Delivering Modernising Government: Turning Strategy into Action in the Public Sector
Before I start I would like to say that all the examples of good practice and innovation that you hear today would not have been possible without the support and creative vision of people like yourselves
Being a public servant can, as I know be difficult. It sometimes seems that we are trying to change the world single-handedly, whilst our peers and contemporaries in the private sector take all the perks.
It is easy to forget amid the daily grind, why we chose to give years of our lives to serving government, or helping to develop government policy or direction – when we seem to be under fire from so many directions.
Yet it can also be rewarding work. We frequently see the little battles yielding big results, what looks in a policy document like a small step, can actually improve the lives of so many.
Determined to value public service and deliver improvements to people’s lives –we launched the Modernising Government white paper in 1999.
Modern government means 5 things
This may sound vague described like that, but broaden out those concepts a little and we begin to see modern government as something that is human.
Let’s take Professional policy making
Government policy must be about more than responding to the latest crisis / tabloid campaign or opinion poll.
Policy is about more than public opinion. Obviously it should be developed in consultation with those it will affect, but equally policy goals must be sustainable. Designed to tackle causes not just symptoms, policy should focus on outcomes, producing the right results. Innovative ideas, strong partnerships, best practice.
Modern policy making means thinking through the options and coming up with workable strategies. Solutions that solve one set of problems without creating another.
Not cobbling together a few ideas on the spur of the moment, provoked by the latest fad or knee jerk journalism.
Let me give an example.
The Government’s Rough sleepers unit was set up to deliver a reduction in the number of rough sleepers to as near to zero - and by at least two-thirds by 2002.
Simple target. Complex solution. A real challenge to the Modernising Government agenda because the test for the public is so visible.
‘Coming in from the cold’ set out how the target would be delivered:
Contact and Assessment Teams have been established in central London. Specialist workers are tasked with helping vulnerable rough sleepers to come inside.
The joined-up approach of the Unit means that delivery of its target is more than a pipe dream. In August the latest street count figures were published showing a reduction of one-third in the number of rough sleepers since June 1998.
There is no complacency about this progress. Louise Casey, head of the Unit, and her team, regularly talk to people out on the streets about why they are there and how they can be helped to come inside.
Professional policy making recognises the needs of the communities it serves. Taking thinking away from the ivory towers. Basing policy on evidence and maintaining a long term focus. That doesn’t mean that policy can’t be about delivering change quickly, or about reacting immediately to an obvious gap or need – it does mean that the implications of policy must be more than a quick fix plaster clumsily applied to mask, not solve, a problem.
That’s Professional policy. It Makes lives better.
Modern Government also means Responsive Public Services.
Responsive public services are convenient, flexible and accessible. Delivered for customers, rather than service providers. Responsive public services offer the opening hours that can accommodate an entire community. That’s not to say that every service will or should be open 24/7 – but where there is an obvious demand for more flexible service delivery, community need for extended opening hours, we will try to accommodate it.
Take the National Health Service. Images of dingy waiting rooms from old TV sitcoms abound. As does the image of elderly people waiting helplessly in the winter.
But the NHS is learning and responding. It listened, and reacted with the National Plan. There is still a long way to go in delivering a National Health Service that meets, exceeds the expectations of patients. But do not underestimate the progress we are making.
We have NHS Direct, the 24-hour nurse-staffed help-line. It is:
Telephone and Internet accessible;
Bringing medical advice, referral and diagnosis into your living rooms, your kitchen, your offices.
We have walk-in centres – where you can literally walk in to see a doctor.
We are piloting booked admissions – so your outpatient appointment is made at your convenience.
This can be great for busy professionals unable to escape the office to keep their hospital appointment – or for the pensioner who struggles with mobility.
It is also good for the service provider. If appointments are booked, less consultant time is wasted because people do not attend. More time to spend on patient care.
Responsive services means learning lessons from mistakes.
1999’s summer passport problems were not swept under the carpet: The service was evaluated. The results:
A 24-hour call centre.
Extended opening hours,
Fax back facilities
An upgraded website with 4-hour e-mail response time.
Responsive public service is about more than trouble-shooting. It incorporates a vision of how services can be improved before the need for improvement becomes blatantly obvious.
Take ONE. One is, a one stop shop – One step from the soul and self-esteem destroying trap of unemployment, into the world of work and financial independence.
Four pilot projects set up across the UK.
One task, helping job seekers, carers, lone parents, disabled people and those who have suffered long term illness to become more independent.
One face: giving each client their own personal adviser, a single point of contact for work, benefit, help and support
One team, bringing together the Benefits agency, Employment service, local authority, voluntary organisations and private sector employers.
One person – treating each client as an individual with their own needs and with something valuable to offer.
That’s responsive public services. Making lives better. Responsiveness must be coupled with quality. Quality means rejecting mediocrity. Striving for excellence. And not compromising in that goal.
CCTV in Newham reduced street-crime in the area by 70%.
CCTV helped force the area’s crime rate below the national average for the first time in 15 years.
This service received a 92% approval rating from residents.
Newham’s CCTV Stops crime before it starts.
Quality services see organisations working towards best practice for services and staff through schemes like the Chartermark and Beacons. These schemes allow organisations to develop utilising internal and external expertise. Joined up government and partnership approaches in action.
Take Heywood Community High School.
Second time winner of the Chartermark. This comprehensive in Heywood, Rochdale – has set itself highest academic and social standards.
Measures introduced include:
Such measures widen participation in education, and create stakeholders of both students and parents. Here we can see how schemes like the Chartermark drive forward standards in public services, and reward excellence and innovation.
