by Paul O'Brien
Wednesday 11 October 2006
Spoke on the issue of Shared Services at the APSE Wales seminar on the outcomes from the Beecham Review. The event went really well with over 100 delegates in attendance and a good level of debate taking place.
Two concepts from Beecham's review that I wholeheartedly agree with are firstly, that the way to reform public services is via collaboration not competition and secondly, the idea that the public are 'citizens' who recognise that public services are not only for themselves but are also for others users, as oppossed to the idea being pursued in England of the public being individual 'consumers' who should vote with their feet if they are unhappy with their own personal consumption. I guess this difference identified by Beecham says something about the choice facing all of us about what type of society we want to live in.
I opened up by saying that I really wanted to be speaking at an event in England this week owing to the humbling of the English football team by the mighty Macedonia at the weekend and the fact that FIFA have just crowned Scotland official world champs after beating France, this seemed to win friends amongst the audience.
The serious message I wanted to get across was that local government has the opportunity to rise to the public sector reform agenda at present and implement its own solutions, if it doesn't then darker forces will ultimately force solutions upon us. An interesting point that emerged during the debate was around the issue of engaging staff in the process of reform when ultimately some of the ideas generated may impact on their employment. My solution is that reform doesn't always have to lead to detriment for staff but can generate enhanced investment in frontline services, training opportunities, job enrichment and career advancement opportunities. If local government doesn't communicate effectively with its staff and show them potential incentives through their involvement in improvement programmes then it will meet resistance to change. I went on to suggest that local authorities should apportion percentages of efficiency savings generated to workforce development programmes.
