Budget cuts have been implemented, a new cabinet has been elected and now, change in organisational management has been called for.

A seminar, held by Reform, an independent think tank, at Chatham House last month saw contributions from the government and from the government's COO, Stephen Kelly, and organisational management experts, AOMi. The 'Managing change in the public sector' conference delegates agreed that fiscal pressure will force the government to change its approach to operations management, and change it for the better.

The seminar outlined the transformative change that has already occurred within the public sector to allow it to become more agile and adaptive, despite the economic recession. It proceeded to allow for debate about the implementation of efficiency reforms and a radical transformation into the operations of public services.

Andrew Haldenby at Reform, says, “One key finding of the seminar was directly in line with the Prime Minister’s words.  Central government can contribute in many ways but above all it can promote a “risk appetite” among public service leaders...Taking steps to build up capability in planning and controlling operations might provide the platform to encourage this type of innovation in the design of services.”

AOMi presented a case study outlining how it assisted a major public service provider to increase its efficiency and work productivity with an employee loss of 20%.