Future Efficiency

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Future Efficiency
- promoting best practice 'bpi' methods to
improve local services
- the case for a National Process Improvement
Programme
colin.whitehouse_at_communities.gsi.gov.uk
T-Gov Shared Services 30th January 2007
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Some scene-setting - the emerging CSR07/White
Paper environment
comprehensive review of public spending/ zero
based/VFM reviews.tougher fiscal climate ..its
still ( rightly) all about
expanding choice
The 4 core (customer) principles of public
services reform
doing/spending more on things that local
communities want by doing/ spending less on the
things they dont care about!
contestability
local engagement
national/ local arrangements to align with
different customer need.
Sir Peter Gershon Frontline staff are there to
deliver services to the user and reducing the
amount of time they spend away from these core
activities is an important part of efficiency
.productive time can be reduced if people are
having to spend too much time servicing the
organisation rather than their customers.
Getting rid of as much as possible that
customers would see as waste...
why bpi methods seen as a potentially good
approach for improving local services.
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current state bpi
the recent research in local authorities
(emerging evidence that BPI is a powerful
approach to continually improving efficiency)

• snapshot Spring survey by RSE Consulting
• broad brush (IPF) survey commissioned by DCLG
• current productive time case-study research
• response to Sue Reid letter disseminating the
  generic maps
• bpi state of the nation overview

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Research highlights

• RSE survey of LAs in England 48 respondents
• BPI is considered to be a vital tool in
  supporting service improvement
• 80 of LA respondents think BPI is critical to
  the modernisation of public services
• Almost 90 believe their BPI projects to date
  have been successful
• Over 70 of projects have generated cashable
  efficiency gains
• Authorities anticipate an even greater role for
  BPI in delivering more ambitious change in future
• - 90 of respondents expect to be doing more BPI
  projects in the future
• - There will be a switch from authorities using
  BPI to deliver incremental improvements to
  supporting more extensive transformation.

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research cont

• IPF broad brush survey
• most (BPI) studies discuss improvement in
  narrative/qualitative form. Financial information
  is often sketchy
• baselines are critical to an accurate assessment
  of efficiency gains and returns on resources
  employed these are rarely cited (perhaps
  because they dont exist)
• In most cases the costs of initiatives are only
  partial.very few projects record and document
  these figures.
• People may not be aware of what has been
  achievedIt may also be the case that
  efficiencies are not being realised

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more highlights ..
Productive time case studies (BASIS Ltd)

• Key findings potential for improvement
• Measurement
• Base-lining, often poor measurement of
  financial benefits and low evidence of
  realisation.
• Further guidance and support needed for
  practitioners
• More best practice case studies better
  tools/techniques (standards)
• plus
• Lack of in-house capability and capacity
• Many calls for development of change
  capabilities
• Big reliance on expensive external consultants
• In-house teams/managers often lacking practical
  change skills.

• Remit
• to source exemplars of productive time/process
  improvement case studies
• to promulgate as learning examples to wider
  community
• to establish where we are now.

Results Sifted through almost 500 actions that
had been taken to improve efficiency and found
no shortage of impressive business improvement
happening across the community Those selected as
exemplars nearly all had an improvement of over
20. Five of the ten exemplars since selected
for forthcoming articles to be published to whole
public sector audience by OGC Director for
Productive Time.
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response to DCLGs 31 May letter to CEOs

• many requests for extra copies of the maps/ plus
  major interest shown at LGA conference etc
• around 50 authorities expressing interest in
  supporting further bpi learning
• BPI state of the nation overview (NOMAD
  follow-up to launch of BPA)
• letter just received on progress ascertaining
  levels of bpi/abc experience/capability in
  authorities
• virtually all LAs recognise the need for bpr as
  being a significant part of their transformation
  process
• some LAs are highly advancedthere are excellent
  examples of work completed to date
• some regions very active but some not responded
  at all.

