Year 22009/2010 Annual Performance Highlight Report

Project Title:Cumbria Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (CIEP)

Lead Officer:Lucy Hewson

Date:July 2010

Project Allocation:£541k

Final Project Spend:£467, 077

Carry forward: £48, 496

Variation: £25, 427

Efficiencies Cashable efficiencies: £ 1, 629,629

Non-cashable efficiencies: £ 469,349

  1. Achievements
  • Effective Procurement in Cumbria (EPiC)was chosen to host a national pilot for “Building Equalities into Procurement” training led by Local Government Improvement and Development (formally IDeA) and SOPO (Society of Procurement Officers). This course was aimed at providing support in embedding the New Equalities Act, and explored options and barriers that will face procurement officers as they attempt to achieve equality and procurement outcomes at the same time. EPiC has contributed greatly to CIEP’s overall cashable efficiency savings. In total EPiC generated £1,458,029 cashable savings (this includes NI179 data) and £206,000 non-cashable. Year 2 has seen an increase in the use of the e-tendering portal, with 6 out of the 8 authorities using it to advertise new opportunities. Four of these authorities are using it for a vast majority of contracts with high value.
  • Achieving Equality- the first year of this project has been focused on preparing for the external assessment that will take place in year 2 of the project.The assessment is conducted by Local Government Improvement and Development and will assess what level each authority is at against the Equality for Local Government Framework. The aim is that all authorities will reach ‘achieving’. A huge success is the cultural changes that are being embedded in the local authorities will last beyond the lifetime of the project.For example the work that is ongoing around shared Equality Impact Assessment’s (EIA’s). Currently the project lead is mapping the EIA’s across the county and identifying areas where there could be shared EIA’s across either all or some local authorities.
  • Support to the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee– The Joint Overview & Scrutiny Committee that was given funding from CIEP have held three reviews, 1) Place Survey review 2) CCTV review looked at the current infrastructure of this across Cumbria 3) Community Safety Partnership funding review. The impact of these reviews is that they encourage a joined up approach to local service provision and service change, ultimately generating efficiencies. Final agreement on the proposals will be in August/September and then the recommendations can be taken forward and implemented.
  • A capital contribution to theLocal Linksproject of £60, 000 was made to initiate building work on Ulverston Town Hall so that it can become a Local Links Centre. All work on the Town Hall is due to be complete in October 2010, when CIEP will receive a final report.
  • Three projects cited that one of their biggest achievements throughout the year was the successful partnership working:

Cumbria Highways Postboxhave encountered “excellent cooperation” between all partners including Capita and Connected Concepts as well as local authorities

The Achieving Equalitiesprojecthas successfully brought all six local authorities together to work jointly on reaching the ‘Achieving’ level against the Equality Framework for Local Government (EfLG). Representatives from all authorities in Cumbria meet monthly to, share good practice, monitor progress and discuss ways forward including identifying areas where joint working would be appropriate and effective.

Procurement of tax and benefitssaw Eden District Council and South Lakeland District Council successfully jointly procure revenues and benefits software.

  • The Review of Terms and Conditions – produced an up to date resource to be used by stakeholders considering shared service solutions. Cumbria is the first sub region to produce a directory of terms and conditions for all Local Authorities in a 2 tier area.
  • The Shared Customer Contact project began as a project to develop a business case proposal for the delivery of a shared telephony contact centre incorporating Allerdale Borough Council, Carlisle City Council and Cumbria County Council. Since its inception the scope has been broadened and a business case has been produced for the delivery of a shared contact centre operation covering all customer contact channels. The final version of the business case will be available on the 31st August.
  1. Knowledge
  • Local Government Improvement and Development (formally IDeA) are using the Equality project as a pilot as it is the first project of its kind in the Country. Once the project is complete it is intended that it will share learning with other areas regionally and nationally.
  • All reports that have been produced, including Scrutiny Review reports, the Cumbria Strategic Waste Partnership study and the Review of Terms and Conditions study. These are available on the CIEP website at

At a later date reports from the following projects will also be made available: Local GovernmentNetwork,Cumbria HighwaysPostbox, Local Links and Shared Customer Contact. These will also be made available via the CIEP website.

