Although his work with local government has focused on library services, he draws some pretty sweeping conclusions about the way that local public services are managed as a whole.  They are provocative comments, but maybe that’s what we need in these hard financial times.

You can find out more about his work on improving library services at lower costs, like his recent work in Hillingdon or you can challenge him on his views during the Efficiency Exchange’s first hot seat on 21 June 2010. Tim will be answering questions from 10am to 12pm on 21 June, but you can start posing questions now (sign-in required).

It’s a community for everyone working in local public services to

• build a better picture of what localism (Total Place), the efficiency agenda and the coming public spending squeeze will mean in practice for public services.
• share what our organisations are doing in this area including time and money-saving innovations we would recommend to others
• get help from community members to solve problems and offer help in return

Councils and their partners are facing one of the most challenging (and potentially exciting) times in terms of delivering public services in new ways.  This community offers an opportunity to exchange information, support, guidance and examples to help us all.

The Efficiency Exchange is part of a wider programme supporting efficiency learning across the country, working with councils working with RIEPs to bring learning from across the regions.

But this community won’t work without your input.   How should we be shaping this community to fit your needs?  What areas should we promote?  How can we help you share?  Join the discussion here.

New resources

The Efficiency Exchange team has been sharing a whole range of efficiency resources in the community’s library across a range of key themes developed through Capital Ambition’s London Efficiency Challenge programme.

• Community Safety
• Smarter procurement
• Social care commissioning
• Back office redesign
• Mobile working
• …and more

Including the latest document 10 Ways Councils Can Protect Local Services – a new report from The Task Force, chaired by Sir Steve Bullock, the Mayor of Lewisham, and Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council – setting out ten decisive steps that all councils should act on to protect vital frontline services in an era of tighter public finances.

From the blogs

Are consultants stealing tax payers’ watches and The Power of a Good Checklist from Jon Harvey

Members and money saving through better procurement from Steven Locker

Gordon Murray brings the learning from a range of academic papers into perspective, looking at: Benchmarking and Improvement, Knowledge Management in the context of the Efficiency Exchange, Is Local Authority Procurement Lean?, Understanding the Innovation Impacts of Public Procurement.

Kirsty Russell blogs about two events which bring together innovation and efficiency: The Kent and Medway Innovation Camp – Transformed by You and The Digital Marketplace

Events

Procurex National

“Smarter Local Government” NWEGG Spring Meeting (which will feature a talk on the Efficiency Exchange)

Using Outcomes Based Accountability to Achieve VFM in Adult Social Care

What can you share?

Feel free to join or create discussions in the forum, promote your public sector efficiency/innovation events or share your stories, internal guidance and toolkits and resources in the community library?

This research is of interest as it considers the perceptions of procurement managers in collaborative relationships – to us it could suggest something about how procurement managers may perceive value gained in PBOs, shared services and RIEPs.  It’s also interesting to see in parallel with my previous blog on CSFs for purchasing groups.

First, let’s clear up what we’re talking about.  Value creations refers to the total value of outcomes generated as a result of the collaboration less the total inputs; say efficiency gains – consider that as ‘the pie’.  Value appropriation refers to how the benefits of ‘the pie’ are apportioned to the participants – in the context of the buyer/provider and we’re discussing the benefits from ‘partnership’ relationships as opposed to ‘adversarial’  purchasing relationships.

The research is based on responses from German and Swiss purchasing managers in industrial firms.  So there are considerable differences to factor in.  it would have been much more interesting to have also had the other partners view, namely, what do the suppliers say?

Nevertheless, we can ask ourselves if this research is transferable to local government procurement managers what would be the lessons for PBOs and RIEPs, if they wanted to ensure council clients felt they were getting a good deal.  It could be inferred:

1. Procurement managers are not just interested in the value of total efficiency savings created through the collaboration but in how that value is fairly allocated, and praise give, between the provider, say the PBO, and the buyer – they benefit from reassurance that the provider is not reaping disproportionate benefits.  So, if more and more buyers use a PBO it would be advantageous to demonstrate that there is a reduction in the overhead cost borne by the purchasing manager’s organisation, and if suppliers prices are reduced, these duly cascade.
2. Let’s accept that there is always a competitive tension between the provider and the purchaser – a good flow of information can ease that.  Good communications are required, aimed at helping the procurement manager understand the value sharing process, particularly if there is a need for temporary inequity.
3.   Not counter-intuitively, if you want to retain to retain relationships for the future, and you’re a provider, concentrate on client satisfaction based on appropriate value creation and appropriation.

Healthwarning:  the research design has built in bias in that it’s based on purchasing managers perceptions only.  Equally, the research wasn’t looking at PBOs, RIEPs etc., but it would be interesting to hear what you think about my inferences from the research findings?  Tell me!

You can shape how this community develops – what kind of support and resources do you need, what would you like the community to focus on?

New resoures:

Councillors guides to procurement: Better procurement in energy, ICT equipment, and professional services and a Centre for Public Scrutiny piece on strategic procurement.

Wakefield case study: save money and increase customer satisfaction.

Mobile working for adult and children’s services in London, a case study on improved service and efficiency in social care.

Suitcase studies: great brief profiles on better procurement in local government.

A very handy index to procurement guidance.

Blog posts:

New WorkTogether partnership case studies

Numbers count: PM, efficiency priorities and social media.

Efficiency in outcomes – the wellbeing project report

Events:

The Total Place Learning Workshop

__________

Join Efficiency Exchange Community of Practice , follow Efficiency Exchange on Twitter @Effxchange or visit the Efficiency Exchange blog at WorkTogether.

Help shape the development of the Efficiency Exchange – a community dedicated to supporting efficiency knowledge and practice.

New library resources:

• Links to efficiency in Community Safety case studies and resources.
• Sources of support for running efficiency projects well.

Do you know of any good efficiency training courses or seminars?

Kirsty Russell blogs about digital inclusion and service transformation and efficiency