|
|
INOVEM, a developer of collaboration and consultation software, has been chosen by Gloucester City, Cheltenham Borough and Tewkesbury Borough Councils to enhance consultation exercises for the three councils and local residents via INOVEM Consult, a Web 2.0 technology.
The three councils needed a consultation platform to support and drive a Joint Core Strategy (JCS) which requires the councils to look into future planning and development across the area to accommodate growth.
The requirement for detailed planning processes and in depth future proposals resulted in the councils reviewing online consultation tools to enable them to easily engage and co-ordinate with each other. The need for a robust technology to provide a collective visibility and present issues to stakeholders and the public led to the selection and implementation of INOVEM Consult.
INOVEM Consult is a powerful and highly configurable framework for managing, deploying and analysing consultations across a range of media from interactive questionnaires, feedback against sectional documents or online discussions. It enables organisations to present issues to stakeholders and the public online in a clear and understandable way to encourage participation and response. Data is securely stored in a structured format, enabling the councils to easily share information, build a solid evidence base and to conduct reliable and accurate analysis across collective data sets.
INOVEM’s Consult provides the three councils with an easy to use consultation framework that can be employed at speed. More importantly, the user-friendly web-based system means the councils could start using it immediately, without prolonged training times.
INOVEM Consult has enabled a better working relationship between citizens and the three district authorities. Now, stakeholders can make comments on interactive planning documents, against any paragraph or policy, encouraging a high and equal level of participation and simplifying how Gloucester City, Cheltenham Borough and Tewkesbury Borough Councils report findings from the JCS public consultation back to local residents, internal and external stakeholders.
Georgina Wood, Planning Policy Officer for Gloucester City Council said: -We required a system that was so user-friendly that it encouraged everyone to use it. We use INOVEM Consult to present issues to the public in a clear and understandable way and to collect feedback from a wide range of users.
The right technologies, such as INOVEM, can transform how public sector bodies engage and consult with citizens and stakeholders alike.”
John Glover, Sales and Marketing Director at INOVEM, said: -We understand that planning projects undertaken by local government can be particularly time and money sensitive. We were able to offer Gloucester City, Cheltenham Borough and Tewkesbury Borough Councils a service that helped the Joint Core Strategy to be up and running within in a short period of time. The need for effective web 2.0 technologies has never been greater, and public sector organisations understand the value that they get by being able to better engage with citizens and stakeholders and to fulfil their duty to involve. –
As the consequences of economic slowdown take effect and the demands of environmental stewardship intensify, both public and private sector organisations are focused on realising efficiencies in every operational area. The Prime Minister has, in the past, referred to a “fourth technological revolution” for its power to act as a catalyst for a new way of working. Collaboration technology is doing exactly that and its multiple applications ensure that increased levels of efficiencies are achieved across the organisation on a day-to-day basis.
For the fire service, the extent and impact of organisational efficiency directly correlates with its ability to save lives. Time is a precious commodity in an emergency situation and the quick collection and rapid analysis of intelligent data crucial to problem resolution. Maximising the positive impact of this information depends upon the speed with which it can be shared with the right people, so that the right decision can be made; collaboration technology is proving invaluable for this precise purpose.
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service has two incident command units (ICUs) fitted with collaboration technology from market-leader SMART Technologies. Using the electronic pens or touch screens enables easy manipulation of displayed maps and images; outbuildings can be highlighted, sections marked out, and icons of fire appliances dragged and dropped into new locations. All information and annotations are time and date stamped and can be saved for use in incident de-briefs. The ICU is directly linked to the control room at HQ, enabling staff in both locations to see all live jobs, information and messages sent in, and the location of other vehicles. Even when in remote locations, all parties have a complete overview of available resources in Hampshire and neighbouring counties.
Sharing information and enhanced coordination are both central components of the Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) 2004, which strives to improve emergency planning and response. One of the main focuses of the CCA Enhancement Programme launched in December 2008 is on improving the standard and consistency of implementation of the CCA regime, seeking to improve local resilience structures and responder engagement in collaborative working. SMART Boards and Bridgit conferencing software are ideal for multi-agency response; the boards can be linked up to each other, instantaneously incorporating complex data such as GIS mapping or imaging software into the decision making processes. Operational information can easily be shared within the multi-agency command chain, and commanders at each of the Bronze, Silver and Gold levels have the ability to view and annotate the same information, greatly improving communications.
The most cost effective investments have multiple applications and although the technology is proving revolutionary for command and control communications, the benefits of this technology permeate to many other areas of the fire operation; training is just one. Collaboration technology enables training to be delivered to more than one site at the same time. The Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service estimates that this increased efficiency equates to a time saving of as much as 50%, as well as cutting travel costs and reducing environmental impact. Critically, it enables the sharing of knowledge in a realistic, interactive environment and the ability to continuously monitor the progress of trainees, ensuring that they are taking in and understanding the training. The instructor can receive instant and valuable feedback, proving and improving the quality of training at the time of delivery.
Although the fire service is not centrally controlled, for subjects in which every fire officer needs to be trained, the TETRA radio for example, a nationwide interactive infrastructure would allow anyone, anywhere in the UK to interact with a training event that is taking place at the FRS HQ, thereby reducing the number of instructors needed and improving the quality and consistency of training.
The Climate Change Act demands the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050 and this is another area in which collaboration technology can provide tangible support. The targets are ambitious and, as a public sector organisation, the fire service is tasked with taking immediate measures to reduce its carbon footprint. Travel and transport are obvious areas of focus as financial savings can also be achieved. However there is a point where the benefit of reductions can be eroded by a negative impact on productivity. Collaboration technology is helping to improve carbon footprint as a by-product of increased efficiency and productivity. SMART’s technology is transforming working practices, as people from multiple locations can be instantly connected, reducing travel time, costs and carbon emissions.
As well as helping the fire service to achieve legal compliance, efficiency has fast-become the lifeblood of any operation that wants to exceed targets, demonstrate best practice and provide a public service to be proud of. Collaboration technology has the potential to generate more from less, maximise resources and eliminate waste, creating a leaner, stronger and ultimately more effective fire service. It’s simple technology that’s used daily by children from as young as primary school age, yet its impact is far-reaching and profound; it’s an opportunity ripe for the picking.
Lean thinking offers the best possible solution to public sector managers facing huge financial constraints and tasked with stretching limited resources for better service and improved performance.
Many people think lean is just about reducing head count and consequently the name suggests negative overtones for many employees, but actually, implemented in the right way, Lean is a powerful system of management that provides the opportunity for every employee to improve they way they work and so improves motivation and morale.
Lean is not the latest management craze; it is a proven and robust management methodology stemming from the Toyota Production System. It has achieved extraordinary results over the past 50 years – starting in manufacturing and latterly spreading to a range of other sectors – from the armed forces and offices to retail – and more recently to hospitals, government and other public sector organisations.
Operational Efficiency Programme
For those responsible for implementing the Operational Efficiency Programme it is far more than just implementing piecemeal tools and techniques, but rather a proven route to re-engineering back office processes. It provides a sustainable methodology for simplifying, standardising and consolidating systems and processes. As such, it delivers cost savings and improved customer while supporting a visible and active approach to leadership at all levels in an organisation, together with a culture of continuous improvement.
You might think that the Lean methodologies that have revolutionised manufacturing performance have little relevance for the public sector. But such blinkered thinking would mean missing out on a golden opportunity to optimise slimmer budgets and provide better service and better quality at lower costs.
A factory and a government department actually have more in common that you might think: Both run complex processes where the scope for errors, quality problems, poor communication, waste and the failure to put the customer first is colossal. That’s why all world class enterprises have Lean at their heart.
Putting the customer first
At its most simple level, Lean is all about cutting out those factors that are a waste of time, money or resources. It involves identifying and stripping away non-value adding processes and practices to promote only what adds value. And by value, we mean value for the customer – both internally and externally.
One of the principles of Lean is respect for people and appreciating and recognising the value of people, ensuring that they play a full and active role in designing and implementing Lean transformation.
