Transcript Titles - Arial 44 - Queen Margaret University

ACCOUNTABILITY
ENABLER OR INHIBITOR OF
INNOVATION IN SCOTTISH PUBLIC
SERVICES?
THE REFORM INHERITANCE
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Financial Management Initiative (FMI)
Departmental Running Cost control
Next Steps – Executive Agencies
Market testing and contracting out
Performance management/KPIs and targets
Performance related pay
Citizen’s Charter
Continuity and Change
Modernising Government
RISK AND INNOVATION
Risk aversion: the cultures of Parliament, Ministers
and the civil service create a situation in which the
rewards for success are limited and penalties for
failure can be severe. The system is too often risk
averse.
Creating a more innovative and less risk-averse
culture in the civil service
Source: Modernising Government (1999) Cabinet Office Cm 4310
MORE RISK AVERSION
……….appropriate levels of risk taking
Source: Excellence and Fairness: Achieving world class public services
(2008) Cabinet Office
Civil Servants and agency staff are widely seen as
more risk-averse than private sector personnel
Source: Achieving Innovation in Central Government Departments (2006) NAO
WHAT THE UK GOVERNMENT SAYS
• Achieving world class services requires high
performers to have the freedoms and flexibilities to
respond to the needs of those who use the service
and to drive innovation …..
• Departments will ensure that incentives are in place
to encourage innovation ……
• Government …has an important role to play ….
ensuring that….incentives are in place to encourage
innovation and appropriate levels of risk taking.
• It means unlocking the creativity and ambition of
public sector workers to innovate ….
Source: Excellence and Fairness: Achieving world class public services (2008)
Cabinet Office
NATIONAL OUTCOMES
We are better educated, more skilled and more
successful, renowned for our research and innovation
Our public services are high quality, continually
improving, efficient and responsive to local people’s
needs
Source: National Performance Framework (Scottish Government)
INNOVATE IF YOU DARE
You can score a 'high' if…..you can demonstrate
greater contribution to the selected regional priority
through adoption of new and sound ideas,
technology, skills or methods of delivery which, at a
minimum, are novel for the region in which the
proposal is based.
Note, however, that adopting an untried innovative
approach, the risk of potential failure is increased and
so this may be reflected in the score given against
the Group 3 criteria - Demonstrate Feasibility.
Source: Scotland Rural Development Programme 2007-13 (Scottish
Government website)
TRANSFORMING GOVERNMENT
…as a small, well-connected country, Scotland has
the conditions to be a public sector hothouse for
innovation – finding new solutions to old problems,
and tackling emerging issues. ….We need to create a
culture which recognises innovation, builds on it and
spreads it around the system, and we need to ensure
that we have the structures and incentives that allow
innovation to flourish.
Source: Transforming Government (2006) The Scottish Executive
WHAT IS INNOVATION?
An innovation is an idea, practice, or object
perceived as new by an individual. It matters
little….whether or not an idea is “objectively” new as
measured by the lapse of time since its first use or
discovery…If an idea seems new to the individual, it
is an innovation.
Rogers, E. and F. Shoemaker (1971) Communication of Innovation, NY
A new method, idea, product, etc.
Source: The Concise Oxford Dictionary
THE WHITEHALL INNOVATION HUB …..
• a solution to a particular social, economic and
environment problem
• those coming up with a solution tend to be close to
the problem and to frontline staff
• new ways of working, new relationships and radical
new ways of delivering public services - rather than
new ideas or products
• collaboration is at the heart of public service
innovation
• innovation has moved beyond improvement, which is
more concerned with making existing systems work
faster - and involves a redesign of systems,
relationships and practices
• being galvanised by champions of change
ACCOUNTABILITY = RESPONSIBILITY?
“…….a Minister is "accountable" to Parliament for
everything which goes on within his Department, in the
sense that Parliament can call the Minister to account for it.
The Minister is responsible for the policies of the
Department…for the resources allocated….. But a Minister
cannot sensibly be held responsible for everything which
goes on in his Department in the sense of having personal
knowledge and control of every action taken and being
personally blameworthy when delegated tasks are carried
out incompetently, or when mistakes or errors of judgement
are made at operational level.”
Source: Taking Forward Continuity and Change (1995)
ACCOUNTABILITY, RESPONSIBILITY AND
DELEGATION
• ….if Ministers were to be held personally responsible for
every action of the Department, delegation and efficiency
would be much inhibited……. Nor [must] Ministers ..be
expected to be personally responsible, in the sense of
being creditworthy or blameworthy, for every action of their
department.
Source: Taking Forward Continuity and Change: (1995)
• In practice, you will have delegated authority widely, but
cannot on that account disclaim responsibility.
Memorandum to Accountable Officers in the Scottish Executive from the
Principal Accountable Officer under the Public Finance and Accountability
(Scotland) Act 2000
ACCOUNTABILITY IN SCOTLAND
• Scottish Parliament
– PR and 4 year Parliaments
– PQs/Debates/Committees
– Letters from MSPs to Ministers
• Published plans KPIs and targets
– PfG/PA/ NPF/Scotland Performs
– Business Plans and Annual Reports
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Inspection and Audit
Outcome Agreements
Media and FOI
Elections to Health Boards
Impact of Scottish Parliament on standards in
NHS and Education
80
70
60
%
50
40
30
20
10
0
1997
1997
1999
2001
Years
NHS
Education
Source: Scottish Social Attitudes Survey 2007
2003
2006
ENABLED OR INHIBITED?
Inhibited by
• KPIs/targets
• Short-termism
• Audit and inspection
• Bureaucracy
• Lack of space
• Command and control
• Lack of incentives
• Blame culture
• Galvanisers?
Enabled by
• Outcomes
• Longer term-ism
• Crerar?
• Customer focus
• Technology
• Empowerment
• Partnership working
• Community planning?
CONCLUSION
• Inhibitors outweigh enablers
• We need
– Real progress on outcomes and scrutiny
– Political champions
– New messages/new accountabilities
– Mature approach to arm’s length delivery
– Empowerment and trust
– Incentives
– End to the blame culture