1. Portfolio/Number/Name:ELL/C3 & T1 Scottish Further Education Colleges and Higher Education Institutions |
2. Programme/Activity: The underlying aim of the Efficient Government Initiative is embedded in the approach the Funding Council ( SFC)5takes to funding further education colleges and higher education institutions and the funding approach is applied to all institutions in exactly the same way. Therefore the possibility of relative inefficiencies between institutions is minimised. Building upon significant efficiency gains that have already been delivered over recent years and the continuing gains derived from existing collaborative activities, the SFC has worked closely with colleagues in further and higher education to identify the following additional opportunities to deliver redeployment gains over the next three years. Key developments include: - investment in estates
SR04 has committed significant additional capital investment for learning and teaching infrastructure over the three financial years to 2007/08 in both Further Education ( FE) and Higher Education ( HE). The much improved environment for students and researchers will result in reduced operating expenditure (through reduced floor space and more efficient running costs). There is to be collaboration between institutions, co-location of facilities, and sharing of services. Best practise in procurement, energy efficiency and waste management will be part of those estate renewal strategies. - identifying, sharing and replicating new approaches for the delivery of learning, research and support functions and the development of new collaborative activities
Approaches are constantly evolving as institutions strive to maximise the investment of the resource available to deploy on teaching and research. This strand seeks to identify the most effective approaches, ensure effective dissemination, and provide support for efficient replication. - further development of joint procurement arrangements
Work is ongoing to build upon the work of existing joint procurement arrangements to reach out to all institutions and all areas of expenditure.
Time efficiencies for 2006-07 and 2007-08 have increased significantly from the previously published targets of £11million and £35million for 2006-07 and 2007-08. This arises from a re-assessment of the total potential of the identifying, sharing and replicating strand based on the experience of the very promising pilot exercise conducted in the University sector. |
3. Efficiency | 3.1 Current target; £m | | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
Cash | 1.0 | 5.0 | 15.0 |
Time | 5.0 | 45.0 | 80.0 |
3.2 Efficiencies delivered; £m | | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
Cash | 1.0 | - | - |
Time | 11.0 | - | - |
4. Accountable Officer for delivery | Roger McClure, Scottish Funding Council Chief Executive |
5. Project Manager | Martin Fairbairn, SFC Director of Governance and management: Appraisal and Policy |
6. EGDD Portfolio Manager | Hilary Pearce |
7. Description of efficiency and actions to be taken | 7.1 What is the efficiency improvement? How will the efficiencies be made? - Purpose-built teaching and research facilities will result in many cases in reduced floor space and more efficient running costs.
- The identifying, sharing and replicating of new approaches for the delivery of learning, research and support functions and the developments of new collaborative activities will create redeployment gains by transferring knowledge, replicating best practice and reducing duplication of effort.
- Further development of joint procurement arrangements will create redeployment gains by achieving better value for money for the sectors.
Anticipated net annual cash redeployment gains from the further development of procurement arrangements: - 2005-06: £1m
- 2006-07: £5m
- 2007-08: £15m
Under the auspices of the Efficient Government Fund ( EGF), the Procurement Consortium for Scotland and Northern Ireland (Proc- SNI)has undertaken a pilot study to assess the potential for a progressive migration of HE/ FE institutions onto the Scottish Executive's eProcurementScotl@nd ( ePS) e-procurement platform. As part of this project, all colleges and universities have supplied information about their current procurement arrangements. This information has been used to take forward the ePS project. However, it also provides a basis for colleges and universities to review their procurement arrangements generally. Recognising the advantages to the development of further shared arrangements, the sectors have established the Procurement Advisory Group to review operational procurement arrangements and to respond to the procurement review undertaken by John McClelland for the Scottish Executive. Anticipated time redeployment gains: - investment in estates - £15m. This is based on the 18 projects the Funding Councils are currently supporting that are saving 22,224m 2 at a typical full economic cost of £148/m 2, giving a 'gain' of £3.5m. The total capital spend for these projects is estimated to be in the region of £260m. Colleges and universities' total capital spend in the period 2005-2008 is projected to be £1,200m. Extrapolating the 'gains' from the specific 18 projects on the basis of total capital spend gives total 'gains' of up to £15m;
- identifying, sharing and replicating - £65m based on redeployment gains of just over two per cent of the sectors' total budgeted spend. Both sectors have established working groups to drive this agenda forward. Key features are:
- imminent completion of a survey of higher education institutions to identify and subsequently disseminate actual and planned re-deployment gains for each year of 2005-06 to 2007-08
- from the pilot phase of the above exercise alone, over £10m of annual 'gains' were identified;
- a similar approach in the college sector will shorlty be launched, building on the experience of higher education institutions;
- indicative firm gains of at least £10m have been identified from specific college and university planned financial improvement strategies.
