in the Public Sector written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-10-05 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In May 2012 HM Treasury published its report on the use of off-payroll arrangements in central government ("Review of the tax arrangements of public sector appointees", Cm. 8350, ISBN 9780101835022). This showed that over 2,400 staff, each earning more than £58,200 a year, were being paid 'off-payroll' - a practice which generates suspicions of complicity in tax avoidance and which fails to meet the standards expected of public officials. The review's recommendations should go some way to reducing the prevalence of the practice, yet the scope of the review was limited in scope to central government and did not cover other public services, like Local Government, the NHS and the BBC. Some doubts about the Treasury's proposals remain. The Review stated that off-payroll arrangements can be used in 'exceptional circumstances' but does not clarify what these exceptional circumstances are. It also recommended that departments seek assurance that those staff who remain off-payroll are paying the appropriate amount of tax, but did not specify how departments could or should do this. Ultimately, whether those paid off-payroll are paying the right amount of tax is dependent on HM Revenue & Customs properly enforcing tax rules to ensure employees pay tax as employees. However, HM Revenue & Customs has progressively reduced its enforcement of the legislation designed to eliminate the avoidance of tax and National Insurance Contributions through the use of intermediaries, such as personal service companies, putting at risk any deterrent effect the rules might have on tax avoidance
Download or read book The Ministry of Justice s Language Service Contract written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-12-14 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before January 2012, the Ministry generally booked interpretation services directly with individual interpreters, many of whom were listed on the National Register of Public Service Interpreters (NRPSI). This approach was administratively inefficient and the Ministry decided to set up a new centralised procurement system. The Ministry awarded the contract to a company, ALS, that was clearly incapable of delivering. Despite having been warned that ALS was too small to shoulder a contract worth more than £1 million, it went ahead and handed them an annual £42 million national contract. The Ministry did not understand its own basic requirements and ignored the views of interpreters, who had serious concerns about the contract. Capita took over ALS in late 2011. The Ministry needed access to 1,200 interpreters when the contract went live but the company had only 280 properly assessed interpreters willing to work for it. The Ministry, though, still decided to go live nationally in one go. Many of the 'interpreters' it thought were available had simply registered an interest on the company's website and had been subject to no official checks. As a result, the company was able to meet only 58% of bookings causing a sharp rise in delayed, postponed and abandoned trials; individuals being kept on remand solely because no interpreter was available; and the quality of interpreters has at times been appalling. However Capita has only been fined £2,200 to date for failing to meet the terms of the contract. Capita-ALS is now fulfilling more bookings, but it is still struggling
Download or read book Restructuring of the National Offender Management Service written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The National Offender Management Service directly manages 117 public prisons, manages the contracts of 14 private prisons, and is responsible for a prisoner population of around 86,000. It commissions and funds services from 35 probation trusts, which oversee approximately 165,000 offenders serving community sentences. For 2012-13, the Agency's budget is £3,401 million. The Agency achieved its savings targets of £230 million in 2011-12 and maintained its overall performance, despite an increase in the prison population. However, the Agency's savings targets of £246 million in 2012-13, £262 million in 2013-14 and £145 million in 2014-15 are challenging. The Agency believes it has scope to make the prison estate more efficient by closing older, more expensive prisons and investing in new ones. These plans, however, assume the prison population will stay at its current level. Furthermore, the Agency has not yet secured the up-front funding for the voluntary redundancies needed to bring down prison staffing costs. Unless overcrowding is addressed and staff continue to carry out offender management work it is increasingly likely that rehabilitation work needed to reduce the risk of prisoners reoffending will not be provided. The Agency has not done enough to address the risks to safety, decency and standards in prisons and in community services arising from staffing cuts implemented to meet financial targets. The Agency plans to increase the role of private firms and the third sector in probation but the probation trusts don't appear to have the infrastructure and skills they need to commission probation services from these providers effectively