The Effectiveness Agenda: Improving public services in tight times

Wednesday 21 July 2010, 8.45-10.00 am

We are at a significant moment in the delivery of public services. The new government has laid out its approach very clearly: cutting budgets, searching for efficiencies, simplifying services, and pushing delivery away from the centre. It is, in short, a new public agenda driven by very different assumptions.

Our clients are telling us that they are looking for new ideas for maximising value and innovating amid unprecedented constraint. Effectiveness is about moving beyond the language of ‘efficiencies’ or even ‘cuts’ and improving user outcomes while avoiding unintended consequences.

This interactive seminar presented the core ideas of The Effectiveness Agenda, drawing on The Futures Company’s wide experience in public, private and third sectors. Delegates can click on the button to download the presentation.

Speakers:

Andrew Curry, Director, The Futures Company

Alex Oliver, Director, The Futures Company

Panellist:

Siobhan Coughlan, Programme Manager, Service Transformation, Improvement & Development Agency

Deliberative Research: Impacts, Problems and Prospects

Dr Darren Bhattachary, Executive Director at TNS-BMRB and leading deliberative expert, led a presentation to explore:

1. The potential of deliberation for governance and policy making;
2. The strengths and weaknesses of deliberative techniques;
3. How to develop strategic insight from deliberative processes;
4. The impact of deliberation on decision making

Speaker:

Dr Darren Bhattachary, Executive Director, TNS-BMRB

Chair:

Pat MacLeod, Director, TNS-BMRB

Can government ‘tweet’?

In this briefing, we looked at young people and their levels of democratic engagement. Modern youth policies seek to engage and inspire young people, but do we really understand what makes them tick? Are young people really not interested or are they participating in different ways? And what does this generation really need from government? Drawing on our proprietary trends data and research on the Millennials generation we shared thoughts on:

1. Understanding what engages young people politically and socially;
2. Looking at ways to better communicate with young people;
3. How this may impact upon designing services around young people for the future;

Speakers:

Yannis Kavounis, Director, The Futures Company

Michelle Harrison, CEO, TNS-BMRB

Respondent:

Mark Perry, Head of Government Development, YouthNet

Panel Chair:

Alex Oliver, Director, IIPS, The Futures Company

What the Citizen Wants: what the public want from Government – the Scottish Perspective

The IIPS launched in Scotland on 17th March 2010 with its first look at ‘What the Citizen Wants’ from a Scottish perspective. IIPS Chair Dr. Michelle Harrison, and Chris Eynon, Head of TNS-BMRB in Scotland, shared new IIPS research into the public’s expectations of public service delivery in Britain today to see whether Scotland was any different from the rest of the country. This included:

1. Public priorities for service delivery in an era of cuts;
2. Levels of trust in parliamentary and Government figures;
3. Citizens’ views on local versus national decision making;
4. Whether the Scottish are different to the rest of Britain in these attitudes;
5. The implications of these findings for public service providers and policy makers.

Speakers:

Michelle Harrison, Chair IIPS, CEO, TNS-BMRB

Chris Eynon, Head of TNS-BMRB Scotland

Panellists:

Angiolina Foster, Director of Strategy and Ministerial Support, Scottish Government

Can Government Innovate?

At the last IIPS Breakfast Briefing of 2009, we explored the theme of innovation in the public sector. The need for government to innovate has never been greater, with policymakers facing huge challenges around producing economic savings in the system and in addressing citizen needs in the face of long term social, demographic and environmental shifts happening around us in the UK today. There is an ever increasing demand to ‘work smarter and do more with less’ in transforming the delivery of public services.

This seminar sought to demystify innovation and to understand how it works as a process, to look at the perceived barriers to innovation in the public sector, to see how it arises in the private sector, and to draw comparisons between the two. Delegates were then led through three ways to innovate more effectively within their remits.

