Recently I’ve started to wonder if local authorities are becoming too punitive, or at least risk being perceived as such by residents.

The link below is a news item concerning a council which sent a Christmas card to its tenants which was felt to be insulting, saying “Don’t overindulge this Christmas. Pay your rent!”.

Of course there has always been a need for local law keeping and civil behaviour, dealing with a percentage of any population who, by degrees, behave anti-socially.

But I worry that, with local authorities on a long path of reducing resources and staffing levels, councils are taking on a residual role of punishment (parking, bins, etc) as well as collecting ever-higher charges (council tax, near-market rents, social care charges) and distributing less money (bedroom tax, benefits cap).

These trends leave little or maybe no space for the previous role of councils as an enabler, as a promoter of wellbeing and of improvement. The changes give local authority staff less experience in their working lives of engaging with people and communities in a positive and trusting manner.

And these trends mean councils will need to reinvent themselves if and when the better times return, but only if there is still some residual local support for the idea of local government – rather than just a new hostility to local enforcement.

Link – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25428796

Given the recent reports on unsustainable property prices, and for example the housing pressures for key workers in London, we should consider separating the price of the building from the price of the land.

The idea here is that the owner-occupier or social landlord only pays for the building. They would rent the land, like a ground rent, but without having a long lease to sell on as an asset along with the building.

It is possible to build a modern car in a factory for under £2,000 and houses are actually less complex than cars, although a bit more bulky. Using offsite manufacturing, road delivery of house modules, and craning onto foundations with service connections, at scale a house could be ready to use for £5,000 to £10,000.

By removing the value of the years ahead of the lease, the price of a house could become less of an object for speculation. It would become a consumption good, not an investment asset. Publicly owned land could be given a ground rent waiver for key worker occupiers.

Link:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/dec/15/great-housing-divide-disastrous-consequences

When TV cameras were first introduced in the House of Commons, MPs were worried that televising debates would reduce the dignity of the chamber. So, to try and protect the dignity of the House the rule was created that only images of the person speaking at the time could be broadcast. How wrong they were.

The level of behaviour by many MPs is now appallingly low. But we have to rely on print journalists to convey a sense of the sexist gestures or the yah-boo jeering from people off-camera. The cameras are not allowed to be used to show, and shame, such anti-social behaviour.

It is as if the CCTV room of a shopping centre is being controlled by the shoplifters. How convenient – just switch off the cameras whenever they might catch someone up to no good.

So, it is time to change the rule. We need to allow any broadcast channel (BBC, ITV, etc) access to all camera feeds in real time. Let their editors decide which images are most appropriate to show, for example to cut to show a gesturing back-bench MP sitting opposite when a woman MP is speaking.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

Together with national journalism, national politics is held in high disrepute. In the public mind the expenses scandal is seen alongside the hacking scandal. Turnout at elections continues to decline. We are told this week of a proposed 11% pay rise for MPs. Never mind the details that it is proposed by Ipsa and not by MPs, and there is a reduced pension later on – the 11% headline is what will stick in the public memory. And it gets worse.

In his recent blog the leader of Manchester council complains about MPs having ‘nothing better to do’ than put their oar in on council issues, such as the state of the roads or the level of Council tax.

Women MPs are said to be planning to stand down at the next general election in unprecedented high numbers, having endured the sexism of “debate” behaviour in the House of Commons along with feeling irrelevant as MPs – so near government and yet so far from being included.

Until recently, it was the received wisdom that the introduction of Select Committees of MPs was a great step forward, giving MPs a strong scrutinising role across the departments of government, being able to take the time to master their brief. But apart from the Public Accounts Committee, it is hard to see that these scrutiny committees have much improved an aspect of government policy or delivery in recent times. MPs on other committees may bemoan that the PAC gets all the star witnesses, and therefore TV coverage, but good and steady work in the background should still be possible for any select committee worth its salt.

Talking about his book, The Blunders of Government, (2013), Professor Anthony King has commented that reform of the House of Commons is now more important than trying to modernise the House of Lords, and he is right.

