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Northgate Public Services today announces the appointment of Andy Goldberg as a consultant to its health and social care business as the organisation continues its campaign to place innovation at the heart of public service delivery.

Andy is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon and also the founder of the medical innovation organisation Medical Futures. Through this, Andy has helped inventors and entrepreneurs turn their ideas into businesses and has also set up an award to recognise innovation in the market.

At a time when innovation is key to delivering better healthcare for less, Andy will advise Northgate on how best to bring innovation to the health and social care market, delivering benefits for both patients and staff.

The appointment is further evidence of Northgate’s commitment to supporting its public sector partners to innovate and develop new ideas which respond to current and future challenges.

Ian Blackhurst, Managing Director of Public Safety for Northgate Public Services, said today: “We are delighted to have Andy on board. Innovation is key to improving the quality of care and services that citizens receive. Andy’s experience will be vital in developing our health and social care business further, helping us to turn outcomes into realities and delivering positive outcomes for our clients. 

 

For more information

Kathy Sutton                 
+44 (0)20 7324 6221; +44 (0)7966 890401
Danny Calogero          
+44 (0)20 7324 6223; +44 (0)7534 189235
Hannah Smith             
+44 (0)20 7324 6222; +44 (0)7949 421356

Northgate Information Solutions has today announced that it has been successful in being awarded a place on the IT Managed Services framework agreement by Buying Solutions, the national procurement partner for UK public services.

The new framework agreement provides the public sector with a wide range of IT services from remote access to fully managed IT services.

Northgate successfully competed to become one of the twelve suppliers who have been awarded a framework agreement. The awards are based on a range of criteria including service delivery, customer services, sustainability and pricing and contractual considerations.

Northgate has previously been awarded a place on Buying Solutions’ Applications Solutions framework agreement. The company is now able to offer its full range of services to customers across the public sector.

David Meaden, Chief Executive of Northgate Public Services, said: “We are delighted to be offering our services through this new framework agreement. In this age of austerity, it offers public services the opportunity to deliver better services for less. We believe that it is essential to respond to the economic pressures facing the public sector by offering new models of working, and new ways of sharing risk. We look forward to using the framework agreement to strengthen the public service response to the challenges we face and to promote our commitment to partnerships built on mutuality.”

For more information
Kathy Sutton     
+44 (0)20 7324 6221; +44 (0)7966 890401
Hannah Smith    
+44 (0)20 7324 6222; +44 (0)7949 421356
Danny Calogero     
+44 (0)20 7324 6223; +44 (0)7534 189235

An innovative partnership which guarantees to further improve public services, deliver extra value for money for residents and create economic opportunities for the region has started today in South Derbyshire.

Aimed at delivering better for less while maintaining investment in services, the partnership between South Derbyshire District Council and Northgate Public Services  is a pioneering response to the age of austerity.

The contract, worth £22 million, is guaranteed to make savings to the Council of £2.1 million over seven-years. This includes an innovative risk-reward scheme where the cost of introducing new initiatives to transform council services will only be paid out of cashable savings. Northgate will also invest £1.9 million in upgrading IT systems and services.

Northgate has taken on responsibility for managing the District Council’s Corporate Services. This includes Finance, Organisational Development, Revenues, Benefits and Customer Services along with IT and Business Improvement as part of its regional centre of excellence.

Using the Civic Centre, in Swadlincote, Derbyshire, as a base, Northgate’s regional centre of excellence provides business transformation services for both public and private organisations throughout the East Midlands and nationally.

Cllr Bob Wheeler, the Leader of South Derbyshire District Council, said: “This partnership is all about ensuring that the Council and its residents emerge even stronger through these challenging economic times. Our innovative approach will provide even better value for money to our communities, continue to improve services and create more jobs.

“South Derbyshire is leading the way. We are showing how the public sector must respond. This pioneering partnership will be used as an example of good practice and forward thinking across the country.”

Dave Meaden, Chief Executive, Northgate Public Services said: “We are committed to developing new ways of working to beat the age of austerity. We are delighted that South Derbyshire shares this ethos.

“Our partnership is focused on creating better public services for the people of South Derbyshire now and in the future, while making savings, and providing economic opportunities for the region as a whole through our centre of excellence. We believe it is the right response at the right time.”

Responsibility for service delivery will stay with the Council. Elected Members will continue to set priorities and scrutinise the partnership.

Under the deal, 84 Council staff members, who have been kept fully informed throughout the process, have been transferred over to Northgate.

As well as protecting jobs at the Council, Northgate will bring in 100 jobs into the District as part of the contract over the next 18 months.

