Reforming Public Services

Matthew Smerdon, Barings Foundation & Phil Jew, Advice UK

14:00 – 15:30

Reforming public services:Radically re-thinking advice

Phil Jew, AdviceUK

Chain Reaction, 12 November 2009

Buy 2 matters, get

one free!

Buy 2 matters, get

one free!

The industrialisation of adviceThe industrialisation of advice

Systems Thinking Command & Control Thinking

Outside in Perspective Top down

Demand, value, flow Design Functional specialisation

Integrated with work Decision- making Separated from work

Related to purpose, variation, demonstrating capability

Measures Related to budget, activity, productivity, standards

Intrinsic (pride) Motivation Extrinsic (incentives)

Act on the system Management ethic Manage budgets & people

What matters Attitude to clients Contractual

Partnering Attitude to suppliers Contractual

Systems thinkingSystems thinking

www.systemsthinking.co.ukwww.systemsthinking.co.uk

Systems Thinking

‘The performance of anyone is largely governed by the system that he works in.’

If we set targets and make people’s jobs depend on meeting them,

‘…they will likely meet the targets – even if they have to destroy the enterprise to do it’

Deming

Other people’s rubbish

An alarmingly high proportion of enquiries were ‘failure demand’ caused by service failings on the part of the authorities / an institution

The vast majority were caused by the failings of public services, particularly the DWP

42% failure demand in Nottingham

No learning

The way advice services are increasingly being funded, with an emphasis on delivering advice ‘transactions’, was seen to be adding to a longstanding ‘revolving door’ problem

Not enough learning from failure demand: identifying and removing waste and improve advice and public services

With funding tied to transactions, it increasingly makes no sense for advice organisations to seek to reduce failure demand

System conditionsAdvice services hampered not just by constant dealings with the failings of public administration but also by funding and contractual restrictions and conditions affecting how they carried out their work: cherry picking, juniorisation, early case closing

The Guardian, A New Public Service

supplement, 7/10/09

The Guardian, A New Public Service

supplement, 7/10/09

Complex work flow – waste (from client’s perspective) in red

+7>+7>

There are 14 steps before case

allocated to WRO – only 1 of value to

client

There are 14 steps before case

allocated to WRO – only 1 of value to

client

To illustrate: Housing Benefits as a system

Inspect Decide

SortScanIndex

Check

Allocate

Notify

Get informationHand out forms

Pay

22%V 78%F

44%V 56%F

34%V 66%F

99% claims not fit for purpose(Charter Mark)

• 1 to 10 cycles to clean• 95% cases over-specified• 20% docs. duplicated

39%-83%

errors

• No learning• Errors

predictable

Sorted x3Checked x8Docs separated

One-Stop 8% (FD)19% passed back 73% goes to workflow

Manage

queues

Letters unclear

Roles

0-152 days to pay3% visit once

Purpose: obtain clean information, assess entitlement and pay quickly if entitled

Targets / VF

Targets / VFNo case ownership

handoff

ha

nd

off

handoff

ha

nd

off

ha

nd

off

ha

nd

off

ha

nd

off

Q again

It’s the Syste

m Stupid!

Spend Wisely• Co-production: User, community and supplier engagement • Value for money: whole-life-costs and quality (fitness for

purpose)

• Full benefit appraisal: The social return on investment

• Outcomes focus: Outcomes rather than inputs and outputs

• Maximise the value to the client of every pound: Minimal bureaucracy, front-loading, reduce waste

• Recognise the wider spectrum of legal advice work: Prevention, education, social policy, campaign work as essential adjunct to advice

• Method for continual improvement: Require suppliers to demonstrate how they will improve to reduce failure demand and waste

• Gain knowledge from the frontline – from the client/user’s perspective

• Understand wider system and flow

• Act on that knowledge to redesign

• Cost and Waste Capability

• Spend wisely – commission/fund intelligently and for public benefit

www.chain-reaction.org