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NILGA MEETS WITH MINISTER POOTS TO CONFIRM LOCAL GOVERNMENT’S AGREEMENT ON THE IMPROVEMENT, COLLABORATION & EFFICIENCY AGENDA
16 July 2010
Local Government Association representatives, accompanied by members of SoLACE, met with Minister Poots to present proposals on the delivery model for driving forward the Improvement, Collaboration and Efficiency Agenda.
Following the decision taken last month by the Executive in the Assembly to not take forward the 11 council model in May 2011, the onus was put back on local government to design, agree, and develop a way forward; and to present this to Minister Poots in a special meeting on 15th July.
Vice President of NILGA, Councillor Helen Quigley stated, “We at local government have been working extremely hard to put together proposals for not only local government to consider, but also for central government to accept as the appropriate direction for councils in Northern Ireland. Through a recent engagement meeting which I chaired with representatives from 23 councils, we facilitated an extremely important process to provide direct communication, generate discussion and debate to reach agreement on the proposed way forward to support the Improvement, Collaboration and Efficiency Agenda. This response was taken back to Minister Poots who accepted the proposals”.
Councillor Quigley continued, “We will continue to invest time and effort into the agreed three work strands identified; in the first instance of Governance; Improvement, Collaboration & Efficiency; and Transferring Functions. The work of these three working groups will be crucial not only to support local government as we move forward, but will also provide support to the Minister as he takes proposals forward to the Assembly Executive in September 2010 for progression of the Re-organisation Bill.
“During the summer months these areas will be developed with further consultation taking place during late August and September to ensure full agreement and commitment of local government is reached to take the agenda to the next stage.
“The Minister has expressed commitment to local government reform and to progressing the necessary legislation through the Executive. We at local level, will continue to deliver the Improvement, Collaboration and Efficiency Agenda work programme to demonstrate our belief in the delivery of a strong local government and improved services delivery for our citizens.”
ENDS
Editorial Notes:
Local government is currently developing an Improvement, Collaboration and Efficiency Agenda to support councils develop more efficient delivery of customer focused services.
Critical to the successful delivery of the agenda will be the development of suitable Governance arrangements to ensure there is engagement by both elected members and senior management to provide appropriate accountability at a strategic level.
Work on collaboration and efficiencies will be delivered on an “Invest to Save” basis through the development of robust business cases by specific Task and Finish Teams. Areas currently under investigation are Procurement, Information Systems, Human Resources, Asset Management, Support Services and Customer Facing Services. These teams will consider scope for collaboration on a regional, sub-regional or local basis.
The Transferring Functions Working Group will consider the key issues yet to be addressed to achieve the successful transfer of services from central to local government given the change in the reform timescale.
Critical to the successful achievement of the work programme is the Re-Organisation Bill and Minister Poots today confirmed his commitment to taking forward the necessary legislation as soon as possible.
NILGA remains committed to full consultation and engagement with councils and SOLACE in progressing this work.
End
For more information please contact:
Tara Cunningham, Director of Communication & Engagement t.cunningham@nilga.org or Mark Maher, Communications Officer m.maher@nilga.org
Northern Ireland Local Government Association NILGA
Unit 5B Castlereagh Business Park, 478 Castlereagh Road, Belfast BT5 6QA.
Tel: 028 9079 8972 Web: www.nilga.org
