Public Service Reform... but not as we know it!

This is a "story of how democracy can make public services genuinely efficient" by Hilary Wainwright and Matthew Little - and published by Compass and UNISON with support from the Transnational Institute and the International Centre for Participation Studies, Bradford University and distributed by Picnic Publishing. 

This piece sets out to discuss why "few political leaders in either of the two parties responsible for founding the welfare state positively promote the idea of public sector staff themselves working with citizens and elected politicians creatively to improve the services that they deliver". It challenges the view of "the Westminster village" that "public service reform means marketisation and outsourcing to the private sector".

"This book recounts the story of a workforce that seems to have ‘energised’ itself through playing an active part in a well organised branch of UNISON. Between 2000 and 2002, this union and these workers successfully resisted the outsourcing to the private sector of Newcastle City Council’s corporate ‘back office’ and customer services, and then worked closely with management to see through an ‘in-house’ plan for improving services"

http://clients.squareeye.com/uploads/compass/documents/PublicServiceReformWainwright.pdf

I have only just downloaded it (thanks to Clifford Singer for the link) - but appears to be a good read. You may agree with its trade union foundations or not - but it appears to be useful exposition of innovation and improvement in practice. But do let me know what you think!

Some questions to support creativity...

Here are some questions I have developed over the years - which I often use to help people take a different perspective on their system / process. I present them as 'solutions looking for problems' - so some of them will fit - and others will not. You will only know if you ask the question... 

• Have we agreed the stakeholder requirements?
  
• Are the providers involved adequately trained?
  
• Are there too many ‘handovers’
  
• Is the process being done in the right order?
  
• Could it be made simpler with a ‘triage’ stage?
  
• Could we make better use of technology?
  
• Where are the sources of rework?
  
• Why does performance vary – and by how much?
  
• Could some parts of the process be done at the same time?
  
• Are there too many checks and controls?
  
• Could we get the users / clients / etc. to do more?
  
• Could we get our partners or suppliers to take action?
  
• Could we create an expert system to make it work better?
  
• Is there a ‘standard’ way of carrying out the process?
  
• Where are the delays in the process?
  
• Could different people or agencies be providing the service (or part of it)?
  
• Have we made any cultural or professional assumptions that are getting in the way?
  
• Are the performance measures helping?
  
• Could we stop doing the process altogether?
  
• Are decision making protocols getting in the way?
  
• Does the process contribute to outcome goals? 
  

My vision is that each of these questions is a lens to hold up to the process / system and see if it brings something useful into sharper view. Do let me know if you use them and find them useful. I have said in the past that these questions come with a guarantee - I promise you will find at least one if not several ways to improve your process / system if you ask them. No one has claimed a warranty yet... but who knows!

(This is part of a longer blog posting on my other blog. If you wish to see the whole article: http://jonharveyassociates.blogspot.com/2009/05/improving-whole-systems-with-creativity.html)

Empowerment in Kent

"The Kent Card is a revolutionary system enabling people to use their direct payments to pay for their Adult Social Care Services. 

http://kenttv.com/programmes.php?PID=2457&Title=The+Kent+Card 

Kent County Council, in partnership with The Royal Bank of Scotland, have developed this Visa preloaded card to allow users to pay for their services via Chip and Pin, over the phone and on the internet." 

Direct payment empowerment - great idea! (Should we call this 'empayerment*' ?!)

* you heard it here first!

Server Recovery Project

The Council has entered into a joint procurement agreement with Winchester City Council and East Hampshire District Council. The procurement enables the council to benefit from the assurance of server support with the benefit of not having to go through the full procurement exercise.

Thanks to the Isle of Wight Council for this example

Insurance Tender renewal

The Council has reviewed the Insurance Contract arrangements and sought to identify a range of firms to provide specific elements of cover, rather than going to one broker. This approach secured significant cost savings for the council based on the previous years costs of 31%, whilst providing an enhanced depth of protection including an increase of the Level of Indemnity cover to £50 million. The project was led by the Interim Head of Compliance and Insurance and Risk Manager, and is part of the Council’s ongoing pursuit of VFM and achievement of economy, effectiveness and efficiency.

Thanks to the Isle of Wight Council for this example

Mobile Phone Invoicing

The Council consolidated the mobile phone invoicing arrangements from individual invoices per phone to sub accounts. This reduced invoice volume from 13,560 in 2007 to 1788 invoices. Project was led by the Head of Procurement and part of the ongoing challenge and review of costs and the search for appropriate tariffs to match Council need – all related to improving economy, effectiveness, efficiency.

Thanks to the Isle of Wight Council for this example

Mobile Phone Tariffs

The Council has reviewed and continues to review the tariff arrangements available under the OGC GTM agreement with Orange for mobile phone provisions. This has achieved year on year ongoing savings for the council Project was led by the Head of Procurement and part of the ongoing challenge and review of costs and the search for appropriate tariffs to match Council need – all related to improving economy, effectiveness, efficiency.