The driver of Lean is all from the customer perspective. When our Lean practitioners go into any organisation they work with staff to identify all of the process inputs from start to finish to work out where value is being added and where it’s not. They then set about jointly developing strategies to align the process around the needs of the customer and simultaneously eliminate all the non-value added steps within the process.
How Lean works
Lean practice is not based on finding quick, temporary solutions, but instead concentrates on how the work is done and how to eliminate the root causes of delays and other impediments to flow. It is easy to blame human error, but in the public sector humans often have to work within highly complex systems, and, invariably, it is the systems themselves that are to blame.
You can use the analogy of making a cup of tea to explain how Lean can be applied to any process. The steps or processes people take to complete most work tasks have the potential to be redesigned. If you boil your kettle for too long, then you have caused waste through overproduction. You’ve wasted time through the extra energy used and having to wait. If you have too much milk and it keeps going out of date, that’s waste through not managing your inventory properly.
Back office improvements
Up to 80 per cent of waste in an organisation can occur in the back office, where it may be very well hidden. By identifying the waste and designing it out of processes there is huge and largely untapped potential for organisational improvement.
Involving staff at all levels in generating a Lean office culture can result in a smoother and more efficient work flow that yields both cost savings and improved customer responsiveness. Such changes can also alleviate stress and pressure on staff by empowering them to re-design their own work systems and use their powers of creativity and innovation more in their day-to-day work.
One of the biggest hidden wastes in an office can be wasted time; particularly the time wasted in unnecessary approval loops which can be a major bottleneck. Time can also be wasted by needless walking around and through a lack of communication and information sharing. Lean uncovers the hidden processes so that staff can see clearly what the priorities are and can easily separate out the elements that are adding value from those that are not.
A lean office delivers precisely what is needed, when it is needed – outperforming the traditional in quality, delivery, value for money and morale. One of the biggest benefits is the ability to reduce process lead times – handling enquiries, applications and other transactions significantly faster. The time that is released can then be used more valuably for activities such as customer service.
A Lean assessment will typically discover that up to 80% of electronic files on servers haven’t been touched in over a year, yet there is often a constant call for more server space. Better organisation will also save huge amounts of storage space and can often cut the need for ever increasing numbers of filing cabinets and additional square metres of building.
One of the best starting points is to go to the office floor and become an impartial observer of the processes taking place. By asking questions and watching activity you will gain a good picture of what goes on. You can involve all staff so that they can see for themselves and reach their own conclusions as to which processes are adding value and which aren’t. It is vital to collect data at this stage to measure how things are done and to involve customers – both internal and external – to understand exactly what they require.
The Lean 5S housekeeping technique is an excellent place to start in improving the organization as this creates a visible difference, involves everybody and can create a quick win to engage the team. It creates a much calmer and better organised working environment, as well as providing customers with confidence in the professionalism of the organization.
Other techniques include: process flow mapping, which will reveal the current processes and identify waste; business process re-engineering, which provides a bigger picture view of the organisation and challenges the current state of how everything is done; and value stream identification – a powerful tool to understand what the customer truly wants and shape processes around their needs.
Involving everyone in continuous improvement
As well as improving processes, the Lean philosophy involves a need for continuous improvement – often requiring a new and challenging organisational mind-set. Continuous improvement should involve everyone in the organisation: it’s about getting people to look at things differently and use their creativity and innovation to think about how things could be improved. If you get the buy-in of all staff, you will very quickly see the benefits, almost certainly within the first month.
In any organisation there will be people who are resistant to change, but it is vital to involve all staff in the Lean transformation, to make it fun and to let them see that the workplace is being shaped by their ideas. Try and get some quick wins that demonstrate the benefits of Lean and show how it can remove duplication, disruption and frustration to make your people’s working lives better – ensuring they work smarter, not harder!
Those public sector organisations fully embracing Lean are achieving:
Lower costs – higher productivity and reduced cost
Improved quality – fewer errors and less rework and duplication of effort
Speedier turnaround – on customer enquiries and other transactions
Cultural transformation – better morale, reduced unplanned absence and increased staff flexibility
A calmer – a better organised workplace
Improved levels of customer satisfaction
Lean methodologies are transforming performance in the Royal Navy, where efficiency and flexibility and rapid responses to short-term demands are at the heart of all operations.
A lean implementation drive aboard HMS Illustrious has achieved significant benefits, including an 80% increase in weapon preparation time and £20 million savings in stores holdings/requirements. The initiative focused on removing wasted time and activities in the sortie generation rate, increasing the daily sortie rate from 20 to 30. This experience is now being used to roll out lean across the Royal Navy.
It is also being used to transform performance at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), where the DWP Lean Approach is achieving impressive efficiency savings.
The Manufacturing Institute www.manufacturinginstitute.co.uk is a leader in operational excellence – delivering end-to-end lean transformation programmes – aligning best practice lean methodologies from industry with organisational strategy to achieve sustainable improvement and profound cultural change. . The organisation has a 15-year track record in providing best practice implementation support and skills development – partnering public sector organisations, hospitals and blue-chip enterprises in the UK and Europe.
The cost-saving consultancy, who manage the supply of agency workers to several leading care organisations, rebuked the claims made by the Tories, suggesting that temporary workers were crucial during 2009 to keep services running.
They argued that a reliance on a temporary workforce in the NHS had come about due to a long-standing skills shortage and lack of permanent staff in the care sector, intensified by restrictions on migrant workers and the new Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS).
Temporary agency workers, de Poel added, have always had a key role in allowing public sector care organisations to respond to market shifts and periods of increased demand for services, and should not be attacked.
The cost-saving consultancy’s remarks came after government figures showed NHS spending on temps rose 60% in two years – hitting almost £1.3bn in England in 2008.
Chief Executive of de Poel, Matthew Sanders, said: -Temporary agency workers have always had a crucial part to play in the care sector, but last year the effects of a skills-shortage, changes to the immigration points-based system and the introduction of the VBS meant demand shot up.
-We would be better if we put less into denying the importance of temporary workers and more into regulating and improving the industry, recognising the value of temporary workers during certain periods.
-Use of agency staff is only detrimental when it is left unmanaged. If rates are standardised to their optimal level, if formal terms of business are introduced and if organisations can restrict the number of suppliers to a select audited few, then they can actually prove extremely valuable in allowing organisations to be more flexible and responsive.
Last year, de Poel saw their care client-base swell as the industry came to rely more and more on a temporary agency workforce.
de Poel currently manage the supply of temporary agency staff to more than 15 care organisations, including Mears and Community Integrated Care.
With the perception that bribery in some countries is as commonplace and accepted a practice as bartering, why should any change of law in Britain affect how business is conducted overseas? John Burbidge-King, anti-corruption expert and CEO of Interchange, explains how the forthcoming Bribery Bill will be a wake-up call to those involved in arranging defence contracts at home and abroad.
Bribery is already an offence under existing laws in the UK but the new Bribery Bill, well into the Parliamentary process, may come into force before a General Election on 2010. It makes it illegal to bribe a foreign official or a private person to obtain or retain business. The Bill will also make it an offence if businesses fail to prevent a bribe being paid by their employees or by other firms on their behalf.
The new corporate offence means that unlimited fines may be imposed on companies if found guilty. The only defence a company has against such a charge is to prove in court that it had adequate procedures to mitigate the crime. Furthermore, individuals who make illegal payments to secure business may face fines and possibly imprisonment of up to ten years.
Companies may in a climate of UK budget reductions seek more overseas contracts, and in so doing increase their exposure to ethical risk, particularly if they have no adequate procedures to mitigate bribery risk. With the prospect of fewer contracts in the defence sector up for grabs, this is serious stuff.
The Bribery Bill is important because it will bring into force measures which will hold individuals and organisations more accountable for their actions, both at home in the UK and abroad. As a result, they will face far more serious consequences if found guilty.
In June 2009, the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD) issued the Common Industry Standards (CIS), recognising the growing value of good practice in ethical issues for successful businesses. The CIS has been adopted by the UK’s A|D|S and national aerospace and defence trade industries in Europe and they are encouraging their members to implement it.
At the same time the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and ASD jointly formed an International Forum on Business Ethics Conduct and are in the process of jointly developing Global Principals for the Aerospace and Defence Industries.
