Organisational change/culture - Essay Example

nges and excelled in numerous external validation processes, including ‘Four Star’ status awarded by the Audit Commission’s most recent Comprehensive Performance Assessment in December 2005, a retained 3 star Social Services Department rating by the Commission for Social Care Inspection and the holder of the North West’s only 3 star Housing Arms length management organisation. Within the current climate, local government is a complex municipal organisation which is subject to powerful internal and external social and political influences.

With changes in Government over the last ten years or so, the approach to service delivery and management has changed dramatically from the hard commercial approach associated with Thatcher’s Compulsory Competitive Tendering, to the customer centred modern Best Value agenda of Blair. Following the removal of the compulsory competitive tendering regime introduced by past conservative governments and the arrival of best value, local governments are now driven to be more customer orientated and to deliver value for money services.

With this in mind and the recent introduction of continuous performance assessments, the council is committed to retaining the ‘four star status’ awarded by central government. This ‘four star status’ gives the council greater freedom to operate, and is allocated larger budgets from central government to operate on behalf of the taxpayers of Bolton. As a result, to ensure continuous improvement, and to put the customer at the heart of everything it does, the council has recently taken the opportunity to look at all service areas to see how it can operate more efficiently; the outcome being that the council has decided to re organise the way it delivers its services.

This has led to an exciting programme of change being implemented which will have an impact on every single department within the Bolton Council and will be a challenging period for both the organisation and employees