Thursday 18 December 2014

News Summary of Collaboration and Shared Services from 18th December 2014



There are some really bad Christmas jokes coming up in this newsletter that I know you will use over the following weeks at works parties, or with your family and friends. It’s SSA’s festive reward for your hard work.

Over 2000 people receive this email each week as we work to build the profession of collaborative working. During 2015 it brought you 346 news items and 206 job adverts.

So please share the jokes below and future emails with colleagues to help them understand the complexity and range of the collaborative work you are involved in.

This week, if you are willing to give a little, we will give you back some really bad Christmas quips as a reward. First, the invitation from the LGA to give a little…

Each year the Local Government Association produces a highly popular interactive map of shared services providing information on council shared services examples across England. http://www.local.gov.uk/web/guest/productivity/-journal_content/56/10180/3511353/ARTICLE
Last year the map was very well received with high levels of media coverage across both local government and the wider public sector. Building on this success, the LGA is refreshing the map for 2015 to continue showing how local government is leading the public sector in efficiency and innovation through sharing services. To reflect this it is important for those involved in shared services to provide the LGA with clear figures showing the true scale of shared services and demonstrating the efficiency savings that councils have made to date.
Please do take advantage of this chance to raise the profile of your shared service by filling in the short survey at http://survey.euro.confirmit.com/wix/p1840386794.aspx
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Now the really bad jokes (adapted from award winning “Biggest Ever Tim Vine Joke Book” available online and in local book shops)….

 

1.       Why doesn’t Santa deliver to coal mines? Because it’s beneath him!
2.       A little boy sitting on Santa’s knee asks “Santa, is it true that you invented Typex? You can correct me if I am wrong!”
3.       Rudolph is just back from two weeks of sitting on a hard book. It was his annual holiday.
4.       This year the elves in the workhouse have inflatable decorations. They’ve got so many they’re forever blowing baubles.
5.       Santa to one of his elves: Will you stop claiming you are a medieval musical instrument?
Elf: Are you calling me a lyre?
6.       Did you hear about the Pixie offered a place at the College of Leapfrog? He jumped at the chance!
7.       Rudolph was dreaming that someone said “Ready! Steady! Go!” then he woke up with a start!
8.       A gnome resigned from the toy factory saying he was going to become a chimney sweep. Santa said, “Soot yourself!”
9.       Santa said to the Doctor, “I think the whole world is ganging up on me!” The Doctor opened the door and shouted, “Okay lads, he’s in here…”
10.   The teacher asked one of the children in the Nativity play what they were dressed as. She said: I’m a Herald Angel. The teacher replied, “Hark at you!”
11.   Little girl to Santa: Please can I have a woolly jumper that all my family can get into at once? Santa: “Why is that?” Little girl: “Because we’re a close knit family”.
12.   Rudolph always says it’s a marathon, not a sprint. That’s why he lost his job as Usain Bolt’s trainer.
13.   Where do pigs do their Christmas shopping? Hamley’s!
14.   Santa can’t remember his homing pigeon’s name. But he’s sure it will come back to him.
15.    A man walked up to Santa’s sleigh and said, “Can you gift me a lift?” Santa said, “Sure! You look great, the world is your oyster. Go for it!”.
16.    Santa looked down from his sleigh to see a lorry load of tortoises crash into a train load of terrapins. It was a turtle disaster.
17.   Santa said to the Doctor, “The older I get the more I spread gossip!” The Doctor said, “You’ve got rheumatism!”
18.   Santa met the person who invented crosswords. He can’t remember their name. It was P something, T something, something, something…”
19.   Just as the sleigh was taking off the reindeers fell down and scraped their knees. They were  just grazing!
20.   Teacher talking to the children at the Nativity play: Does anyone remember being present at the birth of a baby? Little girl: Yes. It was dark and warm, then it went really bright and someone smacked me!



All the team: Manny, Terry, Jo, Lucie and I wish you a happy Christmas! See you in 2015.