I’ve often been asked – or had it put to me – that bribery is a perfectly normal way to do business in some countries? There is a perception that bribery and other types of fraudulent activity in business are the ‘done thing’. This partly stems from an approach where a company does not have a strategy to win business in such countries without paying a bribe; therefore the trap is already set.
The long running BAE Systems case, and others in the past, have tarnished the reputation of the aerospace and defence industry, despite the company taking bold steps, post the Woolf Report, to change the business culture. And whilst self disclosure by the Reading-based Mabey & Johnson bridge building company mitigated the level of fines, the revealing in court of where bribes were paid has had serious political repercussions, especially in Ghana and Jamaica.
Whilst executives and directors may wish to mentally segregate or bury fraud, it is often linked to bribery and other related crimes, which may adversely impact employees, managers, directors and the company itself when the Bribery Bill becomes law. Organisations operating in the defence sector which have not reviewed their risk profile could find themselves increasingly exposed.
The fact is that many governments outside of Britain now have anti-bribery and corruption laws as well as strict public procurement procedures which on conviction include criminal and civil penalties. These can include fines and imprisonment but also the debarment of companies from future contracts. Britain is now following suit, however, despite its prominent position in world trade, even it is playing catch-up.
One glance at Britain’s laggard position in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index – www.transparency.org – tells a sorry tale. For defence companies, the consequences are that British businesses may come under increased scrutiny when seeking contracts abroad, and face demands to demonstrate they have good working business ethics practices and governance in place.
And in a world which appears to have become more dangerous from a terrorist and organised crime perspective, smaller companies in particular need to be more than ever aware of the risks they run of unethical behaviour and how that might lead to their inadvertent association or infiltration by criminal elements. Furthermore, there is a growing international recognition and concern of the significant social, economic and political cost of these crimes. Bribery is no longer seen as a victimless crime.
Problems most often occur when organisations do not have ‘adequate procedures’ in place to prevent bribery and fraudulent activity taking place. It may be they fail to properly conduct due diligence on agents, advisers and other parties, or have no codes of conduct in place to provide guidance to their employees. So, often, they don’t try saying ‘no’ when a bribe payment is demanded or implied. Perhaps the boss simply said: -do what it takes to win the contract and employees assume that since a bribe has been requested, they have to pay up or lose out.
There are many negotiating tactics that can be employed to avoid paying a bribe whilst still obtaining the business, but the bottom line may be for a truly ethical company to walk away from a potentially unhealthy business deal because the risks are simply too great.
Any organisation deciding to run the risk of paying a bribe may win the business, but obviously then runs the risk of being investigated and prosecuted, resulting in costs, fines and reputation damage. It is increasingly likely that shareholders may take action against the directors for failing to protect the shareholders interests.
A company known to have bribed may also face threats of extortion from the bribe receiver if that person feels threatened by exposure. The cost of all of this could amount to more than the value of the actual contract they had secured. The profit and/or revenue accrued from such contracts is often the basis by which fines are awarded by courts, particularly in the USA.
The Bribery Bill in Britain will ensure that more and more businesses pay attention to their risk and exposure. But should this really be the basis upon which organisations make decisions about whether or not to take bribery and good business ethics more seriously?
In my experience, even before the Bribery Bill loomed on the horizon, an increasing number of companies in the defence sector have been looking at business ethics as a business opportunity, placing this at the heart of their business strategy. They have reaped the benefits of changing business risk into business value.
An effective anti bribery prevention programme delivers very clear business benefits, including a return on investment in areas such as:
Increased brand value and a reputation for integrity and trust
Becoming a contractor of preference and dependability
Building sustainable and ethical supply chains
Ability to more confidently enter new overseas markets and successfully bid for projects
Delivering more from indirect sales channels
Reduced risk of share volatility and shareholder class actions for listed companies
Better employee retention and higher quality recruitment, especially graduates
Reductions in materials and other shrinkage
Compared with the costs of dealing with a corruption allegation, even if not prosecuted, the financial cost of implementing effective corruption prevention measures is minimal.
For companies which have not been as proactive in this area as some of their peers, the forthcoming Bribery Bill represents a step-change opportunity for organisations to open the cupboard and change business risk into real business value.
The implementation of strong business ethics policies and processes, embedded into the DNA of an organisation from board to front line, has become a necessary priority in mitigating what can easily become a terminal illness for businesses.
The huge challenges facing the public sector over the next few years to cut spending will regrettably mean redundancies for many public sector workers. Faced with this painful course of action, organisations of all shapes and sizes from local authorities, NHS health trusts and Government agencies will want to make it as painless as possible for all concerned, and do what they can to smooth the path to a new job for their ex-employees.
As an organisation you also want to safeguard yourself from litigation a reality that too many employers face undertaking redundancy action. Being seen to be doing everything in your power to ensure the wellbeing of the staff you are laying-off is an important defensive strategy. Offering outplacement support is one approach that will assist with this.
Traditionally, outplacement support has been the preserve of senior management in big private sector corporates with the money to fund one-to-one job search support and coaching sessions. Today, outplacement it is a mass market offering thanks to the power of technology. The world has changed and organisations of all shapes and sizes have the opportunity to support all employees going through redundancy.
The advice and guidance that has typically been provided by an outplacement consultant can now be received through on-demand e-learning. Clearly there are huge cost advantages which have implications for a sector facing significant budget cuts. Also, unlike traditional outplacement, online programmes can be swiftly tailored or scaled, and there are no logistical challenges in rapidly getting the service to its users. There are also no practical limits on resource provision. With traditional outplacement service availability is rationed according to the budget, however a technology solution can be accessed 24/7 and provision is not constrained.
Online outplacement services are also increasingly more relevant to the challenges of finding a new position in the toughest job market we’ve seen in years. In today’s economic climate each job-seeker is competing with 50 to 150 others per role.With these odds the enthusiastic but unprepared candidate is in for a rude shock.
But now, many of the time consuming tasks that a job-seeker has to undertake can be automated. Examples include searching for and aggregation of vacancies, or identification of relevant employment sources. Wizards with attractive templates make creating targeted CVs considerably easier than used to be the case. Process automation means that job search activities can be tracked, reminders provided and reports generated. Triggers can monitor activity and provide encouragement and advice based on what a person has done, or indeed not done.
Managing redundancy is tough and being faced with redundancy is even tougher. On-demand online outplacement services offer both employer and employee an effective and affordable solution to a difficult and challenging situation.
Job-hunters are often doubly disadvantaged during a recession. School leavers and recent graduates cannot gain the work experience they need to develop the skills that will help them secure a position. People who are out of work or who want to change career can find it difficult to secure another job if their skills and qualifications are not up to date. Eddie Kilkelly, Chief Operating Officer of ILX Group plc examines what educational institutions are doing to help these groups and why there will be a continued trend in developing closer ties with the private sector.
Over the past couple of decades, educational institutions have sought to align their offering more closely with the needs of employers – most obviously with a huge increase in business and information management courses. In addition, some have started to integrate professional qualifications into their courses, to give students a competitive advantage in difficult labour markets. Others are participating in government programmes to help the unemployed update their skills with new courses targeted at specific groups.
As an example, project management skills are in demand for both public and private sector organisations of all sizes. Irrespective of the economic climate, change is an inevitable fact of business life, accelerated by technology and globalisation. Organisations need people with the right skills to work with and manage this change. Moreover, globalisation has created a requirement for a common language and model that can be used to drive cross-border projects. However, there is a huge gap between the generic theory of project management taught in many university courses and the specifics of best practice project management models that are commonly used in real life.
Professional qualifications matter
Professional qualifications can make a huge difference to an individual’s employability – especially in project management. PRINCE2® sets out best practice in the planning, implementation, management and evaluation of projects. It is the de facto standard for project management in the UK and is used in more than 50 other countries. Crucially, accreditation in PRINCE2® is a pre-requisite for over 60-70 per cent of all Project Management jobs advertised in the UK. Accreditation is achieved by passing exams at both Foundation and Practitioner levels, with Practitioners obliged to retake the Practitioner exam every five years to remain accredited. The learner can study the relevant text books, or join an open course or attend a tailored course run by a specialist training provider. Educational institutions have started to realise the importance of PRINCE2® accreditation to their students and are partnering with specialist private sector training organisations to offer relevant courses.
