Transparency: rambling questions (Part 2: event advert)

Following up on the previous thread: http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/reg/blog-display.do?id=7661290&userId=1367291

I thought I would let people know of a forthcoming conference on these matters:

The Future of Transparency in Local Government

Tuesday 7th December 2010
Westminster Studio, London SW1

The link is here: http://www.neilstewartassociates.com/sa268/index.php

I was invited to make a few comments about event whilst it was in the planning stage - which I did (and turned my comments into the previous blog post...) - which the conference producer found helpful. She has now asked me to be part of the panel on that day - at the end of the morning. 

Do come along if you can - and I will be sure to read through everyone's contributions from the previous discussion thread - if I get the time - I will plug this forum too!

Creative thinking about income generation

One of the more popular posts on my small creative ideas blog is about income generation - people often stumble across from a google search, it seems. (The original post is here: http://smallcreativeideas.blogspot.com/2009/04/thinking-about-income-generation.html if you want to go there)

Meanwhile - it seemed to me - given these austere times that people might have interest in reading this post here too:

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Below is a list of 'resource types' that all voluntary and public services have in some way. I have used the whimsical (and probably not very ethical) example of what a local church might do to generate income - to illustrate these resource types. I hasten to add that I am not advocating any of these methods at all! (One of the first rules of income generation is that whatever you do - has to accord with your ethical principles and legal parameters.)  

• Staff - Knowledge & Creativity (Vicar offers counselling to local businesses)
• Staff - Staff time (Choir Sings for Local Radio to create Christmas jingles)
• Staff - As potential customers  (Send a list of parishioners to religious publisher)
• Staff - Non work expertise (Church Warden's model making expertise to sell to local firm of architects)
• Information - Patterns of performance & results.(Send popular hymns chosen for services to music publishers)
• Information - About individual clients / users etc. (Send names of babies Christened to the local branch of Mothercare)
• Physical Assets - Buildings (Use the Church steeple for a mobile phone mast)
• Physical Assets - General Equipment (Loan church hall chairs to local hotel for big events)
• Physical Assets - Specialist Equipment (Charge for access to register of births and deaths to people researching family trees)
• Stakeholders - As potential customers (Church Commissioners to offer ethical financial advice)
• Stakeholders - As potential sponsors or supporters (Local Firms advertising in church newsletter)
• Stakeholders - As potential partners (advertise local education evening adult ed classes)
• Profile - ‘Brand’ reputation (Give stamp of approval to a pine furniture manufacturer)
• Profile - Access to media and public (Charge for inserts in the newsletter such as pizza delivery businesses)
• Systems and services - Software (Sell petty cash system to local shops)
• Systems and services - Expertise in how things are done (Sell skills at organising large events (the fete) to local businesses wanting celebrations)
• Systems and services - ‘Piggy backing’ existing services (Arrange to tie up marriage services with local dressmaker)
• Waste  ...is someone else’s supply...? (Church space on weekdays use for a Local nursery) 

Further information (although some of this may be out of date now): 

• http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4130667 (Guidance on income generation for theNHS)
• http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/finance-and-business-planning/income_generation.pdf(Guidance for the police)
• http://www.derby.ac.uk/bdu/consultancy-income-generation-intellectual-property (Example guidance for higher education)
• http://www.renaissanceeastmidlands.org.uk/our_work/sustainability/income_1.html (Example for themuseums and galleries)
• http://www.dea.org.uk/sub-562910 (a source of guidance for the voluntary sector)
• http://www.shropshirefire.gov.uk/webimages/managing-the-service/cfa/strategyresources-meetings-data/pdf-125-2007-01-25-10%20-%20Income%20and%20Charging%20Consultation%20by%20the%20DCLG.pdf (example from the fire & rescue service)
• http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/generalpower2 (Guidance for local government)

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Overall, I do think that all public and third sector organisations ought to have a coherent and active income generation strategy at all times - but especially now. I used to run workshops on this subject when I was at OPM - would anyone be interested in my putting on another one? (Please drop me a line or say here, if you would like this. Thanks.)