I had a recent conversation with a young man from Scotland. Last year I would have said that Scottish Independence was unlikely, the vote maybe 35:65. This year I’m not so sure. What crystallised this change for me was talking to this young man about the feelings of his friends about the bedroom tax (spare room subsidy). It is keenly felt by them, rightly or wrongly, as indicative of a wide gulf between the cultures and economic pressures of the south east of England and of Scotland.

I would like to think that a stronger, reformed House of Commons would have sensed this feeling early on and spoken its truth to power. But instead, MPs themselves say they feel sidelined, left only to issue local press releases on the state of the roads.

In 2014 the independence vote will come after the European elections, which themselves seem set to widen divisions within the parties as well as between them. All this fracturing within the House of Commons will be unedifying and will not help Parliament regain public trust.

Maybe we should vote for Professor King instead.

Disclaimer – personal views only, as ever.

Why not pay everyone £20k a year Universal Income?

I’ve written about this previously, as I think it is far better economics and social policy than complex bureaucratic welfare benefits such as Universal Credit. I particularly think it is a good policy for mental health reasons – if someone needs a break to paint pictures of butterflies in a shed for a few months, why not?

Essentially the Universal Income is your tax allowance, but guaranteed. Anything else you earn gets taxed, again a simpler system than now. It can also be set to sort out a Living Wage.

Ireland looked at it seriously around six years’ ago, and now Switzerland is considering it too.

I would tweak the £20k for the extra costs faced by disabled people, and the ‘old’ Disability Living Allowance is tried and tested, paid to people regardless of being in work or not working.

Countries could set different levels to adjust for cost of living or purchasing parity, so the reasons for moving to country X would not be financially driven.

Link –

timharford.com/2013/11/a-universal-income-is-not-such-a-silly-idea

It is good to see energy-efficient LED street lights being used widely in Los Angeles and now New York.

Perhaps the first LED street light in Manchester, 84 watt, was on show by CCI in the CUBE Gallery on Portland Street, even if it was indoors!

New York:

http://singularityhub.com/2013/11/10/new-york-city-to-replace-250000-street-lights-with-leds-by-2017/

Manchester:

http://www.ccinw.com/uploads/documents/nwckh/north_west_construction_knowledge_hub__final_evaluation_2012.pdf (page 20)

In the twenty first century, at the completion of one ERDF project I managed we archived over 80 lever-arch files in 23 large boxes. The boxes were placed on metal shelves in a storage room for the next twenty years or more. We had to book a lorry to move them. It really was like the closing scene from the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Only, apparently the director used special effects to save money.

In the 1970s I studied computers for my first degree and we used what was called a mini computer which lined a wall. We needed a false floor for all the cable connections and ventilation to remove the heat. It had a name, the PDP-8.

Today, anyone’s smart phone has more capacity and memory than did our dear old mini computer.

But also today, we still archive boxes of paper for ERDF projects in a way that is only slightly more modern than the Dead Sea Scrolls. Or rather, the public sector does.

In the private sector, especially in larger firms, ECM (enterprise content management) is key to business efficiency. When you phone the company, all your records are on screen. Your company is invoiced electronically, which is accepted by the tax authorities. The handwritten coupons have been optically scanned into computer files, thousands at a time. The recruitment agency scans paper and electronic CVs with software which automatically recognises phone numbers, address, job titles, names of previous employers. Untouched by human hand. Deliveries are tracked with barcodes, inventories are real-time and warehouses are replaced by just in time ordering.

In the public sector … we have email. And some marketing people are allowed on Twitter. Oh, so modern.

We also, dare I say it, have some officials who seem only to trust an A4 sheet of paper. Not wishing to be unkind, but I sometimes wonder about the conversations they might have with younger family members. "So, you can do updates on a website like Facebook using your phone while on a bus?" "Yes Pops, like, everyone does," and eyes roll.

So, just for the fun of it, you may be interested in a short paper I have written on ERDF and electronic records. Working group to consider in 2032.

Private sector – please click below to download.

Public sector – please send a large, stamped, self-addressed envelope to …

ERDF and Electronic Documents, Discussion Note (Tony Baldwinson, 2013).doc

Background Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_content_management

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_preservation

Usual disclaimers

I am currently on contract to DCLG on ERDF Compliance, and nothing in this blog or post represents official policy, just my personal views.