Innovation counts
There are a number of reasons why educational institutions are partnering with private training companies like ILX Group. Most importantly, they do not have the skill set or knowledge to educate students in PRINCE2®. The principles seem simple but the trainer has to impart how those principles may be applied. In addition, educational institutions are operating under the threat of reduced public sector budgets in the coming years, so partnering with an external training provider gives them the ability and expertise necessary to deliver new courses without increasing headcount. Also, institutions that provide PRINCE2® training have to be accredited by the APM Group, and this can be a lengthy process. Partnering gives the institution the opportunity to get these new course offerings to market quickly, without having to become accredited first.
During difficult market conditions there is less money available for incremental discretionary spend, so fewer people are undertaking ongoing professional development. Educational institutions will be forced to re-evaluate their offering to ensure it is aligned with the skills organisations need and professional qualifications provide a key area of differentiation. This shift change will be a positive win-win situation for the institutions and their students.
Case studies: Birkbeck and UWE
Birkbeck, University of London, recently became the UK’s first academic institution to incorporate PRINCE2® professional accreditation in its postgraduate programme. Birkbeck’s MSc in Information Systems & Management includes a ‘Project Management for Informatics’ (PMI) module, which gives students the option to study for PRINCE2® accreditation. Conversely, existing holders of the PRINCE2® foundation and practitioner qualifications can apply for credits on the PMI module. In addition, Birkbeck is offering a short course on Project Management with PRINCE2®. Delegates undertake 40 hours of e-learning provided by ILX Group and an evening workshop before sitting the examination.
The University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) has established a solutions4recession programme to help individuals who are unemployed or under notice of redundancy to improve their skills and marketability. It now includes PRINCE2® foundation and practitioner e-learning courses, in recognition of employer demand for these qualifications. The course includes e-learning modules, the official manual and tutor support by telephone or e-mail and can be accessed by computer from anywhere in the UK.
What Birkbeck and UWE have in common is that they want delegates to have a good mix of skills that they can take and apply immediately in the workplace. PRINCE2® is such a practical qualification, it is equally beneficial to new graduates, the unemployed, or experienced staff who wish to up-skill their project management knowledge in order to keep their jobs.
Eddie Kilkelly MAPM MBCS – Chief Operating Officer for ILX Group plc www.ilxgroup.com has been involved in the Best Practice industry for over fifteen years. During this time he has worked as both a Project and IT Service Manager and more recently as an implementation consultant providing support to organisations who have adopted the use of Best Practice methods including PRINCE2, MSP and ITIL.
It is doubtful whether any industry has seen more change in recent years than healthcare. Arif Ahmed, Managing Director of ikonami, examines the impact of these changes and how HR and Learning & Development (L&D) professionals in the NHS can better manage organisational development.
A report in 2009 estimated that there would be a £15bn contraction in NHS finances in the five years from 2011. However, the demand for healthcare will only increase during the same period. Better healthcare and treatments have led to people living longer with terminal or multiple chronic health conditions. Our ageing population is increasing; the proportion of -old, old, many of whom have multiple health conditions that are more complex and difficult to treat, is now 7% of the UK population (up from 4.5% in 1971). In addition, the recession means that people who once had private health insurance or sufficient disposable income are being forced to turn to the NHS.
At the same time, the regulatory mechanism for healthcare providers is more stringent than ever before. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has a wider range of responsibilities and sanctions than did the Healthcare Commission. Additionally the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) requires NHS organisations to prove compliance across a number of areas. These schemes can have a direct financial impact. Failure to meet CNST targets will lead to higher insurance premiums, whereas the CQC can impose financial penalties – or even close the organisation. One proposal currently under consideration is that a proportion of each organisation’s budget will be dependent upon patient satisfaction. So how can healthcare providers raise standards, prove compliance and maximise the availability and use of budgets?
Initiatives are not enough
In its first 40 years, the NHS focused on the treatment of disease; then the Griffiths report in 1983 heralded a new emphasis on optimal resource allocation. By 1989, the -Working for Patients white paper introduced the concept of health authorities and GPs purchasing services for their patients at the best price. Yet while these changes improved management and budgeting within the NHS, it was at the expense of clinical quality. -The New NHS Modern, Dependable in 1997 and -Quality in the New NHS – in 1998 put clinical standards on a par with governance for the first time, and led to the establishment of compliance programmes like the CQC. Yet while successive initiatives have sought to improve the efficiency of the NHS and safeguard patient care, we still hear about clinical negligence, poor hygiene standards or lax care of vulnerable patients. Measurement and reporting is undoubtedly valuable, but it is clear that tick boxes cannot guarantee patient safety. What is needed is whole-scale culture change.
Focus on competence
The NHS needs to focus on competence – studies have proven that this is critical for delivering better quality care. Yet organisations are more complex because of the service commissioner-provider split. The first challenge is to accept that external staff are an equal risk or benefit as internal NHS employees, so they must be included in the organisation’s training programmes, development plans and reporting systems.
The second challenge is to adopt a framework to measure the competence of each employee in their job role. Tools are already available for this. The Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) sets out the qualifications, skills and experience necessary for every job in the NHS. The associated information management tool – the (Electronic) e-KSF – makes it easy to measure employees against the relevant criteria, identify development needs and track progress. When used across the organisation, this framework can identify the true training and development needs, enabling learning and development programmes to be prioritised, developed and deployed in the most time and cost efficient way. However, it is important to consider the organisation’s current and future needs.
Better workforce modelling
With constrained budgets, healthcare providers will need to become more effective in workforce planning. HR professionals should use models of anticipated patient needs across a five year timeframe to identify the number and type of staff required to deliver patient care. Then they should focus on identifying the number of people with the appropriate skills, abilities and levels of competence necessary to meet those needs, rather than a certain number of staff at each grade. Integrating the e-KSF with a good learning management system can provide managers with a wealth of information upon which robust decisions and plans may be made. This can highlight the gap between current competencies and future needs, making it possible to develop existing staff in a timely way and reduce the need to increase headcount. Focusing on competence rather than set staff -grades also enables the organisation to be more flexible about offering training and development opportunities to the most appropriate employees.
Back to the start
When the NHS was founded, it was thought that improved disease management would decrease healthcare costs over time as people became healthier. While that did not happen, the NHS is going to have to become more efficient without impacting patient care. That can only come from instilling a quality culture from the very top of the organisation, ensuring the learning and development strategy supports that vision, and having effective workforce planning and support systems in place. From the chief executive to the porter, every individual should be competent enough to act in a way that safeguards patient safety and utilises scarce resources effectively.
Arif Ahmed is the co-founder & Director of ikonami www.ikonami.com He has seven years experience in providing bespoke learning solutions for the private and private sector. ikonami is a provider of bespoke learning software systems for government, independent healthcare and other organisations seeking learning and development efficiency. The company was founded in 1999 and originally provided project management consultancy to help organisations exploit the benefits of technology. In response to client demand, ikonami evolved into a full-service technology company that combines its specialised software offerings with a variety of service capabilities, including full Learning Process Outsourcing (LPO).
The Organisation
Highlands & Islands Fire and Rescue Service (HIFRS) is the most northerly in the country, covering a geographical area of approximately 12,000 square miles providing a fire, rescue and community safety service to the populations of the Highlands, the Shetland Islands, the Orkney Islands and the Western Isles.
Introduction
If asked to address the logistical problems HIFRS’s 1,500 staff face on a daily basis, many would ring the emergency services for help. HIFRS has a vast territory to cover but its funding is determined by the region’s somewhat sparse population so resources are thin on the ground. With lives at stake it’s natural to prioritise fire-fighting equipment over demand for investment in IT, and needless to say the service was a late adopter – creating a network linking over 100 outlying locations only four years ago.
The challenge
HIFRS’s IT system controls a several operational aspects, the most vital being the issuing of emergency response alerts to retained fire fighters across northern Scotland. Communication Manager John Cannon is based at the service’s central hub in Inverness, and is responsible for the smooth running of the network.
