100 million savings on local government's temporary staff bill are planned

Called 'Transforming the procurement of temporary, agency and interim staff', the guidance has been drawn up by the London Borough of Havering with funding from the London Centre of Excellence. The Office of Government Commerce has now adopted the guidance and is working with Havering and the nine Regional Centres of Excellence to promote it nationally.

The guidance, which has been written by local government HR, finance and procurement professionals, comes in the form of an easy-to-use toolkit. It sets out the different approaches to attracting and engaging temporary workers supplied to the public sector through Britain's large number of temporary staffing agencies. It also offers guidance on how to select the approach best suited to an organisation's needs, the latest legal and HR advice and number of best practice case studies.

The guidance has been published in a bid to raise standards of temporary staff management across the public sector and to increase the productivity of HR and procurement professionals. The move has been prompted by the mounting cost of procuring agency, temporary and interim staff faced by local government. Over £500 million a year is spent by London boroughs alone.

Value Wales Procurement has recently adopted the guidance and is planning to issue it to Welsh local authorities to promote best practice in the procurement of temporary staff in the Principality.

Rita Greenwood, Group Director of Finance and Commercial, London Borough of Havering, said, "We recognised the need to address this area of substantial spend and believe the guide will help all organisations to decide the best way to procure and manage their temporary staff to achieve the best results for the community."

John Oughton, Chief Executive of the Office of Government Commerce, said, "This new guidance will greatly assist local government in obtaining best value for money when procuring temporary staff. With potential annual savings in excess of £100 million identified in this area, the amount of efficiency savings which could be released to support better front-line services is highly significant."

Rob Sykes, Chair of the Chief Executives' Task Force, said, "This is landmark guidance which will be an invaluable resource to councils and illustrates how the RCEs are bringing real value to the national efficiency agenda. It should go on to inspire local authorities to deliver better professional standards and substantial efficiency gains in a significant area of public expenditure."

The London Borough of Havering conceived and led the project through to development of the toolkit. Havering continues to offer support to local authorities in London with regard to procuring and managing their agency workforce as well as progressing opportunities for further efficiency gains through collaborative working.

Related links to this article:
Office of Government Commerce
London Borough of Havering
Copies of the toolkit are available at this link

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The e-Government National Awards 2006 are soon to be judged
A record number of nominations have been received in 11 categories in the e-Government National Awards 2006. The Awards recognise and praise the best strategies, achievements, teams and individuals in UK e-Government. Judging takes place shortly and finalists will be announced the first week of November. The Awards will be presented at a prestigious dinner at the Savoy in London in January 2007.

The Awards are supported by the Cabinet Office e-Government Unit, the Office of Government Commerce, the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm), and SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers). Platinum sponsor is KPMG, and also a sponsor are SunGard and O2.