Thanks to the Isle of Wight Council for this example

Advantages of co-location

Administrators that sat within 'business services' (IT, Business Change and HR) were co-located into a central area providing a more coordinated administrative support.The support provided by this centralised administrative support was enhanced with administrative support working as a team naturally supported each other with phone calls, absence cover, addressing strengths and weaknesses i.e. use of SAP. 

The support, buddying and mentoring within the administrative support team has allowed individuals to augment their skills and working together as a team to support the services also means less reliance on costly temporary staff. 

Thanks to West Sussex County Council for this example

Another cornucopia of good ideas

A selection of ideas from Fareham Borough Council - thanks for these.

• Remove standalone printers/photocopiers/scanner and replaces with multifunctional devices.
  
• Removed surplus waste paper bins
  
• Use an intranet to publish policies, procedures and staff notices
  
• Duplex printing
  
• Electronic new starter and sickness absence process
  
• Use of clean (post office) mail
  
• Consolidate mobile phone supplier
  
• Move to non-cheque payment process
  

Innovations Forum

The council has also introduced the ‘Innovations Forum’ – a staff suggestion scheme to encourage employees to suggest ways to improve efficiency save money or resources and improve working practices across the authority. The Innovations Forum has received 50 suggestions, some of which have been put in place, others are currently being looked into.

Thanks to Newark and Sherwood District Council for this example

Single contract for agency staff

Previously the council used a number of different agencies across the various service areas to supply temporary staff. This fragmented approach was not only inefficient due to the large number of purchase orders, manual timesheets and supplier invoices that had to be processed, but it was also a cause for concern with regard to the level of control, costs, risk and legal compliance. From September 2006 to August 2007 the council had to raise 384 purchase orders and 507 invoices to employ temporary staff.

Idea – Engage a single provider of temporary agency staff.

Results – Temporary workers are now engaged through a single service provider. From September 2007 to August 2008 the council spent a comparable amount on temporary staff however the number of purchase orders has dropped to 65 with just once invoice to process a week. Manual timesheets have been replaced with electronic timesheets which are all managed online.

The single contract has also secured the council a five per cent saving on the cost of temporary staff due to economies of scale.

Thanks to Newark and Sherwood District Council for this example

Eco buttons

The nature of council business means many officers come and go from their office throughout the day.

Eco buttons create a ‘power down’ affect on a PC once pressed. When a key is pressed or the mouse moved the computer powers up and the initial screen displays the amount in money and carbon saved by powering down.

Idea – To buy a set number of eco buttons to trial across the council. Officers who ask for them and think they will use them will be given them first of all.

Results – Unknown as yet. The eco buttons have just been delivered to the council. However a pilot programme with officers suggests that the £1,000 cost of the first 100 buttons will be off set in 18 months, after that giving a saving of £750 a year.

Thanks to Newark and Sherwood District Council for this example

New letterhead

The original council letter headed paper was printed in a three-colour print process – black text, green and blue logo. As part of the council’s new corporate style which was introduced in September 2007, the letterhead was redesigned.

Idea – Redesign the letterhead in a single colour to reduce printing costs.

Results – Letterhead now just in grey, the new corporate colour. The cost of buying 1,000 sheets of letter headed paper has dropped from £50 to £26.

Thanks to Newark and Sherwood District Council for this example

Customer comments procedure

As part of the council’s business improvement programme (‘Changing Focus’) a group of officers have been trained in ‘lean’ business techniques. This group looked at the customer comments procedure and found wasted time and resources by sending paper copies of the comment around the council.

The group estimated that in officer time, physical resources and processing customer comments cost the authority £147,863 a year

Idea – To buy a scanner to allow each comment to scanned in and moved round the organisation electronically.

Results – Customer comments process is quicker, more efficient and wastes fewer physical resources. By reducing the number of steps in the process, the time it takes and the physical resources used, £103,304 will be saved this year (based on the council receiving the average number of customer comments received in the last five years, 314). This is a saving of almost 70 per cent.

Thanks to Newark and Sherwood District Council for this example

Corporate wall planner

Each year Newark and Sherwood District Council spends around £500 on approximately 100 wall planners for all the different part of the organisation. Service areas order and pay for their own.

Idea – To have a corporate wall planner designed and printed in house which is made available to all service areas. It is also branded with our corporate style, including logo.

Results – Wall planner produced with a printing cost of 60p per planner. If 100 are ordered this year, the cost is reduced to £60.

Thanks to Newark and Sherwood District Council for this example

First national survey seeking NHS staff’s views on Improvement and Innovation launches this week

The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement today launches its first National Innovation and Improvement Survey. Created in partnership with strategic health authorities, the survey offers all NHS staff in the UK an opportunity to influence the national innovation agenda.

http://www.institute.nhs.uk/news/corporate/first_national_survey_seeking_nhs_staff’s_views_on_improvement_and_innovation_launches_this_week.html

Worth a visit if you are in the NHS. Feel free to mention this blog! (Thanks!)

