PLC Public Sector reports:

The challenge of achieving efficiency savings without impacting on public service delivery is one that public sector workers have been facing for some time.  Budget 2009, with its call for an extra £15 billion of efficiency savings, means that the task of finding the right balance between these 2 competing needs will become even more difficult. 

One of the headline initiatives for local government formally announced in the budget, was the creation of 2 pilot city-regions.  Manchester and Leeds have been given the go-ahead to take more control over their budgets and, presumably, more responsibility for striking the right balance between service delivery and efficiency.  Is this the start of the long called for decentralisation, or is this pilot, which will be “overseen at ministerial level”, just window dressing?

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PLC Public Sector reports: 

The  Local Government Association set out its wishlist in advance of today’s budget.  Among other things, it called for “smart” spending with a focus on small-scale infrastructure projects that can deliver immediate results, money for town centre facelifts and local transport, and more government help for small business and the general public to take advantage of existing tax breaks and benefits.

How did the LGA’s proposals fare in today’s budget? Is it a thumbs up or a thumbs down? 

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PLC Public Sector reports:

It is easy to get bogged down in whether a procurement is for “part A” services or “part B” services, above or below the threshold, or excluded from the full procurement regime in some other way. 

Before you realise it, you are lost in a maze of Treaty principles and Interpretative Communications and the procurement is fast taking its own individual, untested path to delivery. 

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Ok, so you know how to tender a service and you know what to do about the transferring staff in theory, but what if … shock … horror … it doesn’t go according to plan?

• Your incumbent contractor won’t give you information about the transferring staff.
• Your incumbent contractor claims TUPE applies to a group of staff who you suspect are not entitled to transfer.
• The service is splitting and TUPE will only apply if the same contractor wins the majority or all of the work.

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