Suffolk County Councils Organisational Change Management - Case Study Example

Organisational change management s Submitted by s: Introduction The comprehensive spending review has demonstrated ingreat detail how severe the job cuts will be and the implications that it will have on the local authorities by cutting twenty eight percent of the local government finances in a period of four years and magnitude of this is severe. Local Government is supposed to deal with the need to all intents and purposes re-evaluate the future of the services it is associated with (Klun, Decman and Jukić, 2011, p. 407). Suffolk County Council anticipated the Comprehensive Spending Review with a plan that outlined the manner in which they would deal with the cuts the job cuts that were imminent. In their document that was titled“Implementing the New Strategic Direction,” the council states how they will review their activities and develop into a strategic body that encourages an array of provision for its services. This can be considered as divestment and this approach will obviously have consequences that will affect the future of public service delivery, the workforce that is in existence in the council as well as the local government (Haglund, 2010, p. 196). The county council has full recognition of the significance, the challenges as well as the consequences that are associated with these proposals and thus they address and detail the risks and have enumerated the work that has not been done yet while acknowledging that these changes need to be taken in the prevailing financial constraints. This is associated with the transition costs, which will be incurred when the council moves to different types of service delivery. When the financial constraints are considered, there are varieties of questions that arise on the manner in which the strategic ambitions can be achieved in relation to the costs linked to building community capacity as well as new social enterprises. Part one Problems- Findings There are thousands of jobs that could be lost as the Suffolk county council prepares to halt the direct provision of services in most of the areas that it functions in and all the services at the council including the child protection services may be outsourced if the plan is implemented. The county is poised to take radical approaches as far as the public sector reforms are concerned by coming up with a virtual authority which will outsource most of the services that the council deals with. The new strategic direction could be the beginning of outsourcing of the counties services to social enterprises and companies while aiming at turning the authority form one that avails public services itself to one that is enabling and only commissions them. The offloading of the services should be able to reduce the budget that the county has by more than thirty percent and is part of the governments’ initiative that is aimed at reducing the fiscal deficit (Martinez-Vazquez and Searle, 2007, p 225). The services that the that the councils intends to outsource should be offloaded in phases and in the end, it could mean that only a fraction of the people that are working at the county council will be remain to be under the direct employment of the council mainly through a contract management(Brink, kemper and Jansen, 2012, p 163). Many of the people who will remain redundant can be transferred to a social enterprise or to the private sector since they cannot remain at the job posts that they were in (Duhl, 2000, p. 100). The decision that the county council took is considered to be an example that the other county councils could follow which involves the offloading of the council services to social enterprises as well as companies and the unions are warning that the plan will render a great number of people jobless. The decision is meant to address the financial deficit that is evident in the public sector as well as the priority that the coalition government has in reducing the deficit and the magnitude of the state. Outsourcing by the councils is not a new phenomenon and this can be seen in the creation of a whole line of private sector industry in the last twenty years that is tasked with the delivery of important services that include the collection of rubbish and it recycling on behalf of the local authorities (Grant, 2011, p 141). What sets the Suffolk county council apart is the magnitude of the changes that have been proposed that include the services that are considered to be sensitive such as the children services, which could be privatized, and the divestment is foreseen to be completed in four years. Accountability will be the main public concern and the councillors will cease to be directly responsible for the delivery of the public services to the communities that gave those mandates through elections. The amount of money that will be spent in the provision of services is supposed to reduce drastically and if there is no reform in the manner in which the services are delivered, then the cuts that are expected will need to be more than the ones that have been planned. By developing into an enabling authority, then the local people will have the opportunity to make a decision on the degree of services that they want availed to them. The burning platform The burning platform is particularly linked to the financial position and it is clear that a reduction in the workforce cannot solve the problem that the council is facing and therefore demand had to be reduced through collaboration as well as the building of social capital. The council will need to come up with innovative ideas and creative approaches that will assist in the reduction of costs since any rationing of services will lead to the increased costs in the future. The council will need to move into a zone that is unfamiliar so that the transformation process can be able to take place. Even though the members of staff as well as the managers have a desire to know in the soonest time possible, it is still difficult to state exactly how many jobs will be lost but the staff will have to stop thinking that a huge redundancy program will go on since there are no finances that can support it. The organization will need to be managed in terms of performance and the areas where the talent of the organization lies also needs to be identified so that the gaps, which exist in the organization, can be filled. So that change can be implemented efficiently, organizations should be in a position to follow several stages that were outlined by Kotter (2007, p. 26) which include establishing a sense of urgency, coming up with a strong guiding coalition, developing and communication a vision, planning and creating short term wins as well as consolidating enhancements. This is done so that more change can be produced and in the process new approaches are institutionalized. Solutions Focus -Findings The council has made a reiteration that the job cuts that will take place will not be to the extent that three will only be two hundred to five hundred staff remaining at the council as it has been reported by the media. In the areas that the council will be able, it will assist the employees to move into Suffolk based businesses and not the for profit organizations which will be mandated with the provision of services on behalf of the council. Nonetheless, the job cuts cannot be ignored and there is the likelihood that there will be many redundancies that will be seen all over the organization and the economic attributes associated with Suffolk show that there broader economy would struggle to deal with the cuts in the public sector(Davies, 2004, p 180). The economy in Suffolk is small and not entrepreneurial The economy in Suffolk has never been faced by difficulties as far as job creation is concerned in the past even though it is a small economy and the cuts that are supposed to be major will create a lot of pressure that will directed at the local economic base. This means that the ability to absorb from all over the public sector will be limited and together with the business conditions which are depressed as well as an economic period that is characterized by slow growth means that it will be difficult to the people seeking jobs. The relative lack of entrepreneurial culture in the county council