BUILDING COMPELLING E-GOVERNMENT SERVICES

Features: October 22nd, 2002

By Stephen Chandler As the e-Government programme bites further into the fabric of public services there is criticism about projects that overrun, budgets that grow out of hand and services that are underused once implemented. Stephen Chandler, who has steered the successful implementation of projects in central government, gives his view of the ingredients that bring success.



COMMITTED TO CHANGE?

Features: October 18th, 2002

By Ruth Townsley, Joyce Howarth, Mark Graham and Pete LeGrys, Involving customers in the development of policy or delivery of the services they receive, helps to bring a customer focus. A key challenge is bringing the stakeholders together. In this case people with learning difficulties, support staff, managers and policy-makers. The authors describe how strategies were developed to promote user involvement in recruiting staff for residential and day car and the difficulties of implementation.COMMITTED TO CHANGE?

By Ruth Townsley, Joyce Howarth, Mark Graham and Pete LeGrys,

The ‘Learning to choose staff’ project was aimed at promoting the involvement of people with learning difficulties in staff recruitment for residential and day services to adults with learning difficulties. The findings of this work have wider relevance to many situations where people who use services participate in their provision, either in delivery or policy development.

The ‘Learning to choose staff’ project put research findings directly into the hands of people with learning difficulties and professionals. Between 1998 and 2000, the project team worked with five organisations in England, all of which were providing services to people with learning difficulties.

The programme of work with each of the five sites followed a four-step format:

1. Bringing people together
2. Reflecting on current practice
3. Learning and planning
4. Developing, supporting and evaluating the initiatives.

Bringing people together

The first step involved bringing people together to discuss the scope and nature of the project and their involvement in it. The project team did this by setting up a series of introductory meetings and presentations at each site which focused on issues including: the benefits of user involvement in recruitment; the main stages of the recruitment process; participants’ expectations of the project and if/how these would be met; and a discussion of how the format of the training and development might be changed to fit any particular needs.

Reflecting on current practice

Participants at each of the five sites were supported to reflect on their current practice through a pre-training audit and goal-setting exercise. Interviews were conducted with professionals and people with learning difficulties, and enabled individuals and sites to look at their current practice and identify goals for their involvement in the project.

Learning and planning

This step involved organising and implementing a training programme and encouraging each site to draw up an action plan for developing its own initiatives. The training programme was presented to sites as a model for working together and for involving people with learning difficulties. Practitioners and people with learning difficulties learned about the recruitment process together, as well as about each other’s abilities, needs and perspectives. In this way, the project modelled good practice in user involvement through the actual format of the training itself.

The basic format of the training involved an initial three days’ training for people with learning difficulties and support staff together, followed by a day for managers and people with learning difficulties, and a further day for policy-makers and people with learning difficulties. The training days provided opportunities for participants to learn more about the recruitment process, and to work in partnership with each other to achieve effective user involvement. By the end of the training programme, each site had developed a detailed action plan for implementing the initiative within its own organisation.

Developing, supporting and evaluating initiatives

After the training, project participants took the initiatives forward within their own services, with some on-going support from the project team. The fourth step of the project was to conduct follow-up and evaluation work at each site via a series of follow-up meetings two to six months after the training, and final interviews six months to one year after the training. Interviews were held with people from each of the four stakeholder groups: people with learning difficulties, support staff, managers and policy-makers. Participants found that the final evaluation was a helpful way of reaffirming their commitment to the goals they had set themselves, emphasising an important link between the development and evaluation components of the project.

Strategies for promoting change and improving practice

By the end of their involvement in the project, four of the five sites had put further work into developing their plans for initiatives to promote user involvement in staff recruitment. Three sites had taken their plans forward at either policy or practice level.

