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6th Annual Conference

6th Annual Conference 4th November 2010 - "Apocalypse Now?"

At last year's conference we were warned of the 'triple whammy' of the financial crisis, decline of oil and the pensions time-bomb. We need to seek a full understanding of the beliefs behind the political rhetoric so at this year's conference we have invited Andrew Stunell - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Communities and Local Government. (Andrew was previously Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government in opposition for the Lib Dems between 2006-2007). We have also invited Hazel Blears who latterly was Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government under the Blair and Brown administrations.

Last Updated (Friday, 13 August 2010 12:27)

3rd Annual Golf

3rd Annual Golf Tournament - 3rd September 2010

Due the the current economic outlook and the general gloom we have changed the location of this year's golf tournament back to Herons' Reach at the De Vere hotel in Blackpool on the 3rd September. The main reason for the change is that most of our "regulars" are from the North West - so, reluctantly, we'll keep it "up north" for a little bit longer. Hope that doesn't discourage anyone from joining us. The day is the same as usual - bacon butties, 18 holes and a presentation 2-course dinner. Our first tee time this year is 12:00 noon so people have got plenty of time to travel. The course is only 3 miles off the end of the M55 (via M6) so the journey is really very easy.

Last Year: -Barrie (18 pts appallingly poor) presents the trophy to Bev Wilson (again!)

Last Updated (Tuesday, 03 August 2010 10:17)

SPRINT / esd-Toolkit Workshop

esd-toolkit and SPRINT – ‘Making the Best Use of Peoples' Time’ Workshop – 23^rd September, Nuneaton and Bedworth Council Offices.

Following the June Emergency Budget – Councils and the wider public sector are having to face up to the stark reality of ‘efficiency savings’ in the magnitude of 25% by 2014/15: - A 2-year pay freeze for the majority of staff, a commission on pensions and a promise to work with Local Authorities to produce a zero Council Tax bill in 2011/12.

This one day workshop will look at productivity and concentrate on the style of the organisation and its ability to organise itself in such a way as to maximise staff contribution. Full details in the Events section.

Last Updated (Wednesday, 23 June 2010 10:39)

Lancashire Schools' Portal

A gate keeping Portal for 647 schools in Lancashire

The Challenge

The inspiration for the gate keeping Portal came from the DCFS (DFE) which, via the Implementation Review Unit, was pushing to reduce the levels of unnecessary bureaucracy in schools and free up time to enable head teachers, teachers and support staff to concentrate on their primary task of providing teaching and learning.

The focus was to encourage local authorities and other organisations to reduce the volume of materials being sent to schools by developing, adopting and operating a gate-keeping and impact assessment system

The 647 schools across the authority have 647 ways of managing themselves so the requirement was to build a communication system which could accommodate this and target individual communications to a school customised set of users unique and managed at a school level.

Last Updated (Monday, 21 June 2010 13:51)

SPRINT hosts visitors from Brazil

The success of SPRINT was further evidenced this week, when we hosted two visitors from Brazil. Mr. Rubens Pereira (social scientist and team leader) and Professor José Lasmar Director General of the Agência Metropolitana of Minas Gerais, visited the Civic Centre on Tuesday 24^th November as part of a European trip that saw them visit CLG and LGA in London and the Andalucian provincial government in Seville, Spain. The visit was organized by Mr Rogerio Pereira (Secretaria de Estado de Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior – SECTES) who said in his initial communication,

“I read many articles and information about SPRINT on your website and the Internet and was very impressed with the actions and progress made in the United Kingdom. I think we have much to learn from the successful experiences of SPRINT. There is concern in Minas Gerais's government to seek and build international cooperation agreements with organizations in the greater reference in the best practices for public administration such as SPRINT.”

Last Updated (Thursday, 26 November 2009 10:43)

Another Real Dilbert!

Thanks to Christopher Easton of Bury MBC for this (Names and organisation witheld to protect the innocent):-

Ops Mgr: Our call agents are not targeted to reduce call duration!

Analyst: But they've all just been given new targets to increase the number of calls taken per hour??

Ops Mgr: Yes they are targeted to increase the number of calls per hour, but I can assure you no one's targeted to reduce call duration!

Last Updated (Friday, 02 October 2009 10:30)

Ignorance is Bliss - Scientific Proof

Have you long since belived that you are following rather dubious plans suggested by people who seem to have little or no idea that they are seriously off the mark? Do you wonder why so and so is in the position that (s)he is in? Then this article is for you!! There is a nice little scientific hypothesis that the more incompetent you are the less likely you are to recognise it!