Public Service Reform; Continuity and Change

1. Public Service Reform;Continuity and Change Prof Sue Richards Director of Strategic Capability, National School of government 5 November 2007 Centre for Public Services Organisations Royal Holloway College Egham

2. Agenda • 1Contending paradigms of change • Outcome-oriented • Output-driven 2 Patterns of change under new Labour 3 Emergent picture of new approach 4 What do the world’s best organisations tell us

3. Contending paradigms of public sector change - caveats • Big picture / complexity and detail • Institutional factors – pull to remain the same • Design capability limited • Political timescales • Vested interests • Whole system experience

4. Outcome-driven change • Post-war welfare state – safety net • high trust society, • power shared between levels of government, • autonomy for public service professionals, • little performance measurement or management, • grateful public, • New welfare state created at speed

5. Output-driven change 1980s/90s – efficiency • Individualistic, low-trust society, • centrally-driven, targets and measurement, • break autonomy of public service professionals • Dis-empower other levels of government, • Public as customer, • Fractured and ‘siloed’ working generates ‘wicked problems’

6. What about New Labour? Post 1997 - mixed messages - value of fluidity • Some outcome-focused initiatives, • Some whole system initiatives • Intentions to decentralise but did not happen • Some centralised planning Post 2001 – delivery - centralise (in order to decentralise?) • Emphasis on outputs • Local government ‘earned autonomy’ • Re-structure of NHS • (Attempt to) centralise parts of CJS

7. Signature of the new PM • ‘Why can’t we just buy outcomes?’ – 1997 • Schooled in the Treasury – outcomes, incentives and markets, critical of civil service • Economics-led • Vision of equality and empowerment – public as citizens • Strategic focus • Not good at spin

8. Today’s emergent picture • Widespread recognition of key strategic issues / outcomes • Old silo structures adapted – eg Department for Children Schools and Families • Public Service Agreements – collaborative capability being addressed • Concern for innovation and not just ‘roll-out’ – DIUS • Focus on architecture for change • But still need to wait and see

9. Challenges of leading the system • World ranking of UK government effectiveness – 14/200 • Pockets of excellence – Pensions Service • Picture of huge UK effort leading to sub-optimal results • What can we learn from elsewhere about achieving outcomes - Cf Finland’s educational performance - CF Best manufacturers – Toyota

10. The world’s best organisations have ‘dynamic capability’ • ‘Leading by direction’ becomes ‘leading by design’ • Create new routines – visioning, benchmarking, measuring • Change is everyone’s business • Keep the change changing

11. Visioning • Top leaders to set high level vision, but visioning socially distributed • Connect to purpose and outcomes at every level • Find common ground between stakeholders and achieve collaborative advantage • Create space for innovation by leaving the ‘means’ more open.

12. Benchmarking • Learning how to learn • Finding the best available examples through better information networks and dedicated people • Bring home and process the lessons • Application

13. Measuring • Measurement primarily driven by the people doing the job – to enable improvement of process • Secondary purpose is for accountability • Aid to judgement, not a substitute • Cut back the performance measurement industry (Gershon)

14. Continuity or change? • Its all very difficult - complexity • Drag effect of institutional factors • Ambition to achieve outcomes and not just outputs • Widespread disillusion with output-focused approach • How can we pull together the academic and practitioner perspectives to create something better?