Warning On Council Funding

Warning on council funding Monday 26th October 2009 at 11:05

Local authorities should take steps to raise new revenue as capital funding from Whitehall dramatically tightens, a think-tank has warned. The New Local Government Network (NLGN) says in a new report that widely anticipated spending cuts could "plunge Britain back into an era of crumbling infrastructure". It calls on local authorities to prepare for the planned halving of capital funding by the Treasury in coming years by issuing bonds, borrowing against assets, and 'modest user charging' for services - including workplace parking. The left-leaning group argues that such measures are necessary to counter local government's over-reliance on Whitehall subsidy. NLGN director said that councils were the "principal agents" of infrastructure improvement in the UK and "must be ready to rediscover the skills and techniques that can enable selfdetermined capital investment". "Councils have the powers, albeit dormant, to relate to capital markets directly should they choose to do so, and also possess great assets and reserves of their own which hold enormous potential for domestic reinvestment," Leslie said. "We see it as vital that making more of these powers and assets forms the vanguard of future locally driven investment." http://www.civilservicenetwork.com/latest-news/news-article/newsarticle/warning-oncouncil-funding/

Invest in efficiency, says sustainability boss Monday 26th October 2009 at 00:42

Departments should invest in energy-efficiency measures before the end of the current spending period, the government chief sustainability officer has warned. William Jordan, also deputy chief executive of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), believes departments may find they don’t have the cash to do the work they need to after 2010. “We are in an invest-to-save scenario,” Jordan argues. “There are quite a lot of measures that you could invest in that would have a pretty rapid payback in cash terms. “It is my job, in part, to persuade government departments that would be a good investment now, when they still have better prospects of making the investment.” Jordan said the difficulty of finding money for investment in sustainable improvements was a “very important question”. Such “rapid payback” measures can be as simple as getting employees involved and engaged in the question of energy efficiency, through campaigns to get people to switch equipment off when it is not being used, stickers and posters next to light switches,

creating a network of ‘energy wardens’, informing staff about improved or worsening energy performance, and ensuring that cleaning and security staff know to switch off lights and equipment. The OGC has calculated that the £2,000 to £15,000 cost of such a campaign could be paid back within a year. Other simple measures include: improving hot water pipe installation for £15 to £60 per metre (payback in around 18 months); installation of timed light switches, at £20 to £100 per light switch (paid back over one to four years); installation of a £5 time-switch to switch off equipment out of office hours (payback in just two weeks). Longer-term plans, which Jordan describes as the “2020 horizon”, are currently being discussed and argued for within Whitehall; but uncertainty as to how much money will be available in 2010 make long-term planning problematic. “It is impossible to say how things will be in the next spending period,” Jordan says. “There’ll be a general election, another spending review, departmental settlements, and times will be tough, but beyond that general set of propositions it is really hard to do any preparatory work.” To read the full interview with William Jordan, click here. http://www.civilservicenetwork.com/features/features-article/newsarticle/a-trailfinder-inthe-green-jungle/

NHS to publish consultancy spending Tuesday 27th October 2009 at 11:16

The Department of Health has agreed to publish details of how much the NHS spends on management consultants. The news came in a government response to a report from the Commons health select committee, which called in June for the publication of such details. The department said it already published its own spending, but accepted MPs’ argument that all local NHS authorities should collate consultancy spending to be then published centrally. The response said overall NHS expenditure on consultants would be published for the first time next summer. But the government rejected the committee’s call for a 'top ten' of daily rates paid to consultants by each category of NHS body, claiming that such a move would be “extremely difficult” given that organisations usually prefer to negotiate fees for entire projects rather than daily rates. In evidence to the select committee in December last year, chief executive David Nicholson said the NHS should have been collecting data on management consultancy spending but had not. But in a later evidence session, Nicholson told MPs he was opposed to the collation of such data because it led to the centre “micromanaging organisations”. http://www.civilservicenetwork.com/latest-news/news-article/newsarticle/nhs-to-publishconsultancy-spending/

