At this stage the funding would be used to
employ external support in order provide an
objective review of areas where further
efficiencies can be achieved, and thus inform a
fully worked up stage 2 bid. The initial
scoping would look at the following areas: Finance Services i.e. Council tax, NDR and
payroll; Legal Services ICT including connectivity across the Forth
Valley area; Information sharing and geographic
information systems; HR and employee care - specifically the
provision of a joint occupational health
contract; Procurement; Facilities Management; and Other key support services e.g. external
funding, communications and research. In order to fully assess the potential for
each of the areas to yield efficiencies and
ensure continued delivery of quality service,
it is proposed that a business case is
developed for each area of work noted above
that will contain the following
information: What is the project (area of service
delivery) and what are the key objectives of
undertaking the project? What is the scope of the area of service
delivery under consideration? What is the current position on the project
across all partners including information on
quality of service, fit for purpose assessment
and benchmarking with other partners out with
Forth Valley and timescales for replacement of
supporting ICT systems? Who would the partners be both within Forth
Valley and out with; An assessment of the future options for the
delivery of service with a cost benefit
analysis on each option i.e. joint, shared or
hosted service; What funding is required to start the
project and then through to completion i.e.
timeline of funding? How does the project fit into the efficient
Government criteria and what potential savings
/ efficiencies could be made? A project plan for taking the project
forward? and What are the key issues the project /
agencies would have to address to ensure the
objectives are achieved? As well as seeking funding to review
services, some specific areas of service
delivery have been identified as having the
potential to yield savings and efficiencies.
Again further work will have to take place in
order that these can be developed for the stage
2 bid. It should be stressed that the detail of
this work varies across the project areas. This
is one of the key reasons why the partners
would want to use the initial funding to fully
assess the scope of the stage 2 bid. The areas
of service delivery currently being looked at
include: Procurement An existing group chaired by the Chief
Executive of Clackmannanshire Council is
developing the procurement proposal. The
suggested proposal is to look at areas where
joint buying and tendering would be
advantageous to the Forth Valley Partnership.
This would include a review of existing buying
and tendering processes with a view to aligning
these where appropriate. Further detail on this
bid is attached as appendix 2. Payroll / HR and Pensions The timing on this area of review is
advantageous. Falkirk Council has just
installed a new payroll and HR system with the
other two Councils looking to purchase a new
system in the near future. The review of this
area of work would have to include a review of
how systems can support varying HR policies
i.e. work weeks etc. ICT Infrastructure This proposal is to review existing ICT
links between all the partners to ensure we
have the capacity to share information and
systems across the whole of the Forth Valley
area. Currently we all pay for broadband links
for a variety of purposes, but with the
increased commitment to share information
through such developments as eCare, GIS, CCTV
etc these links will become increasingly under
pressure. This project will seek to assess
current infrastructure, costs of the provision
of connectivity and how these can be reduced in
the medium long term. Geographical Information Systems This proposal was to extend the existing Tri
Council GIS service to all key agencies within
the Forth Valley area. This would help with the
proposal regarding information sharing across
the Forth Valley Partnership. Occupational Health Work has been ongoing for some time on
developing a common occupational health
service. This has been developed in recognition
that we need to reduce our absence rates and
ensure a quality of care for all our
employees. Health and Safety and Employee Care In addition to looking at Occupational
Health, it was suggested that wider Health and
Safety / Employee Care issues could be looked
at across the organisations. This recognised
the need to provide very specialised technical
advice within each of the organisations. The
expertise was in short supply, with the
potential for some economies of scale if these
were shared. However it is anticipated that all aspects
of the work of public sector agencies will be
scoped in order to assess potential for
efficiency savings. This will include looking
at new arrangements to support Community Health
Partnerships in each of the three Council areas
etc. |