Drive For Change Website
Last updated: 24/3/2006
The importance of involving staff and trade unions in the early stages of designing service improvements can be seen in the four case studies.
We learnt from the case studies that the process of joint working in all four organisations began with acknowledgement from senior managers that benefits would result from greater engagement with the workforce and trade unions.
Similarly, the case studies show the positive ways that local trade union representatives engaged with the change process. By becoming involved in a project right at the outset, this helped to establish a high level of commitment to the project and ensured that trade union reps took on a leadership role by communicating and driving forward the project among their members.
At the Sheffield Learning Disabilities Service, much attention has been paid to involving user groups. Indeed, the need for the new integrated service emerged from a consultation process which identified that services should be designed around the needs of the user and with their involvement. The focus on securing a person-centred approach has been central to the development of the service. As users are presented with increased choice in the way public services are delivered, user involvement is becoming an ever more important issue. As Sheffield Learning Disabilities Service has rolled out direct payments schemes where cash payments are made to users to organise their own social service provisions, it has been vital to engage with users on the way services are evolving.
The Learning Disabilities Service held a Communications Day to kickstart the changes to the service. Sue Palfreyman from the management team explained that this was a good focus to start the process of informing and involving staff and service users in decisions about the need to improve and what they wanted to see from the new service.
The Sheffield case study shows the value of involving trade unions and staff at an early stage in designing service improvement. This has helped to build trust and confidence that the new integrated service would be a better place to work and deliver more effective services for users. The involvement of staff and unions also helped to ensure that the training needs required to deliver services effectively were jointly identified and met and created opportunities for staff to develop ideas and contribute to service developments.