Transformational Government – the view from Communities and
Local Government
Colin Whitehouse
Senior Advisor
Local Government Modernisation and Efficiency
Communities and Local Government
Colin Whitehouse
Senior Advisor
Local Government Modernisation and Efficiency
Communities and Local Government
2
Transformational Government Strategy
• Ten year strategy, published November 2005• Three main elements
– Services orientated towards needs of citizen and business– Shared Services
• Front office• Back office• Information• Infrastructure
– Raising standards of professionalism• More collaboration required across the whole of the public sector• eGov –> Efficiency –> Transformational Government journey
3
Public
services reform
the 4 core principles
expanding choice
Competition & contestability
national/ local arrangements to align with different ‘customer’ need. local
engagement
Policy context - a tipping point?
“Frontline staff are there to deliver services to the user …
….productive time can be reduced if people are having to spend too much time servicing the organisation rather than their customers.”
CSR07 – 3% efficiency p.a.
customers, customers, customers
…….and all they really care about are outcomes and council tax
LG White Paper: Strong & Prosperous Communities
Shared Services - Varney
Health White Paper: ‘Our Health, Our Care, Our
Say’
‘Every Child Matters’
‘Closer to People and Places’ (LGA)
Health White Paper: ‘Our Health, Our Care, Our
Say’
‘Every Child Matters’
‘Closer to People and Places’ (LGA)
Sir Peter Gershon
Transformational Govt
4
Key areas for improvement
• Better information and intelligent analysis
• Business Process Improvement & Service Redesign
• Procurement
• Asset management
• Use of new technology
• Shared Services
5
How do we improve our ‘Business’?
• By:– Understanding our drivers
– Understanding what works
– Having a planned approach
– Having the drive to see it through
– Making decisions based on solid information
– Assessing our capability in a standard way
• Developing the capacity to make informed “make or buy” decisions
6
Recent Research on Business Process Improvement
Headlines
• “BPI is considered to be a vital tool in supporting service improvement”
• 80% of LA respondents think BPI is critical to the modernisation of public services
•Almost 90% believe their BPI projects to date have been successful
• Over 70% of projects have generated cashable efficiency gains
• There will be a switch from authorities using BPI to deliver incremental improvements to supporting more extensive transformation.”
• Most (BPI) studies discuss improvement in narrative/qualitative form. Financial information is often sketchy
• Baselines are critical to an accurate assessment of efficiency gains – and returns on resources employed – these are rarely cited …(perhaps because they don’t exist)
7
Business Improvement must consider the whole journey
vision for change – a better result being delivered.
Plan and implement Change Programme
Perform Gap/ Change Analysis
Create
To Be processes
Understand/capture
As is processes
Pro
cess
rev
iew
Pro
cess review
in order to identify the practical options for business change
8
Sustainable business improvement
- research indicates need to address inter-related issues
1. Identifying whether & which elements of local service delivery might benefit most from ‘business improvement’
2. What is already happening in the community, what is it achieving
what’s preventing greater/faster progress
&
3. How to compare & contrast consistently
4. The type & level of investment needed to implement & ensure improvement is sustained
9
…overall a compelling case • for a co-ordinated approach to supporting Business Improvement for councils to transform services
• for strengthening capability through the National Improvement Strategy to
‘make it happen’!
Strong and prosperous communities
The Local Government
White Paper
“ we will further support effective use of BPI techniques through a project(*) we are carrying out in partnership with local government. We will ensure that the lessons learnt from this project are fully shared across local government, as part of an integrated package of improvement also covering technology an collaboration – a Business Improvement Package.”
Chapter 7
10
Channel Strategydevelopment
Customer Insighttools
Workforce Strategy(Job design)
Strategic CommissioningGood practice
Customer ServiceManagement
systems
Technology investment
Collaboration &Shared Services
options
Delivery Chain/Process Analysis & design
Benchmarked processes
Evidence forChallenge
Procurement opportunities
Market Shaping good practice
Business Improvement Package
a LG White Paper commitment
SERVICE TRANSFORMATION
tools & best practice guidelines
Activity costing (on-costs)
– part of an integrated approach to identifying and developing improvement tools that support business cases and practical implementation – a Business Improvement Package (BIP).
(BIP)
Help with business cases
11
Barriers and Pitfalls
•Lack of baseline data
•Disparate understanding of project purpose
•Lack of buy in
•No real ownership or drive to deliver
•Lack of expertise/resource
•Unwillingness to take tough decisions
•Lack of trust and genuine sharing of risks