will mean that there is a high likelihood that there will not be any new businesses that will come up that will have the effect of creating newer job opportunities. There is also the consideration that the people who were previously in the public sector may not have the culture that is needed to embark on an entrepreneurial endeavour. The area also lacks major companies and this means that the SMEs will need to fill the gaps that will be created by the job cuts that will be experienced in the public sector as a result of the lack of big companies, which usually have a higher capability to create new jobs. Accountability and democracy This is the most vital element that is supposed to be considered in the new plan and the new strategic document considers the discussion on the importance on the local democracy as far as the transfer of services decision making is concerned and the focus of attention is the degrees to which the citizens are involved (Wagner, 2008, p 112). Nonetheless, it is imperative to note that the accountability of the sectors that are in the public sector is vital in a transparent and democratic process and the handing of activities that are place shaping and involve delivery of services to the communities implies that there is eminent danger the local democracy could be stifled (Agere, 2000, p. 41). The most significant responsibility that is accorded to the local governments is the provision of services to the community and thus pulling back from these roles greatly diminishes the important function associated with the public sector that involves the creation of strong, safe and affluent places (Shah, 2005, p. 118). The council strives to enable the local solutions to be developed rather than utilizing the top down conventional approach even though the bottom up method has a likelihood of going to the extremes in the other direction. An efficient solution would be a blend of the top down as well as the bottom up approaches all over the entire county, which would permit an effective collaboration between the social, public as well as the private sectors (Hancock, 1999, p 103). This improves the degrees of innovation in all the sectors as well as the solutions that are associated with the delivery of services that will in the end provide a greater transparency and complete accountability. The plans include the provision of main connections by the councillors to the activities that are performed by the community, which would develop a local leadership role, but this is not new since the councillors in relation to their positions are responsible for the functions New Strategic Direction stipulates. The filling of the gap that exists between accountability and the democratic function is also inadequate (Lederer and Müller, 2005, p. 237). Service delivery challenges that result from low levels of public investment The levels of employment associated with the Suffolk public sector over the last ten years have been almost equal to the national share. When spending is considered, the East of England in entirety received 9.7 percent of the public expenditure in England in 2008/09 and this is significantly lower than the region’s share of the population that is at 11.1 percent. If the national average is considered to the population in East of England then the region would have 5.5 billion pound more to spend every year. In Suffolk’s case, which constitutes 12.4 percent of the population of the region, then the county would have almost 682 million pounds extra pounds to spend on the public. This demonstrates that the county has been under-represented in relation to the resource that is associated with the public economy in the recent years in the process of cuts in the public sector, and then it would further be underplayed in the local economy. It also shows that the low levels associated with spending will have consequences that are clear as far as service delivery is concerned with the areas of need being provided with the necessary degrees of investment. The challenges that are faced by the county are significant and this demonstrates a more rapid growth in demand for public services than nationally. Part Three Conclusions The community capacity strengthens a huge part of the New Strategic Direction, which is part of the councils place as well as market shaping responsibilities that seeks to uncover and utilize the strengths in a community so that development can go on for a longer time(Shiells and Sattar, 2004, p 257),. This develops a major assumption that there will be an engagement across the county that will be widespread and the notions that involve a large society are still in their shaping phases. These kinds of policies that drive responsibilities to communities may take considerable time to entrench in spite of the small working groups as well as the councillors all over the county (Hawkins, 2006, p 22). Their aim is to make sure that communities react even though it is a risk to take the view that all communities will be entirely involved in the process. The council needs to remember that the public interventions regardless of how well intentioned they are do not result in the outcomes that were the original intention at the onset and this is the reason why the public sector should be dealing with its own service delivery which will provide quality provision even if they are reduced in any way. At the same time, it should be working towards long term strategic goals that encompass progressively engaging with the communities to develop and create social and human capital. According to the Unions, the jobs that are at risk are in their thousands and this could mean that the council could end up employing only between 200 to 500 people once the process is completed and the local authority will be characterized by the people who will be employed directly dealing with contracts. The move brings the fear about the quality as well as the extent of the services that are in the areas that are relatively poor and in this areas, services like libraries and the children’s centre will fall by the wayside because there will not be any ability to attract any help that is voluntary. Therefore, the long-term implications that will be associated with the communities as well as the services that the council is going to provide will need to be considered at length and therefore the council cannot be able to divest itself from the responsibilities that it has on the public service. Part Four Recommendations It may be a hard task to build a critical mass while simultaneously identifying a suitable number of individuals who possess the required experiences and skills to deliver functions (Joyaux, 2001, p. 65). It is also a difficult issue to identify and have the operational as well as practical knowledge to develop the connections between the sectors with the intentions of maximizing the values. There always exists many doubts that are associated with the public sector interventions that include market making and the massive scale of the proposed changes escalates the risk. The council considers the growth and development framework as one that influences other partners to ensure that the services are provide and it is important that the resources continue to exist at the council. This is to make sure that there is support provided that is directed at the business requires with the stakeholders who appreciate the main concerns of the business and how to strengthen the business base. Bibliography Agere, S. 2000, Promoting good governance, Commonwealth Secretariat, 1st ed, London. Brinkkemper, S. and Jansen, S. 2012, Collaboration in outsourcing, 1st ed, Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire. Davies, A. 2004, Perspectives on labour law, 1st ed, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K. Duhl, L. 2000, The social entrepreneurship of change, 1st ed, Cogent Pub, Putnam Valley, NY. Grant, K. 2011, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Information Managemant and Evaluation, 1sted, Academic Pub, International Ltd, Reading. Haglund, L. 2010, Limiting resources, 1st ed, Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, Pa. Hancock, P. 1999, Human performance and ergonomics, 1st ed, Academic Press, San Diego, Calif. 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