Emmet Regan presents a delivery framework of ‘Six Ps’ that takes lessons from the previous Labour government and overlays the modern challenges public services face. A version of this article was first published in the MJ.
As the dust settles on the General Election, thought has turned to the actions of the new Government, with an immediate focus on delivery. A flurry of announcements culminated in the King's Speech on 17 July providing a blueprint for the parliamentary agenda over the coming term. The Prime Minister has stated he will be judged on actions not words.
The poetry of campaigning is over, the prose of government must begin. The purpose of this article is not to examine the content of the Government's legislative agenda, rather to provide a framework for how delivery can be thought of and how it can happen.
The previous Labour Government provides a blueprint for delivery which used a centralised unit within No10 to drive this. This became known as the PM's Delivery Unit or PMDU. The PMDU became prominent in 2001, particularly through the use of targets to drive improved outcomes. It is also true that some of the tools of the PMDU are contested such as command and control and a potential focus on outputs not outcomes.
Prioritising key areas will be crucial to delivering for our communities. Without prioritisation, there is a risk of trying to do everything and achieving little in terms of changing outcomes for those who need it most.
Taking a solution wholesale that was crafted prior to the advent of the iPhone is naïve at best, dangerous at worst. However, we can learn the lessons of the previous Labour government and apply those to the new one.
Regardless of the context, a framework of ‘Six P's' can be used to understand and ensure delivery. This framework can also be used between central and local government, between Whitehall and the town hall. Central to any policy implementation over the coming years will be demonstrating how it will be delivered.
It is obvious that after years without a clear direction on public service reform, colleagues from across the country will be eager to push ahead with a backlog of actions and against a particularly challenging backdrop of demand pressures. Prioritising key areas will be crucial to delivering for our communities. Without prioritisation, there is a risk of trying to do everything and achieving little in terms of changing outcomes for those who need it most.
Shifting the focus from intense crisis-led interventions to developing strategies for prevention is the only viable route to breaking the current cycles public services face. These words are easy to write but without a fundamental mind shift in our approach we run the risk of history repeating itself. Prevention must now be the focus of public service reform.
Aligned to the focus on prevention must be an honest conversation on public spending. All parties in central and local government, across the NHS and beyond must be honest about the current economic situation but also the need to fund the transformation required. Up and down the country, local authorities are a handful of placements away from issuing a section 114 notice.
It is incumbent that compelling arguments are made and prepared to address concerns about additional funding and indeed funding for day to day services. This must be done not as a competition for pots of money but as a concerted effort to reform public services.
Without a viable plan, delivery is an empty slogan. Whitehall is littered with well-written and well-intentioned reviews or policy papers. Those serious about delivery must spend the requisite time to develop their plan for public service reform that builds on the other Ps.
A plan is only as good as the people who are committed to delivering it. Getting the right people together who bring the requisite skills for change provides the momentum to drive forward difficult choices. As Donna Hall calls it, ‘the Rebel Alliance' – those committed not to an institutional outcome but to an improved life and a difference made.
The missing ingredient in most public service reform projects is that of partnership. None of the challenges we face can be solved by a single agency, a single department, or a single council. Anything beyond a sticking plaster requires deep and meaningful partnership working that goes beyond leaders agreeing to change. It must be about people working together in a different way and that the people and families using those services feel that different way of working. Only then will we know that partnership working is making a difference for those who need it most.
The Six P's framework takes the lessons from a previous focus on delivery and overlays the modern challenges our public services face. The framework is no panacea, nor can it exist in isolation, but it provides a way of looking at the enormity of the challenges we face and how we can look at the delivery of public reform through its constituent parts.
Now is the time to be bold and to deliver.
For more on Mutual Ventures' work on public services reform click here.
Comentarios