For further information

Fellows’ Associates

Kathy Sutton   
+44(0)20 7324 6221; +44(0)7966 890401
Hannah Smith  
+44(0)20 7324 6222; +44(0)7949 421356
Danny Calogero  
+44(0)20 7324 6223; +44(0)7534 189235

South Derbyshire District Council
Keith Bull                             
+44(0)1283 228761
Carole Warburton                
+44(0)1283 595741

The top five performing local authorities for benefit processing are all partners of Northgate Public Services, according to research based on statistics published by the Department of Work and Pensions.

West Oxfordshire District Council, North Hertfordshire District Council, Mid Devon District Council, Rushmoor Borough Council and Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council have all achieved an average processing time of four days. This compares with the national average of 11 days. All five authorities use the Northgate Benefits application.

The research also shows that 10 of the 14 authorities which managed to process claims in an average of five days and 11 of the 20 authorities who processed claims in six days were also Northgate partners. The research is based on Right Time Indicator (RTI) statistics for the third quarter of 2009/10 published earlier this month by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Northgate is committed to delivering innovation and improvement in processing benefit claims. Last year its user-focused revenue and benefits training programme became the first of its kind to be accredited by the IRRV. The programme focuses on achieving best practice by working with and assessing staff on the systems that they use in their workplaces. Northgate is now calling on all local authorities to raise standards in benefit processing by focussing on staff development and training which in turn will deliver increased customer satisfaction and efficiencies. 
 
Howard Crompton, Head of Revenues and Benefits at North Hertfordshire District Council said: “We are delighted that the investment in Northgate’s eBenefits New Claims, Change in Circumstances, eMobile and Self-Serve has allowed us to improve performance and make efficiencies. We are also working with our Registered Social Landlords to enable them to capture data on our behalf, thereby providing more efficiencies and giving customers a more joined up service”.

Jon Dearing, Head of Revenues and Benefits for West Oxfordshire and Cotswold District Councils said: “West Oxfordshire District Council has seen continuous improvement against all of its Revenues and Benefits performance indicators over the last 3 years. While this is the result of several factors, not least the hard work and dedication of the team members, we are confident that our closer working relationship with Northgate has made a significant contribution to our success. We have used Northgate’s processing, document imaging and workflow systems for several years and have more recently worked closely with Northgate on the development of their User Accreditation Scheme. This recent collaboration has enabled our teams to use the Northgate systems in much more effective and efficient ways - to the benefit of the customer”. 

Joe Bradley, Managing Director of Citizen Services for Northgate Public Services, said today: “We are delighted that our partners have achieved such great results. However, we recognise that there are still further improvements which need to be made. With the level of claimants expected to rise over coming years, it is essential that councils are dealing with claims in the most efficient way possible. We are committed to working with local authorities to deliver better for less and to continue improving standards and delivering improvements for both the council and the claimant.”

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For more information

Fellows’ Associates

Danny Calogero   020 7324 6221; 07966 890401

Hannah Smith       020 7324 6222; 07949 421356

Northgate Public Services today announces the acquisition of CARM Police Duty Management System from Concorde Informatics in a move designed to further boost Northgate’s demand management services for hard-pressed police forces across the country.

CARM is the market leading resource management system used by more forces than any other in the country, including the Metropolitan Police and West Yorkshire Police.

CARM enables forces to manage their complex shift patterns, allowing them to ensure the right staff coverage to deliver responsive policing to the public at the right time. It allows forces to search for available officers with a specific set of skills at any time. It equips them to better plan their human resources through daily, weekly, monthly and annual rosters. They can also analyse the use of overtime budgets and quickly record and monitor absence.

The acquisition of CARM significantly strengthens Northgate’s ability to assist forces in providing more effective policing at a time when the service is under unprecedented pressure to make efficiency savings. Northgate currently is the exclusive supplier and integrator of Leicestershire Constabulary’s award-winning iR3 initiative aimed at building public confidence, improving performance and creating efficiencies.

In his Independent Review of Policing 2008, Sir Ronnie Flanagan noted that the initiative has resulted in: “A dramatic reduction in self-deployment, substantially reducing multiple deployments and improving response times through automatic identification and deployment of the nearest available unit. Officer time spent in priority areas has significantly increased.”

Commenting on the acquisition, Ian Blackhurst, Managing Director of Public Safety, Northgate Public Services said today: “This is yet another exciting acquisition for Northgate Public Services. We are significantly growing our public safety business through selective acquisitions which allow us to work effectively with police services at a time of unprecedented challenge. We are committed to working with the public sector in new ways that involve sharing risk and reward so that we can create cashable savings while improving performance. We firmly believe that the addition of CARM will strengthen our ability to deliver this to every police force in the country.”