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The Local Government Business Process
Architecture (BPA)
BPA vision .. the opportunity (rationale) for
driving continuous process (productivity)
improvement making it easier to effectively
target future investment, plus demonstrate
tangible (measurable) benefits from investment
in process improvement.
mapped service processes provide opportunity to
understand more about the operational and other
cost drivers of local service delivery
. a structured basis (common language) for work
to continue on the business case for local
strategic investment (in more bpi).
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• Future bpi?
• research indicates need to address inter-related
  issues

2. What bpi is already happening in the
community, what is it achieving
- starting points of different councils

1. Identifying whether which elements of local
service delivery might benefit most from an
investment in bpi
whats preventing greater/faster progress
3. How to compare contrast consistently
before after bpi LA to LA differences
The capability for continuous improvement
consistent baselining measurement
4. The type level of investment needed to
implement ensure improvement is sustainable
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overall appears compelling case

• Providing effective guidance tools
• Dissemination of generic maps to all local
  authorities
• (May 2006)
• Publication of first set of 10 high impact
  process improvement exemplars
• (Sept/Oct 2006)
• Interactive web-based tool being developed for
• Process Maps
• Case studies
• Process costs (when available)

Developing consistent process costs agreed
(abc) methods 6 Sept workshop for
identification of priority processes to pilot abc
(activity costing) on as is and to be
processes. (A range of to be scenarios
envisaged. From basic improvement to work
practices thru to collaborative ventures (shared
corporate services).

• Improving state of the nation data
• An up-to -date shared knowledge base?
• (most authorities independently use bpi
  techniques)
• A more organised expert user community?
• (approx 50 authorities have already expressed
  interest)
• An expert Supplier database framework
  agreements?
• (lots of enthusiasm!)

continuous (business process) improvement
Ensuring adequate practitioner capability Proposal
to develop pilot (in-house) business
improvement capability (practitioner)
training funding /other issues e.g. role of a
lead RCE/other change agents and link with
existing including Leadership training?
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But need a programme of support e.g. some
BPI pilots to begin addressing the issues
a project board
Separate PIDs including work to synthesise
results
a selection of processes/ service areas E.g.-
Democracy community services (public
protection)
Infrastructure (highways transport)
Waste management
Housing management
Other?
Corporate processes (e.g. HR, Finance)
Adult social care
Revs and bens
Childrens services
Need for effective marketing of emerging
products (Local Government and OGDs). Barry Quirk
CX _at_ Lewisham has agreed to champion
potential for business improvement efficiency
from real evidence from work streams
NB. Need for progressive best guesses (Oct 2006
onwards) to inform CSR process
Development/piloting of consistent methodology
for costing as is and to be process activity
costs
LG stakeholders user and expert provider
community Other key stakeholders OGDs (CSED),
Gov Connect IDeA
?phase 2 delivering future process improvement
capability (human, and technical infrastructure
(i.e.Gov Connect)
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• NPIP
• bpi pilots agreed in principle potentially
  involving 25 councils
• a selection of priority processes/themes (e.g.
  multi agency/generic activity/people)

Work tailored for District councils.
Waste management
Democracy community (public protection)
Infrastructure (highways transport)
Business support (corporate) processes (. HR,
Finance)
Housing management
Revs and bens
Adult social care
Childrens services
3 projects up and running across 9 London
authorities looking at aspects of social care
activity costs and bpr (1 in children, 2 in adult
care processes for common assessment joint
commissioning)
Cambridgeshire CC project to cost shared
services approach e.g. with other County
Group of 14 authorities in the North West
GMEP/NWeGG proposal with possible emphasis on
multi agency integration e.g. fire service.
Proposal from Chorley process architecture/
organisational blueprint for district councils.
Plus a LA technical standards convergence
piece
LB of Lewisham plus NPIP project admin CX is
NPIP LG champion
Sedgefield Councll
Required common deliverables from pilots ..
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NPIP deliverables
Overall the case for bpi work across all local
services (whats the ROI from deploying bpi
method/ capability)
The individual strands

• definition of processes to be examined
• (end-to-end LA and wider activities to be
  examined to better understand scope/costs for
  greater integration/collaboration)
• as is and to be for each process
• projection of efficiency gains for each process
• methods used (process mapping activity costing
  conventions plus analysis methods including
  treatment of organisational overheads etc)
• products from practitioner bpi capability
  training
• e.g.
• applying variety of techniques/standards e.g.
  mapping notation)
• Including how to do activity based costing and
  use results to drive process redesign
• How to overcome barriers/lessons learned
• How to realise savings/benefits projected (ROI)

Overall synthesis /national implications
marketing of emerging NPIP products
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National Business Process Improvement Project
(NPIP)

• Questions
• colin.whitehouse_at_communities.gsi.gov.uk
• Project Chair