New public sector staffing framework will save money and improve services across the UK

A new framework for procuring temporary workers will enable public sector organisations in the UK to adapt their workforce strategy to improve their service delivery and reduce costs.

The North East Procurement Organisation (NEPO) has appointed de Poel, to manage and deliver temporary labour services  in a solution which is available locally, regionally and nationally to NEPOs wide membership base. Through this agreement de Poel will guarantee to deliver savings and continuous improvements in quality of service by changing how public services are staffed to meet local demand.

The partnership between NEPO and de Poel provides a nationally available framework that any public sector organisation can utilise.  Interested parties simply need to sign up, free of charge, as associate members of NEPO to access the framework.   The framework uses local supply agencies and workers to deliver services that meet demand, and aims to improve services and employment opportunities within the community while reducing costs. This approach can help public bodies to meet the directive set down by the 2012 Government Public Services (Social Value) Act, which encourages public sector commissioners to consider how services can improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of the area.

de Poel, part of the Brookfield Rose Group, is the UK’s largest independent expert on improving the performance of public and private sector organisations through smarter management of their temporary workers. It has a proven pedigree in delivering contingent managed services, placing more than 30,000 temporary workers a week for over 70 clients through its relationships with almost 3,000 agencies.   

de Poel’s offering provides customers with greater control and reduced risk over the quality, performance and cost of contingent labour in their organisations. It is underpinned by e-tips® (electronic timesheet and invoice processing system), which has been designed by de Poel solely to manage the use of contingent workers and has been proven for over 12 years and close to one billion transacted hours.

Joe Tully, managing director of de Poel, says: “This is an exciting opportunity for de Poel and NEPO to work directly with public service providers and help them transform the cost, efficiency and quality of their services. It is increasingly important to find better ways of organising and managing temporary labour in the public sector. Our independence from the rest of the recruitment sector means our advice and support is never restricted, and is only ever driven by the interests of our customers. This enables us to offer truly impartial guidance to public sector service providers in the UK, to help them achieve greater control over the quality, performance and cost of their contingent workforce, and to make it a core part of their long term strategies for growth.”

Steven Sinclair, Senior Procurement Manager at NEPO, says: “We are confident this new recruitment framework for local authorities and the wider public sector encourages a socially-responsible service. Local authorities can staff services strategically so their delivery can better meet the interests of local residents.  It’s our ethos that public sector procurement can help local economies and communities to thrive and we have procured a partner who shares this belief and will work to reduce costs throughout the supply chain and improve quality.”