Home Office praised on finances Tuesday 27th October 2009 at 10:20

The Home Office has been commended by MPs for improvements in financial management. The public accounts committee said the department had made big improvements since the highly critical capability review of 2006 – the same year in which then-home secretary John Reid described it as “not fit for purpose”. MPs said officials had responded well to criticism in recent years by recruiting more trained accountants and pointed out that the splitting of Home Office responsibility with the Ministry of Justice had also helped improve performance. There was praise for the department’s decision to boost accountability for money given to arms-length bodies, including the strengthened role of HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in monitoring value for money among police forces. But the committee called for the department to place an even greater priority on financial training among staff, particularly given the anticipated period of spending cuts ahead. Committee chair Edward Leigh said the department’s financial management had been in “disarray”, but improved to the extent that the cabinet secretary now pointed to the Home Office as an “exemplar”. "This does not mean that sound financial management has now been established at all levels throughout the Home Office and in all its business activities,” he added. “That must be the overriding objective. But there has been great improvement and things are going in the right direction. The department must build on the momentum it has achieved.” http://www.civilservicenetwork.com/latest-news/news-article/newsarticle/home-officepraised-on-finances/

Sir Gus questions pay 'disparities' Thursday 29th October 2009 at 12:51

The cabinet secretary has questioned “massive disparities” in pay across the public sector, claiming they are “out of sync”. Giving evidence to the Commons public administration committee, Sir Gus O’Donnell said it was “difficult to understand” the justification for the differing salaries paid in the wider public sector, such as local authorities and health trusts. Responding to a question about Conservative plans to restrict the number of senior civil servants earning more than the prime minister, Sir Gus said there was a wider issue relating to salary levels. “There is a really good question to be had about pay in the public sector.”

“I think the relativities at the moment are out of sync. When you see the massive disparities within the public sector, there is something wrong, and I’d say probably the prime minister’s salary in that [respect] is too low.” He added: “When you look at the differing responsibilities of people and their salaries, there just doesn’t seem to be much of a relationship.” Asked if he would support plans for an overarching body to monitor pay levels across the public sector, he said: “Absolutely I’d support that.” He was questioned about a range of other issues, including Cabinet Office performance, civil service diversity, whistleblowing and future spending cuts. Sir Gus said his number-one priority was preparing for future spending constraints, revealing that he recently told a meeting of the so-called ‘top 200’ group of senior officials that in the years to come “success will be reducing the deficit by half without damaging public services… to my mind this is our number-one task.” He faced tough queries about the performance of his own department, rejecting suggestions that the Cabinet Office was treated as a “dustbin” for policy functions such as social exclusion and the third sector. However, he did acknowledge that some areas could perform more effectively in departments with more experience of delivery. “If you want to start something and give it a push from the centre, by all means set it up within the Cabinet Office, but then move it out to other departments,” he said, pointing out that the department’s capability reviews reflected its strengths in policy and strategy, but not delivery. He revealed that the recently founded Office of Cyber Security, set up within the Cabinet Office to lead work on national security threats online, would probably be moved to the Home Office in time. And when asked by Conservative MP Charles Walker if he himself had undergone a socalled “360-degree” peer review, Sir Gus revealed that Whitehall HR boss Gill Rider canvassed other permanent secretaries to provide confidential feedback on the cabinet secretary’s performance. On the findings, O’Donnell said: “There are occasions when I am too strategic and don’t get involved enough in detail, and occasions when I’m too much of an economist and use too much jargon.” But when the same member inquired if the prime minister had undergone a similar process, his response was diplomatic. “I don’t think that’s appropriate. But obviously I discuss with the prime minister the most efficient way of getting business done.”

http://www.civilservicenetwork.com/latest-news/news-article/newsarticle/sir-gusquestions-pay-disparities/

Nimrod review slams MoD Thursday 29th October 2009 at 11:08

The RAF Nimrod crash that killed 14 British service personnel in Afghanistan was "preventable", an independent review has found. Presenting the long awaited Haddon-Cave report to the Commons Bob Ainsworth said the report was critical of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and its industrial partners at both organisational and individual levels. "This will be very distressing reading for many, and particularly for those families who lost loved ones three years ago," he said. "On behalf of the MoD and the Royal Air Force, I would like again to say sorry to all the families who lost loved ones. "I am sorry for the mistakes that have been made and the lives that have been lost as a result of our failure. Nothing I can say or do will bring these men back." The beleaguered defence secretary said he would produce a "full response" to the damning report before the Christmas recess. "I have set this challenging timetable because I want to ensure that we can act with confidence that the right decisions will be made and the necessary work will be seen through," he said. Ainsworth told MPs that the MoD had already changed its practises in order to improve the safety of the Nimrod fleet. "We are aware that the implications stretch more broadly across defence to other items of equipment, so we have also scrutinised our safety management processes and organisation with great care," the Defence Secretary told MPs. "Safety is now given absolute priority by the highest levels of the MoD." "This report is a tough read. The subtitle of the report, 'A Failure of Leadership, Culture and Priorities', is a stark judgment," Ainsworth admitted. "We do not shy away from it, or from the clear message in this report that we have more to do." Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox said the report should serve as a "wake-up call" for politicians, industry and the military. "It is a formidable indictment and describes multiple and repeated systemic failures," he said. "It is genuinely shocking. Its most damning central conclusion is that there were previous incidents and warning signs that were ignored, and that the loss of this aircraft was avoidable." "Cutting corners costs lives. You cannot fight wars on a peacetime budget and there is a moral imperative that those who are willing to risk their lives in the armed service of their

