21 July 2006
Whitehall officials must improve the design and operation of the administrative systems underpinning UK services if targeted public sector improvements are to be achieved, influential MPs have warned.
A report by the Commons' Public Accounts Committee, published on July 18, singled out the departments of Revenue and Customs, Health, Transport and Work and Pensions for failing to account fully for their customers in the design and delivery of services.
Committee chair Edward Leigh warned that 'too often' services are 'designed for the convenience of the official and not the people'.
Leigh said that many felt 'let down' by the services they experience. Referring to Whitehall and local government's tendency to outsource responsibility for services to new agencies or call centres without properly considering quality, Leigh warned: '[People] do not want to be handled by staff who know nothing about them. They do not want to be greeted by impersonal answerphone messages or be expected to complete long forms.'
The study, Delivering high quality public services for all, claims that departments are still failing to consult effectively where their services overlap.
It also attacks the failure to resolve difficulties with crucial IT systems (such as that underpinning the tax credits system), the continued 'postcode lottery' in health care services, and the problems that people from ethnic minorities, the elderly and people with disabilities have accessing services.
The report also warns Whitehall against continually tampering with delivery systems. Last month, Prime Minister Tony Blair warned practitioners that increasing demands from customers meant that 'change and reforms in the public services... will be continual'.
But the PAC claims that 'political pressure to establish or expand... [services] as quickly as possible will increase the likelihood of such projects being ill-defined and poorly planned, wasting public money'.
Richard Bacon, Conservative member of the committee, said: 'The public are subjected to schemes that seem like a good idea but fail to deliver real improvements. In some cases Whitehall can make life harder for people already in need of assistance, as we have seen with the tax credits mess.'
However, the study is not entirely critical. Initiatives and key policy changes at many organisations are praised. These include the 'transformed services' offered by DWP agency Jobcentre Plus, including the successful switch to on-line jobseekers' services.
Jobcentre Plus was recently criticised by backbench MPs for failing to deliver many of its services effectively, but the PAC reports that local JCP offices still provide a 'far more pleasant environment than the traditional social security offices, which were too often old, poorly maintained and shabbily furnished'.
Despite criticising some call centres for a lack of customer care, others are praised for providing the public with 24-hour access to services.
Health officials are commended for reducing waiting times, while the Public Guardianship Office is praised for protecting the financial interests of people who develop mental health problems.
Finally, R&C was praised for delivering 100% of its services electronically by 2005.
Growing Whitehall absenteeism bucks public sector trend
Absence among Whitehall staff is creeping up in contrast to general public sector trends, according to a survey published this week.
The July 17 report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found absence levels among central government workers had increased by 0.5% to 4.6% or 10.5 days per employee per year.
This was in contrast to the remainder of the public sector where absence rates were found to be decreasing in most cases. Overall, public sector absence fell from 10.3 days per employee per year to 9.9 days, with the health sector reporting the biggest drop, down from 11.6 days to 10.4 days. Local government was the only other sector that, like Whitehall, saw an increase in absence rates.
CIPD experts are concerned that the gulf between public and private sector absence rates remains too wide. In the private sector, an employee's average absence rate stood at just 7.5 days per year.
Ben Willmott, CIPD's employment relations adviser and author of the report, said there was a cultural difference on absence management between the two sectors.
'The public services much more frequently address problem levels of employee absence as a matter of health and capability, while private sector organisations are proportionately more likely to manage absence as an issue of conduct through the disciplinary process,' he said.
'This contract is perhaps an area that public sector organisations should consider when they are looking at ways of continuing to reduce high levels of employee absence.'
Commenting on the report, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber, said public sector workers were no more likely to take time off sick than their private sector counterparts.
'This research ignores the fact that public sector employers are more likely to try to retain members of staff who have been off work whereas workers who take time off ill in the private sector run the risk of being sacked,' Barber said.
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