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Sharing Reaches Front-Line Services

October 28, 2010 in Corporate Services, Leading and Managing Results, Public Services, Shared Services and Outsourcing

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At a time when public services are under pressure to save money, its not surprising more local authorities are considering the potential benefits of creating shared service solutions.

Members of Scotland’s Clyde Valley Community Planning Partnership (CVCPP) – West Dunbartonshire, East Dunbartonshire, Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire, Glasgow, North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire – are working together on a programme.

Similarly, the London boroughs of Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Kensington and Chelsea propose merging many of their front-line services. The three councils’ will receive a feasibility report on the possible merger in February 2011.

Statements reported in the press about the CVCPP scheme suggest the programme is looking at savings of arond 20% and the London boroughs have talked about savings of £100m though these both seem likely to be the kind of generalised modelling and targets discussed in the early stages of most shared services projects rather than a carefully worked-up figure using real data on proposed solutions.

In principle, the potential savings from shared front-line services ought to be significantly larger than shared back-office – simply because of the proportion of organisational expenditure in those areas (back-office functions typically costing a small percentage of  total revenue) but the delivery of savings is no more certain.

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NHS White Paper and the Workforce

October 25, 2010 in Leading and Managing Results, Pay and Reward, Public Services, Workforce Management

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Attractor was invited to join an HR Workforce Forum event during October, looking at the workforce impact of the changes proposed by the Government White Paper ‘Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS’.

The forum event was hosted by Bevan Brittan on the same day as the Chancellor of the Exchequer made announcements on the Comprehensive Spending Review.

 Bevan Brittan have already published their overview of the legal challenges and key strategic issues facing the NHS.

The forum was excellently attended by participants with real insight and in-depth experience of the strategic workforce challenges across the NHS. Exploring the impact of the increased financial constraints facing he NHS combined with the largest structural change in it’s history, participants were able to consider key issues linked to -

  • labour supply for healthcare professionals and the wider workforce,
  • arrangements for staff development and education commissioning across the service,
  • reconfiguration of healthcare commissioning services,
  • potential developments in NHS reward strategy and the pensions modernisation agenda,
  • developments in partnership working across the service.

The seminar revealed a broad level of consensus about the key issues. Read the rest of this entry →

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Navigating Public Service Reform

October 24, 2010 in Corporate Services, Leading and Managing Results

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With the Coalition Government revealing the outcomes of it’s Comprehensive Spending Review, the scale and pace of reorganisations across the public sector are becoming apparent.

The range and scale of reform envisaged in the CSR is immensely challenging and doubts are being expressed in mainstream media and new media alike. The balance of opinion suggests delivery will be all but impossible and failure in the attempt will have serious negative consequences.

There is no denying the ambition of the programme and the need for dramatic change is emphasised by the government’s statement that it is commencing “a radical programme of public service reform … [which] will change the way services are delivered by redistributing power away from central government and enabling sustainable, long term improvements in services.”

While spending in front line services such as health and schools are somewhat insulated from the financial pressures, the administrative budgets of central government departments are to see reductions of 34%. Taking anticipated changes in Council Tax into account, local government will see reductions of around 15% over the next four years with police and fire services experiencing reductions of 14% and 13% respectively.

That degree of saving will be spectacularly challenging and it’s clear the programme require more fundamental change than slicing small amounts of activity from many small programmes and budgets.

How should work proceed? Read the rest of this entry →

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Is Benchmarking Destructive?

October 18, 2010 in Corporate Services, Leading and Managing Results

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Photo: Darrren Hester, Flickr

An article in Consulting Magazine recently suggested benchmarking was a practice which was destructive because it distracts attention from the need to build upon core competences.

Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi, co-authors of the recent Harvard Business Review article “The Coherence Premium,” suggest companies should be paying attention to their own distinct capabilities.

Organisation become profitable through maximising the benefit they derive from those competences them by matching them to market opportunities.

The authors produce an interesting analysis of the coherence with which organisations decide how to bring together the capabilities they need to “face the market” with the needs of their customers. They say -

“The engine of value creation is a system of three to six capabilities that together allow a company to compete in a differentiated way.”

Booz & Company have, apparently obtained further thoughts from the authors (who don’t refer at all to benchmarking in the report) and summarised their views that benchmarking is often evidence of the absence of strategy, distorts the true nature of competitive advantage, discourages differentiation and ties up valuable resources. That’s pretty damning!

So is benchmarking “destructive”? Read the rest of this entry →

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Does the Government Favour Shared Services?

October 13, 2010 in Public Services, Shared Services and Outsourcing

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With the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) nearing completion, most public sector organisations are expecting major reduction in the operating costs and many are waiting to see if they have a future. For those organisations with a certain future, the need to identify efficiencies, remodel services and deliver savings will be a driving force over the next few years.

