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Under the last government, the public sector experienced more than a decade of top-down, target-driven, centralised change.

With massive investments in public services, strides were made on improving infrastructure and service levels in health and education.

But, with money and targets arriving thick and fast, the capacity for change was overwhelmed and efficiency declined.

It was easy to predict a search for productivity was coming – but the financial crisis turned this into a massive shock – the equivalent of putting your car into reverse direct from fourth gear.

In the middle of 2010, the anticipation of cuts in UK public services is creating at atmosphere where any public servant whose role might be considered “not vital” will be thinking about career options. With the economy at a very early stage of a slow recovery, prospects don’t look good.

But what is “vital”?

An opinion poll for the Local Government Association looked at where people thought spending should be cut and protected, showing where people preferred deicions to be made about spending in their local area -

• 62% wanted local councillors to decide,
• 18 % backed MPs
• 2% said officials in quangos

Respondents wanted NHS managers, quangos and overseas aid to be cut while doctors, nurses and other hospital staff, police, schools, fire services and care for the elderly by social services should be protected. Those sentiments are unsurprising and calling for reductions in the cost of administration, bureaucracy and management is all too easy.

In the coming months we will see suggestions that any reduction in the number of police officers, nurses, doctors etc would be a disaster. While nobody wants to see front-line services being reduced, in fact, taking a view about what is “vital” is less straightforward than most tabloid papers might suggest. Read the rest of this entry →

Photo: Laffy4k, Flickr

Attractor was invited to join an HR Workforce Forum event at the start of July 2010, discussing the workforce and HR implications from the Total Place programme.

The forum event, hosted by Bevan Brittan, was attended by participants with in-depth experience of the Total Place programme and others working at the heart of public sector change management.

The forum heard details about the New Local Government Network (NLGN) Report “Greater than the sum of its parts”.

Lessons for HR and messages being given to government about “the storm” ahead, were examined.

“The problem” of course can be defined in many ways – waste, funding restrictions, failure to deliver benefits, inefficiency, unfairness, “postcode lottery” – and its unlikely any programme can address all of these together. It’s possible some of them are inextricably linked, the big, “fair” programme being wasteful and the small “efficient” project leading to uneven outcomes.

The Total Place pilot programme aimed to change public services so they improve the lives of local residents and deliver better value. It was hoped the pilots would deliver early savings to validate the work and develop learning about how more effective cross-agency working can function. The work involves three strands of activity -

• ‘counting’ – identifying how public money is spent to achieve objectives
• ‘culture’ -  looking at how existing cultures and ways of working help or hinder the delivery of outcomes
• ‘customer needs’ – gaining practical insight into their needs, wants, expectations, behaviours and experiences

The challenge for HR functions in supporting service redesign, innovation and change management while also working to streamline and slim down their own functions was explored in some detail at the forum event.

Personnel Today have also published an article about Total Place and what it means for HR. In Stepping up to the mark, Roger Britton, at Worcester County Council talks about -

“the need to prepared to think in terms of a single public service workforce which is operating across organisations, the boundaries between which have become invisible.”

Tackling the “culture” within the existing empires poses a huge challenge which, if left unaddressed – allows silo mentalities to predominate and borders to remain defended. Mature and confident leadership, effective Organisation Development and Human Resources teams will be needed to drive these initiatives locally.

The Workforce Forum discussed the benefits and the legal and employment challenges of creating and staffing “New Economic Vehicles”, joint ventures and social enterprises which can remove barriers and allow partner organisations to focus efforts on delivering services and efficiencies together.

The NLGN report concludes billions of pounds could be saved by delivering joined-up service provision but warns that a lack of coherence and over-centralisation could derail the programme and prevent benefits being realised. Read the rest of this entry →

Photo: Darren Hester, Flickr

NHS managers looking at our benchmarking solution have described how they will use it to plan and monitor local actions in response to the challenge of the NHS Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention initiative (QIPP).

A Payroll Manager explained it would enable him to demonstrate how service plans would adjust the profile of the organisation changing high level and detailed performance data.

As well as providing an evidence-base for improvement planning, the tool would enable them to meet the recommendations of the Operational Efficiency Programme, collating relevant information and providing comparison data to inform their decisions.

The solution has been created specifically for NHS organisations (versions for other part of the public sector or on the drawing board). Back-office benchmarking is new for the NHS and, obviously, depends on having significant volumes of data from relevant organisations to provide comparative information.

While still at an early stage in its service lifecycle – only just moving from planning to delivery – the early signs are promising. Already, 60% of the NHS organisations which evaluated the service have subscribed while others are still considering their position. No organisation having reached this point has, yet, decided not to subscribe.

