Wednesday 29 June 2016
Delivered by Deputy Gavin St Pier, President of the Policy & Resources Committee, to the States Assembly on Wednesday 29 June 2016
**Note to media - check against delivery**
Sir,
At the last meeting of the States of Deliberation, I set out our economic and fiscal position, up to the end of the first quarter of this year. I also set out the steps that we are taking, in order to meet the challenges that we face in meeting budget in 2016 - and that come up in yesterday in the debate on last year's accounts. I undertook to keep the States regularly updated on our fiscal position - and I can reassure members that the Policy & Resources Committee is committed to take such further steps as are necessary to ensure the best possible fiscal outturn for this year.
The message, I hope, was clear - expenditure restraint, the delivery of reform and economic growth must take priority.
The transformation agenda of the public service is one of the foundations for that. As members have already been advised, Policy & Resources have agreed that I will provide the political leadership of the transformation agenda - and in that capacity, I will - as with the fiscal position - and with your consent Sir - continue to keep the States regularly updated as to its progress. That is the purpose of this Statement.
Last autumn the States of Deliberation unanimously endorsed the public service reform framework that had been set out by the leadership of the public service; and in autumn of this year the Policy & Resources Committee will provide an update on that work.
That work is vital for well-understood reasons. By changing the way that we deliver services, we can make them more sustainable, so better meeting the long term needs of our community; we can reduce costs and remove duplication; and we can support growth in the economy.
That is why I want to clarify, briefly and early in the new term, ahead of the scheduled autumn update, where we are with the transformation agenda, and what the next steps will be.
It is important to recognise that a significant amount of work has already been undertaken over the course of 2016 to date, in order to deliver civil service reform. This was vital to support and prepare for the changes to the machinery of government that were implemented as a result of the recommendations of the States Review Committee.
The move since 1 May to fewer Offices, and with clearer distinctions between political leadership and operational accountability, has been supported by changes in the structure of the civil service.
The Policy and Resource Plan that we are developing must establish stronger cross-committee working, joined up policy development, joined up service delivery, and prioritisation.
The broader public service reform work - the transformation of our island's public services - is essential to delivering this more effective government, and the civil service is providing the leadership required in order to deliver that.
It is also essential that the public service reform work reduces cost; a point that the civil service leadership and the Policy & Resources Committee have discussed and are agreed upon.
With that in mind the Policy & Resources Committee, has agreed a set of target reductions in spending for the public service reform work to deliver over the period 2017-19 inclusive. The civil service leadership have advised and agreed that, in their opinion, these targets are reasonable; and that the States, as an organisation, is capable of delivering them. I would therefore hope and expect this to be reflected in the advice which Committees receive from their officers. In 2017 cost reductions of three per cent in real terms will be sought from committee budgets, excluding Health & Social Care and the formula led budgets.
That equates to about £5-6m on around £200m of spending. In 2018 reductions of up to a further five per cent; and the same again - up to five per cent - in 2019. We have spoken to the principal Committee Presidents to update them on these public service reform targets. More detailed engagement will now need to take place to agree the position with each Committee. These reductions in cost will be delivered as part of service transformation, which will operate at four different levels.
The first level, the highest level, is the systematic review and re-design of services. This is focused on a number of significant areas.
In February 2016, the then Health and Social Services Department Board, the Policy Council and the Treasury & Resources Board agreed a high-level programme and objectives for the transformation of health and social care services. The work on this programme has enabled the Committee for Health & Social Care and their senior civil servants to develop and agree the so-called 'critical success factors' - in other words, the measures of success - for a transformed health and social care service.
This is a long-term piece of work with a Policy Letter to the States expected in the second half of 2017.
This Policy Letter will set out the preferred model and the specific activities, timelines and costs for its delivery. It is a major undertaking and needs strong and effective planning and governance. Collectively, we, the States as a whole, must co-own the problem in order that Health & Social Care Services can solve it.
Another longer term initiative, the Contribution and Taxation Services programme, has already started and the next steps in this initiative were agreed by the then Social Security and Treasury & Resources Boards in March 2016. Work is now underway to develop a combined collections function for social security contributions and income tax payments, focused on removing duplication, reducing costs and improving the experience for islanders and businesses as users of those services. Again, as well as this longer-term work to develop new service delivery models, delivering improvements within our existing services remains a priority.
Work is also ongoing to complete the systematic review and re-design of the operational service areas within the Committee for Home Affairs, through the Home Operational Services Transformation programme, or HOST, with the business-case for the transformation of services due by the end of this year.
In addition to this, a framework for the digitisation of government services, which will support the transformation objectives, is being developed for consideration by the Policy & Resources Committee in due course.
The second level of transformation is piloting new ways of working. This includes making better use of technology, to allow us to use the States' property estate more smartly, to reduce costs and improve services.
In my statement to the Assembly last month and in the debate yesterday on the 2015 accounts, I highlighted the importance of maximising our assets through the States' Trading Supervisory Board, and our estate is one of our assets.
This transformation work stream supports the maximisation of our assets, and I am pleased to tell Members that the Policy & Resources Committee has been informed by the Chief Executive that by the end of 2017, the States will have moved out of two of its current sites, consolidating services and staff in other buildings; reducing costs, reducing duplication and improving the way that services are delivered; supporting more joined up working across government. Those sites have yet to be finalised, and options are being actively considered at this stage. I expect them to be confirmed when the States is updated on public service reform in the autumn.
The third and fourth levels of transformation are the service improvement projects that each Committee will consider, and the incremental changes and continuous improvements that are made to services every day by staff. The importance of making 100 small changes is often highlighted, and some of these changes fall into this category - small, quiet, cost neutral changes that are made on an ongoing basis, and which improve access to services and the way that they are delivered.
These areas will be critical in achieving the proposed savings target for 2017 and when the Policy & Resources Committee reports back later this year, we will also give examples of the benefits of work in these areas as well.
There is, then, significant activity being undertaken in transformation. Much of it over the past 12 months has been in relation to two things: civil service reform, to support the new system of government; and to putting in place the building blocks for the next significant steps.
I want to add finally that the transformation and public service reform agenda will not be happening in a vacuum. There will and must be clear and explicit links between the priorities of the Policy & Resources plan, our transformation agenda and activities, and our capital investment programme, and through this integrated approach we can ensure it meets the needs of our community in the long-term.
Deputy Gavin St. Pier
President, Policy & Resources Committee
29th June 2016