Pro Bono Group established on Linked In

Together with a colleague (Marion Cole), we have established a group for experienced public sector consultants (including researchers, advisers, coaches, facilitators etc.) who wish to offer some pro bono help to public and third sector organisations during these austere times. 

The purpose of the group is exchange ideas, enquiries, opportunities and mutual support. 

The group is co-facilitated by myself & Marion Cole and is centred around Milton Keynes / Buckinghamshire. People from surrounding counties are most welcome. Indeed some have joined from further afield. 

The group has gained 35 members in less than a month.

Here is a link to the group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=3542050&trk=anet_ug_grppro (but you will need to be a member of linked in - which is free)

I am posting details here for two reasons:

1) to see if any consultants / researchers etc would like to join: you are most welcome

2) to see if anyone would like some pro bono support: My plan is to write to people in the public services in MK / Bucks / Beds / Northants / Oxon / Berks at some point soon (although I don't have a ready made mailing list...) - but in the mean time - I thought I would get the offer 'out there' for people to respond as they wish. If you are a potential client - please feel free to join the group - and post your request as a discussion thread. Or if you wish - browse the list of members and approach people directly. (There is a great deal of talent already in the 30 members signed up)

What is your 'boldness quotient'?

There has been much talk of 'New generation leadership' of late which got me thinking about how leaders establish new directions. 

One of the hardest jobs for any leader is going off in a different direction. This may only be a small change of direction, but it may be enough for existing followers to stop following. Those followers may somehow feel betrayed by this altered course. “After all that I have done, and now we are doing this?!” 

Cutting a fresh path is both harder and easier for a new leader. 

It is easier because there is no baggage to jettison, no inconsistency to defend and no loyalty to the past to retain for retention’s sake. And there can be plenty of quoting of George Santayana about ‘those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it’ and so forth. The new leader is at liberty to both praise the old warriors and then, almost in the same sentence, make a virtue of departing from their strategies. 

But it is also far harder because there is no guarantee that a new leader will bring the followers of the old leader with them. The new direction may just be too novel and be seen as too much of a break with the past. Existing bonds of friendship and trust will have to be rebuilt by the new leader, as they are now the leader and the world has changed. 

The critical judgement comes in how bold to make the new direction. Will it just be ‘new’ in name only? Or will the new leader ‘boldly go where no one has gone before’? How will the new leader judge how bold to be, not just at the start of the new leadership journey but as it continues? 

The best leaders have people that they can rely upon and trust to give them independent, full and frank feedback about whether their ‘boldness quotient’ is on the money or not. 

How is your ‘BQ’ right now? 

(How do you know?) 

How will you stay ‘bold’ and avoid the ‘new’ becoming the ‘new old’

(How will you know?)

Transparency: some rambling questions

I have been reflecting on what all this spending transparency might mean for local Councils. Here are some of my rambling questions:

 

• Has anyone answered the question ‘transparency for what?’ In other words is transparency an end itself or is the ambition of the Government to achieve something else? And in particular what? How will a local authority be able to judge whether the processes it puts in place to be more transparent are a success or not? What will success look like? How should and will all these efforts be evaluated? 
• Is this / should this only be about financial transparency – what about transparency of decision making. Will this public facing transparency make the organisation itself more transparent? What will be the impacts on the leaders and decision makers of all this transparency? Will leadership have to change to match this new environment? 
• What impact will this transparency have on purchasing / procurement? How will suppliers be affected? Will procurement processes become more transparent? (From a supplier perspective, these processes often appear Byzantine and closed – you can see my thoughts about this here: http://jonharveyassociates.blogspot.com/2009/05/13-ways-to-ensure-that-procurement.html) Will tenders now go out with a ‘health warning’? How much will this transparency affect commercial confidentiality, prices and the marketplace?  Will this evaluated? How?
• How will personal confidentiality be protected? I am thinking here not just of ‘say’ the costs of caring for people with multiple & complex needs for example – but also small businesses who may not want all their payments exposed for a variety of reasons. (Will this data be used by divorce lawyers in the future for example!?) How much room is there for misinterpretation? I am reminded of the case of a paediatrician who was hounded by local people who thought she was a paedophile etc... 
• Broadly – what are the unintended consequences of this policy? What are the risks, what can be done to mitigate those risks? 
• What do the public want or need? Where is the market research to find out the kinds of information the public want? Why £500 – why not £1000 – or £300? Will this threshold be index linked? 
• How will the value of the services and products provided be represented in all this data? Is this a policy of ‘cost of everything, value of nothing’? As a citizen I want my council to be spending my money wisely – how will this data answer my concerns? How will the use of this data be tracked – if my council spends £80K on assembling all this data just so a couple of researchers from the Tax Payers Alliance can get a couple of questions answered, I might not be very pleased. 
• How much will all this cost – what will be the transaction costs? Is it merely a question of uploading the budget spreadsheets to the net for all to see? Will the raw date be enough? Will it need to be cross referenced with other data to make it useful? For example, I live in Buckingham in the Aylesbury Vale District. One of the local concerns is that the Council spends disproportionately more money on Aylesbury than on the two conurbations in the North of its area (Buckingham and Winslow). Will the data allow me to investigate this? Will the date be cross referenced with budget heads or procurement tenders and so forth? 
• Will all this data empower local people? How will this be measured? How will society be better as a consequence?

