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Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102969634
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 40
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Book Description
In May 2010, the Government announced the formation of the Efficiency and Reform Group within the Cabinet Office. The Group brings many of the functions of a typical corporate headquarters together in one place in the centre of government. Its priorities are improving efficiency in central government, and wider reform of the way public services are provided, in order to make the spending reductions required by the 2010 Spending Review. The Group is responsible for various new initiatives which are designed to increase efficiency, make savings and improve value for money. These include renegotiating contracts with major suppliers; implementation of a centralised procurement process; a review of major government projects; and a new Property Unit. The NAO's review details various challenges that the Group faces. It is too soon for the NAO to reach a judgment on its success in improving the value for money of government overall. The review is intended to provide an objective baseline against which progress made by the Group can be assessed by the NAO and the Public Accounts Committee.
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215561664
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 52
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Book Description
The Efficiency and Reform Group (the Group) was established within the Cabinet Office in May 2010 to lead efforts to cut government spending by £6 billion in 2010-11. Its long term aim is to improve value for money across government by strengthening the central coordination of measures to improve efficiency. The imperative to make savings in the short term has involved the Group imposing new controls on departments, such as moratoria on certain expenditure. Sustained efficiency improvements, though, will need a much deeper change to both the culture and institutional structure of government. The Group also needs to clear up confusion over who is accountable for what in terms of improving value for money, especially in defining its responsibilities and those of the Treasury and individual departments. The Group's actions have resulted in efficiency savings of £3.75 billion across departments in 2010-11. It should continue to describe any future spending reductions accurately and explain any impact on services. The scale of the challenge to deliver efficiencies is huge: the Government intends that half of the £81 billion reduction in spending planned over the next three years should come from efficiencies rather than through cuts to services or delays to important projects. Many of the efficiencies must be achieved in areas where the Group currently has a limited influence, or by local bodies, where it has none. The Group should set out how it will operate to ensure that its approach can be replicated across the wider public sector.
Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102969634
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 40
Get Book Here
Book Description
In May 2010, the Government announced the formation of the Efficiency and Reform Group within the Cabinet Office. The Group brings many of the functions of a typical corporate headquarters together in one place in the centre of government. Its priorities are improving efficiency in central government, and wider reform of the way public services are provided, in order to make the spending reductions required by the 2010 Spending Review. The Group is responsible for various new initiatives which are designed to increase efficiency, make savings and improve value for money. These include renegotiating contracts with major suppliers; implementation of a centralised procurement process; a review of major government projects; and a new Property Unit. The NAO's review details various challenges that the Group faces. It is too soon for the NAO to reach a judgment on its success in improving the value for money of government overall. The review is intended to provide an objective baseline against which progress made by the Group can be assessed by the NAO and the Public Accounts Committee.
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215040077
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 170
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Book Description
The Commons Public Accounts Committee publishes its 61st Report of the Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Cabinet Office and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), examined tax disputes. At 31 March 2011 HM Revenue & Customs was seeking to resolve tax issues valued at over £25 billion with large companies, some of which included disputes over outstanding tax. In this report, the Committee expresses concern about how the Department handled some cases involving large settlements and that there needs to be proper separation between the negotiation of tax settlements and the authorization of such settlements. The Committee also states that HMRC made matters worse by trying to avoid scrutiny of these settlements, keeping confidential the details of specific settlements with large companies. This effects Parliament's ability to establish value for money, compounded further by imprecise, inconsistent and potentially misleading answers given by senior departmental officials, including the Permanent Secretary for Tax in particular over his evidence on his relationship with Goldman Sachs, in facilitating a settlement with the company over their tax dispute. HMRC governance processes in these matters were inconsistent and it has now appointed two new Commissioners with tax expertise, and plans to introduce a new assessor role to permit independent review of large settlements before they are finalised. The Committee further states that it saw little evidence of personal accountability within the Department, and that a perception has developed that large companies are treated more favourably, receiving preferential treatment compared to small businesses and individuals.
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215045256
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 48
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Book Description
The Ministry of Defence announced in the summer of 2010 that it had a funding gap of £38 billion over the next ten years. As part of the Government's efforts to reduce the deficit, the Department also needs to reduce its annual spending by 7.5% in real terms by 2015. It intends to achieve a significant proportion of its required savings by reducing its civilian personnel by 29,000 and its military personnel by 25,000, which it estimates will save £4.1 billion between 2011 and 2015. The Department is currently enacting a transformation programme to change its way of working in order to deliver on the Strategic Defence and Security Review priorities with fewer staff. However, the Department has put plans in place to implement reductions in its workforce before it has finalised its new operating model. The operating model will set out how the Department will meet its objectives in the future, but its reductions in workforce will be well advanced before the model is agreed. There is concern that plans to reduce the workforce have been determined more by the need to cut costs than by considering how to deliver its strategic objectives and that there is a risk of further skills gaps developing. This could make the Department increasingly reliant on external expertise with consultancy expenditure having already grown from £6 million in 2006-07 to £270 million in 2010-11.
