4. Professional Services

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Professional Services

This region currently spends £250 million per annum on professional services. This is a national project supported by OGC to reduce demand and enhance engagement level within each procurement activity that takes place at local authority level. This category covers Temporary Agency Staff and Consultancy Services.

Both of these areas are supported by the Local Government Professional Services Group (LGPSG)

Managed Services for Temporary Agency Workers (M-STAR)

The Local Government Professional Services Group (LGPSG), a stakeholder group run by and for local authorities, has commissioned ESPO (on behalf of Pro5), the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and the DfE (Department for Education), to work collaboratively with local government colleagues in order to establish a national framework contract for the managed service provision of temporary agency staff. This framework is likely to include at least two lots, one of which will be for education temporary agency staff, including supply teachers.

The aim of this framework agreement is to:

Harness the substantial leverage of public sector spend to achieve maximum value for money.

Provide local authorities, including schools, with access to national and local supply of temporary staff via a robust, legally-sound performance managed agreement which also addresses vetting needs for schools,

Minimise duplication of effort by removing the need for individual organisations to tender or re-tender (there are a number of you with Neutral Vendor agreements that will shortly need renewing, providing the opportunity to combine our spending power).

Increase market competition, particularly in the neutral vendor sector.

Enable small councils to benefit from the leverage that ESPO and their Pro5 colleagues are best placed to secure.

Enable authorities to have access to improved management information in order to inform the management of demand for temporary agency staff and overall workforce planning.

The intention is to award the contract towards the end of 2010 so councils can have access when it goes live from January 2011. The contract will be advertised through a voluntary OJEU process and a Prior Information Notice has be posted with a provisional OJEU publication date set of July 2010.

Contact details and further information: Go to http://www.ogc.gov.uk/managedservicecontract.asp

The Local Government Professional Services Forum

The Local Government Professional Services Forum, which is hosted on the IDeA Communities of Practice platform aims to promote collaboration and improvement in the procurement of professional services (i.e. consultancy, temporary/ agency workers, interims, specialists and similar) in local government, and support councils in securing better value from Professional Services spend. It’s free to join, and the forum is open to any local authority employees with an interest in securing better value for money from spend on professional services. http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/comm/landing-home.do?id=3154840

Join up with your colleagues today at http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/comm/landing-home.do?id=3154840 to share documents, experiences and ask questions. (Please note that if you are not already registered on an LGA website, you may need to register for the main site as well as this forum). How to use CoP guide

Associated Documents

Walsall Council’s approach to agency staff managed services - incorporating innovation and added value.

In May 2006, Walsall Council implemented a managed service across its professional services, waste services and administrative agency staff spend. In October 2007, these arrangements were extended to cover the provision of agency staff within social care. See full case study

What does 'good' look like?

Guidelines for agency-managed services in the Local Government context

Local Government Professional Services Group

Top tips for making savings through better procurement in professional services

As local government finances are squeezed during difficult economic times it will become even more important for councils to work together to save money and keep council tax down. This series of member guides provides tips on how your authority can make savings through better procurement. Download members guide

Procurement of a Vendor Neutral Temporary Staffing Solution

In 2006 a group of 14 local authorities in the East

Midlands formed a collaborative partnership to procure

a temporary staffing solution. The authorities sought to minimise the effort and time involved in the procurement of temporary staff, whilst also maximising the potential service delivery options

and cost savings by aggregating demand and introducing some common processes. The solution also had to meet their diverse staffing requirements and deliver service improvements and efficiency savings. The Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO) was engaged to assist the authorities in the procurement process, with input and support provided by the East Midlands Centre of Excellence (EMCE). Download Case Study

9 Steps to Demand Management
Demand Management places a structure and focus on external spend, targeting the rationale, quantity and specification of purchases rather than just the price. At a tactical level, it will challenge the match between business requirements and the products or services procured; at a strategic level it may form part of a wider transformation agenda. Available from the OGC servicedesk

The Consultancy Value programme (CVP)

The Consultancy Value Programme (CVP) sets out requirements on departments to harness value from consultancy spend. It includes all the central government departments with significant consultancy spend, working together to agree best practice and approach.

The Programme provides a structured and co-ordinated way of managing departments" use of consultants, and comprises a series of practical toolkits and solutions for procurement professionals to draw on when considering the use of consultants.

Consultancy support has proven central to the successful delivery of many Government projects where no internal resource is available - however procurement in this area can be difficult and complex and it is essential that Government gets this right to ensure consultancy spend is accountable, appropriate and cost effective.

OGC, working in collaboration with government departments, is driving forward a new initiative aimed at strengthening measures to ensure value for money for public sector spend on consultants.

What does CVP comprise of?

A business case format of essential considerations Departments will have to use when taking on consultants:

Used across Government this will provide a consistent approach to consultancy procurement and improved assurance for its successful delivery. The format enables identification, delivery and measurement of value through the consultancy engagement.

A revised and consistent definition of consultancy;

Enables right identification of your service requirement - and appropriate selection of the service providers. It will be important to ensure that government has a much better understanding of market structure and segmentation and uses that knowledge to improve the value which is delivered through engagement of the market.

'Gate' & Governance

Using a 'Gate' process as part of business case approval to encourage joined up working between commercial/ procurement, HR, finance & business units to deliver vfm from consultancy spend and demand management at source

Pricing

Improving the visibility of consultancy pricing and the components that dictate price will enable departments to be better informed of the price they should expect to be offered.

Consultancy Performance Reviews

A standard consultancy performance review will enable departments to identify and capture the value delivered from consultancy assignments.

A common approach to consultancy performance review will also enable departments to share knowledge and experience in order to support better decision making, and to take a collaborative strategic approach to supplier management enabling Government to act as a single customer.