 

Any more rambling thoughts - or better still answers??

Transparency: some rambling questions

I have been reflecting on what all this spending transparency might mean for local Councils. Here are some of my rambling questions:

 

• Has anyone answered the question ‘transparency for what?’ In other words is transparency an end itself or is the ambition of the Government to achieve something else? And in particular what? How will a local authority be able to judge whether the processes it puts in place to be more transparent are a success or not? What will success look like? How should and will all these efforts be evaluated? 
• Is this / should this only be about financial transparency – what about transparency of decision making. Will this public facing transparency make the organisation itself more transparent? What will be the impacts on the leaders and decision makers of all this transparency? Will leadership have to change to match this new environment? 
• What impact will this transparency have on purchasing / procurement? How will suppliers be affected? Will procurement processes become more transparent? (From a supplier perspective, these processes often appear Byzantine and closed – you can see my thoughts about this here: http://jonharveyassociates.blogspot.com/2009/05/13-ways-to-ensure-that-procurement.html) Will tenders now go out with a ‘health warning’? How much will this transparency affect commercial confidentiality, prices and the marketplace?  Will this evaluated? How?
• How will personal confidentiality be protected? I am thinking here not just of ‘say’ the costs of caring for people with multiple & complex needs for example – but also small businesses who may not want all their payments exposed for a variety of reasons. (Will this data be used by divorce lawyers in the future for example!?) How much room is there for misinterpretation? I am reminded of the case of a paediatrician who was hounded by local people who thought she was a paedophile etc... 
• Broadly – what are the unintended consequences of this policy? What are the risks, what can be done to mitigate those risks? 
• What do the public want or need? Where is the market research to find out the kinds of information the public want? Why £500 – why not £1000 – or £300? Will this threshold be index linked? 
• How will the value of the services and products provided be represented in all this data? Is this a policy of ‘cost of everything, value of nothing’? As a citizen I want my council to be spending my money wisely – how will this data answer my concerns? How will the use of this data be tracked – if my council spends £80K on assembling all this data just so a couple of researchers from the Tax Payers Alliance can get a couple of questions answered, I might not be very pleased. 
• How much will all this cost – what will be the transaction costs? Is it merely a question of uploading the budget spreadsheets to the net for all to see? Will the raw date be enough? Will it need to be cross referenced with other data to make it useful? For example, I live in Buckingham in the Aylesbury Vale District. One of the local concerns is that the Council spends disproportionately more money on Aylesbury than on the two conurbations in the North of its area (Buckingham and Winslow). Will the data allow me to investigate this? Will the date be cross referenced with budget heads or procurement tenders and so forth? 
• Will all this data empower local people? How will this be measured? How will society be better as a consequence?

 

Any more rambling thoughts - or better still answers??

Ten ways to keep the peace

Major restructuring of the police appears inevitable and is creating a plenty of debate in political and media circles. Consultant Jon Harvey weighs in with his own points of order. There are many ways to respond to the looming 25% to 40% cuts in resources that are coming to a police station near you....

For the full article go to: http://www.guardianpublic.co.uk/police-cutbacks-comment-harvey