Attractor is now marketing the service widely for the firs time and expects sufficient sign-up from NHS organisations to provide subscribers with authoritative, persuasive and compelling evidence to support local decision-making. Read the rest of this entry →

The UK’s coalition government has made few changes to government departments – but the underlying “machinery of government” is under scrutiny.

According to reports in Personnel Today, the government is planning a cross-government HR framework – aiming to “eradicate duplication” and “simplify HR functions”.

The new Efficiency and Reform Group is looking at the creation of  “a single coherent HR policy” to be used by all Whitehall departments by March 2012. The Cabinet Office is considering a simpler approach to Civil Service pay, terms and conditions.

By focusing savings and streamlining efforts on back-office functions, the aim is to protect front-line services. Francis Maude is quoted saying - 

“Good government can cost less. It won’t do just to carry on as before. By joining forces and concentrating our efforts where the money actually gets spent, we can make sure the maximum amount gets taken out of government overheads, not front-line services.”

That sounds good though in reality the vast majority funds “actually gets spent”  delivering programmes and services rather than in the back office. There are potential savings to be made by the adoption of shared services and outsourcing for back-office solutions – though savings are by no means guaranteed. Even assuming savings are delivered, the financial benefit is likely to be small compared to the overall financial challenge facing the government. Read the rest of this entry →

Photo:Wolfpix, Flickr

Attractor’s work with a number of NHS organisations has helped to support and deliver improvement activity and realise benefits.

Attractor is often invited to facilitate strategic thinking, present options, identify opportunities, validate some ideas and challenge others.

This was the case with Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. A case study published by the Department of Health provides a good example of work delivered with an NHS team with strategic plans supported by decisive action.

Attractor had worked with Aintree earlier, supporting diagnosis and problem-solving actions with the Trust, and helping refine plans for deploying the ESR training administration toolkit.

Attractor was asked to support an organisational design review – taking forward local ambitions to introduce more integrated working arrangements and effective service delivery. Read the rest of this entry →

With the UK’s election result imminent, public sector bodies must soon return to the efficiency agenda.

Shared services or outsourcing solutions seem likely to be deployed for back-office services across much of the public sector.

Organisations with ready plans will probably face pressure to quickly turn blueprints into reality.

Those without plans will have to develop ideas quickly, recognising the pressure to maintain spending on front line services will dominate any discussion on these initiatives.

How can those who have to make decisions “see the wood for the trees”? What evidence is available to support decisions and help them reach judgements and make informed decisions?

HM Treasury’s 2009 report on operational efficiency examined evidence from the private sector before arriving at its targets for efficiency savings. It concluded that back-office savings in the range of 20-30% could be achieved from business process reengineering / shared services. Other revews have reached slightly different conclusions. Read the rest of this entry →

While the 2010 UK General Election is underway, the convention of “purdah” prevents the development or official announcements of new policy.

Purdah avoids binding a future government to current policy it disagrees with. It also presenting challenges for people delivering strategy and companies seeking to work with the public sector.

It seems clear that public services will need to look for efficiencies in their back office functions. Currently, however, few decisions are being taken to help drive forward delivery on this agenda.

The DoH has established a dedicated national workstream under the Improvement and Efficiency Programme. “Back office efficiency and optimal management”, led by Tony Spotswood (Chief Executive, Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Foundation Trust) doesn’t have the “catchy” title.

Public attention is likely to focus on changes to clinical services arising under the QIPP programme. It’s obvious however the conclusions and adopted mechanisms from any “back office programme” will be important for the future of shared service delivery in the NHS. Read the rest of this entry →

With Attractor’s benchmarking toolkit having gone live, a thorough review of screens and features has generated a short “snagging list”.

Some minor corrective actions (none of which impact data collection) are being addressed by Attractor’s technical partner, KPMD IT solutions.

While corrections are addressed, users will experience few access issues and, once complete, potential consistency, usability and presentational issues will be avoided.

Attractor is now working to load a range of external benchmarking material from published sources in the UK and US covering private sector and public sector organisations in healthcare, local and central government plus other sectors. Read the rest of this entry →

At the Operational Efficiency Conference in November, speakers explored how to drive change and efficiency across central government and the wider public sector.

While central government was moving quickly to measure and report levels of efficiency, there was less obvious engagement in the wider public sector.

Plenary speakers highlighted the challenge of direct action in these environments where there are devolved political and governance frameworks combined with diffuse financial control mechanisms. Read the rest of this entry →

Attractor took the opportunity to run a masterclass at the Operational Efficiency Conference held at the Barbican Centre on 18th November 2009.

The conference brought together more than 250 representatives from public sector organisations including central government, national health and local government services.

Read the rest of this entry →