How to Engage with a Service
Review
Sue Thiedeman and Howard Simmons
for
TNA and CALGG
What’s on the Horizon
The Context
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Economic Climate
Local Government Finance
Comprehensive spending review (s)
Changes to the way Local Government is
funded
• Impact on Local Government Finance
• Tough decisions required
Funding Outlook for Councils
Funding Changes
• No longer by formula grant
• Linked to incentives
– Building new homes
– Business rates retention ( thriving economy)
– Creating jobs (growth and reduction in benefits /
increased council tax)
– Level of council tax
CSR Cuts to Local Government
Impact on Public Services
110
Environmental
Index (2009-10=100)
100
90
Cultural
Highways and
transport
80
Housing
70
Planning and
development
60
50
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
2012-13
Corporate Priorities
• Key Strategic Documents
• Based on the needs of the area including big
priority areas:
• The approach to service cuts will depend on
the corporate priorities
• Different ways to make a service more
efficient
• Members are making difficult decisions
The Service Review
• Different levels and approaches
• Service/Departmental/Thematic/Directorate/ Council
wide/Partnership
• Core elements include:
Why provide? - Mandatory/Discretionary baseline
Inputs - Budgets/Staffing/Accommodation
Outputs - usage/transactional costs/VFM
Outcomes - delivery against Corporate agenda
Transformation – doing differently or not at all
The Service Review
Rudyard Kipling – “The Elephant Child”
I have six honest serving men
They taught me all I know
I call them What and Where and When
And How and Why and Who
Business Process Reengineering/Transformation
• Internal or External Challenge and change agents
• Sector led Improvement/peer review/self
assessment
• External Business Partners – Capita/KPMG/PWC
• Search for VFM and Continuous Improvement
• Economy/Efficiency/Effectiveness/Equity in
processes and outcomes
Lessons Learnt to Date
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Understand the Context
Clear Statement of Purpose and Outcomes
People/Staff are key to Improvement
Consult Staff, Users, Community
Challenge Attitudes and Performance
Support Management of Change – different
ways of organising/delivery
• Clear Evidence Base
Key Questions
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Need for the Service?
Clear and Challenging Aims?
Contribution to Corporate Priorities?
Effective Performance Management?
Comparison with Similar Services –
performance and cost?
• Scope for Improvement – Direction of Travel?
Lean Thinking
• Focus on the customer/client/user
• Identify and understand how the work gets done
– the value stream
• Manage, improve, and smooth the process flow
• Remove Non-Value-Added (NVA) steps and waste
• Manage by fact and reduce variation
• Involve and empower the people in the process
• Undertake improvement activity in a systematic
way
Six Sigma
• Application of the DMAIC methodology
• Define/Measure/Analyse/Improve/Control
• Structured, rigorous approach to process
improvement
• Goal is to achieve 3.4 defects per million parts
(or opportunities of doing it wrong) known as
6 Sigma with value stream mapping
• “Kaizen” – Continuous Improvement
Survival Guide
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Be Proactive
Be Strategic
Be Systematic
Understand the Evidence base
Demonstrate Outcomes/Value Added
Identify Champions and Advocates
Build Partnerships
Small Group Exercise
• Pitfalls of a service review
– Think about possible pitfalls of a service review
– Share your experiences
Case Study
• Richard Taylor – York
• Caroline Sampson - London
Preparing For a Service Review
• Do a review yourself
• The new accreditation standard is a good opportunity
• Consider the Culture and Sport Improvement Tool
– An evidence based self – assessment benchmark
– Covers the 8 themes of excellent organisations
• Benchmark information on other similar services
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How many staff they have
What they cost
Performance – number of users etc
Range of activities
• Utilise peers or critical friends and be open to
challenge
The Right Kind of Evidence
• Make sure you are comparing like with like and
be able to explain differences
– Number of staff
– Size of service
– The offer?
• Financial information
• VFM - Cost / performance / satisfaction?
The Impact of Your Service
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What does your service do?
What difference does it make ?
Who uses the service and who doesn’t?
What do people think of you?
Utilise your internal and external customers
Emphasise your statutory responsibilities
– TNA Guidance
Meeting Strategic Outcomes
• How does your service fit into the bigger
picture ?
• Demonstrate how you meet the Council’s
strategic objectives
• Culture and Sport Outcomes Framework
– Logic Model
– Outcomes Triangle
– Evidence
– Performance Indicators
Outcomes Framework Exercise
• Think about how your service meets strategic
Outcomes
– Health and Wellbeing
– Economic Growth
– Learning / Education attainment
Engaging Local People
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How does your service engage local people?
Who do you engage with?
Who don’t you engage with? –
Equalities Impact Assessment
What VALUE does your service add to local
people
• What are satisfaction levels ( users / non
users)?
Raising your profile
• Who knows about your service, what it is and
what it does?
– Ideas for “Making News”
• Press and PR
• Social media
• Events and activities
• Make the most of your key relationships
• Utilise your stakeholders to support you and
advocate on your behalf
Stakeholder Mapping
Effective Advocacy
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Advocating effectively is absolutely critical
Need to be proactive in promoting the service
Maximise your key relationships
Advocacy Exercise
– An opportunity to practice your pitch
– Designed to help you think about key messages to
different audiences
Evaluation
• Utilise your Action Planning Log
• What happens next
– Another seminar in London 14 July
– Develop and share legacy documents
• Evaluation – utilise flip sheet charts and post it
notes
• Close