This blog and post are in the interests of general and professional discussion and nothing constitutes particular advice for any project or person.

ERDF and Electronic Documents, Discussion Note (Tony Baldwinson, 2013).doc

Please click the link below to download this book.

ERDF – An Independent Guide, 2nd Edition, 2013, by Tony Baldwinson

This is an updated version of a small guide I wrote in 2012, hoping to be useful to people who are new project managers using the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in the UK.

ERDF is probably one of the most demanding funds to be involved with, with levels of penalties and fines not usually experienced within other funding streams, and therefore ERDF is not everyone’s cup of tea.

However, I feel that with care it can be used to good effect, helping communities develop and regenerate even in these austere times. Also, you could say that once you are proficient in managing an ERDF project then there is no other scheme you could not cope with. I’ve tried to be fair without glossing over the difficulties.

I would add that I learn something new about ERDF pretty much every week, sometimes realising that a section of the Guide is no longer current. Plus sometimes there are competing interpretations, where we need to wait a little longer to get a definitive answer. So, all the mistakes are mine but I also welcome feedback and comments.

Above all, I hope you find something in it that is useful.

Disclaimers:

I have worked on contracts to DCLG on ERDF Compliance, and nothing in this blog or post represents official policy, just my personal views.

This blog and post are in the interests of general and professional discussion and nothing constitutes particular advice for any project or person.

ERDF – An Independent Guide, 2nd Edition, 2013, by Tony Baldwinson

First impressions do count.

Looking at the range of activities that the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) supports, I get a sense that ERDF can be seen by people in two distinct ways. For some people it is seen as a source of finance; but for others it is seen as part of a defined project. The choice made between these two approaches will largely decide the success of the venture, in my view.

The problem with seeing ERDF just as a source of finance is that the wider objectives of the fund, and the attached obligations, can become ignored. A source of finance just asks for receipts or accounts, and maybe also for repayments or dividends. The contract is purely financial.

But ERDF is more than just finance – it is a tool for economic development and therefore it comes with a wider set of conditions. To be fair, these wider obligations are sometimes hard to get a clear sense of when reading the dozen or more pages of standardised legal clauses. The National Handbook is sometimes overlooked as a source of help here.

So for me, the first impression of whether there is a sense of a project will often come from seeing how the files are organised.

Open the cupboard doors and what do you see? If there are shelves of files, numbered and labelled, from publicity to procurement, from consultations to claims, then we know we are cooking on gas.

However, if there are only boxes of receipts, maybe connected to each claim by an old rubber band, then it is time to order the strong coffee and prepare for disappointments.

Hopefully the projects you will work with are in the former category. If not, this checklist is from my ERDF Guidebook, just in case it helps.

PROJECT FILES

General

1. Funding Agreement as signed
2. Changes to the Project, as signed
3. Planned and Actual Progress
4. Organisational Status and Project Structure
5. Contingency Plans
6. Risk Management
7. Insurances, Equality Policies, Health & Safety
8. Agreements with Delivery Partners, as signed
9. Procurement of Contractors, as signed
10. Governance Roles, Records of Meetings
11. Data Protection and Privacy

Finances

12. Financial Procedures as followed
13. Accounting Software, Cost Centres
14. Retrieval of Original Invoices, Receipts
15. Accounting Records, Budget Approval
16. Scheme of Delegation
17. Value Added Tax
18. Claims Compilations – Claim 1 onwards
19. Apportionment – Methods and Data Sheets
20. Matching Funding Details
21. Capital Costs, Valuations, Depreciation
22. Salaries, Staffing Structure, Job Descriptions
23. Timesheets
24. Prior Agreement on Overheads Method, as signed

State Aid

25. Details of System, as used
26. Copies of Letters, Notices, Agreements

Procurement

27. Details of All Procurement Exercises
28. Any Single Tender Action Contracts Awards
29. Any Preferred Supplier Contracts Awarded
30. All Formal Tenders
31. Any Contract Extensions

Publicity

32. Publicity Examples by the Project
33. Publicity Examples by Third Parties

Other Matters

34. Defrayal by the Grant Recipient
35. Defrayal by Named Delivery Partners
36. Document Retention Arrangements
37. Project Assets and Useful Economic Life
38. Project Final Audit, if applicable
39. Records for Cross-Cutting Themes
40. Records for Outputs and Results.

