Documentation and Resources

Title/Link: A guide to Change Management
Author: SOLACE
Synopsis: This report poses 5 questions every chief executive should ask when embarking on delivering change.

Title/Link: A guide to Commissioning & Sourcing
Author: SOLACE
Synopsis: 'When the salami's gone'. Authored by Eric Bohl, Director at Activist Group, and co-sponsored by Civica and BT, the guide explores the different approaches taken to commissioning and sourcing and includes case studies of some of the most interesting examples in the field. It goes on to explore the practical questions that need to be considered when embarking upon major commissioning and sourcing programmes.

Title/Link: Shared Services: Cost Spared?
Author: Local Government Association
Synopsis: This report, commissioned by the LGA and produced by Drummond MacFarlane, offers a detailed analysis of the financial and non-financial benefits of five local authority shared service arrangements. To read the press release, click here. Related papers are available here.

Title/Link: Report of the children and young people's health outcomes forum
Author: Department of Health
Synopsis: In January 2012, the Secretary of State for Health launched the development of a Children and Young People's Health Outcomes Strategy by establishing a Forum composed of individuals with a wide range of expertise and a shared commitment to improving health care for children and young people.

The Forum was asked to:

• identify the health outcomes that matter most for children and young people
• consider how well these are supported by the NHS and Public Health Outcomes Frameworks, and make recommendations
• and set out the contribution that each part of the new health system needs to make in order that these health outcomes are achieved.

This is the report of the Forum's work. It is the result of a conversation with some two thousand people - children, young people and their families and those working in the wider health and social care system. Their messages underpin the report's recommendations.

Title/Link: Commission on the Future of Local Government: final report
Author: Civic Enterprise
Synopsis: This week saw the launch of the report from the Commission on the Future of Local Government led by Leeds City Council. The Commission brought together leading players from local government, the voluntary sector, academia, think tanks and the private sector, and took evidence from a wide range of organisations and individuals, with the aim of bringing a fresh perspective on the role of local government in helping the UK meet the social and economic challenges. The commission explored the idea of civic enterprise: "a new leadership style ... where councils become more enterprising, businesses and other partners become more civic, and citizens become more engaged".  The report looks at five propositions and includes a number of calls for and commitments to action.

Title/Link: The Ensuring Council: An alternative vision for the future of local government
Author: APSE
Synopsis: Conducted by APSE as part of their research partnership with De Montfort University this research sets out the start of a debate on the future of local government, taking into account the views of APSE members. The research finds that there is little support for models of local government that 'hollow out ' local councils and recognises that there is a role for local government in acting in a stewardship role for local places and economies, as an arbiter of social justice and in providing public value, but only if it retains a strong core of directly delivered services.

Title/Link: In the Firing Line: The impact of project and portfolio performance on the CEO
Author: Oracle Primavera
Synopsis: Read this report to find out how the constant variables in portfolio performance can be countered by robust information visibility, and how this can help executives reduce the risk of failure and avoid any unwanted surprises.

Title/Link: From Housing and Litter to Facebook and Twitter
Author: BDO Local Government
Synopsis: We have heard many times that social media can offer councils an opportunity to engage more successfully with residents with the added possibility of making cost savings. To help us make more of this potential, the BDO local government team have produced a piece of thought leadership which explores our understanding and expectations of how, why and whether social media should be a consideration and provides recommendations and insight into ways in which it could be adopted within current policies and strategy.

Title/Link: The best Government social media guidelines so far come from New Zealand
Author: Gartner Research
Synopsis: A report by Andrea Di Maio, analyst at Gartner Research, on the who is producing the best Government social media guidelines

Title/Link: IPv6 Adoption within Local Government
Author: ALGIM
Synopsis: ALGIM's research paper for 2011 focussed on IPv6 Adoption within Local Government.  ALGIM enlisted the help of Dr Murray Milner, Convenor of the New Zealand IPv6 Task Force to prepare this whitepaper.  This whitepaper is expected to provide a roadmap for the adoption of IPv6.

Title/Link: The best Government social media guidelines so far come from New Zealand
Author: Gartner Research
Synopsis: A report by Andrea Di Maio, analyst at Gartner Research, on the who is producing the best Government social media guidelines

Title/Link: A strategic & operational guide to social media
Author: New Zealand Government Web Standards
Synopsis: This 'Social Media in Government' guidance is made up of two documents: 'High-level Guidance' and 'Hands-on Toolbox'. The intent of the guidance is to encourage best practice social media use by government agencies, provide useful templates and tools for planning, and give an overview of the strengths, weaknesses, benefits and risks of this very important and rapidly growing toolset.

Title/Link: Engaging through social media: A guide for civil servant
Author: CIO
Synopsis: This guide provides an overview of the guidance contained in Using Social Media, which is an introduction to how government officials can use social media (available on CivilWiki at http://wiki.gsi.gov.uk). As well as providing guidance for communications and policy staff, this guide explains where to go for expert advice on using social media in your work.