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215043399
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 72
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Book Description
The NAO report on this topic published as HC 1665, session 2010-12 (ISBN 9780102977011)
Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102981346
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 46
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Book Description
Each of the areas in the Whole-Place Community Budgets scheme has identified potential benefits from taking a more integrated approach to frontline services, focusing on outcomes like preventing avoidable hospital admissions or reducing reoffending. Greater Manchester, which covers ten local authorities, has estimated net savings of some £270 million over five years, while in West Cheshire savings of £56 million are estimated for the same period. In general, government has only limited information for identifying opportunities for integration or making an assessment of costs and benefits, which is needed to support the case for integration. In some instances where government has identified integration opportunities, benefits have not been achieved because of implementation difficulties. While the centre of government has recognized the importance of integration, it does not have clearly defined responsibilities to support or encourage frontline integration initiatives across government. It is early days for Whole-Place Community Budgets, central government and the four local areas have worked together effectively to assess the case for local service reforms. The true scale of potential benefits will become clear only if projects are implemented and evaluated robustly. Foundations have been laid but continuing collaboration - including sharing of data - between local and central government and delivery partners is essential to maximize the potential of Whole-Place Community Budgets. Accompanying this report, the NAO has released a case study looking at the four Whole-Place Community Budget areas, finding that these areas have taken a positive first step in assessing the case for integration (HC 1040, ISBN 9780102981339)
Author: Spicker, Paul
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447316126
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 411
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Book Description
Social Policy: Theory and practice is a fully revised, updated and extended edition of a bestselling social policy textbook, extensively reworked and adapted to meet the needs of its international readership. The book lays out the architecture of social policy as a field of study, binding the discussion of theory to the understanding of social policy in practice. It aims to provide students and practitioners with a sense of the scope, range and purpose of the subject while developing critical awareness of problems, issues and common fallacies. Written in an accessible and engaging style, it explains what social policy is and why it matters; looks at social policy in its social context; considers policy, the role of the state and the social services; explores issues in social administration and service delivery; and focuses on the methods and approaches of the subject. For practitioners, there are discussions of the techniques and approaches used to apply social policy in practice. For students, there are boxes raising issues and reviewing case studies, questions for discussion and a detailed glossary. The book’s distinctive, path–breaking approach makes it invaluable for students studying social policy at a range levels, professionals and practitioners in the field of social policy.
Author: M. Burton
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137316241
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 364
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Book Description
The first comprehensive 'bird's eye' account of public sector reform supported by references from over 400 official sources, this book is an invaluable guide to all those in the public, private and voluntary sectors grappling with the twin challenges of managing public spending austerity and the pressure in response to transform public services.
Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102980622
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 56
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Book Description
According to the National Audit Office, in 2011-12, government spent an estimated £316 million less on ICT than it would otherwise have done. The main challenge, however, will be to move to the delivery of ICT solutions that reform public services and the way that government works. The government announced in October 2012 that, subject to audit, it had already saved £410 million from its savings initiatives in 2012-13 and expected to save a further £200 million by the end of March 2013. The appointment of commercial experts has helped departments to claw money back, renegotiate contracts before they expire and, overall, spend less on ICT than they otherwise would have done. However, weaknesses in data held by the Cabinet Office have meant that the £348 million of savings reported by the Cabinet Office for 2011-12, resulting from its initiative to manage ICT suppliers as a single customer, could not be validated. To date, moreover, the Cabinet Office has measured only cost savings and has not published measures of the wider impacts of its initiatives. The department is starting to take steps to consider risk and performance on a more holistic basis, which should provide it with more information on wider impact. Views are mixed on the effect of reform on government's relationship with ICT suppliers. Suppliers consulted by the NAO were frustrated at the slow pace of change and the focus on cost-cutting, rather than exploring innovative opportunities to redesign public service and put services online. There have also been comments from government on resistance by suppliers to change
Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102969672
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 36
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Book Description
Lessons from the experience of using PFI can be applied to improve other forms of procurement and help Government achieve its aim of securing annual infrastructure delivery cost savings of £2 billion to £3 billion. To secure the best value for money from all types of procurement, the public sector needs to develop skills the NAO has identified. These are collecting better data to inform decision-making; ensuring projects have the right skills; establishing effective arrangements to test, challenge and, if necessary, stop projects; and using commercial awareness to obtain better deals. The case for using private finance in public procurement needs to be challenged more. Also, privately financed projects will often still be off balance-sheet which may continue to act as an incentive to use PFI. There has not been a systematic value for money evaluation of operational PFI projects by departments. So there is insufficient data to demonstrate whether the use of private finance has led to better or worse value for money than other forms of procurement. The Treasury and departments should identify alternative methods for delivering infrastructure and related facilities services to maximise value for money for government. The NAO welcomes the current plans of the Treasury and Cabinet Office to strengthen project assurance. The report highlights the need for independent challenge capable of stopping projects which do not give the prospect of value for money. This is particularly important as there is still a shortage of the skills needed to manage and oversee complex major projects.
