improvement service

SOLACE Conference materials online

The SOLACE Scotland conference took place at the end of March. The theme for the conference was te relationship between local government and the Scottish Government and how this can be further developed.

Key speakers at the event included John Swinney MSP; Philip Rycroft, Director General Education, Scottish Government; Bill Leighty, Director, GPI, Virginia Commonwealth University; Colin McKerracher, President of APCOS and Chief Constable, Grampian Police Force; and Tom Divers, Chief Executive, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Copies of many of the conference presentations are available online at: https://secure.solace.org.uk/scotland2008/slides.htm

Building and sharing knowledge to support improvement

Knowledge management (KM) is about building and using organisational intelligence to improve performance. Collectively councils have the knowledge to support ongoing improvement across the whole sector. KM helps people tap into this knowledge. It gives people the tools to improve the way they capture, share, re-use and adapt knowledge. It reveals what works and helps people build on experience to ensure better practice, strategy and policy. A resource designed to help local authorities improve their knowledge management has been launched by the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA).

National Licence of IDOX GMS Exchange

The National Gazetteer for Scotland Board and the Scottish Government's e-Planning Programme Board are pleased to announce that a ground-breaking agreement has been reached between the Scottish Government and IDOX plc to purchase a single national licence of G3 GMS Exchange for use by current and future UNI-form user sites across Scotland.

For more information click here.

Council first with e-magazine for residents

East Renfrewshire Council has produced what is thought to be Scotland's first council e-magazine. The council's er magazine has been produced as an e-magazine by local company Intelligent Brochures Ltd and the council is hoping to develop more electronic and digital communication with local residents.
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Procurement 'centre of expertise' for local government launched

A Centre of Expertise in local government procurement has been launched with the backing of 24 Scottish councils.

Scotland Excel is one of four sectoral Centres of Expertise and was created to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of procurement across local government in Scotland. Its purpose is to provide local authorities and related organisations with a comprehensive, professional and customer-focused procurement service.

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