  1. Engagement
  • The programme has engaged the six local authorities and the Lake District National Park authority, Cumbria Constabulary and the Primary Care Trust (PCT). The Communities and Neighbourhoods project has also engaged the third sector and voluntary organisations such as Cumbria Association of Local Councils (CALC) and Action with Communities in Cumbria (ACT)
  • Members have been engaged in the programme through two member representatives Cllr Elizabeth Mallinson and Cllr John Bowman. They both regularly attend meetings at a regional level and are updated on progress of the programme from the CIEP support office. Updates are also sent regularly for the weekly members briefing.
  1. Exceptions
  • Shared Legal Servicesproject, £7, 000 was allocated and not used, as thepreferred consultant for the work was unavailable within the required time frame for CIEP funding. It is expected that this work will still be carried out without CIEP Funding.
  • Cumbrian Highways Post Box: difficulties arose due to confusion on tendering protocol, clarity on procedure when working jointly across different local authorities was required, assumptions and confusion on what was the correct tendering procedure lead to delays. The project has now been installed at SLDC and other sites are awaiting installation, with a full live system expected in September.
  • The Local Government Networkproject experienced delays due to the project manager leaving his position at Carlisle City Council. This resulted in a delay while a new project manager was appointed. Once appointed this project picked up momentum again and the final feasibility study will be available from the 31st August.
  • The Neighbourhoods & Communities project suffered severe delays to delivering project outcomes primarily around Locality Working. The majority of the allocated funding was intended for an initiative in Allerdale. The flooding inNovember (which particularly affected Allerdale) meant that there was little to no capacity for officers to dedicate to the project. This project has delivered in other areas; most successfully Community Engagement Sessions were delivered across the County. Due to their initial success additional sessions were provided. These sessions were to embed the Community Engagement Standards developed by the Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC) and received extremely positive feedback.
  • There was an under spend for year two, most of this is attributable to the delay in the Collaborative Working project, which had £45,496.00 allocated.
    This project is a collaborative project to reflect the priority areas identified through the Counting and Calling Cumbria reports (Total Place). The outcome of the project will be to identify and provide a roadmap for delivery of a targeted shared service to improve value for money. The project didnot get underway in year 2 (2009-10) for a variety of reasons including: change in key personnel in CIEP lead officer roles; delay in set up of CIEP Program Board where decisions are taken on commissioning projects under this funding stream. CIEP have therefore requested that NWIEP allow these funds to be carried forward so that outcomes can be met. NWIEP have authorised this carry forward.
  1. Summary
  • The Year 2 Projects have largely delivered the intended outputs, however there is delay with some in terms of final reports and full roll out, for example the Postbox system has been installed at SLDC, but a full live system for all councils will not be available until September.
  • Three of our projects have produced “firsts” either within Cumbria or nationally. The Overview and Scrutiny project provided funding to the first all member body in Cumbria to focus specifically in the delivery and progress of the Sustainable Community Strategy and the Local Area Agreement.
    The Review of Terms and Conditions is the first sub-region to produce a directory of terms and conditions for all the local authorities in a two tier area.
    And finally the Achieving Equality project is a first nationally in terms of approach and will be the first to have all authorities in a sub region assessed together by December 2010.
  • The underspend has been mitigated by NWIEP authorising the carry forward and CIEP being able to deliver the projected outcomes in year 3. The under spend therefore is £25, 427, this is less than 5% of our funding for the year.
  • Longer term outcomes expected:

Achieving Equality: once all authorities have been assessed as ‘Achieving’ it is intended that the project will develop a legacy for all authorities to become ‘excellent’. This will be done through embedding practices into the local authorities.

Following the joint procurement of the tax and benefits software between Eden District Council and South Lakeland District Council a business case is being produced for moving to a shared service, this is due in November 2010.

The Cumbria Strategic Waste Partnership now needs to look at the possible next steps as outlined in the feasibility study and will keep CIEP updated on future developments.

Author:C Mallinson

Date: 10.8.10