Improving Organisational Effectiveness

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Improving Organisational Effectiveness

• A Model for Financial Management in the Public
  Service

Sue Beauchamp
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Leadership
Financial Management
Performance Management
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Positioning FM
Improving Value for Money
Control, Probity, Accountability
Measuring and Rewarding Success
Supporting Good Decision- Making
FM
Enabling Change
Managing Risk
Improving Performance
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Scope of the Good Practice Model

• Devolved management FM not about accountants
• Finance in the bloodstream of the organisation
• Self/peer/external assessment
• A practical improvement tool

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Financial Management Styles
ENABLING TRANSFORMATION
SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
SECURING STEWARDSHIP
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Financial Management Dimensions
LEADERSHIP
PEOPLE
PROCESSES
STAKEHOLDERS
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40 Statements
Enabling Transformation
Supporting Performance
Securing Stewardship
Leadership
Budget monitoring and forecasting ensures no
surprises
People
Processes
Stakeholders
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Supporting Performance
Enabling Transformation
Securing Stewardship
Leadership
People
Managers know when and how to access financial
advice
Processes
Stakeholders
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Securing Stewardship
Supporting Performance
Enabling Transformation
Leadership
FM strategies support change and development,
balancing control and flexibility
People
Processes
Stakeholders
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Enabling Transformation - Leadership
Financial management strategies are based on
present and future business needs. They support
the change agenda and a culture of innovation,
improvement and development, balancing control
and flexibility.
1.      Are emerging markets/forces/drivers
identified and their financial implications
allowed for? 2.      Are financial management
practices responsive to changes in external
drivers? 3.      Are any funds earmarked to
facilitate innovative projects? 4.      Are the
risks and opportunities of alternative service
delivery mechanisms, e.g. companies understood
and used? 5.      Are invest to save schemes
actively considered? 6.      Are virement
policies sufficiently flexible to empower front
line mangers without losing the Boards and
Management Teams overview of policy? 7.      Are
there financial strategies for major IT renewals/
developments? 8.      Have the implications of
e-enablement been assessed and is progress being
made? 9.      Do service review processes drive
out savings? 10.   Is existing expenditure
challenged, to create savings for redirection to
higher priorities? 11.   Does the organisation
seek to manage demand increases, rather than
being their victim? 12.   Are there incentives
for corporate behaviours, rather than rewards for
protectionism or games playing? 13.   Have
procurement strategies generated measurable
savings? 14.   Is there a corporate programme to
exploit opportunities for generating new income
streams? 15.   Does the organisation actively
investigate and use alternative funding streams
for new policy options, initiatives and major
projects? 16. Are risk management techniques
embedded in change programmes?
Scoring How far does this statement apply?
0/0.5/1 1.5/2 2.5/3 3.5/4 Strongly
Hardly Somewhat Mostly
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Self Assessment

• Users judge FM against a set of 40 statements
• Policies and practices in place?
• Deployment?
• The impact or influence on behaviour or results?

• Statements simply scored 0-4, but audit trail of
  why
• Users include financial staff, and senior
  managers
• Web-based product

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Scoring

• Generates a profile of FM in the organisation
  (bar charts)
• Strategic or fine grained
• To compare with where they want to be
• Identifies strengths and areas for improvement
• Helps develop an action plan for change
• Can track progress over time

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Where Next?
Road tested across public organisations Launch
early next year Benchmarking database