By Sir Andrew Turnbull, Secretary of the Cabinet and Head of the Home Civil Service. Reproduced by permission of the Centre for Management and Policy Studies. The Civil Service has improved its capacity and capability over a number of years, but it hasn’t been enough. The big win, customer satisfaction, has yet to be achieved. Sir Andrew outlines the strategy for delivering the reform agenda and securing the long hoped for transformation.
Organisational culture barriers such as defensiveness, a reliance on assumptions, and a lack of trust, are putting almost half of public sector Customer Relationship Management projects at risk. According to research by DPA Corporate Communications, 48% of CRM managers feel that such cultural barriers have forced their organisations into, or very close to, a “danger zone” where the risk and challenge around CRM projects is deemed unacceptably high. CRM programmes are a major element of the eGovernment modernisation and service improvement objectives that public service must achieve by 2005.The research highlighted that cultural issues are amongst the biggest stumbling blocks facing many CRM implementations.
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Eighteen local education authorities will share a 10 million pound fund to develop areas in school to support the changing nature of education. The individual projects will be designed around the Government’s workforce reform agenda in which teachers are freed of administrative tasks, and the role and responsibility of support staff is boosted.Some projects will provide enhanced staff facilities for planning, preparation and assessment, on-the-spot work bases and creches for teachers’ children. Other schools will be constructing new e-learning and resource centres for staff and pupils, while another project will provide an improved working environment for education and health professionals in a special school.