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Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands Efficiency Guide - Your top ten tips to achieving efficiency savings in local public services
With resources for public services set to reduce by at least 25% over the next four years, the challenge to be ambitious about efficiency and productivity has never been more real. Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands has a strong emphasis on efficiency and has developed a significant programme of work over the last two years, supporting authorities and partnerships to work together to achieve improved efficiency and productivity. Download Full Guide
IEWM Efficiency and Procurement team honoured at national excellence awards
Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands (IEWM) has received a highly commended accolade for outstanding achievement at the annual Government Opportunities (GO) magazine National Excellence in Public Procurement Awards.
The team was presented with a Highly Commended Award in the Team of the Year category, in recognition of their funding and support for a range of innovative procurement-related projects that yield a return on investment of over 10:1. Read full press release
West Midlands - Developing a Procurement Framework for Jobs and Skills
The Framework is for use by public and third sector organisations in the West Midlands who wish to increase access to jobs and skills opportunities for local people through the procurement exercises they undertake and thereby tackle the unacceptable levels of long term unemployment and Worklessness experienced by so many across the West Midlands.
The Framework enables public and third sector organisations to contribute significantly to tackling Worklessness, and its consequences, by:
Making access to jobs and skills a core requirement of procurement exercises from the outset;
Addressing specifically the real and perceived legal barriers to the use of jobs and skills clauses in procurement exercises;
Providing advice and guidance (including bespoke templates) to help embed a focus on jobs and skills throughout the end-to-end procurement process - from setting strategic priorities to contract implementation and monitoring; and
Sign-posting procurers and prospective contractors to the range of support and advice that can help both parties deliver on the jobs and skills requirements to be delivered.
Read more about the framework for jobs and skills
West Midlands Procurement Hub receives Highly Commended award at the 2009 - GO awards in London 
The West Midlands Procurement Hub has been honoured for outstanding achievement at the annual Government Opportunities (GO) magazine Excellence in Public Procurement Awards, part of National Public Procurement Practitioners Day (N3PD) 2009. The team was presented with a highly commended award in the Collaborative Procurement (Hubs) category as recognition for being one of the pathfinders for the procurement hub model, the organisation had much to prove, and its entry identified not just impressive savings, but also advancement in areas such as capacity building.
Read More
Go awards, Highly Commended - Young Procurement Professional of the Year 2009 
A young procurement officer from the West Midlands has been honoured for outstanding achievement at the annual Government Opportunities (GO) magazine Excellence in Public Procurement Awards, part of National Public Procurement Practitioners Day (N3PD) 2009.
Carly Haswell, Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands was presented with the highly commended award in the Young Procurement Professional category, in recognition of her outstanding contribution towards making efficiency and value for money savings.
West Midlands RIEP - Smarter public sector procurement through the Regional Procurement Hub - I&DeA Case Study
The Comprehensive Spending Review, undertaken by the treasury in 2007 (CSR07), requires all local councils to reduce their operating budgets by a total of three per cent over the period April 2008 to March 2011. In the West Midlands region this represents a total of £500 million of ‘cashable’ savings. Communities and Local Government is anticipating that some 60 per cent, or £293 million, of these savings in the West Midlands will be achieved through procurement efficiencies.
Research undertaken by the Regional Centre of Excellence in 2006 identified that achieving collaborative procurement on a regional basis was difficult without a regional catalyst. As a result, the West Midlands Regional Procurement Hub was set up as a regional platform to support collaborative procurement activities and is an internet-based solution which;
Worcestershire County Council has fought off strong competition to win the Society of Procurement Officers in Local Government (SOPO) Award for Outstanding Achievement in Procurement 2008.