‘The retained fire fighters carry pagers, do other jobs during the day and get called out when there is a fire,’ says John, who adds this is handled by an automated system that monitors the current status of resources also calculates the nearest available fire engine and personnel. There are other vital, though arguably less time-sensitive needs to be met, such as a sharepoint intranet server hosting a training archive of latest news, health and safety information and technical notes. With around 350 end-users desktops and a dozen other SQL, mail and other servers running MS Exchange, HIFRS’s IT system has proved to be an invaluable addition to their fire-fighting arsenal, especially when it includes features such as an accurate, up-to-the-minute availability roster.
Network security and integrity is of course of the utmost concern, and John has double-firewalled the system and has back-up servers to deal with most contingencies. ‘We have to exercise fall-back conditions where you might have to leave one building and operate from another one but still keep all the processes in place,’ says John, who stresses that resilience is a key word when planning responses to system threats.
Various network nodes including the control room itself are connected to the internet, requiring added protection from malicious hacking attempts, spam and other malware (such as the recent Conficker outbreak). . John says that HIFRS tried various security packages but found them to be too passive for their high-end requirements. ‘They sit there and don’t really do very much and you presume everything is fine,’ he says, ‘but we need something that is more proactive in reassuring us and our users that everything is up to date, rather than not telling us anything- if you like.’
He adds: ‘Potentially it is a fairly big thing to have your network shut down because of what most people would regard as a very routine thing, such as a failure in IT security. If such situations are not dealt with properly it can become very embarrassing.’
The Solution
John sought the advice of Security IP (SIP), the UK’s foremost threat protection consultants who recommended a product that would best suit HIFRS’s needs. ‘In terms of seeking out the best solution BitDefender stood out head and shoulders above the competitors. We signed up for a three-year deal.’
Having placed the order in March 2008, the next step was implementation and John was keen to get SIP on board to ensure things went as smoothly as possible. ‘When you change things there are always teething problems. It’s never the case that it’s just flick a switch and there you go- all done.’
John continues: ‘We realised it was going to be a bit of a learning curve, so when SIP offered a monthly review as an add-on we went for it. Now one of the service delivery team comes in remotely and looks around to check everything is how it should be.
‘We have survived some hectic times, especially when Conficker was about, but were fine once we realised that BitDefender could cope with it.’
The Result
John derives considerable peace of mind from the support he receives from Security IP. ‘We tend to be too busy on other things to schedule run exhaustive checks ourselves and we find that to be the most important part of the service. We are very happy to pay that wee bit extra to get someone to come in who knows the system and is familiar with it to look around, tweak things and give us a report saying yes, everything is fine.’
‘I can say that since installation, settling in and taking up the SIP housekeeping service we have been more than satisfied. It’s nice to go to bed at night knowing that everything is taken care of,’ says John.
Commenting on this latest implementation, Security IP managing director, Andi Robinson said: -While Internet Security is of paramount importance to all our clients, having Fire and Rescue Service on our books underlines the significance in mission critical environments. Our work with Highlands & Islands shows how the Security IP service support complements BitDefender’s proven technology.
Tackling the growth of carbon emissions from road transport and meeting demanding emission standards are major challenges for the automotive industry. The concept of green motoring, however, is taking off in the UK with incentive schemes offering cash to motorists who scrap their old models in favour of cleaner alternatives like electric vehicles.
The demands of a large-scale adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), however, could have serious implications for electricity grids already under increasing strain.
It would place additional burden on the electricity supply infrastructure in order to charge batteries in vehicles that currently offer very limited range and consequently few practical applications. And, we must not forget that the source of the energy required for electric vehicles is not currently low carbon in nature as the vast majority of our electricity is generated via fossil fuel-burning power stations.
Despite this, the automotive landscape of the near future is diverse and batteries will play an important role in enabling cleaner motoring. Certainly, there is an early niche market for commuter vehicles, where the requirement is only for short trips and where there is the possibility of accommodating the prolonged recharging the vehicle may require prior to a return trip. Batteries are also key components in hybrids and these are poised to be a practical and widely applicable alternative to today’s engine-based vehicles. In the near term hybrids will use a combination of batteries with internal combustion engines as with the Toyota Prius, but ultimately will be combined with hydrogen fuel cells, to provide that which many in the automotive industry see as the end-game: fuel cell battery hybrid vehicles.
The fuel cell power systems used in such hybrids are highly efficient electrochemical devices like batteries, but with some of the characteristics of engines; they combine hydrogen with oxygen from the air to make electricity and water. Unlike batteries, fuel cells do not require recharging but will generate power in a steady and continuous manner, so long as they are provided with fuel (hydrogen). This characteristic lends itself to the provision of the steady cruising power of a vehicle, while batteries provide the additional power required during acceleration. Once the acceleration is completed, the partially depleted batteries are then recharged by the fuel cell while the vehicle is in operation.
Water vapour is the only emission at the tail pipe, and carbon dioxide emissions ‘well to wheel’ can also be zero, if the hydrogen is produced renewably, or much reduced (30-50%) if the hydrogen is produced from natural gas.
Because the energy contained in the hydrogen fuel is greater than can be stored in a battery, the range of fuel cell vehicles is more akin to that of today’s conventional internal combustion engine vehicles (typically several hundred miles) than that of a BEV and refuelling time with gaseous hydrogen takes only a few minutes not several hours.
In London, Intelligent Energy (IE) is leading a programme part-funded by the Technology Strategy Board with partners Lotus Engineering, London Taxis International and TRW Conekt to develop and field zero emission fuel cell hybrid Black Cabs in London for 2012.
The fuel cell taxis will have a range of 250 miles, zero tail-pipe pollution and reduced well-to-wheel emissions but also unaltered passenger capacity, improved acceleration and will take only minutes to refuel. The first of the vehicles will be on the test track in January 2010, with the first road-legal version due in May.
Fleet applications, such as the London Taxi, often use centralised, return-to-base refuelling and Black Cabs in particular rarely stray beyond central London. Only a few hydrogen fuelling stations will be required around London to facilitate the introduction of fuel cell vehicles across the capital, a vision that the Mayor of London is already subscribed to.
A group of the world’s major automotive companies, including Toyota, Daimler, Honda and General Motors recently announced that they view 2015 as the year that will see the start the true mass market commercialisation of their fuel cell vehicles. Leading up to that time, we will see the fielding of increased numbers of fuel cell vehicles in fleet applications. By then it will be possible to have significant numbers of fuel cell taxis operational in London and to have exported the idea and the technology to other cities and other applications around the world. It represents nothing less, than a chance for the UK to gain a lead in an automotive industry going through a period of intensive repositioning and change.
For many not directly involved in public sector financial reporting the move to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for all public sector entities must feel like finance colleagues creating another self-generating, cottage industry. Shadow accounts, restated balance sheets and further audit reviews leading to the holy grail of WGA (Whole of Government Accounts) seem curious distractions at a time when the public sector is facing huge funding challenges.
It is perhaps an apposite time, therefore, to reiterate why such significant changes in financial reporting are taking place.
The reasons for the adoption of IFRS and those for preparing WGA are different but, in overall terms, they have the same broad principles behind them i.e. consistency and comparability. IFRS have now been accepted across most of the developed world as a set of appropriate standards for financial reporting. In the commercial sector this has become ever more important with the globalisation of capital markets. But it is also important that public sector entities report under these accepted standards to promote comparability between organisations and across sectors.
The consistency and comparability arguments also hold true for WGA. The original stimulus for WGA came in a Treasury scoping study in 1998 and the reasons still hold true today. Firstly, consolidation of public sector organisations into one set of accounts provides an overview of the financial state of the UK government and makes comparisons with other fiscal data possible. Given the greater interaction between public bodies, for example, shared service initiatives and partnership arrangements, such an overview has grown in importance.
Making informed comments on changes in the net worth of the UK government should also be possible once a history of WGA accounts is available. This will mean, for example, the full underfunding of public employee pensions can be tracked as will the government’s pledge to make sustainable investment into physical and social infrastructure. The adoption of IFRS across the public sector will also bring consistency in the treatment of PFI and other PPP contracts. In general, many of the schemes will be brought finally on the public sector balance sheet, a development welcomed by most practitioners and commentators.
