Portfolio/Number/Name:ERD/C2 & T2 - Efficiency savings in Scottish Environment Protection Agency ( SEPA) |
2. Programme/Activity: SEPA's efficiency savings come from a variety of different activities across the organisation. The cash-releasing efficiency savings will occur through: - Reducing expenditure on supplies and services; and
- Reducing the resource required for carrying out certain functions in SEPA.
The time-releasing efficiency savings will be achieved through: - Improved asset management;
- Absorption of new duties by existing staff;
- Greater efficiency from support services; and
- Transaction redesign.
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3. Efficiency | 3.1 Current target; £m | | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
Cash | 0.7 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
Time | 1.6 | 2.0 | 2.1 |
3.2 Efficiencies delivered; £m | | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
Cash | 2.42 | - | - |
Time | 1.73 | - | - |
4. Accountable Officer for delivery | Richard Wakeford |
5. Project Manager | John Ford |
6. EGDD Portfolio Manager | Angus Gardner |
7. Description of efficiency and actions to be taken | 7.1 What is the efficiency improvement? How will the efficiencies be made? Cash-releasing savings - Reducing expenditure on supplies and services. This efficiency improvement comes from procuring the same level of supplies and services for less.
- Reducing the resource required for carrying out certain functions in SEPA. This efficiency improvement comes from carrying out the same with less resource freeing up resources for other activities.
Time-releasing savings - Improved asset management. The SEPA asset management plans will deliver a more efficient use of office space by space planning thereby increasing the number of staff housed within our current buildings rather than acquiring new buildings.
- Absorption of new duties by existing staff. Through more efficient working, some new responsibilities will be delivered by current staffing levels.
- Greater efficiency from support services. SEPA will be recruiting 140 more members of staff over the next 3 years in order to deal with the new responsibilities it faces. However, it will not increase the support costs for staff. Instead it will increase the efficiency of current support and ensure that these new staff are absorbed within existing support costs.
- Transaction redesign. Transaction redesign, the use of e-forms, the introduction of an e-finance system and the further expansion of the use of procurement cards will deliver further time-releasing savings. This will produce cash-releasing savings on consumables with reduced printing and will release staff time through improved information flow enabling this time to be used for operational work.
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7.2 What are the main actions that are needed to secure the delivery of this efficiency improvement? Cash-releasing savings Most of the actions needed to secure the delivery of the cash-releasing savings have been taken and these savings have been removed from base budget figures. Time-releasing savings No additional actions specifically required for the asset management savings as SEPA asset management plans are currently in place. Managers in relevant areas of SEPA have direct responsibility to achieve planned gains from absorbing new duties within existing staff. An e-finance system is to be introduced, which will help to deliver the savings from transaction re-design, and this is planned to be delivered in 2006. |
8. Associated costs | 8.1 Are there any development or redundancy costs associated with the delivery of this efficiency? There are no redundancy costs associated with the delivery of the above efficiency savings. There are no development costs associated with most of these savings although there will a development cost associated with the introduction of the e-finance system. This development cost has not been netted off from the efficiency savings since the principal driver of this initiative is to improve to finance function rather than to specifically deliver efficiency savings. |
9. Measurement | 9.1 What are the inputs that will be measured? Cash-releasing savings - Reducing expenditure on supplies and services. The inputs being measured here is expenditure on supplies and services.
- Reducing the resource required for carrying out certain functions in SEPA. The inputs being measured here is the expenditure on each of the respective functions.
Time-releasing savings - Improved asset management. The inputs being measured here is the overall floor space in buildings occupied by SEPA staff.
- Absorption of new duties by existing staff. The inputs being measured here are the number of staff.
- Greater efficiency from support services. The inputs being measured here are the number of staff employed in support services.
- Transaction redesign. The input being measured here is the time spent on each transaction.
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9.2 What are the outputs that will be measured? Cash-releasing savings - Reducing expenditure on supplies and services. The outputs being measured here is quantity of supplies and services received.
- Reducing the resource required for carrying out certain functions in SEPA. The inputs being measured here is the expenditure on each of the respective functions.
Time-releasing savings - Improved asset management. The outputs being measured here are the number of staff employed in the buildings.
- Absorption of new duties by existing staff. The inputs being measured here are the number of staff.
- Greater efficiency from support services. The outputs being measured here are the number of staff receiving support services.
- Transaction redesign. The outputs being measured here are the number of financial transactions.
High level key output indicators for SEPA are also being monitored to ensure that they remain the same or are improved. These include compliance with COPA, IPC, APC, WML and Bathing Waters. The volume of PPC Part A applications is also being monitored as well as the availability of SCC and Floodline. |
9.3 What is the baseline for inputs and outputs? The baseline for measuring inputs and outputs is 2004-05. |
10. Quality cross-check | 10.1 What quality indicators are being used to ensure that quality of service is maintained or improved? Adherence to Service Level Agreements is being monitored to ensure that the quality of service is maintained or improved. |
11. Monitoring | 11.1 What are the arrangements for monitoring the delivery of efficiencies? Normal management performance reporting against targets will form the main monitoring tool. The baseline used will be the individual planned efficiency targets which express the gains and savings targets as cash equivalents. Where relevant, budget data, staff post numbers, activity targets and quality audits will be used to monitor progress. |
12. Reporting | 12.1 What are the arrangements for reporting the delivery of efficiencies? Performance will be monitored through the individual delivery plans and reported to the Director of Finance. Responsibility for delivery rests with the Corporate Management Team ( CMT) who will receive quarterly monitoring reports on progress from the Director of Finance. |
13. Dependencies | 13.1 Explain if your efficiencies are dependent on legislation or other structural changes being achieved. Part of savings are dependant on SEPA's restructuring. The restructuring will take place from 1 st April 2005, with the establishment of the functions of Science, Environment Protection & Improvement ( EPI), Environmental & Organisational Strategy ( EOS), Finance & Corporate Services ( FCS), Communication, and Human Resources & Organisational Development ( HR& OD). This has meant a significant change in the way SEPA delivers its business. This has resulted in a clearer focus on the functions' respective deliverables which has in turn allowed savings to be identified. |
14. Use of efficiencies | 14.1 How are the efficiencies released from improvement activity being used to improve front-line services? The efficiency savings will largely be dictated towards SEPA frontline operational services. |