Annex B
SHARED SERVICES TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME
DEFRA SECTOR PLAN
1. PURPOSE OF
THIS DOCUMENT
The UK Public Sector consists of over 1,300
organisations including Departments, NDPB's, Agencies, Local Authorities,
Police, Primary Care Trusts, etc. To co-ordinate the shared service
discussion and facilitate the adoption of shared shares across
Government, these 1,300 organisations have been split into groups,
referred to as Sectors.
Organisations have been aligned to a Sector
for their similarities in areas such as objectives, funding, governance,
service delivery, operations and scale. There are nine Sectors
for which shared services plans are being produced. These are
Defra, Education and Skills, Central Government, Local Government,
Health, Revenue and Customs, Work and Pensions, Defence, Government
"family" groupings, the Rest of Central Government.
This paper sets out the plan for shared services
for the Defra group of organisations, the Defra Sector.[8]
The Defra Sector Plan will outline our strategic
intent with respect to customer take up, aligning current and
future development of shared services initiatives across the Defra
family and others to provide a framework that will:
— optimise the return on investment
made to date;
— outline new investment already
committed; and
— guide future investment decisions.
This is a living document that will evolve over
time as the landscape changes, as decisions are taken and as new
information becomes available.
2. GUIDING PRINCIPLES
The Defra Sector Shared Services Programme Board
is focused on achieving outcomes and benefits for businesses through
the transformation of support services. Our vision is that the
Defra "Family" Shared Services organisation (SSO) will
be able to differentiate themselves and their services by focusing
on the end customer rather than just efficiencies. By focusing
on the "product" and offering to the family customers,
the shared services organisation will add "value", in
the customers eyes, over and above what businesses believe they
can deliver alone.
By putting our customers at the heart of our
sector plan we are recognising their business needs and identifying
ways in which our expertise can support and deliver what they
require. Our uniqueness will be in the design, delivery and support
of the interface between the "internal customers"[9]
(corporate services) and the external customer (the front-line).[10]
Customers have increasingly sophisticated requirements and demand
ever higher standards of service so building better relationships
with customers is one way to achieve an advantage, another is
to create a confident, knowledgeable and motivated workforce and
rewarding culture.
In order to achieve this we need to become entirely
focused on customers and their business, our service and employee
communication at all levels. Our commitment to customers needs
to go deep into our business. At the moment we are spending too
much time making sure we are doing things right rather than making
sure we are doing the right things. Our approach to creating an
organisation for customers means that:
(i) Our customer will be able to select products
and services because they believe they offer superior value to
their business. To deliver we need to understand their needs and
will introduce a "service relationship" element to our
organisation.
(ii) Our customers will be able to differentiate
our service from other offerings because of its simplicity—we
will be easy to access, responsive to enquiries and integrated
in our delivery.
(iii) Through an effective methodology of
continuous improvement the Shared services organisation will be
able to develop new services and products that offer better value
(which will require us to focus on performance, costs, responsiveness,
channels and price).
(iv) We will need to promote the work that
we do to demonstrate and influence customers that what we do is
better than anyone else. This involves providing services in ways
that the target audience recognises and promotes and markets the
organisation.
3. SCOPE
3.1 Organisations
The table below sets out all of the organisations
(Department, Agencies, and NDPB's) that collectively form the
Defra Family.
|
| Organisation(s) | No of Orgns
| FTE No's | FTE No's[11]
|
|
| Defra Executive Agencies |
| | |
| Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science
| | 500 |
|
| Central Science Laboratory, |
| 600 | |
| Rural Payments Agency, | |
2,500 | |
| State Veterinary Service, |
| 1,300 | |
| Veterinary Laboratories Agency, | 5
| 1,200 | 6,100
|
| Defra Executive Agencies (FTE's < 500)
| | | |
| Government Decontamination Service, |
| | |
| Marine Fisheries Agency, |
| | |
| Pesticide Safety Directorate, |
| | |
| Veterinary Medicines Directorate, | 4
| 500 | 500
|
| Core Department and Divisions |
| | |
| Core Defra, | 1
| 3,900 | 3,900
|
| Defra Executive NDPB's (FTE's > 500)
| | | |
| Environment Agency, | |
12,200[12]
| |
| Natural England (Countryside Agency, Rural Development Service, English Nature),
| | 2,800 |
|
| Meat and Livestock Commission, |
| 650 | |
| Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, | 4
| 650 | 16,300
|
| Defra Executive NDPB's (FTE's < 500)
| | | |
| Agricultural Wages Board, Agricultural Wages Committee, British Potato Council, Consumer Council for Water, Food from Britain, Gangmasters Licensing Authority, Home-Grown Cereals Authority, Horticultural Development Council, Joint Nature Conservation Council, Milk Development Council, National Forest Council, Sea Fish Industry Authority, Wine Standards Board
| 13 | 500
| 500 |
| Public Bodies | |
| |
| British Waterways, | | 1,900
| |
| Covent Garden Market Authority, | 2
| 100 | 2,000
|
| Total | 29
| 29,300 | 29,300
|
|
3.2 Operating model (Functions)
The current focus for shared services is on corporate services,
in particular HR, Finance, Procurement and Estates. The proposed
operating model initially addresses the roles of key functions
but also looks at shared services being wider than just setting
up a centre for transactional activities with its impact being
more far-reaching.
Non corporate services have not been considered as part of
this sector plan. However, as the shared services organisation
matures the opportunity to expand services into Front Line activities
will be kept under review.