The award in the County Council category was presented at the annual SOPO Conference on 4 November 2008 in recognition of the excellent work the Council has undertaken on their passenger transport eAuction programme. View full press release
West Midlands Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership launch Procurement Strategy for CSR07
This strategy is for local authority Chief Executives and Directors of Resources (Section 151 Officers)
and operational professionals directly or indirectly engaged in procurement. This will form the
basis of the Improvement and Efficiency Partnership’s (IEP) Regional Procurement Action Plan for the CSR 07 period to support the authorities (plus public bodies) in seeking to achieve regional savings. Download Strategy
NAO - A review of collaborative procurement across the public sector
The National Audit Office and the Audit Commission have jointly produced this review. It describes the landscape of collaborative procurement across the public sector. The review draws on our research in central government, local government and the National Health Service (NHS) carried out during the summer and autumn of 2009. The research focused on spending on eight standard commodities1 that are common throughout the whole public sector, though the findings have wider applicability. It builds on other recent work on public sector procurement, including the Operational Efficiency Programme (April 2009) and the Roots Review (February 2009). Read this report
OGC launch centre for eAuctions website
In November 2009, the OGC established the first pan-Government Centre for e-Auctions with a remit to support and increase the impact of e-auctions across the public sector.
The aim of the Centre is to influence over £800m of public sector spend and help achieve savings of over £250m in 2010/11 by coordinating resources, establishing consistent approaches and providing a platform for coalitions.
The Centre has been established to:
http://www.ogceauctioncentre.co.uk/
| SUPPLIES | SERVICES | WORKS |
| Entities listed in Schedule 1 | £101,323(€125,000) | £101,3232(€125,000) | £3,927,260(€4,845,000) |
| Other public sector contracting authorities | £156,442(€193,000) | £156,442(€193,000) | £3,927,260(€4,845,000) |
| Prior Information Notices (Regulation 11) | £607,935(€750,000) | £607,935(€750,000) | £3,927,260(€4,845,000) |
| Small lots (regulation 8 (12)) | £64,846(€ 80,000) | £64,846(€ 80,000) | £810,580(€1,000,000) |
Please view OGC page for further information
New Remedies Directive 2009
OGC has released The Public Contracts (Amendment) Regulations 2009 which brings the New Remedies Directive into force in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on 20th December. To access a copy of the regulations please click here.
Shoosmiths - Overview of Remedies Directive
Change 1 - 'Ineffectiveness': Courts can tear up contracts awarded in breach of rulesChange 2 - Unsuccessful bidders' rights to informationChange 3 - Standstill period and limitation rulesDriving Innovation through public procurement - BIS
With nearly a third of public spending going on purchasing goods and services, the Government is uniquely placed to drive innovation through the economy. Government can use its purchasing power as a powerful incentive for business to develop innovative products, processes and services. The challenge for every Government department is therefore to look at innovation as a tool to transform public services and potentially create new markets. This short guide shows public procurers how to foster innovation at each stage of the procurement process in order to achieve benefits for the public purse and the wider economy.
Operational Efficiency Programme: collaborative procurement 
In July 2008 the Government asked Martin Jay, Chairman of Invensys, to lead the collaborative procurement strand of the operational efficiency programme (OEP). This review builds on much previous work, including
Sir Peter Gershon’s efficiency review of 2004 and the subsequent ‘Transforming Government Procurement’ report of 2007, which together led to the existing Strategic Stakeholder Forum1 (SSF) led programme of work on collaborative procurement. There also exists a multitude of highly successful grassroots led collaborative procurement initiatives
which have developed over recent years across the entire public sector. Download full report
Roots Review: Review of Arrangements for Efficiencies from Smarter Procurement in Local Government
During the 2007 Comprehensive Spending review (CSR07) period (2008-09 to 2010-11), English councils are collectively required to achieve £4.9bn cash-releasing efficiency gains. Delivering Value for Money in Local Government set an expectation that nearly 60 per cent of this total (£2.8bn) would arise through smarter procurement.
This independent Report highlights that substantial actions are underway by the Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnerships (RIEPs) and others to enhance procurement efficiency, but more can be done. It sets out practical recommendations that can be acted on by relevant organisations, such as the RIEPs. Download full report
Procurement Policy Note – Use of the Accelerated Restricted Procedure - OGC
This note provides information on the European Commission’s decision to relax
the rules on the use of the accelerated restricted procedure for procurements in
2009 and 2010. Download full note