Speakers:

Henry Tucker, Director, The Futures Company

Panellists:

Alex Butler, Director, Transformational Strategy, COI

Simon Tucker, Associate Director and Head of Launchpad, Young Foundation

Panel Chair:

Alex Oliver, IIPS Head of Service Transformation

What the Citizen Wants

Speaking at the IIPS ‘What the Citizen Wants 2009’ third annual review, IIPS Chair Dr. Michelle Harrison shared the latest IIPS research into the British public’s engagement with, and expectations of, public service delivery. She argued that insight into the values, attitudes, and aspirations of citizens is essential to the successful transformation of UK public services. Harrison presented findings on:

1. the current ‘Temperature of the Nation’ – taking a look at changing macro trends over the last couple of years
2. attitudes towards choice, trust, satisfaction and their impact on engagement in community;
3. public priorities for service transformation;
4. implications for public service providers and policy makers going forward;
5. trade-offs the citizen would be willing to accept at their local level in a new era of budget cuts.

Speakers:

Michelle Harrison, Chair IIPS

Panellists:

Matt Tee, Permanent Secretary for Government Communication, Cabinet Office

Panel Chair:

Eric Salama, CEO Kantar Group

The Front Line of Service Transformation

In the second IIPS Breakfast Briefing of 2009, we reflected upon the major changes to the ‘frontline’ public service/citizen interface since the election of the Labour Government in 1997. After an introduction by IIPS Chair Michelle Harrison, Sally Malam, Director at TNS–BMRB, then shared the findings of new IIPS research:

1. comparing citizen attitudes towards electronic service delivery in 1997 and today;
2. looking at what factors influence peoples choice of channel when transacting with government;
3. looking at a longitudinal case study of HMRC customer satisfaction data from the same period showing channel preference over time;
4. looking at the impact of channel migration on customer satisfaction.

Speakers:

Sally Malam, Director, TNS-BMRB

Panellists:

Sarah Fogden, Deputy Director of Service Transformation Implementation, Cabinet Office

Oliver White, Customer and Innovations Director, Aviva plc

Panel Chair:

Michelle Harrison, Chair IIPS

Why segmentations work (and why they don’t)

At the first IIPS Breakfast Briefing of 2009, we explored technical and cultural challenges of customer segmentation in supporting service transformation. IIPS Chair Dr. Michelle Harrison presented on the ‘segmentation cycle’:

1. providing a roadmap for understanding how segmentations work, and where they don’t
2. demystifying their use for those interested in better designing and embedding the method in their organisations
3. using the method to provide a language for understanding, and create a focus for time and money
4. using the method to prioritise customer insight and improve service delivery.

Speakers:

Dr. Michelle Harrison, Chair IIPS

Janice Clark, Lead Analyst, Quantitative Insight Segmentation Team, The Futures Company

Panellists:

Julia Gault, Head of Family Engagement Division, DCSF

Caroline Fox, Planning and Insight Team, DH

Panel Chair:

Alex Oliver, IIPS Head of Service Transformation

Working toward better outcomes in local service delivery

At the final IIPS Breakfast Briefing of 2008, Professor Danny Dorling presented a challenging proposition to government: play a bigger role in improving people’s increasingly unequal lives and you will have public support for intervention and social transformation. BMRB’s Joel Williams responded with a review of the methodological challenges and opportunities of producing a local evidence base for needed policy changes; and Professor Paul Wiles responded by posing a series of questions about the role of government–and cultural history–in influencing long term outcomes, given the persistence of geographically–bound inequalities.

Speaker:

Professor Danny Dorling, Department of Geography, University of Sheffield

Panellists:

Joel Williams, Head of Methods, BMRB Social Research

Professor Paul Wiles, Head of Government Social Research and Chief Scientific Officer, Home Office

Chair:

Dr. Michelle Harrison, IIPS Chair

Behaviour change: bridging the gap between policy and communications

Alex Oliver and Helen Angle led the audience through the ‘Behaviour Change Strategy Cycle’ – from policy making to evaluation – to identify challenges in developing and implementing effective behaviour change strategies. They addressed five ‘gaps’:

1. within and between policy areas;
2. between high level strategy and implementation;
3. between success factors and evaluation measures;
4. between government action and public reaction; and
5. between incremental insight and strategy.

The presentation focused on the:

1. immediate challenge faced by the government insight community in implementing behaviour change as part of the governments 3 year PSA framework;
2. the importance of using customer insight as a common language within and across policy areas;
3. the range of levers available for addressing behaviour change challenges;
4. the range of measurements, opportunities and challenges involved in linking communications efforts to ‘actual’ behaviour change.

