News

April 20, 2010 - Year three funding confirmation

YoHr Space, the Yorkshire and Humber Improvement and Efficiency Partnership has received confirmation of Year three funding. The partnership, made up of the region’s 22 local authorities and their partners, has predicted cash able and non-cashable efficiency savings of over £152m by March 2011.

The national announcement welcomed the positive progress sector-led Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnerships (RIEPs) are making.

Joanne Roney, YoHr Space Lead Chief Executive and Chief Executive Wakefield MDC said: “Confirmation of year three funding is excellent news for the region and demonstrates the government has confidence in the sector-led approach of RIEPs, to share good practice, innovate, and operate more efficiently across local authorities and the wider public sector.

“We now have the opportunity to maintain the momentum we have built.  By continuing to foster innovation and collaboration between our local authorities and their partners we can deliver our shared priority of better services and outcomes for people living and working in Yorkshire and Humber.”

Janet Waggott, Vice Chair YoHr Space Partnership Delivery Group and Chief Executive of Ryedale District Council said: “Our authorities recognise that they’re responsible for their own improvement but acknowledge that this can be best achieved by working with others in the region and nationally.”

Backing up the mutuality statement is the Yorkshire and Humber Improvement Framework which provides a place based, rapid response, to support local authorities and their partners. Using expertise from other local authorities to provide leadership and support on specific issues requiring additional support.

YoHr Space provides the opportunity for innovation and collaboration in the public sector, helping councils to improve the way their business is run to improve outcomes for local people. An example of how YoHr Space helps authorities and their partners to capture and share local knowledge and experience has been the commissioning of a Total Place programme.

YoHr Space has invested in and is actively supporting Total Place and similar activity in the region. ‘Total Place’ looks at how a whole area approach to public services can lead to better services at less cost. YoHr Space commissioned Local Improvement Advisors to capture examples of activity in the region along Total Place principles. The programme also worked closely with official Total Place pilot Bradford MDC to share their experience and best practice with the rest of the region.

YoHr Space is supporting Local authorities and their partners to deal with the impact of the recession including tackling worklessness.  Two Apprenticeship Managers are now working with the National Apprenticeship Service   to help Yorkshire and Humber local authorities to meet the local government wide commitment to provide 7500 apprenticeships by 2010-11. Our authorities have also committed to supporting the third sector and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) particularly through providing procurement opportunities.

Delivering efficiencies through collaboration and shared services is another key area supported by YoHr Space. The York and North Yorkshire Waste Partnership Waste Management Partnership exemplifies the benefits of collaborative working to deliver efficiencies. They are on target to deliver over £0.5m by March 2011 through targeted partnership activity, highlights of which include:

• Hambleton and Richmondshire District Councils collaborating to outsource their commercial waste activities realising efficiency savings for both authorities.
• Harrogate Borough and Craven District Councils jointly working to review waste collection systems to identify the best collection methods as a partnership. The review will consider cost effectiveness, performance levels and acceptability to local residents.

YoHr Space will receive £6.4m for the year to March 2011. Core funding of £67.5 million will be split across the nine RIEPs.

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