country, should know at all times that everything is being done to maximise the chance of success of their mission, and to minimise their risk in carrying it out. "The failure to do this resulted in the deaths of 14 servicemen, the avoidable and preventable deaths of 14 servicemen." Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Nick Harvey said: "This is a tragic case of an accident that could have been avoided." "This has been a case of wake-up calls from previous incidents not being heeded...the report is also damming of an industry which it accuses of incompetence, complacency and cynicism and I believe that while there is always danger in flying military aircraft, some of this was unnecessary and avoidable and the lives of personnel have been lost." http://www.civilservicenetwork.com/latest-news/news-article/newsarticle/nimrod-reviewslams-mod/

Blog uncovers sustainable reality Friday 30th October 2009 at 10:10

Civil servants have been describing their attempts to make their workplaces more sustainable. Cleaners who sabotage recycling drives and heating systems that cannot be turned down on warm days are among the difficulties described in a blog on Civil Service Live. Posts detailing the highs - including awards for the protection of rare plants - and lows of sustainability in the workplace have come in response to a blog by Rebecca Willis, vicechairwoman of the Sustainable Development Commission, who asked civil servants what they and their employers were doing. Wendy Birchall, a HR official at the UK Border Agency, said the recycling in her office had all been initiated by employees. "Enquiries to the 'Sustainable Development' unit were not helpful, the response being that there was not a department-wide provider of recycling services," she said. Della Rudkin also initiated recycling, organising two bins for her UK Border Agency office in Bedford. But, "When the cleaners come to empty them they just throw them with all the other rubbish," she said. Similarly, staff at Nicky Turner's Jobcentre Plus office in Bury St Edmunds had to organise their own recycling because the contract with cleaners did not include emptying separate bins.

Turner also described how her office's heating had a 'set' temperature which could not be adjusted, meaning that there were some days "when all the windows are open and the radiators are on. I am glad I do not have the bills on our building." Willis also asked civil servants if they felt engaged with their employer's sustainability strategy, and some did not. Ian Dyer, another Jobcentre Plus employee, this time from Binstead, said he and his colleagues often received emails about switching equipment off, "but no senior manager has ever asked us for ideas". He was worried that "green issues only get a quick look, and emails are passed on to staff". There were also happier tales. Paul Kemp said the Ministry of Defence Police and Guarding Agency, based in Braintree, had won awards for recycling and sustainability, including the protection of rare plants on site, which he attributed to "the enthusiasm of one member of staff who has subsequently become the sustainability officer and formed a green team of volunteers". Also at the Ministry of Defence, Derek Myatt from Defence Estates headquarters in Sutton Coldfield told Civil Service Live members about a department-wide website for the recycling of surplus stationery. "In the last 12 months a total of over £2,000 has been saved by using this scheme," he revealed. http://www.civilservicenetwork.com/latest-news/news-article/newsarticle/blog-uncoverssustainable-reality/

Cross-service survey launched Friday 30th October 2009 at 09:18

The civil service is conducting the country's largest ever employee engagement survey, it has been announced. Staff attitude surveys are normally carried out by individual departments, but this year the same one will be sent to all civil servants. The change is set to reduce survey administration costs by more than a third and will mean comparisons between departments are a lot easier to make. Staff will be asked about matters ranging from strength of management to training and development needs. Mervyn Thomas, HR director at the Department for Transport and the survey's programme sponsor, said the survey would "not only improve the public services we deliver but also set a positive example for other employers". The survey runs until 10 November. http://www.civilservicenetwork.com/latest-news/news-article/newsarticle/cross-servicesurvey-launched/