Note: the increases in time efficiencies for 2006-07 and 2007-08 from the previously published targets arise from a re-assessment of the total potential of the identifying, sharing and replicating strand based on the experience of the very promising pilot exercise conducted in the University sector. |
7.2 What are the main actions that are needed to secure the delivery of this efficiency improvement? Procurement: - positive response to the recently submitted second-stage efficient government fund proposal;
- creation of the proposed procurement 'Centre of Expertise'.
Estates: - collection of appropriate information relating to the Council's specific investments in colleges' and universities estates.
Identifying, sharing and replicating: - creation of sector working groups to drive processes to collect and disseminate information on redeployment gains (achieved);
- implementation of such processes (imminent); and
- identification of other institution or project specific redeployment gains (current).
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8. Associated costs | 8.1 Are there any development or redundancy costs associated with the delivery of this efficiency? The projected 'gains' are net of any associated development and recurring costs (except if specific projects are not being pursued on efficiency grounds alone). At this stage in the development of the plans, no increase or decrease in staff groupings have been identified. |
9. Measurement | 9.1 What are the inputs that will be measured? Although not final, the following indicates the likely input measures. Procurement: - costs of relevant goods and services; and
- operational costs of procurement activities.
Estates: - like-for-like comparison of available space before and after estate re-developments;
- standard sector operating costs per square metre;
- description and, if possible, recurring value of improvements to facilities (i.e. facilities that did not exist prior to each re-development).
Identifying, sharing and replicating: - staff time and other costs associated with the relevant activities before and after implementation of each 'improvement programme'.
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9.2 What are the outputs that will be measured? As more detailed plans develop, the appropriate cash equivalent for each time-releasing activity will become more apparent and will be defined at that time, so as to enable a 'before and after' comparison. By designing and implementing appropriate measurement processes with both sectors as the detail of the individual strands is developed. It is already established practice that in return for funding from the SFC, institutions have to deliver a defined volume of provision and demonstrate continuous quality improvement. Monitoring and reporting procedures for the efficiency projects will build upon this, and will be developed in conjunction with the sectors. |
9.3 What is the baseline for inputs and outputs? The baseline for each redeployment gain will be the inputs and outputs of the associated activity in 2004-05. |
10. Quality cross-check | 10.1 What quality indicators are being used to ensure that quality of service is maintained or improved? It is anticipated that the developments will have positive impacts on the quality of both teaching and research. The improvements in quality are expected to arise from: greater availability of purpose-built teaching and research facilities; the sharing and replicating of new approaches for the delivery of learning, teaching and support functions; and redeployment gains being available for further investment in teaching and research. With respect to qualitative measures, and monitoring thereof, existing processes, such as the student satisfaction surveys, the work of the Quality Assurance Agency and, for the FE sector, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education will continue and provide assurance that the transfer of resource, both cash and time, to the frontline is having a positive impact on teaching and the learning experience. Ratings from the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise ( RAE) will provide broad indicators of research quality. |
11. Monitoring | 11.1 What are the arrangements for monitoring the delivery of efficiencies? The data requirements will be considered along with the monitoring and reporting procedures and agreed with the sectors. The validity checks will be considered along with the monitoring and reporting procedures and data requirements, and agreed with the sectors. |
12. Reporting | 12.1 What are the arrangements for reporting the delivery of efficiencies? It is already established practice that in return for funding from the SFC, institutions have to deliver a defined volume of provision and demonstrate continuous quality improvement. Monitoring and reporting procedures for the efficiency projects will build upon this, and will be developed in conjunction with the sectors |
13. Dependencies | 13.1 Explain if your efficiencies are dependent on legislation or other structural changes being achieved. No legislation or other structural changes required. |
14. Use of efficiencies | 14.1 How are the efficiencies released from improvement activity being used to improve front-line services? The redeployment gains will be reinvested by the further education colleges and higher education institutions in their teaching and research facilities. |