For more information

Kathy Sutton       
+44 (0)20 7324 6221; +44 (0)7966 890401

Hannah Smith   
+44 (0)20 7324 6222; +44 (0)7949 421356

Danny Calogero     
+44 (0)20 7324 6223; +44 (0)7534 189235

 

 

 

 

 

Self-directed support should be available to all, but forced on nobody says Northgate Public Services in a response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on a Self-Directed Support Bill for Scotland.

Northgate says that the Bill, which proposes to consolidate existing legislation into one piece of statute, will provide clarification for individuals and create a firm basis upon which future developments in self-directed support can be built. However, the organisation also says that a number of changes need to be made to ensure greater outcomes.

Measures designed to increase the uptake of self-directed support, Northgate says, should be balanced by providing accurate information to ensure that individuals are able to make informed choices about how their needs can be best met.

The response also goes on to say that restrictions on who can access direct payments and self-directed support should be lifted to ensure maximum benefit from the payments as well as greater choice for the individual. This would, for example, allow payments to be made to carers to allow them to continue to provide care.

Russell Osborne, Managing Director of Citizen Solutions for Northgate Public Services, added: “The Scottish Government now has an opportunity to radically change the way care and support services are delivered in our local communities. Self-directed support can help the most vulnerable individuals receive the type of care they want, but they must receive guidance on how best to do this. These options must be accessible to all and available to use on a full range of services.

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For more information

Fellows’ Associates

Kathy Sutton                 
+44(0)20 7324 6221; +44(0)7966 890401
Danny Calogero          
+44(0)20 7324 6223; +44(0)7534 189235

Northgate Public Services today announces the appointment of Andy Gordon-Jones as Northgate’s first Director of Health and Social Care. The organisation has brought together its leading social work practice with its rapidly growing health business to respond to the growing need for personalised and integrated health and social care services.

Andy will spearhead the growth of the business through the development of innovative responses to the challenges facing both commissioners and providers of care in the current economic climate, and in the context of new patterns of care emerging over future years. The company is committed to ensuring that the user’s voice is heard within the health and social care debate and that patients and users are involved in the design and delivery of services, including preventative services. 

Andy’s appointment builds on the success of Northgate’s work running national programmes such as the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) service, Patient Reported Outcomes Measures (PROMs) and world class child and adult screening programmes such as the Newborn Hearing Screening Programme (NHSP), while working at a local level with Primary Care Trusts and local authorities through its adult and children’s social care solution. It is this combination which Northgate believes will help drive innovation into the market.

Andy has over 18 years experience of working within the public services market, most recently working for seven years as Director of the healthcare group within Northgate.

Ian Blackhurst, Managing Director, Public Safety, Northgate Public Services, said today: “This appointment marks a step change in the development of our health and social care businesses. We wholeheartedly support a radical programme to transform the way that health and social care is delivered. It must be wrapped around the needs of users and wherever possible delivered in the community.

“We are committed to working with health and social professionals to develop responsive and inclusive services and we have listened to what they say. We now have the mechanisms in place to support the much-needed innovation that is so necessary to improve the quality of care for our citizens”

Andy Gordon-Jones, Director of Health and Social Care, added: “We have both the vision and the experience to support a national public health service that promotes both individual and community well-being. We have to move beyond a ‘sickness service’ and empower professionals and citizens to work together to prevent ill health and to provide for those who have low needs. We need to encourage collaboration with services such as housing and employment so that we create more efficient and effective community-based services.”

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For more information

Fellows’ Associates

Kathy Sutton           
+44 (0)20 7324 6221; +44 (0)7966 890401
Hannah Smith       
+44 (0)20 7324 6222; +44 (0)7949 421356 
Danny Calogero    
+44 (0)20 7324 6223; +44 (0)7949 421356

 

Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) have a key role to play in raising the awareness of our building’s carbon footprints and promoting energy efficiency measures, says Northgate Public Services today.

Responding to the Department of Communities and Local Government consultation Making better use of Energy Performance Certificates, Northgate say that the recent abolition of Home Information Packs (HIPs) will make EPCs more visible and give them a greater role in tackling climate change.

The organisation says that information from EPCs must be used to promote energy efficiency measures and not simply be an academic resource. Therefore, they suggest, EPC information should be more accessible to promote energy efficiency measures. In particular they cite the way in which Local Authorities could use this information to target energy efficiency measures at those areas most in need.

Northgate also say that the 10 year validity period for EPCs is too long and should be reduced to a period of three to five years. This would ensure that information is kept up to date and would reflect any energy efficiency measures taken during this period.

Russell Osborne, Managing Director of Citizen Solutions for Northgate Public Services, said today: “Climate change is one of the most pressing issues we currently face. Given that buildings account for almost half of the UK’s carbon emissions, EPCs are central to the vision of creating a zero carbon nation. On an individual level the information can be used to improve the state of a property. However, opening up access to the data would allow it to be used on a larger scale by Local Authorities to target measures and combat fuel poverty.