 

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Thursday 4 December 2014

News Summary of Collaboration and Shared Services from 3rd December 2014



It’s raining money again this week as CLG announced the winners of £90m improvement funding, much of which is partnership related. This takes the 2014 funding for collaborative working to well over £200m…

Winners named for £89.4m service improvement fund

A £89.4m service improvement fund has been awarded to 73 projects across the country, in a bid to save over £900m in the long-term. Read more >>>

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Local Government

Over the following weeks I will keep you up to date with the emerging themes of how that money is being spent, but onto the radar this week came these three collaborative working activities…

New Essex partnership to tackle council tax fraud

The three year partnership between Essex County Council, local councils, the police and fire authorities would bring in an estimated £3.5m a year in extra council tax payments. Read more >>>

Cannock Chase Council to share buildings and services in bid to save half a million pounds

Sharing buildings and services is just one of the ways in which Cannock Chase Council will pull in funds to reduce a potential shortfall of more than £500,000 over the next four years. Read more >>>

Pension funds to pool £10bn assets

Lancashire County Pension Fund and the London Pensions Fund Authority have begun talks to create a joint Asset and Liability Management Partnership. Read more >>>

Welsh Local Government

 

I would recommend a scan of the following article because of the facts it sets out about the Welsh debate on merging councils. It is helpful to know that there are 22 unitary authorities, 3 national park authorities, 735 town and community councils, 7 NHS Trusts, 4 police forces, 3 fire and rescue services and 9,000 councillors…

 

Local government reform in Wales should see the number of councils slashed from 22 to 7

The problem with Wales is parochialism. It is one of our greatest cultural assets as a nation but it is why we have created a governance structure that has resulted in 8,000 community councillors and 1,264 councillors who are mainly over 60 years of age representing our local services. Read more >>>

Next is an important article on the Welsh political leadership developing a shared vision. However, those of you who have a copy of the Shared Service Architect’s Trust & Vision Toolkit will know that the shared vision cannot be about a new council structure for Wales.

 It has to be a passionate picture of the new, better world that the people of Wales could live in if public service boundaries were blurred or removed. For example, reduced loneliness for the elderly, more jobs for young people and long-term unemployed, through blurred boundaries between health, business, education, blue light and council activities. Then you create a public sector structure, retaining local democratic representation, to serve that vision…

Welsh councils say mergers need 'shared vision'

Local councils facing mergers have called for a "shared vision" with Welsh ministers on how to re-draw the map. Read more >>>

Neath Port Talbot and Swansea councils agree merger talks

Two south Wales councils have agreed to start merger talks. Neath Port Talbot councillors voted in favour of starting discussions with neighbouring Swansea at a meeting on Wednesday. Read more >>>

Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr councils to explore a merger - despite opposition in RCT

Rhondda Cynon Taf council is to explore a merger with Merthyr Tydfil. Council leader Andrew Morgan told an extraordinary meeting of the authority that he had met Merthyr council’s leader and agreed both councils should explore the viability of a merger. Read more >>>

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Collaborative Leadership

Earlier this year we launched the Collaborative Leadership Across Communities toolkit as part of the Postgraduate Certificate in Collaborative Leadership at University of Derby. The toolkit has over 50 tools, templates and techniques for leading community based collaboration projects and with a one day workshop to unpack it.

The following article is inspiring in the way that a local community have regenerated their area. This was a project started long before we developed our toolkit, but it is the kind of purpose that the toolkit was inspired by, and equips public sector leaders and managers  to support…

The Liverpool locals who took control of their long-neglected streets

With relentless rows of boarded-up windows, punctuated by half-demolished corner shops and purple shocks of buddleia sprouting from the rooftops, the streets of Toxteth in inner-city Liverpool present an eerie, post-apocalyptic scene. Read more >>>

If you have studied on our Collaborative Leadership Programme and are applying the tools and techniques, you will like this New York Times article suggesting that future US presidential candidates are evaluated on the basis of whether they are skilled at the art of collaboration…

Collaborative Leadership Traits

Over the past two weeks, President Obama and Republicans in Congress have taken their conflicts to another level. Read more >>>

 

 

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