Public sector gets better
Public sector gets better
Keywords: Public sector, Government
The appetite for sharing ideas in improving public services was demonstrated earlier this year by the numbers of people (over 200) who attended the launch of the Public Sector Benchmarking Service. The enthusiasm was reminiscent of the launch of Better Quality Service (BQS) nearly three years ago, when government departments, trade unions and the private sector committed themselves to working together to improve services.
As part of Modernising Government, BQS places its emphasis firmly on identifying and meeting customers' needs. The old days of "producer focus"have gone – that approach, of appraising available options, smacked of asking about the price of a train tickets before deciding where to go.
Customers' needs have to be identified – and understood. This is achieved by the remarkable step of consulting them! Those needs are then expressed as outcomes to be achieved and outputs to be produced.
The next step is to sets standards – and then to meet them. These standards must be challenging and must introduce the concept of continuous improvement. An ambitious standard today may be quite tame in six months. The standards should cover quality, performance and cost. Comparisons with current achievements, and with others through internal and external benchmarking will show the scope for improvement.
Real improvement, as ever, depends on the talent and commitment of people delivering services. BQS and staff transfers in the public sector deal with people issues in a continuously improving public service. Staff have to be consulted early on and there has to be consultation with other providers, the private sector, the not-for-profit sector and others.
BQS is very like Best Value in local government. Together these initiatives and approaches provide, for the first time, a common framework for improvement in central and local government. There are differences, but the similarities are greater: continuous improvement, the 4Cs (consult, compare, challenge, compete– although they are not known by these terms within BQS) and the focus on customers and taxpayers. Together, BQS and Best Value are the twin drivers of Modernising Government.
For many years, it was said that central government let itself off more lightly than local government. Whether this was true does not matter – the perception has created resentment and undermined previous improvement programmes. Now, the similarities between BQS and Best Value, and the fact that both are clearly customer focused, encourages cross-cutting approaches,joined-up thinking and even a healthy dose of competition.
Differences remain. Openness is central to both, but only local government has to publish its improvement plans. Best Value plans have to be certified by auditors and each year's plan must include a report on the achievement of the previous plans. The statements in the Service Delivery Agreements of BQS are probably too brief and are not well publicised.
However, these minor defects (or areas for improvement!) should be taken against the sheer positive nature of an approach to modernising government that is clearly based on best private sector practice which places the customer as the focal, and the driving, point.
