Designing service improvements - Key points
- Secure a visible commitment from the leadership of the
organisation and the union to taking forward service improvement
through employee engagement.
- Plan to involve users and user groups in developing the
vision for the service.
- Check that your contact list of user groups and other
stakeholders is up-to-date and sufficiently extensive.
- Assess the potential or real barriers to user group
participation in the consultation over changes to improve
service delivery. Identify practicable measures to lessen
or remove these barriers.
- Check the implications of the proposed change to the
service for other parts of the organisation which are
directly or indirectly affected - is there 'joined-up' thinking
about the feasibility of the proposed change and its actual
delivery? Do you have robust mechanisms in place for
cross-departmental/service joint working?
- Check whether your proposal has been tried elsewhere.
Are there any relevant learning points?
- At an early stage, hold a workshop or similar event,
externally facilitated if appropriate, to agree a shared
vision for the service. Does this incorporate the key
concerns of employees in ways which will support delivering
a better service?
- Assess the effectiveness of your current channels of
communication to employees, service users and other
stakeholders. How will you evaluate whether your messages
about the agreed need for change and the next steps are
reaching everyone who needs to know?
