Local authorities have worked hard to manage reductions in government funding, but the DCLG needs to be better informed about the situation across England.
Government initiatives to reduce ICT spending are starting to work but the challenge will be to use ICT to reform public services and how government works.
The Department for Work and Pension has limited information about who will be affected by the impact of state pension reforms in April 2016 on people with Guaranteed Minimum Pensions. The impact will depend on a number of factors, and some people are likely to lose out. The Department is now seeking to improve how it communicates the impact of pension reforms.
24 March 2016
Changes made in 2007-08 to public service pension schemes are on course to deliver savings and stabilise pension costs. However the value for money of the changes cannot be demonstrated in the absence of a strategic assessment of their long term impact on staff motivation and retention.
“Good information systems have a vital part to play in helping probation officers carry out their work in supervising offenders serving their sentences in the community and in helping them turn against crime.
“Whilst the Home Office has been able to install a standard information technology infrastructure across a large part of the probation service, there are some important lessons to be learnt from the serious flaws in the Home Office’s procurement and management of this IT programme. The new National Probation Service now has an opportunity to address these issues as it develops a new IT strategy and enters into a new strategic partnership.”
“The IPCC has an important, high profile and sensitive role. It has made significant improvements in performance in the four years it has been in operation. But it faces challenges in managing its increasing workload and in ensuring the quality of its work. It needs to increase its productivity further, improve its quality assurance procedures for investigations, and obtain regular feedback from complainants, police officers and appellants about how their cases have been handled.”
The Department for Transport protected the taxpayer and secured value for money in the termination of National Express’s InterCity East Coast franchise.
The Department for Work and Pensions has introduced the Work Programme quickly, in just over a year, and this has had benefits, but the speed with which it was launched has also increased risks. The Department and providers have made assumptions about how many people the Programme will get back into work but there is a significant risk that they are over-optimistic.
“The ISB programme was set up to promote innovation and better working together by organisations. But departments’ management of ISB projects needs to be strengthened to form a better judgement as to whether projects are worth implementing more widely to improve services and efficiency. “
The Levy Control Framework is a valuable tool for supporting control of costs to consumers arising from government energy policies, but it has not been fully effective in key areas.
