Ministerial Keynote Address: Delivering the Changes Necessary to Achieve the Strategic Efficiency Savings Demanded

• Rethinking the core functions and processes of local government to deliver better services at less cost
• Understanding what localism means in practice and how it can be a lever for further efficiencies
• Implementing a renewed and concerted focus on better procurement, greater transparency and a greater scope for shared services
• Emphasising productivity above processes; Ending duplication, wasteful spending and wasteful working
• Ensuring councils can maximise the impact of their spending through improved patterns of procurement
• Delivering efficiency via Big Society-centred solutions
  

Baroness Hanham CBE, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department of Communities and Local Government (CONFIRMED)

Case study –  Realising the potential of the ‘Super council’ – Engineering large scale executive integration to deliver efficiency and better service outcomes

• Identifying where and when such an integration is possible
• Managing the change and the potential complexities of an integrated executive teams
• Consolidating key corporate policy initiatives and extending the integration strategy to other local initiatives and stakeholders
• Next steps for the integration

Cllr. Colin Barrow, Leader, Westminster City Council (CONFIRMED)

Keynote Question Time: Delivering Efficiency Savings in Local Government – The Scale of the Challenge

• Redesigning local government procurement - The Treasury’s view of collaborative commissioning
• Identifying the depth of the challenges the local government sector faces
• Analysing the current deficit reduction package
• Safeguarding core front-line services – What should be the non-negotiables of your efficiency planning?
• An efficient Big Society? Understanding how devolving autonomy and budgets to community partners can potentially drive efficiency
• Assessing the future of local government finances – What will be the likely targets for future efficiency savings?
• Embedding workforce development into the core of your business strategy to improve performance and achieve greater flexibility
• What can efficiency-led workforce reform achieve in practice - Harnessing creativity, new forms of delivery and bottom-up engagement leading to continuous improvement
• The implications of the Spending Review on local government
  

Helen Bailey, Director of Public Services, HM Treasury (CONFIRMED)
Paula McDonald CBE, Deputy Director (Public Service Workforce Reform), Efficiency and Reform Group, Cabinet Office (CONFIRMED)
Cllr David Shakespeare OBE, Vice Chair, LGA (CONFIRMED)

Forging New Efficient Procurement Partnerships Centred on Local Needs and Local People

• When is collaborative procurement cost effective? A practical guide to finding new partnerships
  
• Improved value for money through a collaborative approach to efficiency savings – Realising the economies of scale and innovating partnerships
  
• Achieving a consensus in your area regarding the priorities within the procurement initiative
  
• What are lessons of the Total Place partnerships for local government efficiency
  
• Providing greater flexibility to local partners to raise revenues
  Increased resilience of your delivery partnerships
  
• Examining the new options for revenue generation in procurement
  
• Managing the distinct pressures and challenges within collaborative procurement – What processes should you have in place to ensure the smooth and effective running of your deliver partnerships?
  
• Balancing outcomes with efficiencies – What are internal and external performance stakeholders looking for?

Cllr Edward Lord, Chair, Local Partnerships (CONFIRMED)

Suffolk County Council: A New Strategic Direction for Public Services

• A ‘New Strategic Direction’ for public services – Cutting £1.1 billion budget by 30 per cent by outsourcing services to social enterprises and the private sector
  
• How will the ‘enabling’ council work?
  
• Reducing size, costs and bureaucracy
  
• Building community capacity to enable citizens to take greater control of their lives

Jeremy Pembroke, Leader, Suffolk County Council (CONFIRMED)

Case study Warwickshire County Council - Alcatel Lucent

• 'Why' shared services Wide area network deployment strategy
  
• How to save money and deploy future new services
  
• Implementation and roll out - Best practices Warwickshire County Council deployment
  
• How Alcatel-lucent can help you

Simon Price, Alcatel Lucent (CONFIRMED)

13:50

Stream I: Understanding How to Deliver Strategic Efficiencies

(13:40 - 14:40) Understanding Modern Government Training Session: Leadership and high performing cultures

The reality of the current economic climate demands new organisational forms, new ways of working and new ways of enabling core services to be delivered.  This must be underpinned by strong, effective leadership, inclusive management approaches and engaging ways of relating to communities.  This interactive session provides an opportunity for participants to explore the necessary leadership, management and culture changes that they will need to make real in their own organisations.

Lesley Campbell, Director, OPM (CONFIRMED)

(14:40 -15:00) Comfort Break

(15:00 - 16:00) Understanding Modern Government Training Session: Re-engineering Your Efficiency Plans

With increased pressures on your executive team to plan and deliver efficiencies in line with the Spending Review, you need to be able to identify the areas of overlaps and potential for collaboration within your own organisation and partnerships. Guided by an experienced financial trainer, delegates will be encouraged to re-imagine their services from the ground up and unlock efficiencies

Penny Blundell, Independent Training Consultant & Associate, Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CONFIRMED)

(16:00 - 16:30) Questions and Answers Session

13:50

Stream II: Delivering Efficiency through Procurement - Stream Sponsored by Marston Group  Chair: John Scowen, Vice-Chairman, Society of Procurement Officers in Local Government (SOPO) (CONFIRMED)

(13:40 - 14:00) Rethinking the role of the local authority in the commissioning and procurement relationship

• Surveying the latest innovations in local government procurement from across the UK - Identifying the common challenges and solutions
• Achieving personalised care through comprehensively rethinking service delivery - Placing the service user at the centre of the process
• Eliminating waste and overlap through personalised care processes
  
