Business Division
Customer Accounts and Programme Support - CAPS
Business Director
CAPS acts as a central contact point for both Defra and our external customers by administering contractual arrangements and providing financial and project delivery information. A new structure to improve these services was implemented and new procedures to support project leaders during project planning and monitoring were introduced. A new financial monitoring system for European Union projects was also devised to increase the regularity of reports to customers and the re-negotiation of the Research and Development Framework Agreement with Defra was completed.
Other achievements included monitoring the delivery of Agency Targets, the implementation of a new computerised Project Information Management System (PIMS) and carrying out a Customer Satisfaction Survey, which lead to further improvements to procedures and resulted in new targets being set for next year.
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Corporate Planning and Communications - CPCU
The Unit is responsible for the management of VLA’s corporate planning timetable, including the production of corporate and business plans, internal communications, event organisation, library services and records management.
VLA’s Library is one of the UK’s most comprehensive collections of farm animal veterinary literature, which is available to all Government veterinary surgeons. During the year, the range of electronic journals was expanded in response to the increasing demand for desk top access to information. The Library also received a steady flow of requests under the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations. Since its creation in 1999, the Agency’s intranet system ‘intraVet’ has become a key knowledge management resource. In December 2005, work started on a project to replace ‘intraVet’ with a new content management system enabling us to manage and publish this information much more easily.
VLA’s Annual Conference was held at Keele University with a theme to mark the 10th anniversary of the Agency. Presentations covered the progress made in a number of scientific areas over the 10 years and VLA’s first Chief Executive, Dr Tony Little also gave a keynote speech.
Back to topEstates & Environment
The redevelopment of the Weybridge site continued apace with a new Animal Services building and a boiler house becoming fully operational. We are particularly proud of the ‘The Mills Building’, named after Bernard Mills who retired from his post as Redevelopment Officer in late 2005. This new facility has won two prestigious awards for it’s excellent sustainability features. It won the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method’s (BREEAM) National Bespoke Building Award and the South East Region’s Sustainability Award from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. As we go to press, we are waiting to hear how we fared in the national competition.
Work has commenced on the refurbishment of the main building at Weybridge, which will become the HQ facility for VLA incorporating the Business Division and the Centre for Epidemiology and Risk Assessment (CERA). This major project is due for completion in early 2008.
During the year, ‘Weybridge’ achieved the ISO 14001 Sustainable Development certification. This is due to be extended to all VLA’s Regional Laboratories during 2006/2007. VLA is fully committed to meeting its environmental goals and will be working on a number of projects to improve energy efficiency and enhance the biodiversity throughout the Agency during the next year.
Back to topFinance
2005/6 was a year of new challenges for Finance. Internal process reviews are continually carried out to improve efficiency and this has been particularly prevalent in two areas. The Travel Unit, where savings have been made in accommodation, air and rail costs for VLA employees and the Systems Accounting Unit, which now caters for many more users since the introduction of e-procurement.
The Government Efficiency initiative, introduced by Sir Peter Gershon, requires annual savings to be made on VLA’s costs, compounding over a number of years. The evaluation and reporting of these efficiencies is carried out within the department, which also contributes to identifying areas within VLA that have potential for greater savings.
As a result of the successful growth of VLA’s commercial activities, the analysis and reporting of its profitability becomes more important. Refinements to reporting were introduced in 2005/6 and further improvements are planned for 2006/7.
Perhaps the biggest success for Finance during the year was responding to Government’s ‘faster closing’ initiative. VLA met the timetable in full with the Annual Report and Accounts being signed by the National Audit Office on 31st May 2006 and laid before Parliament on 19th June 2006. These dates were more than two weeks earlier than any previous year.
Back to topInformation Technology
A wide range of projects were delivered during 2005/6 including enhancements to the Salmonella Surveillance System, which provided the identification of vaccine strains and variants to enable automated incident monitoring software to distinguish between disease and man-made strains of salmonella.
Two new reporting systems were introduced as part of VLA’s ‘LIMS Vision’ for automating laboratory processes throughout the Agency. One to enable the electronic reporting of test results to all of our Regional Laboratories and the other for the Virology department to meet UKAS requirements and to provide a more standard reporting approach for customer reports.
In conjunction with our external IT partners (SfW), new systems have also been introduced to support the National Feed Survey and a central Master Test Schedule, including external advertising web pages.
In addition, SfW have helped deliver a working prototype system demonstrating the potential to capture salmonella submissions from external commercial sources. This has been funded through the Defra Challenge Fund initiative.
Improved external collaboration remains a key objective for the unit. Various live trials of Defra’s e-Science Fora collaboration system have been conducted including Reading University projects, prototype online TB microarray web pages and collaboration on EU6 framework Avian Influenza proposals.
New Help Desk procedures and service levels have been successfully implemented along with revised service level monitoring arrangements. Infrastructure upgrades to move to latest Microsoft technologies are also in progress and have required careful planning to ensure the continuity of VLA’s IT systems.
Back to topPersonnel
This year has seen the further development and extension of the new e-Human Resource (HR) database and the new payroll system. The 4 Me selfservice aspect of the e-HR database was launched early in 2006, which enables employees to update their own personal details on the system. It also enables on-line booking of Learning and Development and provides more management information. The interface between the e-HR system and the payroll system has been extended to include the pension providers system.
This enables employees to make changes to their details on 4 Me and those changes are then automatically included in both the payroll and pension providers systems. A new Staff Appraisal system was implemented, based on a Core Competence Framework, which involved the training of all members of the Agency. The Core Competencies are now used in both Staff Appraisal system and as the basis of recruitment, selection and probation reporting.
Back to topSafety
This year the unit has been much involved in matters that had previously been fringe activities such as monitoring the facilities in the new Stewart Stockman building used for tuberculosis research and laboratory testing, the Animal Health Institute (IAH) / VLA Virology department coventure and a substantial number of new build and laboratory refurbishment projects.
Recognition that we must guard against events, such as the incursion of avian influenza into the UK, is why the design, structure and operation of modern laboratories and animal accommodation is so critical. Various controls and procedures are in place to achieve this including the law, which states the aim and penalties, the Approved Codes of Practice that set the recognised minimum standards and the scientist, architect, safety adviser and construction engineer who calculate how to meld their areas of expertise into a fully functional facility.
It is also pleasing to report that the unit is now firmly in the international arena through our involvement with the European and American Biosafety Associations. Our advice and participation is frequently sought by counterparts from many similar organisations.
Back to topPurchase and Supply
The unit took a lead role in negotiating EU compliant tenders for the supply of Personal Protective Equipment, Laboratory Glassware and Laboratory Pipette Servicing resulting in significant savings for VLA, other agencies and Defra. In addition, an e-Procurement software system was introduced to all the science-based units within the Agency culminating in further efficiency gains.
The unit made a significant contribution to Defra’s contract initiatives, particularly the Mail and Courier services where our experience of the transport of infectious substances regulations was invaluable.
Major support was provided to scientific colleagues working on the avian influenza outbreak. The warehousing and consumable buying teams successfully worked with suppliers to increase the flow and process the supply of laboratory consumables. A self-service facility of core items was also established. The capital equipment team worked to demanding time schedules to let EU compliant tenders, negotiated interim loan agreements and organised courier service providers to ensure a ‘sameday’ service for the movement of field samples.
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