Until recently, the government had been a supporter of shared service solutions which allowed public sector organisations to save costs in corporate and back office functions. Many of the UK’s  local authorities and NHS organisations have been continuing with shared services projects while commentators have been expressing doubts about their value.

The reputation of shared services is at best, mixed. Many private sector organisations are extolling their virtues and making strong claims for improvements in service quality and cost.

Often however, informed professionals in IT, Finance, HR and facilities regularly express doubts about their track record, not all of which can be attributed to a lack of imagination or a reactionary desire to defend the status quo.

But where does the government stand on the matter? Is the tide coming in or going out? Read the rest of this entry →

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No Plan for The Big Society?

October 11, 2010 in Leading and Managing Results, Public Services, Shared Services and Outsourcing

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In David Cameron’s keynote speech at the Conservative Party Conference, he talked about moving “from top down to bottom up” as a major element of the “Big Society spirit”. He talked about a shift in power reflected in the decentralisation of power into the hands of citizens, social enterprises, mutuals and cooperatives and small businesses.

Yet people are struggling to understand what the Big Society means. IPSOS MORI have suggested recent polling, commissioned by the Royal Society of the Arts in partnership with the Social Investment Business, reveals the following confused picture -

  • 55% of British adults polled had not heard of the Big Society policy,
  • 54%) think it is a good idea in principle but won’t work in practice,
  • Nearly 60% believe Big Society is an excuse for saving money while cutting back on public services,
  • 64% believe public services have tried to do too much and people should take more control of their own lives,
  • Almost as many think it is up to the government to be responsible for public services.

Most news coverage suggests voluntary groups and charities are likely to face cuts themselves, the effects of which, combined with losing other income, will prevent them stepping in to fill any gaps left by the withdrawal of public services. In the absence of a clear sense of direction, people cannot understand how they will get access to the help traditionally been provided by our familiar public services.

How realistic is it to talk about the Big Society becoming real? Read the rest of this entry →

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What Future for NHS Staff Record?

October 8, 2010 in Public Services, Technology and Data at Work, Workforce Management

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The announcement that NHS National Programme for Information Technology (NPfIT) was dropping it’s centralised approach – in favour of modular, locally-led solution seemed a long time in arriving.

Following recent decisions to scrap the the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, to cease central funding for the NHS Appraisal Toolkit and not to renew the natonal Enterprise Agreementfor Novell it seems the time for large national IT solutions is over.

With these developments in national strategy, what does the future hold for the Electronic Staff Record (ESR), the integrated human resources and payroll solution used, almost universally, by NHS employers.

Following lengthy testing and pilot site work, the system was deployed across the NHS over 24 months finishing in April 2008.

In retrospect this project seems to be one of the few major IT projects which delivered its results broadly on time and within budget. ESR is now almost certainly the worlds largest employee database and it is surprising the NHS did not broadcast its success more widely.

Through the period 2008-10, work to refine and extend the system’s functionality has continued, now including a wide range of HR, Payroll, Staffing Budgets, Education and Training, eLearning and Self Service. The contract for the system will be reviewed in 2014 and those using the system will be looking at recent developments with interest and, perhaps, some concern.

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Do Bankers Earn Their Bonuses?

October 6, 2010 in Leading and Managing Results, Pay and Reward

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Photo: rracy o, Flickr

The bonus pot for bankers has returned to the normal level according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) at £7bn (compared to £11bn in 2009).

For 2010, the government will take a larger slice of the bonus cake than bankers after the introduction of a 50% tax rate for income over £150,000.

With the backdrop of the current crisis, it is “bankers” who are facing the heaviest criticism from the public, not public servants or senior managers.

With people feeling they are being made to pay for the mistakes of bankers, it is the high bonuses being paid there which annoys people most.

Attractor has examined the issues surrounding high earnings in particular sectors before. In the past we have looked at the pay of top managers, performance pay for public servants, bonuses in public services, top public servants and public services generally. So what about bankers? Read the rest of this entry →

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Fraud Perpetrated on MPs Expenses

October 1, 2010 in Corporate Services, Pay and Reward, Public Services

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The House of Commons Fees Office has been drawn into another expenses news item, though this one relates to the fraudulent actions of an official in the payment office. Andrew Gibson, a Resources Budget Officer created fake expense claims to pay off gambling debts.

The crooked official submitted false invoices for secretarial services against the names of Tam Dalyell, Linda Perham and Matthew Green, MPs who were retiring or otherwise leaving their constituencies following the General Election of 2005.

During that year, Gibson made three payments totalling £5,875 into the bank account of his friend Toni Pomfret, both of whom had worked with the post office.

The discrepancies with the payments came to light as a result of the general investigation into MP’s expenses. Mr Dalyell alerted the police when a claim he did not recall submitting was examined . Gibson and Pomfret’s fingerprints were detected on the claim forms.

Having both pleaded guilty, Gibson was jailed for nine months and Pomfret for six months.

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