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If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then it seems Jersey's new States leadership is very keen on how major change programs have been run at their new Chief Executive's former councils.
As well as appointing exactly the same consultancy to oversee a massive culture change, the States of Jersey are also getting a 'One Front Door' policy to bring various services into one place - which exactly matches an initiative of the same name implemented in one of Charlie Parker's previous roles in the UK.
Last month UK consultants TDP Development beat off 23 other companies for a £3.5million contract to instil a ‘Team Jersey’ attitude within the government’s 7,500 employees.
Little detail was given on the scheme, other than that 50 workers would become ‘Change Leads’ in a fight against the “siloed” mentality prevalent in government and that the company had previously worked with organisations such as Bupa, the Royal Mail and “local authorities”.
But now it’s emerged that two of those authorities were UK councils that Charlie Parker previously led: Oldham and Westminster.
Pictured: TDP Development beat off competition from over 23 other providers.
Council documents show that TDP Development was drafted in amid a time of mass change at Westminster amid a need to find £100million of savings in four years.
During Mr Parker’s tenure as Chief Executive of Westminster, the leadership programme was referred to as the ‘Westminster Way’.
It began in January 2016, and was rolled out to 195 workers within six months, involving masterclasses from external well-known organisations the council hoped to learn from.
A progress report prepared by Mr Parker said that the programme was an “investment in ongoing development” of staff and had led to “many success stories.”
He quoted one colleague as saying: “I can tell the difference between people in this council who have been on this programme and people who haven't - their attitude and mindset is clearly more positive. Mine is, so are the other people I work with.”
Mr Parker also noted that the scheme gave workers techniques to have “crucial conversations” to “get issues out in the open…and [get] to a positive outcome much more quickly.”
Despite Mr Parker’s close involvement with the TDP Development in the past, States officials said he “played no role in the procurement, assessment, selection or appointment of the preferred bidder" for the government's 'culture change' contract.
“…He had removed himself from the process at its inception, in order to avoid any conflicts of interest, in case there were bids from potential suppliers with whom he could have worked in the past,” they assured.
TDP Development’s involvement in Jersey’s government refresh wasn’t the only similarity to Mr Parker’s past government changes, however.
His role at Westminster also saw the transformation of Environment and Housing Departments into Growth, Housing and Planning, similarly to Jersey’s new Growth, Housing and Environment Department. The island’s new Policy and Performance Department also mirrors Westminster’s structure.
Meanwhile, the launch of ‘One Front Door’ programme, which saw the La Motte Street Social Security building transformed into a customer services hub, matches a scheme of the same name at Wesminster.
“Our goal is to have a single front door, where all our services come together seamlessly for our customers whether online, over the phone or in person,” the Westminster Council’s 2017 to 2018 business plan noted.
Mr Parker also made reference to the scheme in a blog post for the Local Government Chronicle entitled ‘All staff at Westminster must be leaders’.
Responding to the similarities, States of Jersey officials said that while Jersey’s ‘One Government’ overhaul had been inspired by other government organisations in the UK, it was nonetheless intended to address the island’s needs.
A spokesperson commented: “While developing the new system, staff have visited various organisations in the UK that have already moved all their customer services into one location and are hoping to learn from those that are already providing centralised enquiry services successfully.
“The States of Jersey provides a much wider variety of services that a UK council, but the island can still learn from the way other public sector organisations structure their services.”
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