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The NW IEP has hit the ground running due to the energy and support of all the stakeholders. The North West Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (NW IEP) has this as its central ethos: ‘We will be a focal point to inspire the North West's public sector to stretch for the best-possible performance in order to deliver world-class services'. To do just this, the organisation has positioned itself as the driver for change and a catalyst for improvement, efficiency and innovation across the region, providing leadership, guidance and support which inspires local authorities and other public sector partners to achieve best performance. Its priority areas range from support for local strategic partnerships and community safety to transformational government and community empowerment, and are served by programmes from five sub-regional partnerships and 17 regional providers. The strength of the member-led partnership in the North West has created genuine progress by our public sector partners in identifying the key priorities for improvement and efficiency, and delivering against these for the benefit of local people and communities. The NW IEP has hit the ground running, due to the energy and support of all the stakeholders. And the work that is already being delivered in some of our priority areas shows there is a real commitment to innovation and continuous improvement. One of the programmes already delivering is Neighbourhoods NW which has been funded by the NW IEP to concentrate on the community empowerment and neighbourhood delivery priorities. Ms Bishop was a key speaker at the launch of a new scheme – the Neighbourhood Management Excellence Award Scheme – created by Neighbourhoods NW, which aims to help improve neighbourhood delivery. Under the scheme, neighbourhood-management organisations work to achieve the national standard of Investors in Excellence, using a bespoke framework by which they can be assessed against a range of criteria. The results of the assessment then help the neighbourhood-management teams to drive improvement in current activities, as well as recognising their achievements to date. Two local authorities have already piloted the scheme and received their awards – Preston City Council and Fylde BC. Says Jennifer Carthy, neighbourhood manager at Preston: ‘The key to the success of any neighbourhood working arrangement is partnership. The Neighbourhood Management Excellence Award Scheme enabled us to review and evaluate our partnerships and community involvement, and to identify areas of strengths and areas for improvement.' Improved neighbourhood delivery is one of the NW IEP's priority areas, and is a typical example of the range of excellent programmes which the NW IEP is supporting through funding in year one. Another typical example of the programmes being funded by the NW IEP is the Business Improvement Techniques being offered by another of the regional providers – the North West eGovernment Group. The free training, which teaches Business Improvement Techniques (BIT) which can be used directly to improve council services, has already been delivered to more than 180 public sector staff at nine councils. The first council to complete the training programme was Wirral BC. Its BIT team carried out a number of projects, including an update of the council's internal directory, which resulted in a 75% increase in the amount of information updated. It also used the training to transform the council's complaints procedure and, among the benefits obtained, was a lead time reduction from two or three days to almost instantaneous, contact via by e-mail. There was also a reduction in labour costs of £180 per interaction. A BIT team from Fylde BC tackled the process involved in administering and issuing housing benefits. Using the techniques, the group reduced the typical time taken for the process – from application for benefit to issue – from 14.5 to six days – and reduced the average number of visits each applicant had to make to the administration team during the process from six to two. Programme successes such as these are extremely encouraging and provide a great platform for our continued drive for innovation, improvement and efficiency in years two and three, and beyond. For further information visit the NWCE website Cllr Tim Stoddard is chair of the membert board for NW IEP, and Gillian Bishop is chief executive of NW IEP

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WHITEHALL

Progress on the North West frontier

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