4. ROUTE MAP
4.1 Shared Service Facilities
The Defra Sector Board has identified two primary shared
services organisations to support the Defra Sector in the period
to 2010-11. These include:
|
| Primary Shared Service Facility |
Target Organisations served
|
|
| Defra Family Shared Services Directorate
| Defra Family, and other government departments[13] "buying" services from DFSSD
|
| Environment Agency[14]
| Environment Agency |
|
4.2 Summary Route Map
In relation to the longer term evolution of the SSO, the
following route map provides an illustration of the current thinking
in relation to a likely migration/convergence path. (It is recognised
that the route map also raises a number of issues that need further
discussion).
Work on the detailed route map is underway and will continue
for sometime as the concept of an "intelligent customer"
and "educated service organisation" are developed/implemented.
For the Shared service organisation some very practical issues
have to be worked through to ensure an effective customer migration
plan is jointly pulled together and key questions that help us
include:
— Where does duplication already exist across
the current service provision?
— What sources of information exist in the
customer organisation?
— What is the current corporate service provision
within the customer organisation?
— What is the current management information
within the customer organisation?
— What are the current costs of delivery?
— What are some of the current performance
indicators?
— What is the current investment cycle?
In turn, a number of principles need to be defined and agreed
by the customer organisation in order to complete any migration
plan:
— ensure that the rate of transition is one
which the organisation can absorb the changes and embed them into
the business;
— ensure that the rate of transition is one
which minimises disruption to the on-going business operation
and services;
— ensure that the systems are delivered in
a timely manner and do not become the sole determining of when
to make the transition in the respective customer business;
— minimise the need for dual working (old and
new processes/systems concurrently);
— group the activities that go-live together
based on where they impact the same process and or groups of people;
— progressively bring in the flow of benefits;
— transfer of knowledge to and from the customer
organisations;
— Progressively rollout to the organisations,
each moving in turn to be supported by the shared service organisation;
and
— capturing the learning from earlier work
and applying it to the next phase of work.
5. OUTCOMES
The Defra Shared Services Sector Plan aims to deliver the
outcomes set out below by 2011.
General Outcomes:
— more easily accessible and responsive support
services;
— Greater co-operation and sharing of best
practice through the use of agreed indicators including upper
quartile benchmarks;
— improved accountability at all levels throughout
organisations;
— better management of customer service and
customer expectations;
— continuous improvement in service delivery;
and
— better management information to support
organisations own business effectiveness.
Specific Outcomes:
— delivers an operational shared services organisation
by end 2006;
— delivers operational improvements which enable
upper quartile benchmarks to be delivered by 2010-11[15];
and
— seen by other central government departments
as an exemplar shared services operation from where to "buy"
services where the preference is from a central government provider.
6. GOVERNANCE
The programme of transformation for the Defra sector will
be lead through the following governance arrangements, making
use of existing arrangements wherever feasible.
The Defra Shared Services Programme Board[16]
will expand to take on the remit of the Defra Sector Board and
will track progress against the Sector Plan. This board will be
constituted with representatives from the Defra Family and other
Government departments as they become customers. Key decisions
will be escalated to the Management Board[17]
for ratification and where required direction.
7. SHARING SERVICES
BEYOND DEPARTMENTAL
BOUNDARIES
In developing the Defra Sector plan it has been recognised
that there are a number of other central government departments
who are keen to move to a shared services operating model, but:
— do not have sufficient scale on their own;
— would need to make a major financial investment
which has not been planned for;
— would be unlikely to secure the benefits
required in the CSR07 timeframe if they undertake their own programme;
and
— would like to work with another central government
department who already has an established SSO and is of a similar
size thus ensuring equal recognition when compared to the parent
organisation being supported.
In addition, Defra is keen to contribute to the broader cross
government/public sector shared service initiative and promote
the wider sharing of back office services. As one of the sectors
in the forefront of developing shared services capability, Defra
is committed to building a differentiated back office shared service.
The intent is to set the shared service within a clear and equitable
legal, governance and commercial model, which is flexible and
responsive, not only to the immediate Defra family requirements,
but to meet the needs of other departments or agencies in order
to improve their service delivery experience. This will provide
broader economies of scale and contribute to a transformation
of back office service delivery in government.
8
References to the Defra Sector (DS) refer to: the Defra Family
(DF) further described in Section 3.1, and other government departments
who may join the Defra Shared Services Organisation. Back
9
Internal Customers-provision of transactional services to customers
(eg invoice processing) to Defra Family, and other central government
departments. Back
10
Front Line refers to the core functions of the departments (eg
CSL where the SSO will be key to the development of the agency
through the provision of timely/focused management information
to support CSL's science work). Back
11
Full Time Equivalents. Back
12
At this stage it is envisaged that EA will maintain its' existing
corporate services arrangements, however, it is the strategic
intent of the Department that by 2010-11 that the opportunity
will be taken to integrate the EA and DFSSD operations. Back
13
Includes DFES and where appropriate other central government
departments. Back
14
EA is currently considering the best way forward in respect
of the delivery of its back office functions. Back
15
Upper quartile benchmarks to reflect Primary shared services
KPI metrics. Back
16
Defra Shared Services Programme Board comprises: Defra Chief
Operating Officer (Chairman), Head of Defra Corporate Services
(SRO), SSO Chief Executive Officer, Customer Representative(s). Back
17
Chaired by Permanent Secretary. Back
|