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For more information

Fellows’ Associates
Kathy Sutton    
020 7324 6221; 07966 890401
Hannah Smith             
020 7324 6222; 07949 421356
 

It is announced today that South Derbyshire District Council has selected Northgate Public Services as its preferred bidder in a ground-breaking partnership programme designed to create stability and improvement in local services and boost jobs in the area.

The innovative risk-reward agreement, the first of its kind in the country, brings together a guaranteed package of service improvement, skills enhancement and jobs creation while delivering cashable savings to the Council through improved business processes. In total, it is anticipated that over 100 jobs will be brought into the district, with additional jobs created over future years.

Under a seven year contract worth £22 million, set to start on August 1st 2010, Northgate will take on direct responsibility for managing and improving the Council’s Corporate Services - Finance, Organisational Development, IT and Business Improvement, Revenues, Benefits and Customer Services. It will also develop a regional centre of excellence - a market-facing business – to support regional growth and develop employment opportunities across South Derbyshire.

Under Northgate’s leadership, citizen services will be transformed with better access and greater personalisation. Employees will have their jobs protected. They will benefit from improved investment and support as their skills and capabilities are developed to meet changing demand.
 
The regional Business Centre - to be set up in Swadlincote - will provide much-needed business services for the private and public sector across the East Midlands. It forms an integral part of a national network of regional centres currently being set up by Northgate.
 
The centres are aimed at providing public and private bodies with new opportunities to radically overhaul business processes, improve services, and generate cost efficiencies through economies of scale and shared resources.

The partnership will guarantee continued investment in services to secure further improvements and savings through the lifetime of the contract.

A total investment of £1.9 million has been pledged to upgrade IT systems and services. Northgate is also guaranteeing cashable savings to the council of more than £2 million pounds, inclusive of fees, over the lifetime of the project.

John Harrison, the Acting Leader for South Derbyshire District Council, said: “South Derbyshire is a great place to live and work. It is one of the fastest, if the not the fastest, growing districts in the East Midlands. We aim to keep it that way. We are committed to providing value for money for our community and this contract will enable us to save money while continuing to improve services.

“Northgate is a partner that we trust. It shares our high ambition for the future. We have a genuine commitment to one another and to making this partnership a success. We are confident that Northgate’s expertise in this area of work will allow us to deliver high quality, efficient services while creating job opportunities and enhanced skills. This really is a win-win situation for all concerned. Working together will improve services for our residents, while realising much needed savings."

Dave Meaden, Chief Executive of Northgate Public Services, said: “In these hard economic times councils must not only deliver stronger public services, they have to lead their communities back to economic growth. Our innovative approach is based on combining people development with process development to create better public services outcomes and wider improvements to South Derbyshire.”

“We are delighted to have been selected as preferred bidder. This is an exciting opportunity to build upon our transformation experience - to deliver the twin package of local service improvement and economic growth. We aim to deliver better for less while maintaining investment in services to create new opportunities for local people. We look forward to working with the Council and our new employees to ensure that the local community as a whole truly benefits from this partnership.”

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For further information

Northgate contact
Fellows’ Associates
Kathy Sutton      +44(0)20 7324 6221; +44(0)7966 890401
Hannah Smith    +44(0)20 7324 6222; +44(0)7949 421356
Danny Calogero  +44(0)20 7324 6223; +44(0)7534 189235

The Scottish Government should conduct a review into public funding arrangements to ensure the sustainability of long-term care and to maximise value from resources, says Northgate Public Services today.

In a response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on self-directed support, Northgate says that the medium term recommendations of the Sutherland Report, which calls for a review of public funding, should be fully implemented. This, the organisation says, would address current funding gaps in social care and provide a more sustainable long term approach.

Northgate welcomes the moves to create services built around personalised need, but argues that these should be refocused if better services are to be delivered for less. Long term value from resources could be maximised, Northgate says, by ensuring low risk as well as high risk needs are met. Social care should also focus on addressing health inequalities. Key to this is eradicating the postcode lottery which currently effects the provision of care for those with low risk needs.

Russell Osborne, Managing Director of Citizen Solutions for Northgate Public Services, added: “The Scottish Government has a proud record in the provision of social care services. It must now take action to ensure the sustainability of its services in the future. Embedding prevention and the reduction of inequality will make services more responsive while also delivering financial benefits. Our concern is that the most disadvantaged in the poorest communities could face increasing inequality if a review is not conducted.

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For more information
Fellows’ Associates
Kathy Sutton                       
+44(0)20 7324 6221; +44(0)7966 890401

Danny Calogero        
 +44(0)20 7324 6223; +44(0)7534 189235