Corporate Development
| Corporate Development Officer | ||
| Ms Patricia Ward | Tel: 028 8241 1485 | E: pat_ward@welbni.org |
New Labour announced in June 1997 its intention to replace
Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT) with a duty on Local
Authorities to achieve 'Best Value'. Best Value is a duty
to deliver services to clear standards by the most effective,
economic and efficient measure available. The 5 Education
and Library Boards have embraced the Best Value philosophy and
are working actively towards achieving a Best Value
culture. Structures have been put in place across the 5
Boards to ensure commonality of approach and the aim of the
Education and Library Boards' Best Value Project is:
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To maximise efficiency of services within available resources
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To continually improve the quality of services
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To measure performance
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To establish and monitor standards
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To promote local accountability and engage all stakeholders
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To create a working partnership between the Board and DENI
The Project is managed by an inter-Board Project Board which consists of representatives from all Boards, the Department of Education and Trade Union Side. The Project Board meets on a regular basis to give strategic direction to the Project and sign off any necessary action and approval.
The Project Team which is based in the Southern Board, Armagh, services the Project Board and provides assistance to each of the Boards Best Value Officers. The Best Value Officers advise and assist with the development and evaluation of programmes of continuous improvement at a local Board level. Ms Patricia Ward is our Best Value Officer.
For the year 1999/2000 the Project Board identified that Home to School Transport should be subject to a 5 Board review as part of a rolling programme of Service Reviews. The review examines delivery of the service in relation to the Boards' statutory duties. A number of findings, a significant number of which are common to the 5 Boards, are currently being formulated into recommendations which will form the basis of a report to be presented to the Project Board, early April 2000.
The Project Board is also deciding on a formal programme to review all Board services on a 5 Board basis over a 3 - 5 year period. This is a basic requirement of Best Value and the Project Board is paying particular attention to the structure and composition of each Board to ensure commonality of approach. It is anticipated that an agreed programme will be issued in the near future and communicated to all staff.
At a local level, and in line with developments at an inter-board level, the Western Board is working pro-actively to ensure the organisation is adopting a strategy of continuous improvement and is well prepared for the rigour of Best Value reviews. The Board proposes to achieve this through use of the Business Excellence Model and it anticipated that all Board services will have an opportunity to work with the Model over the next 2 - 3 months.
The Model will be applied to all services and representative staff will be invited to attend a one day facilitated workshop to examine all aspects of the service using the Model as a baseline. For more of the detail relating to the time-scale for implementation refer to the Implementation Plan below.
Awareness sessions for all staff are being offered during the months of March and April, in advance of the scheduled workshop days, and the objective is to ensure everyone gets an opportunity to attend.
An update on how things are progressing at a local level will be provided before the beginning of the summer period as will developments on a 5 Board basis.