The WGA process has also brought an improved level of discipline to financial reporting within the public sector. In the past, some departments and government bodies have been notorious for the length of time they have taken to finalise accounts. Fiscal decision making has been made far more difficult given previous year figures have not been finalised. The disciplines of WGA have brought a significant improvement in the timeliness of public sector financial reporting.
But the full realisation of the benefits coming from WGA remains theoretical. The 1998 scoping study envisaged the first full set of WGA being published in 2005/06. This original target came and went. The most recent timetable is for 2009/10 accounts to be published probably towards the end of 2010. Given that local government will move to IFRS in 2010/11 – a year later than central government and the NHS – it is quite possible that this will be given as a reason for further delay. Issues such as ensuring consistency between local and central government in the valuation of the road network remain outstanding and may hold back publication.
That this whole process will have taken over 10 years to complete is testament to the complexity of the task. However, many commentators believe that at least some of the delay has been caused by political stalling due to concern that the picture painted by WGA of government finances would be portrayed as poor within the media. And, if this has really been a reason over the last 10 years, just think how much worse the future position will be as a result of the bank bail-outs!
The WGA initiative has the potential to deliver real benefits and the efforts of finance practitioners up and down the country have been significant in bringing us to the current position. Whoever is in government next year will be faced with a long and difficult agenda of issues. Notwithstanding these challenges, it is imperative that a real commitment is given to the earliest publication of WGA. The alternative is that this initiative loses all credibility in the eyes of practitioners and the rest of the public sector.
For further information contact Nick Bennett: nick.bennett@scott-moncrieff.com or 0131 473 3500
Whilst England’s campaign for world cup qualification in South Africa has been impressive, doubts still remain over some of the key positions. Left side midfield remains a long term problem and the goalkeeper’s spot also now has question marks over it. These remain specialist positions where the limited number of convincing contenders reflects a dearth of talent coming through.
A group of specialists coming together to form an effective team is not only essential for an international football team but is also a requirement for most management structures within organisations. The effective CEO acknowledges and harnesses these skills to manage the leadership team to its full potential. Leadership teams require a broad range of skills and talents but there is real danger that sometimes the very breadth of the skills required means these teams ‘play people out of position’ or appoint individuals who lack the necessary level of skill.
Over the last decade there has been a move across the public sector to reduce leadership teams to a small cohort supporting a chief executive. The corporate services director has become a key member of the team responsible for an array of functions including personnel, finance, ICT, procurement, legal services and administration. Inevitably, the individual tasked with such a role, although frequently professionally trained in one area, has to be a generalist in all others.
The trend for small management teams has not only been born from the need partly to focus decision making away from larger, unwieldy groups but also from the need to find efficiencies in senior positions. The days when public sector organisations can operate with extensive management tiers have gone. There is, however, a danger that the focus on decision making is at the expense of ensuring the core skills exist to effectively and properly manage the organisation.
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance (CIPFA) has recently picked up the cudgels on behalf of finance professionals. In its publication ‘The role of the chief financial officer in public service organisations’ it rightly makes the point that financial issues are central to the success of an organisation.
Public sector organisations need a chief financial officer who is professionally qualified (in finance) and is a member of the leadership team. If this view is accepted it cannot, therefore, be acceptable for an organisation’s finance function to be represented at the top table by an individual with a legal or HR background no matter how able they are when it comes to finance.
There is wide-scale acceptance that significant cuts will be required in public spending over the next decade. Increased pressure to protect front-line services will mean challenging support services to make efficiencies. The impact on these services will be severe whether through more shared service initiatives, business process improvements or asking more of employees. Inevitably the size of the public sector will reduce and organisational restructuring and mergers will be required. The public sector may also have to withdraw from certain discretionary service provision. In such a difficult environment the skills and professional standards of the chief financial officer of an organisation are even more important.
Financial stewardship and ensuring robust controls exist to safeguard public money inevitably come more to the fore when budgets are tight. But when budget-holders are also being asked to do and take on more, or when there is major organisational change or restructuring, there is a real danger that some of the more routine controls can slip. The chief financial officer must have a level of professional, independent skill to ensure good financial management remains in place. Rigorous financial appraisal and evaluation of efficiency initiatives and all new investment opportunities is also critical. This level of robust questioning cannot be properly undertaken by someone who is not part of the leadership of an organisation.
This view has been recognised by HM Treasury who require all UK government departments to have a finance professional on the board or equivalent and recommend -it is good practice for all other public sector organisations to do the same and to operate to the same standards”.
Yet despite CIPFA and HM Treasury’s view, many public sector organisations persist with management structures that relegate the importance of finance. These organisations need to appreciate the environment has now changed. There is still a role for generalists but just like the left side conundrum facing Capello, for an organisation to not only fulfil its real potential but to also safeguard its future, you need specialists in the right position.
For further information contact Nick Bennett: nick.bennett@scott-moncrieff.com or 0131 473 3500
POLICE Authority volunteers have jumped in the saddle of a scheme aimed at ensuring police force dogs and horses don’t get a woof ride. Greater Manchester Police Authority’s Animal Welfare Visiting Scheme was trotted out earlier this month (Dec 7).
A total of six volunteers are signed up as Animal Welfare Visitors and they regularly monitor the Force’s dogs and horses when the animals are working, training and resting.
A GMPA volunteer said: -GMP’s horses and dogs are extremely well cared for and it’s important that people realise this scheme isn’t a result of any issues or concerns in that respect.
-It’s all about maintaining the extremely high standards of care which are in place and introducing a process which reassures local people that the welfare of GMP’s animals is safeguarded.”
The visitors make unannounced checks of the animals at Force facilities at Hough End in Chorlton and at various training venues.
They also watch the animals when they are at work during operations and they recently observed work carried out as part of Operation Admiral, which resulted in almost 600 arrests.
Animal visitors comment and report on the welfare of the animals and the conditions in which they are housed, trained and transported.
GMPA Chairman Cllr Paul Murphy said: -GMPA has a legal duty to make sure GMP is delivering a good service. I hope this scheme shows we are committed to fulfilling this duty in every aspect of police service delivery.”
Information recorded by visitors is reported to Greater Manchester Police Authority and shared with senior police officers at GMP’s mounted and dog units.
GMPA scrutinises the police officers on a quarterly basis to ensure the findings being recorded and shared are being addressed where appropriate.
Scientists at the University of Bath have set up a specialist research lab in Madagascar to train local students in using the latest satellite technology to monitor and conserve the environment. Dr Peter Long and Professor Tamas Szekely, from the University’s Department of Biology & Biochemistry, have transformed a previously empty room at the University of Toliara into a Geographical Information Science (GIS) lab.
Supported by The Leverhulme Trust and the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Ralph Brown Expedition Award, they have created the specialist lab by providing laptops, internet access and GPS receivers.
The pair also collaborated with Dr Sama Zefania at the University of Toliara to run courses to train Madagascan biology graduates to analyse satellite images for projects ranging from environmental conservation to planning and forestry management.
Dr Long explained: -We’ve been working with colleagues at the University of Toliara for several years, studying the use of wetlands in Madagascar for farming and fishing, and looking at how these activities will be affected by future climate change, deforestation and human population growth.
-We noticed that the local biology graduates have quite an old-fashioned education at university. So they don’t have the transferable skills they need to be able to work in environmental impact jobs such as park management, geographical planning and the mining industry. This means that companies employ foreign workers to do these jobs instead.
-So we decided to set up a lab there and run workshops to teach these specialist skills to lecturers and students at the university.
Professor Szekely said: -It was an interesting challenge- the lab didn’t have any furniture, or even a door, let alone internet access. We had to transport all the books, laptops, printers and field equipment using rickshaws!
-We’re hoping to continue running workshops and help the students into the careers they want to do.
-It’s very satisfying to see the progress of the students. We’ve met some good friends with whom we hope to be able to collaborate academically in the future.
Kafosay Felestin is a postgraduate student in Geography at the University of Toliara.
