NEWS

Society awards to recognise public sector achievement
An awards programme recognising the best of the Scottish public and voluntary sectors has been launched by The Herald. 

National infrastructure security strengthened
A number of exercises designed to strengthen the security of the national infrastructure have been established by the Customer First programme. 

Procurement best practice indicators released
A set of best practice indicators (BPI) for public procurement in Scotland has been released by the Scottish Government. 

Lagan/Capgemini offering CRM Healthchecks
The partnership is offering Scottish local authorities a CRM Healthcheck to help them understand progress and identify the critical next steps to improve quality of customer service.

Measuring customer satisfaction with local government
The way forward on the development of common satisfaction measures has been agreed.

PSIF Progress Report
The updated framework is released and links with shared services and SOA strengthened.

Moving forward on equalities
IS action to mainstream equalities in all projects and programmes.

EVENTS

The Policy Network Annual Conference - 17 July 2008, Leeds
The conference will explore and illuminate the range of issues facing local authorities in the coming years including councils' ability to empower and engage with their communities and partnership working. Shared services is a continuing issue for many, and the Improvement Service's Chris Morrison will report on the Scottish experience.

Sustainable Scotland: Choosing our Future - 11 September 2008, Edinburgh
This conference will assess the legislation, policy and delivery surrounding sustainability, analysing the progress to date and how Scotland as a nation has fared since the Strategy launch in 2005, and more importantly, the advancements made within the renewables field and the next stage - delivering real results and practical action on the Government's targets for sustainable development.

LATEST PUBLICATIONS AND RESOURCES

Shared Services Survey 08 (Browne Jacobson)

Building better outcomes for children, young people and families through partnership (Scottish Government)

'Getting it Right for Everyone' Conference Report (Ark Housing Association)

Argyll & Bute Lagan CRM Case Study (Argyll & Bute Council/Lagan)

***NEW ON THE IS WEBSITE***

The IS continues to develop and expand the online resources it offers to local government in Scotland and has recently added two new sections to the website. Information Resources provides  links to quality assured websites containing a wealth of information of relevance to local government. Professional Networks contains details of public sector professional networks relevant for Scottish councils.

Our Communities section continues to grow and now lists 27 Scottish local government practitioner groups involved in knowledge sharing and collaborative working across a range of areas and topics affecting local government.

ABOUT THE IMPROVEMENT SERVICE The Improvement Service is committed to improving the efficiency, quality and accountability of public services in Scotland through learning, sharing knowledge and delivering improvement solutions. It is a partnership between the Scottish Executive, COSLA and SOLACE. WANT TO APPEAR IN THIS NEWSLETTER? The Improvement Service is always looking for examples of good practice and innovation within Scottish local government. If you would like your work to be highlighted by the Improvement Service, please email listen@improvementservice.org.uk