Disclaimers:

At the time of writing I was on contract to DCLG on ERDF Compliance, and nothing in this blog or post represents official policy, just my personal views.

This blog and post are in the interests of general and professional discussion and nothing constitutes particular advice for any project or person.

Art may seem an unusual approach to ERDF project management, but please stick with me here. We find different styles in art, such as Impressionism, Realism, and Minimalism. None of these really covers ERDF though, especially not Minimalism, and ERDF probably needs a whole new style of its own, something like Completeism.

My advice to any new ERDF project manager is, the only thing you should throw away is the waste paper basket. Every scrap of paper is part of the records of the project, to be indexed and kept on file for the next 20 years. It may seem a flippant remark, but the truth is not far from it.

It is in the public domain that a substantial proportion of ERDF audits find issues with procurement, and especially when concerning high-value contracts. My impression is that a decent number of these issues could be resolved if project managers follow the approach of not throwing any records away. Of course, there will be some audit findings where the correctness of the process followed is in question, and not just the records.

Currently, section 12 of Guidance Note (GN): ERDF National Procurement Requirements, ERDF-GN-1-004 covers Record Keeping (page 20). The following seeks to expand on this point with two operational examples, but obviously always refer to current guidance.

For what it is worth, I would suggest that the following file structure, or something similar, may be a useful checklist for project managers on the completeness of the records required for high-value procurements. Remember that these records will be Commercially Confidential, so secure storage and Non-Disclosure Agreements will be required. For details on OJEU thresholds please see www.ojec.com/Thresholds.aspx

1. Explanation of procurement procedure selected with a justification
2. Copy of OJEU Tender Notice with its reference number, or the relevant advertisement and OJEU Prior Information Notice (PIN) if applicable
3. Blank PQQ including the Selection Criteria
4. List of EOIs received and PQQs issued, or reasons why declined
5. List of all completed PQQs received (time and date, signed), with copies of all the PQQs as received
6. Copy of the PQQ completed score sheets, dated and signed by two people, including records of any moderation process
7. Blank ITT form including the Award Criteria
8. Copies of feedback letters with PQQ scores, and ITTs where successful
9. List of all ITTs issued and received (time and date, signed), with copies of all the ITTs as received
10. Copies of correspondence, including interview questions where used
11. Copy of the ITT completed score sheets, dated and signed by two people, including any moderation process
12. Copy of report on evaluation of ITTs
13. Copies of letters to unsuccessful tenderers giving a standstill period (“Alcatel”)
14. Copy of award letter, and the signed contract if used
15. Copy of OJEU award notice with its reference number
16. Copy of notes from any inception meeting
17. Summary Timeline and archive details to assist future monitoring and audits.

For procurement values below-OJEU thresholds, such as: Free-Standing Call, or a Mini-Competition within a Framework; consider:

1. Explanation of procurement procedure selected with justification
2. Copy of contract advertisement (eg ContractsFinder if <£20k, otherwise eg myTenders to cover all Member States, and a 10+ days deadline), or copies of a mini-competition call to approved suppliers within an appropriate Framework
3. List of EOIs and quotes received (<£20k) or tenders issued (>£20k),
4. List of all completed quotes or tenders received (time and date, signed)
5. Copies of correspondence, including interview questions where used
6. Copy of quote or tender score sheets, dated and signed by two people
7. Copy of report on evaluation of responses
8. Copies of letters to unsuccessful applicants giving an appropriate standstill period (if appropriate)
9. Copy of award letter, and the signed contract, purchase order form, etc
10. Copy of notes from inception meeting, if any
11. Summary Timeline and archive details to assist future monitoring and audits.

Key: OJEU – Official Journal of the European Union; PQQ – Pre-Qualification Questionnaire; EOI – Expressions of Interest; ITT – Invitation to Tender.

Disclaimers:

I am at times on contract to DCLG on ERDF Compliance, and nothing in this blog or post represents official policy, just my personal views.
This blog and post are in the interests of general and professional discussion and nothing constitutes particular advice for any project or person.