Tuesday 13th January 2009, 08:40The Principle of FiveA lot of people have asked me recently on my view of the announcements from the government to tackle recession and unemployment in particular. I’ve run A4e through downturns and recession, seen different drivers and different consequences. I talk about the ‘Principle of 5’ with the customer groups I work with.
In ‘normal’ economic conditions, the principle of 5 for our clients and services goes something like this: 5 people made redundant, one will find work themselves, one will get support from the Jobcentre and find work, one will likely be out of work for a while and two, if you can get the right service and support to them quickly enough through things like New Deal, will get sustainable work.
Where we are in a recession now, the numbers change slightly. One will find work through the Jobcentre, one be unemployed for a considerable period. Three will need a deeper level of support – not just in preparing for work, finding work, building their confidence and tackling other issues they face, but also in enhancing their transferable and specific skills to get and keep a job.
The longer we leave it, the less freedom we have to respond dynamically to the needs of the individual and business and the longer the people we deal with will remain out of work. I have begun using this example to prioritise the delivery requirements that flow from some of the recent policies announced to tackle recession, such as those announced through the Jobs Summit.
Whilst there are good ‘policies’ in place, the practical challenge of turning these into successful strategies on the ground needs careful attention. I was there in the early 90’s when we wasted money as a country in response to coal, steel and manufacturing decline. We learned from those lessons and need to apply it now. So, there are some big things we need to do across government to make these initiatives work.
We can’t ‘stop’ recession but we can lessen the depth and speed the recovery. Headline unemployment is up but vacancy numbers and jobs created are still robust and so A4e can do its thing – tackle poverty, up-skill people, help them with their barriers to work, support them into the skills to find work, engage with business to find and create jobs and stimulate enterprise. To do so, as I said, government (in its broadest sense and that includes suppliers of public services like us) need to do some core things:
• Create dynamic, flexible services – this recession is characterised by quick, big, shocks to the system so we need to be able to move quickly to respond with effective services
• Allow organisations to manage the demand by responding to business and individual needs – policies and contracts needs ‘elbow room’ to deliver results and monitor the outcomes not the input
• Use existing funding and flexibility effectively so we make the most of new resource – for example, we need some unemployed people onto programmes more quickly (don’t wait 12 months) and that flexibility exists today
• For new programmes, don’t ‘define’ them top down and chuck public money at issues where it cannot be transparent and results measured. This does not mean ‘more bureaucracy’ it means better use of some existing channels and also clear views on where we need to use new channels because old ones don’t work
• Iterate to success (one of my oldest and favourite one liners). Be prepared, things will fail but if we build in flexibility we can work them to deliver results.
There’s so many people queuing up to support a media view of doom and gloom. It’s going to be hard going this year for many businesses and people. This is an opportunity for transforming the way we deliver public services, make impact, drive outcomes and monitor results with a system that has many moving parts. It’ll take some courage but we have a platform of investments and now is the time to hardwire the delivery to make an impact.
Back to Mark LovellContact Mark Lovell |
Mark Lovell Archive
|