What makes this blog a little different (and more ideas wanted!)

Most times when I write to organisations I get an idea or two back - which I happily post here, with thanks. But just occasionally, I get an email written in semi-legalese explaining why they cannot contribute. The reasons boil down to a few categories: 

• Our good ideas are our intellectual property and we cannot share them
  
• If our staff upload ideas - they might get a pecuniary advantage
  
• There are already lots of other / secure websites onto which ideas can be uploaded
  
• The ideas being posted may not have been approved by the corporate structures
  
• We don't have a list of small creative ideas in our organisation
  
• I (Jon) might obtain a financial gain from the ideas
  

I appreciate these thoughts and the people have clearly gone to a great deal of trouble to explain why they cannot post an idea or two (or eight etc!) to the blog. However I would say the following, in response: 

• If good ideas are shared - everyone can gain - there is no limit to creativity
  
• I have always had a problem with intellectual property when it relates to the public services - since directly or indirectly - we all own the public services. How can one council (for example) keep thier ideas from a neighbour? Who 'wins' in that case?
  
• I cannot think (but do tell me if I have overlooked something) what pecuniary advantage any person would get by posting an idea here. All that anyone will get - happily - is the recognition of their creativity and spirit and the good feeling that they might have helped someone else in the public or third sectors.
  
• The only pecuniary advantage I get from this site is a few pennies from the google ads. Clearly the site is some marketing for me - but access to the site remains free - and will always be so.
  
• It is a free good - like so much else on the net.
  
• Yes there are other sites where good ideas can be uploaded - and some of these are secure. (Some need to be secure since some information probably should not be in the public domain.)
  
• But do people (for example) working in local authorities know where to go to access good ideas from the NHS - or vice versa?
  
• This blog has no boundaries - it is open to anyone from across the public and third sectors to exchange ideas.
  
• This site is very secure in the belief that everyone can gain from this - especially the taxpayer / citizen!
  
• Perhaps some of the ideas are outside the corporate line - but then perhaps some of the corporate lines are missing a few ideas. Moreover - I have found people to be entirely responsible and they are happy to post anonymously if they just want to share the idea without naming their organisation.If organisations don't have a list of small creative ideas - in some respects I would say - why not!?
  
• Would it not be helpful to have an ideas store in every organisation into which people can dip and add ideas that work? (Inter and intra nets make this so easy nowadays.) But equally, I fear that some organisations might then over-proceduralise this and squash the creativity so maybe a centralised list is not the answer (what do you think?)
  

So yes, this blog is outside government structures, yes it is accessible, yes it is slightly chaotic (although you can search on it very easily) and yes it is an copyright liberal zone!

Please keep the small creative ideas coming! Thanks

Systems and People - why culture change is free

John Seddon explains why targets make organisations worse and controlling costs makes costs higher. This elegant dissection of the organisational madness that pervades our culture was given at the 2009 conference of the Human Givens Institute. Target Obsession Disorder laid bare...

http://www.vimeo.com/4670102

A powerful, sometimes irreverent but always serious challenge to the whole command & control / target obsessed approach to public services management. 60 minutes - far more enlightening than two episodes of Eastenders!

Reduction in car allowances due to more efficient design of the visit process

A district council reports that savings were made by the merging of their Benefits and Council Tax departments so that essentially the same people were carrying out both duties and therefore performing both jobs within one car journey each.

Thanks for this example.

Online reviews of Museums in Hampshire

Hampshire Museums Service has just soft-launched an online service allowing museum visitors to write reviews on their visit in the style of Tripadvisor. 

Until now all comments and criticism, whether favourable or otherwise have been via a closed dialogue. The review service allows our users to feedback to us, but more importantly gives others the opportunity to see what has been said. 

In addition to a written review, the museum visit can be given a star-rating from 1-to-5.  The review will be published online within 48 hours. All comments are moderated before publication. When there have been a sufficient number of reviews, there will be an aggregated list, ranking museums in order of positive reviews. 

So what happens if a museum receives a negative review? Vexatious, non-family-friendly or abusive comments will be wittheld, however all justified negative comments will be posted. 

At the time of writing Milestones Museum in Basingstoke (http://www3.hants.gov.uk/milestones/review-milestones) is the only museum to have received any reviews. Reviews so far have been mainly positive, and we would expect that as we operate to high standards in all our services, that we ought not to receive too many negative reviews. If we do, then clearly this will focus attention on correcting any issues. All evidence from the private sector where this technology has been used indicates that performance improves as a result. 

Hampshire County Council will, I believe, be the first local authority in the UK to offer our customers the opportunity to review our services and have their comments published. It fosters openness, trust and transparency and ensures that our customers feel they're being heard.

This will be rolled out to Hampshire's libraries, arts centres, country parks and other venues over the coming months.

Further information from Ian Edelman ian.edelman@hants.gov.uk

Thanks to Ian for this example.