Partners to the project likely to commit
resources | East Dunbartonshire Council East Renfrewshire Council Glasgow City Council Inverclyde Council North Lanarkshire Council Renfrewshire Council South Lanarkshire Council West Dunbartonshire Council |
Names of other organisations with whom
the project has been discussed (to assist
the introductions process) | Brief discussions have taken place
with: - Aberdeen City Council
- Aberdeenshire Council
- John Arthur, Fife Council
- Scottish Executive
- Local Government Improvement
Service
- Jonathan Evans, Employers
Organisation
- Richard Wheater,
CoSLA
- Chartered Institute of
Purchasing
|
Evidence that suggested approach has
been deployed successfully elsewhere | Although the Clyde Valley Chief
Executives Forum has been in existence for
some time, the training and development
group is a new consortium in terms of the
bid. However, there is evidence from a
range of sources that joined up approaches
to commissioning, developing, delivering
and assessing training leads to savings in
both cost and time. In a budget of £33,465,000 across the
Clyde Valley authorities, projected savings
are significant. Examples of joint approaches
include: - Development of 'e' learning package
to support introduction of the Freedom
of Information (Scotland) Act (
FOISA). Fifteen
authorities bought into this approach
leading to a reduction in development
time, delivery time and achieving an
estimated cost reduction of £193,292
through joint commissioning and
development. This is calculated on the
basis of £2 per licence per employee in
scope. The actual total cost of the
development was £18, 000 for the 15
participating authorities.
- The 12 authorities of the
20-year-old West of Scotland Consortium
pool resources to provide placements
for trainee Social Workers and training
for Mental Health Officers. This is a
good example of joining up to achieve
critical mass which makes provision of
training viable.
- In Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire
Council provides I.T. training to North
Lanarkshire Council and East
Renfrewshire Council employees at a
unit cost of £65 per person per day.
This is a more favourable rate than
buying in from the private sector,
currently estimated at £150 per person
per day.
- A national consortium exists for
specific training for head teachers -
The Scottish Qualification for Headship
- where the consortium has established
a set price (£1250 per module) for this
particular
national qualification
|
Are there any restrictions to potential
for enlargement of the project (
i.e. technology, number of
partners etc) | None identified at this stage. Indeed the Clyde Valley Forum would want
to explore application of the proposal
across Scottish local authorities and
welcomes discussions with like-minded
consortia such as the Fife (East of
Scotland) bid. In addition there may be
scope for engaging with authorities leading
on procurement as this is a key element of
commissioning. Some discussion has taken place with the
East of Scotland Learning Network, through
Fife Council. There are some clear
similarities in the work under review in
terms of training. It may be appropriate
for the Clyde Valley to undertake
exploratory work in terms of efficiency
which could be extended to the East of
Scotland authorities. This collaboration
will also be helpful in both procurement
and economies of scale. It is also intended
to take this to the Society of Personnel
Directors Scotland (
SPDS) with a view to
exploring a Scotland wide approach. |
Benefits projected from the project | The total budget allocated to workforce
training across the eight authorities is
£33,465,000 (gross). For breakdown see
narrative section. The qualitative anticipated benefits
are: - Erase duplication of effort in
commissioning, developing, delivering
and assessing workforce training
- Establishing common governance
arrangements for workforce
training
- Greater consistency of quality of
training provision across authorities
by agreeing quality monitoring
arrangements
- Economies of scale in procurement
by jointly commissioning
- Attaining critical volume for
training for smaller authorities and
for minority subjects
e.g. drama teaching
The qualitative anticipated benefits
depend upon the nature of the training
intervention. However, reduction in unit
costs for training days (currently around
£179 per day) or annual cost of training
per employee (currently £219) are
anticipated year on year, based upon
current spend |
Estimated Financial projections (Please treat these figures as
indicative only) | Total | 2005 / 6 | 2006 / 7 | 2007 / 8 | 2008 / 9 |
Overall project cost | £1, 125, 000 | £255, 000 | £210, 000 | £330, 000 | £330, 000 |
Project costs are geared
towards year 1 and 2 when
development costs may be greatest.
Costs of staff re-training are
weighted towards years 3 and 4. For
a breakdown of yearly costs see
section 2. |
Estimated projected benefits (Gross) | *£1, 968, 010 | £ nil | £669, 300 | £655, 914 | £642, 796 |
| Estimated project benefits (Net) | *£1, 418, 331 | £ nil | £482, 360 | £472, 713 | £463, 259 |
*Total training costs across
the Clyde Valley are approximately
£33, 465 000 (Net training costs
£24, 118,000) - estimated projected
benefits are based upon 2% savings
in cash and time year on year. |
Is a pilot required - see guidance
notes | No, this bid includes a request for
Stage 2 development money which will be
used to develop models of joint working
which are fit for purpose. Those which meet
our objectives will be those with a 'lean'
approach which demonstrate
additionality |
Additionally: why is
EG funding required | Initial responses from partner
authorities are very encouraging - there is
a will to work better together. However,
investment is required to devote to this
project to implement specific changes in
the way we deliver training which can lead
to evidence based, measurable outcomes. |
Is this project complementary in any way
to other
EG work | This project is a good example of like
minded employers seeking to improve
efficiency and effectiveness in the broad
area of workforce training and development,
through leaner partnership approaches. In addition, it reflects one of the
priority areas for the Efficient Government
initiative, namely support service reform.
This project will undoubtedly stimulate
significant changes in delivery of this
important function. Efforts have been made to ensure no
duplication of effort with other bids,
especially those involving procurement
within Clyde Valley. |
Is 'stage 2 development funding'
requested | Stage 2 Development funding is requested
to the value of £100, 000. As part of the
preparation for the bid, a significant
amount of data has been generated. The
development monies will be used to: - Engage an external consultant to
work with the eight authorities on the
detailed financial data required for
Stage 2 bid process, leading to
development of a robust project
- Analyse existing data on
distribution of training spend across
activities.
- Establish appropriate governance
arrangements for the consortium.
- Facilitate some innovative, radical
partnership working within the Clyde
Valley such as single
SVQ centres for
specific qualifications for employee
groups. Some benchmarking work has been
undertaken in relation to vocational
qualifications for Social Care
staff.
- Testing of ways of working
e.g. lead authorities for
particular type of training
provision
- Sourcing 'e'-learning expertise to
develop
CD-roms or on-line
learning options for consideration by
the Clyde Valley Group
Apply current research by the Scottish
Leadership Foundation and Improvement
Service on aspects of public sector
workforce development |