As part of his course he must undertake an extended piece of field research and write a dissertation, but for many students in Madagascar fieldwork costs are prohibitively expensive.
The Leverhulme-funded project, a collaboration between Bath, Toliara and Cardiff University-based scientists Professor Mike Bruford and Dr Edward Brede, has funded Kafosay to spend two months doing fieldwork in the lower Mangoky region in order to understand how rural people use wetlands.
-I was really happy to be able to work with the Bath team, said Kafosay. -This project was an opportunity for me to learn how to perform the latest GIS analysis, get into the field with all the equipment I needed, and improve my English by working closely with the British team.
Dr Long said: -It was great to work with some really enthusiastic Malagasy students in Toliara. I’m confident that this small project has given valuable training to the students we worked with and it was great to be able to leave the legacy of a small library, laptops and field equipment so that Toliara students in future will be able to do high quality field research in their local environment.
Kafosay hopes to continue to do a PhD on conservation of wetlands in Madagascar. He feels that working with the two UK universities has helped him towards this goal.
-I now know how to plan scientific research and compete for grant funding from international agencies, he said.
Dr Long added: -Working with students in Universities is an important aspect of doing research in Madagascar. The Malagasy students’ perspectives are often very valuable and it is possible to make a real difference to higher education in Madagascar by taking the time to understand the students’ needs.
An Employment Tribunal in Croydon has rejected a claim that Surrey Police discriminated against an officer who was dismissed for poor performance during her probationary period.
Alison Wheeler, now aged 40, was dismissed in December 2007, after she was found to be incompetent as an officer. The tribunal dismissed her claims she had been discriminated against due to her age and gender.
Ms Wheeler joined Surrey Police in January 2006 and undertook the new recruits’ course at the Force’s Training School near Guildford. She was then posted to North Surrey to serve her probationary period, where, as with all new officers, she received guidance and support from experienced colleagues.
Officers assessing her ability observed regular underperformance. Ms Wheeler was often late for duty and failed to take responsibility for some of her assignments while working in CID. A performance action plan was drawn up to provide structured development, but she failed to meet its targets, such as arriving at work on time.
She was then posted to the Targeted Patrol Team to experience another area of policing. While here, she failed to intervene when another officer was being assaulted outside Walton police station. She did not use her personal protection equipment and did not activate the emergency button on her police radio, which officers are trained to do if they or colleagues are facing immediate danger.
Following this incident, Ms Wheeler lost the confidence of fellow officers and, in combination with the other performance issues identified, her suitability as an officer was reconsidered. Under national police regulations, she was dismissed before completion of her probationary period, a course of action that was not taken lightly and for which there is no right of appeal.
Following her dismissal, she lodged a grievance that she had been discriminated against due to her age and gender. Thorough internal reviews were conducted by senior officers, all of which found she had been treated fairly and that her personal circumstances had not contributed to her dismissal. After these reviews, she sought the Employment Tribunal.
Commenting on the verdict, Assistant Chief Constable Ian Dyson said: -Far from discriminating against Ms Wheeler or writing-off her potential at the first sign of weakness, we supported her – as we do with all new officers – and created an action plan to help her achieve her goal of becoming a police officer.
-Despite this, her poor performance continued during her probationary period and she failed to help a colleague who was being attacked and to uphold her duty to the public. The decision to dismiss her was based on sound evidence and this scurrilous claim at Employment Tribunal has cost the Force considerably in terms of time and resources.
-Surrey Police values the diversity of our workforce and welcomes applications from all suitably qualified candidates, regardless of their age, gender, social background or any other personal circumstances.
-However, we make no apologies for dismissing someone who was not suitable to be a police officer and will support managers in identifying and tackling underperformance.
A design has been unveiled for the first council houses to be built in Bolton for 20 years. Planning approval was recently granted for the £2 million scheme, which will see 17 homes built on land at Hamilton Court, in Little Lever. The project, which was given a £1 million grant by the government, will see work commencing in February.
The houses – 10 two-bedroom apartments, six semi-detached houses and one detached house – are expected to be ready for tenants in early 2011, and will be managed by Bolton at Home.
Great Places Housing Group is the development agent for the scheme and architects Paddock Johnson Partnership were appointed to carry out the design.
The homes have been designed to be energy efficient and will meet the government’s code for sustainable homes level 4. The scheme also contains leisure space and parking provision, with shared communal allotment spaces to the rear of the apartments.
Councillor Nick Peel, Bolton Council’s Executive Member for Housing, said: -These are the first homes we will be building and retaining ownership of in more than two decades. Like all local authorities, we have a real shortage of affordable housing and these houses will help provide much needed new housing for local people. The housing scheme has been designed with careful consideration to the surrounding areas, neighbourhoods and buildings.
The homes form part of the council’s Transforming Estates programme, which aims to develop around 6,000 new homes of which 3,000 will be for sale and 3,000 for affordable rent over the next 12 years dependent on market conditions and securing planning approval.
Police in Oldham have raised £3,681 for men and women injured while serving with the armed forces by giving shoppers a little extra help at the checkout. Officers and Police Community Support Officers took part in a bag-packing event on Thursday 3 December to raise money for the Help for Heroes charity.
PC Ian McDonald said: -Not only have we raised a lot of money for this worthy cause, but the event also provided us with the chance to talk to people in an informal environment who might not otherwise speak to an officer.
Phil Caloe, County Coordinator, Royal British Legion, said: -We want to thank all the officers and of course the public who helped raise this money. We are always very grateful to everyone who takes the time to contribute to this worthy cause.
The fund-raiser not only supports a good cause but it is just one of the many ways that the Oldham Division is working with local communities and striving to deliver the Policing Pledge.
-We are keen to hear from the residents to ensure our service is focussed on the needs of local communities, addressing the issues that matter most to people in Oldham, adds PC McDonald.
Help For Heroes is a registered charity and was launched in 2007 to raise funds for the treatment and rehabilitation of injured service men and women.
Budding young filmmakers from Huyton Sports and Arts Centre for Learning are celebrating after making a winning movie about the consequences of becoming involved with gangs and guns as part of a Merseyside Police
awareness campaign.
Merseyside Police commissioned pupils from Huyton Sports and Arts Centre for Learning and Christ the King Centre for Learning to produce their own films to dissuade their peers from joining gangs and highlight the dangers
of carrying/using a gun.
Armed with a video camera they were asked to produce a three-minute film and distribute to as many young people as possible within three weeks. Judges from Merseyside Police and Knowsley Council were stunned by the
creativity and innovative ways the schools pushed their videos out. This included using social network sites such as You Tube and Facebook.
Both entries were of a consistently high standard, but after much deliberation, Huyton Sports and Arts Centre for Learning was selected as the winning team. All the entries were judged on content, creativity, effectiveness and distribution.
The winning students received £250 for their school and the video equipment they used for the project. The video will also be posted on the Merseyside Police website.
The Safer Knowsley Partnership has also made a donation to the runners-up in recognition of their contribution.
The team – which consisted of Lloyd Williams, Sophie Lynch, Andrew Connor, Sam Meaghan, Chloe O’Neill, Natalie Reppion, Jess Balmer and Amy Houghton – chose hard-hitting themes throughout their video to try and
influence the behaviour of other young people.
One of the winning school pupils Lloyd Williams, said: “It’s been a very interesting experience coming up with ideas and progressing the video. We have all worked hard to create a video that will have a positive impact on
the community.”
To get their video out to as many people as possible the students put the video on the school screen and it has been viewed by 1400 pupils. It has also been shown during lessons and at local youth centres and placed on
YouTube. They also asked for feedback on how effective the video was and received a 96% satisfaction rate. A total of 106 pupils were interviewed for the survey, which also revealed the following:
96% of students said that the film was successful in getting across the dangers and consequences of gun crime
58% of students knew about the consequences of gun crime before watching the video
The viral video schools competition is part of a wider Merseyside Police Gun Crime campaign and the videos produced by the schools were aimed at young people under the age of 18.
