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In the last of our series on RIEPs, Martin Hill and Chris Allison describe the East Midlands procurement partnership between the improvement and efficiency partnership and the Midlands Highway Alliance. When the UK was hit by some of the heaviest snowfall in almost two decades in February, the media spotlight was firmly fixed on the country's local authorities to grit and salt roads as quickly as possible and prevent traffic chaos. Treacherous conditions crippled parts of the road and rail network and affected the economy. Takings were down as people struggled to get to the shops, with estimates suggesting the three-week freeze cost the country as much as £3.5bn. The procurement of commodities such as grit and salt has been the subject of substantial efficiency savings through collaborative working in the East Midlands. The East Midlands Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (EM IEP) is working with 46 councils and five fire and rescue authorities to help forge closer working relationships, to work collaboratively and accelerate efficiency gains and drive improvement. The Midlands Highway Alliance (MHA) is a partnership that has been borne out of this drive. Working under the EM IEP, the MHA will save the region £11m across highways maintenance and improvements by 2011. Supported by Constructing Excellence, the 10 highways authorities in the partnership and Highways Agency have been making efficiency savings through procurement frameworks for major and medium-sized highways schemes and professional civil engineering services, sharing best practice in maintenance contracts and by the joint procurement of commodities such as road salt. The EM IEP has provided funding of £277,000 for two years, matched by finance from the participating authorities, and the MHA has been assisted by the Collaborative Working Centre Ltd (CWC) consultants focused on collaborative working between public and private sector construction organisations, and providing expert project support. The MHA is focused on delivering efficiencies through shared best practice and joint procurement in professional services, commodities, term maintenance best practice and procurement frameworks for medium and major highway schemes. Savings of £11m have been identified as achievable by 2011. The objectives of the MHA are to: * establish and develop collaborative procurement frameworks to secure the delivery of major highway capital schemes, medium-size highway schemes and professional services * establish, implement and develop a continuous improvement model for highway term maintenance to achieve convergence to best practices * embed partnering principles and construction best practice in all its work, and throughout the supply chains to optimise commodity acquisition. The MHA provides an example of how the EM IEP has facilitated local authorities to work together in partnership to make considerable efficiency savings. As of October 2008, savings of £1.35m had been achieved by the MHA. These savings are forecast to rise to £10.97m by 2011. The economic downturn presents us with new challenges and it is our responsibility to ensure the issues related to the efficient use of scarce resources remain a priority. The MHA has made substantial progress over the last 18 months, but the EM IEP recognises there are a number of lessons for the process of change they have been advocating and supporting to succeed: * it's not a quick fix, the project takes time * it needs championing through internal advocates * it must have a clear business case * it needs project management resource with the right background. * any new approach needs to be well communicated to internal staff * it needs to keep the politicians on board. The EM IEP and the MHA has identified the following opportunities for further efficiency improvements, including extending the alliance's membership, widening the use of the professional services framework within the region, increasing maximum contract value, increasing the number of commodities which are procured jointly, ensuring best practice adoption and implementing procurement, utilising early contractor involvement and innovation savings achieved in medium highways schemes and for major highways schemes. The MHA model is sufficiently well established that the first steps are being taken for developing collaboration in four other regions. Many of the principles underlying the alliance model align with the Highways Agency's role as a change agent. Helpfully, there are common drivers between local authorities and the Highways Agency relating to Gershon efficiencies and the benefits of early collaboration. Cllr Martin Hill is chair of the board, and Chris Allison is the director of EM IEP

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Taking procurement with a pinch of salt

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