• How can procurement professionals from across care partnerships collaborate more efficiently to deliver the next generation of care

John Scowen, Vice-Chairman, Society of Procurement Officers in Local Government (SOPO) (CONFIRMED)

(14:00 - 14:30) Opening up Procurement and Commissioning: Guidance on Developing a More Effective Relationships with Third Sector Providers

• Understanding the distinct features and challenges of working with the third sector
  
• Making ICT and other contracts transparent and open to public scrutiny
  Opening up the relationship between partner organisations - regional level collaborative procurement
  
• Defining what can be achieved through the regional integration of your care processes
• Identifying the different types of third sector providers and the distinct contractual and operational challenges associated with each body
  

Dr Peter Kyle, Deputy Chief Executive, Acevo (CONFIRMED)

(14:00 -14:30) Optimising your recovery - Workshop

• what bailiffs do and how they do it
• how local authorities can better monitor (and therefore manage) their service providers
• how local authorities can achieve a more efficient, flexible and cost effective service, at minimum cost to customers

Alan Clark, Group Business Development Director, Marston Group (CONFIRMED)

(15:00 - 15:20) Comfort Break

(15:20 - 16:15) Panel Debate: The Future of Procurement: Sustainable and Collaborative

• What are the current trends in the local government market?
• Exploring the potential of collaborative commissioning to delivery greater efficiency – Who should you now view as your core partners in the process?
• Sharing the procurement cost of large infrastructure projects – Is this the right time to invest?
• Balancing outcomes with efficiencies – What are internal and external performance stakeholders looking for?
• Managing the distinct pressures and challenges within collaborative procurement – What processes should you have in place to ensure the smooth and effective running of your deliver partnerships?
• Understanding the distinct features and challenges of working with the third sector
• Identifying the different types of third sector providers and the distinct contractual and operational challenges associated with each body
• What are the essential skills managers need to identify in order to further procurement efficiencies?
  

Alan Clark, Group Business Development Director, Marston Group (CONFIRMED)
Dr Peter Kyle, Deputy Chief Executive, Acevo (CONFIRMED)
Edward Lord, Chair, Local Partnerships (CONFIRMED)

(16:15 - 16:30) Chair’s Summary and Close     

13:50

Stream III: Achieving Efficiencies through New Strategies and Solutions for ICT - Stream Sponsored by NUANCE   Chair: Bryan Glick, Editor, Computer Weekly (CONFIRMED)

(13:40 - 14:10)Optimising Your Use of Human and Corporate Resources in Your ICT Strategy to Deliver Efficiency and Improvement

• Applying the most efficient approach to your ICT deployment – embedded teams, interdepartmental ‘hit-squads’, shared teams or outsourced teams?
• What are the key skills to develop, prioritise and maintain?
• How can an engaged community and workforce systematically identify operational efficiencies
• Preparing for future challenges - What technologies and skills will shape the future of ICT?
  

Michael Whitehouse, Chief Operating Officer, National Audit Office (CONFIRMED)

(14:10 - 14:30) Integrating Your Back Office Functions and Other Functions Between Local Providers to Reduce Overlap

• Preparing a cost evaluation for your ICT strategy
• Collectively setting group priorities and procedures of efficient ICT delivery – What can be forgotten?
• Implementing informational rights in practice - Who should own personal and operational information for routine back office functions?
• Empowering service users to take responsibility of their own service delivery pathway - An efficient solution?
• Using transparency and information sharing as a tool for improving service efficiency
  

David Wilde, CIO, Westminster Council (CONFIRMED)

(14:30 - 15:00) Reshaping Service Delivery to Uncover Radical Savings: Unlock £1.3 billion per year from the Phone Channel - Delivered by NUANCE

• The centre for economic and business research has recently estimated that the public sector could realise potential savings of around £1.3 billion per year by embracing best practice in voice self-service to maximize efficiency and effectiveness gains in the contact/call centre
  
• We will show how local government could reshape frontline service delivery via the phone channel and deliver substantial savings to help meet the tough challenges set in the CSR.
  
• We will share case studies from private and public sector organisations around the world that are using our innovative service solutions to reduce costs to serve by around 50% on approximately 50% of incoming volume of calls, whilst improving customer satisfaction

Brian Redpath, Public Sector Director, Nuance (CONFIRMED)

(15:00 - 15:20) Comfort Break

(15:10 - 16:15) Panel Debate: Delivering Efficiencies in ICT at a Local Level

• The size of the savings demanded and the timescale for delivery
• Placing ICT in the centre of the your organisational efficiency initiatives
• Where will the bulk of ICT-related savings come from?
• Reducing the number of datacentres and other infrastructure needed to deliver a top performing ICT function over the long term
• Integrating G-Cloud technologies into your existing electronic delivery system
  Successfully Managing Efficiency-led Changes in Your ICT Function – Leading
• Your Organisation Through Challenging Transitions
• Meeting the expectation for 20% savings in back office functions
• Creating a culture of transformation within your ICT function
• How should ICT respond to the reduction in funding
  

Ian Osborne, Director, Digital Systems Knowledge Transfer Network, Intellect UK (CONFIRMED)
Michael Whitehouse, Chief Operating Officer, National Audit Office (CONFIRMED)
Steve Palmer, Head of ICT, London Borough of Hillingdon (CONFIRMED)

(16:15 - 16:30) Chair’s Summary and Close