Speakers:

Alex Oliver, Head of Service Transformation, IIPS

Helen Angle, Director Social Research, BMRB

Panellists:

Sam Davis, Group Research Head (Security and Justice), COI

Dr. David Halpern, Director of Research, Institute for Government

Panel Chair:

Dr. Michelle Harrison, IIPS Chair

What the Citizen Wants 2008

Speaking at the IIPS ‘What the Citizen Wants 2008’ second annual review, IIPS Chair Dr. Michelle Harrison shared the latest IIPS research into the British public’s engagment with, and expectations of, public service delivery. She argued that insight into the values, attitudes, and aspirations of citizens is essential to the successful transformation of UK public services. Harrison presented findings on:

1. satisfaction toward public services;
2. attitudes toward choice and trends in navigating the public services;
3. growing distinctions in ‘choice competence’;
4. the imporantance of segmenting your audience to target communications around public engagement; and
5. what all of this means to the personalisation agenda.

Speaker:

Dr. Michelle Harrison, Chair of the IIPS

Panellists:

Sir David Varney, Prime Minister’s Advisor on Service Transformation

Dr. Geoff Mulgan, Director of The Young Foundation

Panel Chair:

Eric Salama, CEO Kantar Group

How concerned are citizens about data and privacy in the public services?

Service transformation requires effective data sharing within government and public trust in its ability to manage and protect data effectively.

At this Breakfast Briefing, Dr. Michelle Harrison, Chair of the IIPS, shared the findings of new research on the citizen’s perspective on the use of their data and identity management within government. This included:

1. the citizen’s perception of what ‘data sharing’ in public services involves;
2. attitudes towards what is ‘appropriate’ and ‘desirable’;
3. perspectives on public choice and informed consent in this area.

Speaker:

Dr. Michelle Harrison, Chair of the IIPS

Panellists:

Sue Fox, Director of Communications at the Information Commissioner’s Office

Matthew Briggs, Business Change Manager, DWP Tell Us Once Programme

Panel Chair:

Siân Davies, Chief Executive, The Futures Company

From deliberation to delivery: the challenge of a new style of governance

Dr. Darren Bhattachary, Head of Consultation and Engagement at BMRB, led a presentation to explore:

1. the potential of deliberation for governance and policy making;
2. the strengths and weaknesses of deliberative techniques;
3. how to develop strategic insight from deliberative processes;
4. the impact of deliberation on decision making.

This event was designed for those working in the policy, research, strategy, insight and service delivery communities in the public sector.

Speaker:

Dr. Darren Bhattachary, Head of Consultation and Engagement at BMRB

Panellists:

Fiona Wood, Director of Research, COI

Ben Jupp, Senior Advisor, Public Services and Democracy, Strategy Unit

Panel Chair:

Richard Asquith, MD, BMRB

Using Customer Journey Mapping techniques to improve public service delivery

Dr. Michelle Harrison, Chair of the IIPS led a seminar to explore the application of customer journey mapping techniques in the public sector.

The seminar covered:

1. effective research processes;
2. best practice internationally in the public and commercial sectors;
3. the relationship between mapping processes and customer;
4. satisfaction measurement techniques;
5. how research leads to strategic intervention.
   

Speaker:

Dr. Michelle Harrison, Chair of the IIPS

Panellists:

Alex Oliver, Assistant Director, Service Transformation, Cabinet Office
Sophia Parker, Associate, Demos

Panel Chair:

Graham Kelly, Director, BMRB Social Research

Public service delivery: What the Citizen Expects

Dr. Michelle Harrison presented the findings of new IIPS research into the British public and their engagement with, and expectations of, public service delivery.

This included:

1. people’s experiences of, and satisfaction with, their local services;
2. their aspirations for service transformation and for communication with providers;
3. attitudes towards the public sector’s use of personal data; and
4. citizens’ desire to participate in civic life.

The presentation considered the opportunities for service providers to better connect with their customers and build end-user satisfaction. How can insight inform the delivery of public services and increase its efficiency?

Speaker:

Dr. Michelle Harrison, Chair of the IIPS

Panellists:

David Bell, Permanent Secretary, DfES
Andrew Sheffield, Delivery and Transformation Group, Cabinet Office

Panel Chair:

Eric Salama, CEO Kantar Group