Schemes like the Best Value in Local government and Better Quality Service in Central government ensure that we get the best supplier to deliver the work in hand, and that services are regularly reviewed to ensure that the strongest partnerships and best results possible are achieved.
To support services and policy making, we need to make sure we get the best use out of new technology. The fourth strand of the modernisation programme:
Information Age government
We hear a lot about the Internet. How we are children of the IT revolution. How e-commerce initiatives and new technology are the gateway to the future. It is an exciting time.
But we are too teckie. And there is an understandable fear factor. We still hear the phrases:
"I can’t use…"
" I don’t understand…"
" My computer has broken down/ blown up / is answering back…"
It’s one thing for individuals to say this. But there is no room in government for these words
We refuse to let Britain lag behind the rest of the world.
We refuse to let global trading opportunities, massive technological advances and the chance to deliver services into the heart of people’s homes, pass us by.
We recognise that there may be many members of society who, for one reason or another, don’t use IT, and where accessibility is the problem we are determined not to let IT become another barrier to social inclusion.
That’s why we are investing in Internet portals in libraries, post offices and schools. That’s why services will never be offered exclusively on-line or over the telephone, until the whole of Britain is connected to both networks.
This is not about promoting Information Technology for it’s own sake, or jumping on some trendy e-commerce bandwagon, Rather it is about using IT as a tool, allowing people to utilise government services in their own way and own timeframe.
It is about the major life changes like having children, moving house, retirement. It is about allowing people to get a joined up service from government, accessible via Internet technology rather than traipsing from the hospital to the town hall to the GP to the benefits agency, for standard answers to simple questions.
We will make 100% of Government services accessible via the Internet by 2005. Supplementing, not replacing more traditional methods of accessing services. Adding choice, flexibility, value.
We recognise that we are not perfect, many government web sites are not as user friendly as private sites, and in some areas we are years behind our European and American counterparts.
Britain is playing catch-up. But with government investment and determination we are not only catching up, not only become a leading light in the information age, but are making IT real, human and relevant.
IT needs to be humanised, the Internet is a fantastic thing if sites are easy to navigate, clearly laid out and customer friendly.
Similarly, call centres can be a brilliant way to get generic information quickly. But alongside the technology there must be human interface where necessary. Technological advances and human beings working hand in hand to put citizens first.
Whether it’s getting Foreign office advice on whether your holiday destination is considered safe for travel, whether it’s using technology to apply for a job via the internet or whether it’s about registering your new family business with companies house on-line:
Information age government makes lives better.
And so to the final strand in our vision of modernity:
Valuing public services.
It is easy to denigrate the public sector and public services – easy to criticise staff that work within the public sector. To fail to appreciate what amazing range, depth and variety public services provide society.
I am not saying that public services or public servants are all perfect. I am saying that they all have strengths that can be nurtured. Areas where, with the right training and resources, improvements can be visible quickly.
I am saying that often they are undermined, undervalued and under-resourced.
Frequently it is easier to take things for granted. To do things as they have always been done. Than it is to add vision, creative thinking, spirit, and admiration into the melting pot.
Valuing Public services means celebrating the diversity of our workforce. Involving and motivating our staff in decision-making. Tackling inequality in service provision and staff recruitment. It means investing in public services and public servants to create a future we can all believe in.
Within Central government it means modernising the civil service itself. Working with managers and the trade unions we have identified six key areas of action to implement change
To reform the civil service itself is no mean feat – but measures taken to start the ball rolling include:
Setting up a unit in the Cabinet Office, which is dedicated to taking this programme forward.
8 Permanent Secretary Champions have been appointed to take forward the key themes.
All Departments have drawn up their own action plans, setting out how they will enact the reform programme in their own organisation.
Departments and Agencies have been allocated funds from the Modernisation Fund (£100 million over 2 years) to take forward key initiatives.
The Civil Service College Directorate (CMPS) has developed a range of courses and developmental activities to support and promote the civil service reform agenda.
A network of Change Agents has been established across the civil service to share best practice and experience.
This programme is not exclusive to the civil service. Local government is currently going through a modernisation programme driven by the DETR. Similarly, quality schemes like investors in people are being taken up and promoted across the public sector.
Modern government. Means celebrating the success stories of the public sector – in the way that we have in Citizen’s First, the Modernising Government annual report earlier this year.
I, like you, am a consumer of public services, and can see the strengths and weaknesses in those services.
I have given you examples of modern government – but for every example I have given there will be hundreds of others I don’t know about – happening on your doorstep.
This programme is not a 6-month, 12 month or 18 month project
Yes we set targets. But this is a long-term rolling project. We can’t achieve all our objectives in a day. But with the support and enthusiasm of public sector staff we will make lives better. It isn’t easy. It’s not simple.
Putting 5 such broad-reaching principals into practice takes time, energy and commitment. Commitment to:
Take those concepts and place them in a human context in the work you do.
Look at the passport agency, NHS direct, social inclusion. Consider, the Rough Sleepers Unit, CCTV and One stop shops. Take age-old problems and find new solutions.
This is an Olympian style mission with no finish line. But we have invested in the foundations, creating a framework for excellence and an environment where talent and diversity are nurtured.
I believe that with determination to succeed and the nerve to keep going when the ground is unstable, we are making considerable progress.
There are no gold medals in the world of modernising government, there are clear targets and a strong will to succeed that unites us.
Britain is not the world leader in every aspect of modernised government. But we have a lot to be proud of. Like our Olympic athletes, we have made great strides, and modernisation is something Britain is getting better at.
That’s modern government, making lives better.