Goodbye from the conference

Goodbye from conference - it's been a facinating, thought provoking and challenging day.

I am looking forward to the next instalment of the Leadership of Place story in the East - and across the Country.

Watch this space.

The NHS perspective

Last - but by no means least - given the importance of the NHS to the Total Place agenda speaker was Sir Neil McKay, Chief Executive of the East of England Strategic Health Authority.

He outlined the NHS's strategy, built arounf a series of pledges, and told the story of the reality check the NHS received when the recession hit home.

"The cash we get will not reduce, but it will not increase," he said, which in real terms means a productivity gain of between £1.6 and £2 billion in the region - in other words, the NHS will have to do a lot more for the same amount of money.

Sir Neil outlined how the NHS was seeking those productivity gains from changes to the back office, procurement, asset management and estates, but that the main opportunity lay in improving the quality of clinical care by looking at services through the eyes of patients and their families.

And on Total Place - "The penny is dropping," he said.

Tough act to follow

Thank you Mark, and here's the final post or 2.

Stephen Haig from Taylor Haig, former Chief Executive of the Leadership Centre for Local Government, reminded everyone that if people in public services feel frustrated by the system, then its the system that needs changing.

His experience in Birmingham with their Total Place project has led him to a range of answers to the challenges facing public services:

* Look further ahead
* Prevention not cure
* Address the 'whole person', not the issue
* Break the cycle of the few people who consume a lot of money
* Expect citizens to do more for themselves than they do
* Stop dropping the ball at junctions - for example when people leave care
* Strip out partner overhead costs
* Sort out the buildings
* Stop doing things
* Budget outcomes for places

Switching bloggers

Sadly I now have to leave what has been a first class event in order to attend a dinner tonight in London - hopefully to see one of my colleagues from Cambridgeshire CC be named as Personnel Today's HR Director of the year.

With a couple of sessions to go, my colleague Andy Allsopp will publish any finally updates.

Very well done to Cecilia and the team at Improvement East for pulling together a really good day's programme.

Postscript - Before leaving, I did hear a rumour of a strange long-running rivalry between Bedfordshire and Dorset about the growing of the best chili peppers! I kid you not. And to add to the weirdness, reliable sources tell me that Michael O'Higgins, Chairman of the Audit Commission (and a chili lover apparently), has offered himself up as judge!

Goodbye from me.

Question Time

Before afternoon coffee, Michael Burton, the Editor of the Municipal Journal, chaired a panel of distinguished individuals from across the East of England and a representative of the event's sponsors, PWC. The full panel was:

• Cllr Jill Tuck, Cambridgeshire County Council


• Cllr Richard Stay, Central Bedfordshire Council


• Joanna Killian, Essex County Council


• Andrea Hill, Suffolk County Council


• Trevor Holden, Breckland District Council


• Andrew Ford, PWC
  

The first debate was about how to secure some short-term gains from the Total Place-type work going on across the region.

Secondly, the panel turned their attention to whether it will be possible to engage the whole of central government with locality-led initiatives like Total Place.

Next up was a discussion about the need for workforce development to change to reflect the increased need to work across organisational boundaries. There was a suggestion that the "improvement bodies" for different parts of the public sector (like Improvement East) need to work better together. One speaker suggested that current skill levels are not fit for purpose for the challenges we face.

In response to audience questions panelists talked about the need to invest in staff development and to use "bright sparks" to help drive change. The importance of politicians providing strategic leadership was emphasised, as was the role of the voluntary and community sector. Supporting more risk-taking and being supportive when it goes wrong was stressed.

The risk of councils holding back Total Place by talking of "getting control" was highlighted. The debate should be about "collective influence" over resources and services.

A good session. Well done to the panel.

The lives we lead, the leaders we need

The Leaders of Suffolk County Council and Suffolk Coastal Council, Cllrs Jeremy Pembroke and Ray Herring respectively, took to the stage next to talk about work in Suffolk to build trust and new strategic direction in the County.



They started by playing a video of voxpops with staff from across the different agencies talking about the difference the project is making. There was a particularly poignant moment as the video featured the recently deceased and much respected James Hehir.



Cllr Pembroke spoke of the importance of political buy-in to move projects of these type forward.



Cllr Herring emphasised the importance of effective leadership. Being a farmer as well as a Council Leader, he used a wonderful picture of a farmer and his herd of cows to beautifully illustrate the challenges of leadership.



In summary, Cllrs Pembroke and Herring talked about the financial challenges, increased demand for services and changes to service delivery leading to:

• Greater collaboration across public services
  
• Shared services and resources within local government
  
• Increased efficiency
  
• Change service standards
  
• "Doing it differently"

Lessons from across the pond

After a lovely lunch of locally sourced food we had a video link with Canada to hear from Maryantonett Flumian from the Canadian Institute on Governance about the 10 year long story of the creation of Service Canada.

She spoke of how citizens and businesses found government complex, fragmented and frustrating; service delivery has not been managed on a government-wide basis; and, the government's regional and community presence was at risk.

• These concerns led to Service Canada with five service transformation goals:


• Deliver seamless citizen-centred service


• Enhance the integrity of programmes


• Work as a collaborative networked government


• Demonstrate accountable and responsive government


• Build a culture of service excellence
  

Focus was not on fighting amongst different parts of government about how to reorganise but how to ensure a more coordinated and coherent government. Service based on "call, click, visit" - call 1 800 0-Canada, click www.servicecanada.gc.ca, visit Service Canada Centres. Supported by 110 processing centre and 4 technology sites.

