Donations and sponsorship add up to big money in the public sector. Most hospitals have at least one fundraising campaign. Local authorities have long sought and received corporate funding for roadside planting and summer festivals. You can even sponsor a police car. But as cash flow gets tighter and new sources of income look more appealing, it is important that we think carefully about where the money comes from. Continue reading “Donations, sponsorship and the need for accountability”
Category: Business Process Design
It’s a people thing
There is often a tendency to think that any problems within an organisation can be resolved, or any desired improvements made, with the application of a new process or the implementation of a shiny new piece of software. While understandable, this is potentially problematic. Because organisations are not about systems, processes and software – they are about people. Continue reading “It’s a people thing”
All change in local government
As the funding cuts start to bite, things are changing rapidly in local government. But this is only the start. My own local authority, for example, managed to find savings of £17.5m in 2011/12 and needs to identify another £30m by 2015. And if the trend continues, they estimate that they will have to cut expenditure by a further £39m by 2018. This will leave the Council with only half of the resources that it had in 2010/11. Continue reading “All change in local government”
From block grant to spot purchasing
I went to an excellent seminar the other day, in which Bristol City Council’s health and social care commissioning team explained key changes in how they are going to fund various organisations around the city. But while the changes make sense financially and in terms of service user choice, they could spell problems for the provider organisations concerned. Continue reading “From block grant to spot purchasing”
Building resilient public services
At the annual conference of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) last week, Amyas Morse, the head of the National Audit Office, called on the government to explain how it will respond to failing public services in the new environment of increased competition and spending restraint. Continue reading “Building resilient public services”