NCSCO weekly message from Kari - 10 February

This message is a little dull but it contains some points worth commenting upon (in red)

 
From: Schroder, Johnathan On Behalf Of onebarnet ( isn't it One Barnet ? )
Sent: 10 February 2012
To: onebarnet
Subject: NSCSO Weekly Message


Dear colleague

Evaluation Outcomes

As you all know, we are now entering into a very important period for the NSCSO project. Last Monday (30 January) saw the project team meeting with the Leader and lead councillors to discuss the evaluation process, the evaluation scores, and the recommendations for the shortlisted bidders. Following this the report went to CDG (One Barnet Programme Board) on Monday and was approved. The next step is the report for Cabinet Resources Committee (CRC) on 28 February which is being prepared now. This sort of vital decision really should not be hidden away at a committee that even all councillors are not invited to.

Secondary school headteachers

Following my presentation to primary school headteachers, I presented at the Directors Briefing for secondary school headteachers last week.

There were lots of questions, and some were concerned that secondary schools had not participated in the meetings with bidders or the project team to date. The positive result of this was that at least one headteacher volunteered to attend the next schools stakeholder meeting on 13 March and others seemed interested in doing so too. This is good for the project because it means that the bidders will be able to better understand what schools need and expect in terms of the support services they purchase.

Business Case Briefings

The CRC paper will be published on the internet in the week of 20 February, which will also see a series of service by service briefings for staff confirming the names of the shortlisted bidders and explaining the business case for the project. These will be held on the below dates and times. You will be invited to the briefing by your AD or Head of Service, who will be presenting to you alongside Craig Cooper, Director of Commercial Services, and the Project Sponsor.

Monday 20 February, 9.30-10.30am – Schools ICT Team
Monday 20 February, 10.45-11.45am – Revenues and Benefits
Monday 20 February, 12noon-1pm – HR
Tuesday 21 February, 1.45-2.45pm – Customer Services
Tuesday 21 February, 3-4pm – Revs and Bens
Tuesday 21 February, 4.15-5.15pm – IS
Wednesday 22 February, 10-11am – Customer Services
Wednesday 22 February, 11.15am-12.15pm – Estates
Wednesday 22 February, 12.30-1.15pm – Procurement
Wednesday 22 February, 2-3pm – Finance
Wednesday 22 February, 3.45-4.45pm – Corporate Programmes

All staff are expected to attend, so if you cannot make your service event, please speak to your service lead.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the contract

Separate from that, staff from across the in-scope services have been meeting with myself and colleagues in the corporate performance team, to talk about what their KPIs should be when the strategic partner takes on the contract in 2013. KPIs are performance indicators that have payments attached to them, so that if the provider ever failed to hit a target, they would have to forfeit part of their payment. It's therefore really important that we choose the right set of targets. Now this is where Barnet Council have gone completely wrong. So they have entered into an expensive dialogue process to outsource a vital service and they should have set the KPIs at the very start and told the bidders that they were non-negotiable. I have seen one of the KPIs for customer services and it is pathetically easy to hit ( although Barnet Council can't hit it ). The providers are not going to put an appreciable portion of their fees at risk; it will just be a question of the size of the profit they make, not whether they make one at all. Look at the street lighting contract; the provider said the penalties that were being imposed were unsustainable and so the aspirations were reduced.

Your chance to meet the bidders during Competitive Dialogue 2 

Many of you will have heard from your colleagues who are part of the NSCSO staff group that there will be an opportunity to meet the bidders who are chosen to take part in the second stage of competitive dialogue with the council. The successful bidders, as mentioned above, will be confirmed at the CRC meeting on 28 February and we have set time aside in the last week or so of March for you to meet them.

During the first stage of dialogue, the companies involved were very keen to start meeting staff and introducing their companies to you.

Through the staff group, I am aware that staff are equally interested in meeting the bidders. I will keep you updated when more information becomes available about these days. Ask the bidder. Will you move my job to Croydon or Bangalore?

As ever, if any questions arise, especially out of the briefings taking place later this month, direct them to onebarnet@barnet.gov.uk and look out for updated content on the NSCSO section of the intranet over the next few weeks.

Kind regards

Kari

Kari Manovitch

Service Lead, New Support and Customer Service Organisation project, Commercial Services