An online study by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA)   of 129 finance and resource directors across UK central and local government, health, police, education, housing and charities was conducted earlier this month.
The report,  that was commissioned by Civica ,found that:

> Nearly all respondents - 93% - said demands for efficiency savings and value for money was their most pressing agenda item

> Almost three quarters - 74% - were experiencing increased pressures to deliver results but also maintain services

> Most public sector bodies - 83% - think that a new government elected next year will introduce further efficiency targets over the next few years

Responses indicate that 45% - of these bodies said they have introduced service modernisation plans, while over four out of ten (43%) had adopted business process re-engineering to meet this ‘transformation’ requirement.

However, finance professionals think that innovative approaches to service delivery partnerships, procurement and funding could help sustain local service resilience in the face of these pressures.

Asked for the main ways in which they could innovate to relieve pressure on their organisation and services, majorities stated that they were examining, respectively, process redesign/re-engineering methods (68%); greater partnership working (66%); and procurement innovation (56%).

Tom Lane, Financial Systems director at Civica said: “The Operational Efficiency Programme has identified ‘breakthrough’ savings of £6.1 billion of savings a year by harnessing the public sector’s collective buying power and by streamlining procurement processes. In addressing targets while maintaining vital local services authorities and their partners will need to demonstrate real leadership. This survey indicates that finance professionals are coming up with practical ideas that will help to deliver procurement-based savings, whether through wider and more effective frameworks or rethinking funding for innovation across the sector and its partners.”
With so much pressure on public sector to deliver value for money, Claritum is helping their Public Sector clients achieve such process efficiencies.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Industry Research, News, Procurement News, Public Sector News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.