Tories party, Whitehall ponders Friday 30th October 2009 at 00:41

The Conservative conference saw the party develop clearer ideas on what it wants – and what it doesn’t want – from the civil service. Matthew O’Toole went along to hear what a Tory government might expect of Whitehall Although they failed to stop the Mirror from securing a snap of David Cameron’s clandestine glass of champagne, the Conservatives did their level best to keep a lid on any signs of over-confidence at their conference in Manchester – a conference which, the received wisdom insists, could well be the party’s last in opposition for some time. But while they set out their plans in carefully provisional terms, senior figures did not avoid the subject of how they would alter the machinery of government – and the civil service in particular – if elected next year. Policy proposals on such issues from opposition parties are to be expected, but the Conservatives’ extensive announcements about reforming Whitehall were delivered – and received – with an exceptional level of seriousness. “I think people now have a pretty clear idea about what a Conservative government would look like,” shadow Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude told a fringe late in the week. And what would the civil service look like? On that subject, too, more than a little light was shed. Maude’s own detailed announcements included pledges to hire more non-executive directors (or ‘Neds’) from the commercial world. Their work would also be enhanced, he declared, by making permanent secretaries submit business plans to them for approval. If senior officials consistently fail to deliver on these plans, he said, Neds should be able to recommend their dismissal. What’s more, the top two tiers of civil servants would be placed on fixed-term contracts, probably lasting five years. Maude was keen to stress that personal accountability would be ratcheted up, particularly for top officials. “If that permanent secretary is seen to be a barrier to the effective delivery of what the government is committed to do, then we should be robust about this; there should the same accountability for public sector managers as there is in the private sector,” he said. As we revealed in our last issue, the Treasury is already instituting a review into the effectiveness of Neds (see CSW p3 & 8, 7 October), amid concerns that Whitehall’s use of such figures has developed on a somewhat ad-hoc basis and is inconsistent across departments. In Manchester Jonathan Baume, general secretary of the FDA union, cautioned against “over-egging” the importance of private sector expertise, but said that moves to improve board scrutiny are “not a surprise”, particularly in an era of constraining budgets – “which is an art in itself,” he added. Baume was less sanguine about Tory plans to publish the salary and employment details – though without personal information – of the country’s top 35,000 civil servants, questioning the value of releasing data about mid-ranking officials with relatively modest incomes. The data would reach “seven tiers below a permanent secretary, and it’s a bit

hard to see what the justification is for going down to that level,” Baume said. Speaking to Civil Service World afterwards, Maude denied the move was about bashing the public sector, arguing that it would enable “armchair auditors” to hold government to account over spending during the forthcoming fiscal squeeze. “I don’t think it’s unreasonable; I think it’s useful information for the public to have,” he said. Maude may have been attempting to deliver an astringent but fair message to the senior civil service, but his higher-profile shadow cabinet colleagues pulled no punches on what they perceive as Whitehall profligacy and inefficiency. Shadow chancellor George Osborne’s speech was thick with commitments: an overall reduction of government administrative costs by a third by the end of the next Parliament; a pay freeze for all public sector workers earning more than £18,000; and plans to cap public sector pensions at £50,000 per year. Osborne’s pledge that any public servant appointed with a bigger salary than the prime minister will be subject to his approval as chancellor was well-received in the conference hall. “I’m not expecting a long queue,” he deadpanned, though permanent secretaries who fall into that category may not have seen the funny side. “Conservatives should never use lazy rhetoric that belittles those employed by the government,” Osborne said in his speech; and while David Cameron took care to avoid doing that, his rhetoric laid the blame for a litany of social and economic problems squarely at the door of an overweening state and “big-government bureaucracy”. “Labour say that to solve the country’s problems, we need more government,” Cameron said. “Don’t they see? It is more government that got us into this mess.” Such declarations are obviously a harbinger of the broad change of tone a Conservative government would seek to implement. But were there any substantive proposals on how to achieve the planned shrinking of Whitehall and decentralisation to local government? Shadow communities and local government secretary Caroline Spelman reiterated the party’s plan to hold referenda on elected mayors in the 12 biggest English cities outside London, but offered little new detail beyond a proposal that local authority leaders could take over the functions of chief executives. More interesting was a suggestion from Maude at a packed fringe event staged by centreleft think-tank IPPR. He predicted that once in government, Tories would have to be ruthless in forcing Whitehall bosses to sacrifice powers to councils – a vague pledge to “let go” of central powers would never be enough. “It’s like saying: ‘I’m going to let go of this piece of chewing gum that’s stuck to my hand’. You have to actually pull it off,” the former minister said, noting that both the Thatcher and Major governments had come to power promising to reduce the power of Whitehall, and largely failed. One of the party’s most celebrated thinkers and the man charged with writing its forthcoming manifesto, Oliver Letwin, used a separate and less well-attended fringe event run by the Reform think-tank to argue that the party is committed to increasing choice in public services without issuing diktats from the centre. The current approach, he said, involves “someone in Whitehall working out what users want”. “That is fundamentally

