Members of CIPFA's Performance Improvement Network may use subscription places to attend any of the courses listed here. 

No matter how careful you are, errors have a tendency to camouflage themselves throughout written copy in spelling, punctuation, consistency and layout. A correctly formatted, error free document conveys a positive image of both the writer and the organisation behind it. As arduous as it seems, proofreading is the necessary evil that separates your written documents from the rest. This course provides tips and techniques to simplify the art of proofreading.

Presented by CIPFA's Performance Improvement Network, this workshop is suitable for staff involved in procurement and commissioning, and will cover: the full impact of the remedies directive; contractual ineffectiveness and daily fines; transparent evaluations and Teckal Exemption; a detailed technical update.

The efficiency agenda is alive and well in Scottish Public Sector. The opportunity for public sector organisations to identify and re-invest savings internally and into areas with the best opportunity for making a difference in delivery of service to citizens is one each organisation should welcome.Grant Thornton will assist you through the complexity of your efficiency journey - From the start of the journey in identifying what efficiencies are, through to where and how they are to be identified, then finally the recording and reporting of efficiencies. The session will be focussed on the practicalities of achieving efficiencies and will incorporate examples of good practice and lessions learned from elsewhere in the public sector.

The Introduction to Shared Services course in Edinburgh will give delegates an understanding of shared corporate services in the public sector and the issues they face in developing plans and strategies to make progress in their own organisation.

The Shared Services: a Business Case course in Glasgow will give delegates an understanding of the process of preparing business cases for shared corporate service initiatives. It will give delegates tools and draft documents to take away and use in their own organisations.

This course provides an introductory overview of the main strands of lean and systems approaches to management. It is designed to help delegates decide on the suitability of these ideas in their own organisations and services. It uses a mixture of input and practical exercises to convey the ideas and give an insight into their meaning for delegates' organisations.

Understanding outcomes is becoming more and more important in the public sector. This course provides a hands-on introduction to identifying outcomes and understanding the way organisations make an impact on outcomes.

The term “Performance information” covers all types of information provided to the many stakeholders in Public Service organisations. The stakeholders used this information to help them make decisions about the organisations’ performances; but, much of the information is not well used for a variety of reasons including being: incomplete, incorrect, misunderstood, etc. This course looks at how performance information can be better presented so that it is better used by stakeholders and so that they can make better decisions.

This course aims to help those in public services who either purchase or provide services and wish to use a Service Level Agreement to contract for these services. SLA’s will be considered within the wider procurement agenda and delegates will examine SLAs in the context of different organisational models including shared services.

This workshop will look at how public sector managers can deliver efficient government agenda in a tighter financial climate caused by the recession.

With a practical exercise this course will identify opportunities to increase efficiency and reduce the cost.

This workshop will look at how public sector managers can deliver cash-releasing savings in response to the Efficient Government agenda and tighter financial climate caused by the recession.

It will draw on the lessons from previous CIPFA PIN events on efficiency, and be illustrated by a number of examples of how councils have managed to save money in recent years.

It will also discuss what efficiency and value for money might mean in the context of public sector organisations.