Service Canada serves 32 million Canadians and is responsible for 50% of the Government of Canada budget in benefits to Canadians.

They set out their Service Commitment in:

• A Service Charter


• Setting up an Office of Client Satisfaction


• Setting Service Standards


• Publishing a Performance Scorecard
  

Maryantonett explained that Service Canada was bigger than e-Government - it was about transforming government to deliver better service, improved outcomes and lower costs.

Maryantonett's presentation was clear and helpful - particularly as at least one of our political parties is looking closely at the Canadian lessons.

Conversation in the Cloisters.

We moved from a session in the main theatre to six workshops.

Colleagues from all the organisations involved in Making Cambridgeshire Count hosted a conversation in the cloisters (see picture).as one of the workshops.

It was great to talk with colleagues from across the region and from national organisations about what we're doing in Making Cambridgeshire Count.

I hear very positive feedback from the other workshops too.

Steve Beet

Next up was Steve Beet, senior partner from PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Steve described the "perfect storm" coming towards public services including:

• Pressure from local funding and income generation


• Impact of the downturn on citizens and businesses


• Pressure on capital reserves


• Pressure on central funding


• Demographic and policy issues (eg ageing population)


• Timing issues (eg pension fund pressures)


• Pressure on partner organisations (eg fewer volunteers)
  

The traditional response is to find quick wins. Eg sell of some assets. The scale of the challenge facing us needs radical thinking and "pan-public sector transformation".

Look at issues like early intervention for example. The silo based budgets means it costs one organisation money to save money for another. Needs a Treasury level response.

We must use the crisis to leap forward - transformation is needed rather than an incremental approach.

We need leadership of a place and the reshaping and restructuring of local public bodies including:

• new delivery vehicles


• Changes in funding flows


• Meaningful budgetary pooling


• New governance arrangements


• Workforce reform


• Regulatory change


• Common processes and IT


• Shared commercial models

Resulting in major and concurrent changes that will be deeply felt.

• Steve's view of the Total Place journey is:


• Place analysis


• Understand the Wicked Issues


• Local answers


• New models
  

The challenge for leaders is:

• Acceptance of the enormity of what lies ahead


• Relish for the leadership and management challenge it raises


• Managing the "double hit" of the public sector downturn and the complexity of mergers.

Clear foresight and planning is essential. Building a coalition of support among staff for change will be needed to manage through tough times.

Right, now time for some coffee and reflection on what we've heard from Sir Michael and Steve.

Sir Michael Bichard

I managed to grab a word with Sir Michael before his keynote address. He is Executive Director of the Institute of Government and Chair of the Total Place high level officials group.

He delivered a very sobering speech at the event which made a strong case for Total Place.

He said, "We're wasting money... We have a countless number of public bodies delivering fragmented and often similar services... Residents receive services from 6 or 7 different agencies often with poor links between them... We seem to have accepted some failures in the system."

"Other countries do better... We need to find new ways of working together... We need to own up to the fact we're not using our resources very efficiently... £220bn a year being spent in procurement... £110bn a year being spent on common things like energy, travel, etc. Only £12bn a year goes through procurement agencies... We need to manage our supply network better."

"£25bn a year spent on public estate yet often there are many buildings closely clustered run by different services... This is hard to defend and is often because of our own organisational self interest."

"X County Council has 100 staff costing £4m a year to support inspection. A focus on process not outcome stops innovation. Government must listen to what localities are saying and to change... Aim is better services at less cost... Centralisation is not the way... Best ideas for improvement come from the frontline."

Everything we do from now on must be focused on residents and citizens. We must drive out unnecessary processes... Total Place is not a new concept... It aims to encourage people to behave in different ways. As well as the 13 (national) pilots there are 75 parallel local initiatives... Not about detailing to the last decimal point how much is spent on things... Need to quickly move on to making savings... Total Place must not be the same everywhere... Test is whether anything will change... Need more horizontal management of performance rather than vertical... Need to have health at the table... Encouraging that District Councils are recognising that don't need separate chief executives and management teams."

"Cabinet Secretary says we are convincing people in Government of the need to change."

"Successful collaboration depends on leadership. It's not now just about leading a single organisation. That's not enough. It's now about leading a place... Need a shared vision that impacts on the way people do their work... Need a set of public service values we can share... Organisations need to know more about each other's capabilities... Need trust between organisations and senior people have an important role in setting example by what they say about partners."

"Need people who are good at listening, influencing, negotiating, building relationships, shaping services... Do performance assessment frameworks reflect these different skills? Do we create the climate for innovation? There's not going to be much money in the budget next year and that's exactly why we need to innovate."

The big day dawns...

Looking forward to today's events - Michael Bichard, today's keynote speaker is here and hopefully I'll be able to grab a few words with him before his keynote speech - watch this space...

Just one more sleep...

I'm looking forward to sharing news from the Leadership of Place Conference tomorrow via this Blog. Do please encourage colleagues to visit the site during the day.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Improvement East Leadership of Place Conference blog.

This blog will be active at the conference, being hosted in Cambridgeshire, on Thursday November 26.

Mark Lloyd

Chief Executive

Cambridgeshire County Council