Acting Superintendent Claire Richards, said: “This project has been a great success. I was overwhelmed by the high quality of both video’s and the innovative, hard-hitting approaches used by the students to get key messages about gun crime across to their peers. Using groups of young
people to act as role models to influence other young people is invaluable. It was evident that a lot of hard work and effort had been put into the project and feedback from the pupils who were involved was very positive.”
Steve Agger, Knowsley Council Service Director – Crime and Disorder, said: “The Safer Knowsley Partnership recognises the hard work that has been put into this project by the schools and pupils involved. They both showed
great creativity and a sound understanding of the issue. We value their involvement in helping to promote, what we feel is a very important message to members of their own peer group. We hope to continue the relationships
we have developed with both schools and to work with them again on future projects.
Commuters around the world have been waiting for “paperless” tickets for some time now, says John Elliott, Head of Public Sector Practice at Consult Hyperion. But there are still some important lessons to be learnt from the international trials held to date
Several different technologies are emerging to support paperless ticketing, but one of the best known is Near Field Communications (NFC), a short-range high frequency wireless communication technology that enables the exchange of data between devices. “Contactless tickets” make use of smart card technology using radio waves (rather than physical contacts) to communicate with the chip inside the card. As such, these electronic tickets – also known as e-tickets – can be used to help reduce the production and distribution costs connected with traditional paper-based ticketing channels, and can also increase customer convenience by providing new, secure and simpler ways to purchase tickets.
Benefits of e-ticketing
Clearly, transport is a sector where this kind of technology can make a huge and positive difference, bringing down journey times while increasing capacity, comfort and convenience. The required technology is already out there, and governments worldwide are increasingly keen to see it used not only to help passengers, but also to reduce congestion, pollution, improve the local environment, and help plan more effective local transport systems.
Some of the other common benefits cited by national transit operators who are currently trialing these schemes are:
Operational cost reductions – By allowing contactless payment smart cards (EMV) to be accepted or using NFC-enabled mobile phones.
Reduce cash-handling costs – the cost of collecting, transporting and securing cash is high. By minimising the use of cash, there is also a reduction in the risk of theft.
Additional revenue streams – new technologies allow operators to consider new services and also to increase overall patronage, leading to higher revenue.
Standardisation- by moving towards globally standardised solutions, there will be more equipment vendors to source devices from and so more competition will be fostered in the market.
Customer convenience – as we move to having more everyday applications on mobile phones, there is significant interest in having ticketing products on NFC-enabled mobile phones.
Recent developments
NFC mobile phones have now emerged, and these have the ability to act as both smart cards and smart card readers. This means that, in the near future, the phones in people’s pockets will be able to store transit e-tickets that can be read simply by tapping them on a reader. If this sounds slightly futuristic, it’s not; Sony Ericsson has already claimed that all of its handsets will soon support NFC.
Additionally, international payment organisations like MasterCard and Visa are writing specifications to allow their chip and PIN cards to work contactlessly and then bill the transit journeys directly to the credit card statement. The many trials of NFC payment across the globe have shown that it is popular with the users and fit for purpose as both a payment instrument as well as a transit ticket holder. NFC is already widely used in Asia, for example, with schemes like T-Cash in Korea and Suica in Japan.
Barriers to adoption
Although national e-ticketing schemes are currently being trialled around the world, none of them are fully interoperable at the technology level. Therefore, large international suppliers of the equipment needed for this kind of solution simply cannot see the point of developing it for small national markets. As a result, competition has not emerged to drive prices down, and so the costs of such elements are destined to remain artificially high for relatively small markets like The Netherlands or the UK.
Cost remains an issue for transport operators, and the benefits from this kind of investment will ultimately fall to a number of different parties, with some savings falling to local government (such as more accurate reimbursement of concessionary travel), and others going to bus operators, passengers and the public. Returns will be high, although the large wins are contingent upon a full, interoperable, inter-modal infrastructure being in place and widespread take-up by passengers. Plus, increased passenger numbers will depend on each country’s public transport operators developing fare strategies to make use of interoperable ticketing enabled by smart cards.
Looking to the future
Although we may need to wait a bit longer for a fully-functioning, fully-interoperable national e-ticketing scheme, there have already been several significant urban e-ticketing success stories based on e-ticketing technologies, such as the Oyster card in London, the MoBIB scheme in Brussels, or the Octopus card in Hong Kong. From a customer point of view, these schemes are extremely attractive: no need to tender cash; discounted fares; multi-modal journeys, and so on. As such, an appetite for this kind of solution remains.
After all, the benefits of e-ticketing for transport are well documented, and as new technology becomes more established, tickets will be loaded onto mobile phones instead of smart cards, allowing people to buy their ticket over the air, check timetables and real time travel information and view their stored tickets all on their phone. The list of possibilities for this kind of technology is endless, which is why governments around the world not only want to promote the spread of smart and integrated ticketing, but also want to fully understand what barriers may currently be preventing its more rapid adoption, so that they can continue to build on this strategic vision and instead move towards a reality that will benefit everyone.
With the Cop 15 Climate Change event in Copenhagen drawing to a close, now is a time for reflection. A period for the governments and people involved to sit back and reflect on decisions made. Further treaties and agreements will no doubt be made over the course of the next few months as world leaders try to comprehend the scale of the challenges arrayed against them and bring about the changes needed to preserve this world and our natural resources.
But this is not the first such event, it will not be the last and there are already a host of measures in place to stem the tide of ecological damage. In April 2010 the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (previously known as the Carbon Reduction Commitment) will come into force. This is part of the government’s efforts to improve energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions across the UK. In particular it is focused on large organisations, across the public and private sector in an effort to change opinions and mindsets at senior management levels. In simple terms the scheme will place a cost on carbon emissions and provide caps on energy usage, whilst providing opportunities to buy and trade allowances. The key fact though is that the individual organisations will have the right to decide for themselves, the most cost effective way to go about making those reductions.
Overall the scheme is likely to affect around 20,000 organisations across the UK, who are in total responsible for approximately 10 percent of the country’s emissions. There are various means of qualification for the scheme but it is expected to initially affect local authorities and government departments as well as supermarkets, banks etc. There will be a three year roll out of the scheme with various qualification levels and phases, culminating in 2013 with the first capped phase and the beginning of carbon auctions.
Why am I so pleased about the CRC. Well, quite frankly there are two reasons. Firstly, as an environmentalist – anything done by any organisation to improve our climate and decrease damage to the earth is, in my opinion a good thing. Many people deride the government for not doing enough (or anything at all). This is a substantial step and should at the very least raise awareness levels. Secondly, the fact that the organisations involved can make up their own minds about how to improve their energy efficiency – why? Because it provides opportunity for those smaller businesses and service providers already going to great lengths to be energy efficient.
Those organisations, like Magenta Security, who are already measuring, reducing or completing negating their emissions and environmental impact are in the perfect place to help. As the scheme kicks in, the companies affected need to start looking very hard at all areas of their business, identifying potential cuts and opportunities for greater efficiency. What better place to start than the replacement of an inefficient supplier with an efficient one. I appreciate that any purchasing teams reading this are probably having an apoplectic fit at such a blasé comment, I entirely understand that supply change in large organisations involves lengthy tender process, due diligence and extensive negotiation. However; it doesn’t change the fact that the use of carbon neutral suppliers has a direct and immediate effect on your own emissions. Just think of the difference you would make by immediately changing the supply of your catering, cleaning and security services from carbon heavy to carbon neutral.
Unfortunately it is unlikely that you will immediately find carbon neutral, environmentally friendly suppliers for all your services, however small steps in the right direction will make changes you can measure under the CRC. Draw up a list of potential suppliers, look into those where immediate changes can be made, in those cases where there are long term contracts and commitments, start communicating with the suppliers. Make them more aware of the scheme, see what they can do to help you, surprisingly few small businesses are aware of the CRC or how it is likely to affect their larger clients.
Above all don’t fear the CRC, yes it will mean changes, yes it is likely to mean some more red-tape and paper-work. But for once the sacrifice is worth making. It has been years since the Kyoto summit and only now are we seeing real differences in the way our policy makers behave. Just think how long it will be before the Cop 15 talks have any impact – it may well be too late by then.
|
NEED AN UP TO DATE DATABASE? 
|
Recent Comments