£68 million boost for innovative local public services projects

New projects to create safer schools and hospitals, help find missing persons, deal with abandoned vehicles, provide an electronic adviser for young people, and to deliver flood warnings by e-mail and text message are among 75 local and national partnership schemes awarded a total of £68 million under the Invest To Save Budget (ISB) initiative, Treasury Chief Secretary Andrew Smith announced today.

Announcing the awards, Mr Smith said :

"These projects offer exciting and innovative ways of working and delivering better public services directly to users at local level across the country. They offer benefits for young and old, individuals and businesses, and for whole communities. I am particularly pleased that voluntary and community sector bodies are leading projects in this year's awards for the first time.

"In most cases these projects will initially deliver benefits locally, but we expect them to identify new and better ways of working which can be adopted and adapted in all communities.

"But ISB is about more than just investing now to help current service users. It is also about improved efficiency and effectiveness generating savings to help fund further improvements and keep costs down for the taxpayer in the future."

Cabinet Office Minister Lord Macdonald said :

"I congratulate all these projects for taking the initiative to work with others to make a difference. Improving public service delivery is the priority for this Government and these projects offer considerable potential in terms of both better services to the public and more efficient management of public resources. They are innovative, but this innovation is placed alongside effective approaches to risk identification and management."

ISB is a joint Treasury and Cabinet Office initiative that provides support for projects that involve two or more public bodies working together to deliver services that are innovative, locally responsive and more efficient. ISB will have provided about £380 million to such schemes by the end of 2003-2004.

The 75 projects receiving new funding this year include :

Showcase Hospitals and Schools : a project to reduce violent and property crime through an integrated approach to safety and security in at least four showcase schools and three showcase hospitals across England and Wales. It will make use of existing and emerging technologies to make hospitals and schools a safer and more secure environment for staff, patients and pupils, reduce the fear of crime, and improve the quality of service provided in ways which can be implemented in all schools and hospitals.

Missing persons project : a Home Office led project to develop and deliver a comprehensive and cohesive system and strategy for dealing with missing persons, including the integration and updating of information technology systems between police, local authorities and voluntary sector and community bodies across the country.

Abandoned vehicle project : proposed by Sussex Police, this project aims to help local authorities remove abandoned vehicles from streets and public places more swiftly, saving significant amounts of tax and community charge costs and tackling a root cause of social problems and blight in local communities.

"E-Pal" : a project to provide an on screen or text messaging electronic or virtual personal adviser to offer advice and guidance to young people, help with job applications, access work placements and identify suitable training opportunities. E-Pal, created by a leading edge professional games software house, will contain input from local employers, trainers and educators as well as being linked into national schemes such as Connexions Direct and Learn Direct.

Severe Weather Warnings, Informing the Public : a project linking the Environment Agency, the Meteorological Office and Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council to provide advance public warning and information systems for severe weather (including flooding) via multi-media communication including e-mail, internet, SMS text messaging, digital TV, mobile and fixed telephones and fax.

Notes to editors

1. The Invest to Save Budget (ISB) is a joint Treasury and Cabinet Office initiative. It was announced by the then Chief Secretary, Stephen Byers, on 13 August 1998 (Treasury press release 137/98).

2. ISB provides support for projects which increase the extent of joint working between different parts of government, identify innovative ways of delivering public services and reduce the cost of delivering the services and/or improve the quality and effectiveness of services delivered to the public. This is the fourth round of the ISB initiative.

3. It is expected that a total of £380million will be spent on ISB projects over the period to 2003-04. Round One, in 1999-2000, was restricted to central Government Departments and their agencies. In the second and third rounds local authorities, police and fire authorities, health authorities, non-Departmental public bodies and public corporations could also apply. In this round, voluntary and community sector bodies are leading projects for the first time.

4. A committee, chaired by the Treasury, assesses bids in consultation with the Cabinet Office using a pre-determined set of criteria. The official committee makes recommendations to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury who makes the final decision on the winners after consulting with the Minister for the Cabinet Office.

5. Winning projects have to agree an implementation plan with the Treasury and the Cabinet Office. Each project has to provide six-monthly progress reports and carry out an evaluation of its success once it has been completed. Projects running for longer than a year also have to carry out an interim evaluation exercise.

6. The ISB Programme invests in local projects around the country on a competitive basis without set regional funding limits and. The current round of funding has produced a particularly diverse regional spread of projects, including :

North West : £1.5m to prevent crime and poor health by early intervention for 100 of the most excluded and high risk families and individuals in Wigan.

North : £360,000 for a single access point to Sheffield's excluded communities, giving advice & information in community languages and for addressing special needs.

North East : £380,000 for ?E-power for Gateshead's third sector? project to identify 50 voluntary and community sector groups to participate in a pilot project to deliver a package of equipment, know how and unlimited internet access and training. The project will enable participants to access information more easily which will help them identify sources of funding and support to improve services delivery to communities at local level.

West Midlands : £1.5m for Warwickshire to using technology for older people giving them access to multi-channel electronic transactional services in the key service area of Home Care.

East Midlands : £800,000 to tackle the roots of social problems caused by Nottingham young offenders? alienation in society and lack of access to neutral information of judicial processes.

South West : £2.8m for Somerset Direct - Virtual Contact Points, an innovative, distributed approach to the handling of phone enquiries in Somerset to deliver high levels of 1st time call fulfilment, fast answers to routine enquiries, better information and extended service hours.

South : £300,000 to help Social Landlords and Welfare Advice Agencies in Southampton when dealing with their tenants/clients who have claimed Housing Benefit.

South East : £154,000 for young, unaccompanied asylum seekers, supporting them in schools, helping them to access statutory education and include them in local community in West Sussex.

7. Details of all the winning projects and contacts for further information about them can be found on the "News" page of the ISB website, click on the link 'winners'.

8. Media enquiries about the ISB initiative should be addressed to Charles Keseru at the Treasury Press Office on 020 7270 5188 or Simon Watts in the Cabinet Press Office on 020 7276 1203.