Title/Link: The Journey to the Interface - How public service design can connect users to reform
Author: Demos
Synopsis: Drawing on the principles and practices of the emerging discipline of 'service design', this pamphlet argues that the common challenge that all service organisations face is how to create more intimate and responsive relationships with their users and customers.

Title/Link: Beyond Direct Delivery: New approaches to local services
Author: SOLACE (Wales)
Synopsis: The report explores the advantages and disadvantages of a range of transformation options including: co-production with citizens and communities; social enterprises; cooperative mutuals; whole area working; cross boundary collaboration and working with the market.

Title/Link: white paper on Supplier Relationship Development
Author: Co-produced by SOLACE & Capital Ambition
Synopsis: Supplier Relationship Development (SRD) is the process of finding savings, efficiencies and improvements on existing contracts for the mutual benefit of both strategic suppliers and customers, and the white paper show how local authorities and other public sector bodies, are in a strong position to make more out of their contracts by using SRD.

Title/Link: LG Group Transparency Programme Guides
Author: Local Government Group & Local Public Data Panel
Synopsis: A set of guides to offer practical help to meet both immediate targets of publishing open data, and to adopt approaches that will add most value for local people and public services over the longer term.

Title/Link: It's ours. Why we, nor government, must own our data
Author: Liam Maxwell, Centre for Policy Studies
Synopsis: Effective use of Information Technology (IT) can do much to improve public services. In particular, it has the potential to break the central monopoly by giving individuals the ability to exercise real choice and control over schools, GPs, hospitals and other services. But improving government use of IT is not just a question of effective project management. Rather it is a matter of changing the assumptions behind the government's use of IT. For a clear choice is emerging: EITHER to continue with the "Transformational Government" agenda. OR to abandon expensive and failing centralised IT projects and give control of personal information to individual citizens - the model that the commercial sector has used successfully applied for many years.

Title/Link: From Social Security To Social Productivity: a vision for 2020 Public Services
Author: 2020 Public Service Trust
Synopsis: The report calls for a complete reconfiguring of public services around the needs and capabilities of citizens, based on the principle of social productivity. It argues that our public services are increasingly unsustainable.

Title/Link: Public sector merger and consolidation
Author: Grant Thornton
Synopsis: Further to a Guardian Roundtable event in association with Grant Thornton and key public sector bodies 'to discuss the impact that merger and consolidation will have on the future blueprint for the delivery of public services.'

Title/Link: Complying with the Records Management Code: Evaluation Workbook and Methodology
Author:
Synopsis: The management of electronic records was a vital element in the government's modernisation programme and was key to underpinning online service delivery and conformance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Title/Link: Report to The National Archives on local authority digital continuity
Author: Archives Sector Development commissioned In-Form Consult Ltd and the Digital Archiving Consultancy
Synopsis: A survey and report on the awareness and visibility of digital continuity risk in large local authorities. The report makes a series of recommendations that could be of assistance to local authorities.

Title/Link: Is there something I should know?
Author: Audit Commission, July 2009
Synopsis: This report looks at how councils use information to make decisions. It encourages chief executives, senior officers and lead members to be more demanding about the information they seek and use.

Title/Link: Sharing the Gain: Collaborative for Cost Effectiveness
Author: CIPFA
Synopsis: The report will enable councils and other public bodies to take a proactive approach to collaboration initiatives, which, in turn, will help protect services against the impacts of funding reductions.

Title/Link: Commission on 2020 Public Services - various reports
Author: 2020 Public Service Trust
Synopsis: The Commission will develop a practical but compelling vision for public services in 2020, appropriate to the conditions of the times. It brings to the task a breadth of perspectives and a wealth of experience.

Title/Link: The Power Gap
Author: Demos
Synopsis: The Power Gap argues that it is power, not more narrow approaches of income or mobility, which is the critical inequality in Britain.

Title/Link: Shared services and collaboration - various reports
Author: Improvement and Development Agency
Synopsis: Various reports on the general theme of shared services and collaboration, including the Government Connect and Front Office Shared Services Programmes.

Title/Link: Capable Communities Public Services Reform: The next chapter
Author: Institute of Public Policy Research and Price Waterhouse Coopers
Synopsis: This report examines the role citizens and communities can play in directly producing services. It sets out the case for community empowerment, before examining how this important agenda can move from the margins to the mainstream of the policy agenda.

Title/Link: Institute for Government - various publications
Author: Various
Synopsis: Various publications are available for download from the Institute's website that address the financial challenges facing public services.

Title/Link: Exclusive Report on Public Sector Sustainability Reporting
Author: Oracle
Synopsis: This report explains the challenges that flow from the new mandatory reporting requirements and the ways in which technology can help meet these targets and cut costs.

Title/Link: After the Downturn
Author: SOLACE & CIPFA
Synopsis: A special paper on the Pre-Budget Report that examines two financial scenarios and three options for the future of local public services delivery.

Title/Link: eGovernment of Tomorrow: Future Scenarios for 2020
Author: Vinnova
Synopsis: Four scenarios are presented in this Swedish report on how eGovernment might develop in the future.