different to our approach,” he said, going on to explain Tory plans to abolish reams of “bureaucratic” Labour targets on health and education that bedevil doctors, nurses and teachers and prevent them from offering real choice to users at the front line. Perhaps the most significant insight into how the party might implement the structural changes it wants came at an event sponsored by another centre-right group, Policy Exchange. Institute for Government director Sir Michael Bichard, who is advising the party and is thought to have the ear of senior leaders on civil service reform, argued that attempts by the Cabinet Office, Downing Street and Treasury to “micromanage delivery” are ineffective, and said that this unwieldy centre should be streamlined. Bichard echoed Maude’s call for closer scrutiny of the performance of top officials, warning Tories: “Some civil servants still measure their performance on how well they are managing their departments, not how well their department is delivering.” As many of our shadow cabinet profiles illustrated (see CSW, 26 August), the opposition’s hostility to Whitehall bureaucracy in the abstract is at least partly mitigated by a stated respect for the talent and impartiality of the civil service. How this tension will resolve itself in the event of a Tory government remains to be seen, but the party has certainly begun to articulate a vision of the civil service it wants – especially at the top: leaner, more accountable, less well-paid, and with considerably less power over public services. Strong medicine: Tory words on Whitehall Andrew Lansley “If we are to ask the NHS to save in order to invest, we must cut back on top-down bureaucracy.” George Osborne “I tell you today that the next Conservative Government will cut the cost of Whitehall by one third over the next Parliament: Westminster and Whitehall subjected to the same disciplines as everyone else.” Francis Maude “We respect the impartiality of the civil service and its professionalism – we will be much more conventional [than Labour]. We will seek and listen to advice, even if we don’t always take it.” http://www.civilservicenetwork.com/features/features-article/newsarticle/tories-partywhitehall-ponders/

E-government - Friday 23rd October Leading e-government news and features for the IT professional

GCHQ hires EDS for net snooping The infamous firm is working on an internet data mining system for GCHQ DWP admits future IT budget rise Sir Leigh Lewis admits rise but says he's still confident of efficiency savings Give access to social care records Councils should provide secure, online access to patients, advisory body says All gov websites must be accessible Report says for Digital Britain to work for the disabled, sites must be accessible Tories want to scrap broadband tax Shadow culture secretary says the party will stop the tax if it wins the election Councils forced to change IT system Supplier discontinues service forcing 35 councils to migrate to new systems LAs must make public data public Making more public data available could generate £1bn extra for the economy Met wants mobiles that do iris scans New mobiles could scan passports, credit cards and biometric identifiers Police backed on criminal records Court of Appeal says even old and minor convictions can be valuable in crime fight Home Office drops DNA data plan Opponents claim victory as Home Office says it will create 'further provisions http://www.publicservice.co.uk/topic_section.asp?topic=e-government THE WEEK'S BEST PUBLICSERVANTDAILY STORIES - 28 October 2009 Councils to get asset seizing powers They will be able to search homes and freeze accounts of council tax dodgers Whitehall 'jobs for life' could go soon Tories talk to civil servants about making them accountable for poor performance Planning process 'must be greener' Planning system is locked in the age of stupid, say environment campaigners 'Tax polluters and save the planet' Higher green taxes would solve problem of emissions at little cost, says study 'Give 11-year-olds careers advice' Ed Balls says he wants to communicate through Facebook, You Tube and blogs Brown, the man for 'steady policies' The PM reckons that the economy will start to recover by the turn of the year 'NHS is paying for more private care' Since April 2008, 100,000 NHS patients have been treated privately, figures show 'Cuts could damage infrastructure' New Local Government Network warns of a 'tsunami of a recession' from next year

Barnet 'easy Council' plans go ahead Other local authorities may adopt the scheme to personalise public services Parents could take schools to court Schools could face legal action if they fail to protect children against bullies DECC: 'Fuel poverty on the increase' Figures reveal a rise to 2.8m households in 2007 and predict this year to be 4.6m http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_features.asp