Project participants developed a range of strategies for promoting user involvement in recruitment and changing their practice. These strategies fell within five main categories:

* commitment and attitudes;
* working together;
* organising resources;
* developing skills and knowledge;

The ways in which sites made use of these strategies for change had an impact on the extent to which participants managed to develop and implement initiatives. The most successful initiatives were developed at those sites which paid attention to all five themes and developed strategies to get the most value out of their involvement in the project. Generating and maintaining commitment and using evidence of success to change attitudes were fundamental. When commitment was lost, challenged or eroded, even the best-planned initiatives were unable to flourish.

Generating and maintaining commitment – threats and opportunities

Participants encountered the following threats to generating and maintaining commitment to the initiatives they set up:

* competing priorities, such as wider organisational change;
* lack of, or loss of, an active champion;
* lack of opportunities for putting learning into practice;
* difficulties in maintaining relationships between the four stakeholder groups, such as between support staff and managers, or between managers and policy-makers;
* uncertainty, or confusion, over the extent and nature of commitment to the initiative;
* no champions at policy level;
* resistance and lack of enthusiasm.

At several sites, however, practitioners and people with learning difficulties were able to overcome these threats by developing and maintaining commitment in the following ways:

* the existence of active champions at policy and practice levels;
* identifying key people from each stakeholder group and developing new champions for the initiative;
* maintaining relationships between the four stakeholder groups;
* responding to organisational and attitudinal challenges;
* using evidence of success as a means to encourage and enthuse others;
* keeping the initiative alive;
* sharing information about the topic with others;
* keeping the views of people with learning difficulties at the forefront so that policy was led and informed by practice;
* documenting and reviewing practice and obstacles;
* revising plans, and wider practice, where necessary.

Wider implications of the project

‘Learning to choose staff’ aimed to implement and evaluate the process of improving practice in one specific area – user involvement in staff recruitment. However, the project’s messages have wider relevance. The methodology itself, and the strategies developed by participants could be used to inform a range of other work. Projects that aim to increase participation in practice and policy by people who use services may benefit from paying attention to some of the issues faced, and strategies developed, by participants.

The project team developed the following checklist of strategies for success in promoting change and improving practice.

Commitment and attitudes

* identify and/or develop champions and other key people to take the initiative forward and support them as appropriate;
* promote the role of people with learning difficulties as central to the success of the initiative;
* clarify the extent and nature of commitment;
* document, in writing, commitment to take part in the project, and to the underlying principles of the project;
* respond to different levels of commitment and challenge attitudes where necessary;
* use evidence of success to promote and maintain commitment.

Working together

* identify key individuals, or contacts, within each organisation;
* identify other participants from each of these groups: people with learning difficulties, policy-makers, managers, support staff;
* get agreement to take part from all participants;
* develop rapport and close working with key contacts;
* keep the perspective of people with learning difficulties at the forefront;
* establish and develop relationships between stakeholder groups;
* encourage practitioners and people with learning difficulties to work together;
* include people with learning difficulties in meetings to discuss the project and initiatives where possible;
* find ways of keeping the initiative alive.

Organising resources

* respond to the advice of key contacts and their working styles;
* plan and develop initiatives for taking forward user involvement in recruitment;
* set realistic and achievable goals including details of who will do what by when;
* provide support for those involved, especially people with learning difficulties;
* maintain flexibility;
* respond to challenges as they arise.

Developing skills and knowledge

* share information about the topic;
* recognise and value each other’s abilities, needs and perspectives;
* ensure shared understanding of concepts;
* learn about the benefits, theory and practice of the initiative (e.g. the recruitment process and how to involve people with learning difficulties in this);
* model good practice;
* keep learning up-to-date;
* provide opportunities for putting learning into practice.

Evaluating the process

* document on-going work and share this with others, including those ‘outside’ the initiative;
* reflect on current practice;
* reflect on obstacles and opportunities;
* evaluate progress against action plans/goals;
* revise plans if necessary;
* collect process and outcome data using a variety of methods (e.g. questionnaires, interviews, notes of meetings);
* agree a date to feed back outcomes to everyone.

