Public sector reform: Net saving £4.2m subject to States funding £3m

Public sector reform: Net saving £4.2m subject to States funding £3m


CONTEXT

The states of Jersey are seeking to address a funding “black hole” c £130m in part by a series of HR initiatives (£70m) including the following…
• Pay restraint
• Vacancy/attrition management
• VR (Voluntary Release)
• CR
• Service redesign – Lean /eGov /mergers
• Outsourcing
• Regulation
• Stop doing

The purpose of the Voluntary Release Programme initiated 1st June 2015 was to enable:
• employees to apply to leave employment on a voluntary basis
• organisational change and efficiency savings to be made

The Programme was open to all permanent employees of the SoJ across all Pay Groups with a minimum of 2 years service.

PROGESS SO FAR

A total of 329 expressions of interest were received, 129 applications were submitted to the VR panel and 104 have been approved.

The Council of Ministers has approved funding of £2 million in 2015 which has been made available to fund the release packages for 52 of the approved applications. The packages for the remaining 52 employees have been confirmed subject to States Assembly approval of funding later this year and in 2016.

52 – released in 2015 £ 2m
52 – subject to States funding £ 3m
10 – pending
Net annual recurring saving £ 4.2m

Until SoJ has redesigned its services it can’t rule out the possibility of further voluntary release programmes and compulsory redundancies, but it will continue the dual approach of careful vacancy management and using natural staff turnover rate of around 6% to minimise the need for redundancies.

REFLECTIONS

Whilst I commend the States for achieving the net annual recurring saving £ 4.2m I am perplexed why the approach has been to first shed staff and then later pursue service redesign.

Would it not have been better to start with service review and decide what services must, should, could be provided by the States and which might be better outsourced, left to private entities or simply discontinued.

Once there is clarity on service provision and priorities then service redesign can commence (looking at people, process and technology) and once that is complete you can look at the resources required (or no longer required).

The danger of having lost staff without having rationalised the work-load is that there are now less people to do the same amount of work without any clarity on whether that work is necessary. Furthermore this approach has lost some of the spare capacity, experience and expertise that might have been useful in the service review and service redesign phases.

I am not being critical of the staff reduction, but I do believe the same outcome could have been achieved with far greater savings had the approach been different. For staff to be leaving a more efficient and effective department surely has to be better than leaving one potentially in crisis.

Moreover the opportunities to push work into the private sector may have had the double-benefit of streamlining the public sector and creating growth and opportunity in the private sector.

That is not to say that this cannot now be achieved, but I think it will be harder without a “big picture” view of service provision and priorities and the resources to effect the change. It seems to me to be better to disband the team after the work is done, not before.

NEXT STEPS AND EXPECTATIONS

Losing 104 staff from an organisation of circa 7000 is only a start. It is nonetheless and important start, albeit that apparently the actual cost of doing this hadn’t been anticipated and has faltered “subject to States funding £ 3m”

I believe the real challenges and opportunities will come from the following.

• Service redesign – Lean /eGov /mergers
• Outsourcing
• Stop doing

I look forward with anticipation the financial targets and Five Year Plan for these initiatives which will deliver a more efficient, effective, streamline public sector.

THE AUTHOR

Tim Rogers is an experienced Project and Change Leader. He is founder of www.ciChange.org and curator for www.TEDxStHelier.Com . He is Programme Manager for the commercialization of Jersey Harbours and Jersey Airport, and previously Operations Change and Sales Support for RBSI/NatWest, and Project Manager for the Incorporation of Jersey Post. He is also Commonwealth Triathlete and World Championships Rower with a passion for teaching and learning and is a Tutor/Mentor on the Chartered Management Institute courses. He is a Chartered Member of the British Computer Society, has an MBA (Management Consultancy) and is both a PRINCE2 and Change Management Practitioner.

Tim HJ Rogers
PRINCE2 - MBA (Consultancy) - APMG Change Practitioner
www.timhjrogers.com | Twitter @timhjrogers | Skype @timhjrogers | Mobile: 07797762051
Curator TEDxStHelier www.TEDxStHelier.com
Founder ciChange www.ciChange.org