About the project

The project was based at the Norah Fry Research Centre, University of Bristol. The work with sites took place in England between October 1998 and May 2000. The five sites represented large, medium, and small providers of statutory, voluntary and private residential or day services to adults with learning difficulties.

How to get further information

The full report, Committed to change? Promoting the involvement of people with learning difficulties in staff recruitment by Ruth Townsley, Joyce Howarth, Mark Graham and Pete LeGrys, is published for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by The Policy Press (ISBN 1 86134 434 1, price £13.95). It is available from Marston Book Services, PO Box 269, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4YN, Tel: 01235 465500, Fax: 01235 465556, email: direct.orders@marston.co.uk. (Please add £2.75 p&p for first book and 50p per book thereafter.)

E-GOVERNMENT: PRINCIPLES AND PROGRESS – THE VIEW FROM THE CENTRE

Features: October 16th, 2002

By John Healey MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury Reproduced by permission of eGov Monitor Weekly.The view of e-Government from the center highlights the major challenges facing public services. The author highlights the priorities which include putting the citizen at the center of services, providing online transaction facilities, encouraging take-up and ensuring that there is easy access for all.

AN ALTERNATIVE TO CROSS-CHARGING

Features: October 11th, 2002

By Penny Banks Proposals to impose penalties on social services for failing to prevent delayed discharges have raised the temperature of the cross-charging debate. The author argues a strategic approach should be taken to securing change in a complex system. Priority should be given to supporting cultural change and equipping managers and staff to work in new ways as well as ensuring elected members, non-executives, users and carers are fully engaged.

IT’S HOLLAND VERSES ENGLAND IN THE RACE FOR E-PROVISION

Features: October 8th, 2002

By John Thornton The Dutch approach to developing e-government is to get facilities up and running and to create early successes. In contrast the UK approach is to take a longer and wider view and implement more slowly. The author contrasts the two approaches, looking at areas where citizens in Holland are already benefiting from new technology.

TEN STEPS TO POLICY HEAVEN

Features: October 4th, 2002

By Michael Barber. Reproduced by permission of the Centre for Management and Policy Studies. Insights into the way officials in Whitehall craft policies to bring about reform are rare. Michael Barber, The Prime Minister’s Chief Adviser on Delivery sets out the policy making process, with advice for policy makers on how to make it work better. For the wider audience his thoughts reveal the trials and tribulations that policy makers face in turning ideas into practical results.

MISCONCEPTIONS OF WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY

Features: October 1st, 2002

By John Witty More public services are looking at wireless technology where cable is not practical, too expensive, or where it cannot be delivered quickly enough. Some are deterred from looking because of the misconceptions that surround the technology. The author looks at the concerns expressed about security issues, interference with transmission, weather susceptibility and the health dangers posed by microwaves.

COMMISSION ON POVERTY, PARTICIPATION AND POWER: AN EVALUATION

Features: September 27th, 2002

By Sarah del Tufo and Lucy Gaster People experiencing poverty do not influence decision-making and policy. Six grassroots people with direct experience of poverty, and six people in public life were brought together to form the Commission and find out why. The result was a different kind of report, rooted in real experience and in ‘street language’, through a different kind of commission process.

SEAMLESS ROAMING IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Features: September 24th, 2002

By Neil Hollins The development of wireless technology is bringing opportunities to do things in different ways. The author explains how mobile staff in local government can link directly into systems at base, process requests and get information. He also describes an implementation approach.

AN AMERICAN TALE: MODERNISING PUBLIC SERVICES

Features: September 20th, 2002

By Brendan Martin Reproduced by permission of The Catalyst Forum In 1992 the new Mayor Indianapolis was elected on a platform of public service privatization. The initial conflict with the union later turned into a partnership to tackle the problems of the city. The author describes the forces that changed attitudes, the way the partnership works and the success it has achieved.

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