Thinking Differently
Chris Hyman, Serco's Chief Executive, says that it is the responsibility of companies like Serco to think differently and put forward ideas to Government for innovation that will deliver greater value for money and improve public services.
Over the last 40 years Serco, principally by working for the UK Government, has grown the outsourcing and public services industry and the development of a mixed economy across the industry's core areas. As the Julius Review of 2008 identified, we are now part of a business sector that is worth £79bn a year in the UK.
Throughout the years, Serco has continually worked to help and support the governments think innovatively about improving services across many areas of public life, from justice to healthcare, education to defence. As a result, our work now ranges from management of complex projects, IT systems and facilities, through to outsourcing and the creation of entirely new businesses. We are involved in the financing, design and build of new facilities, including hospitals and prisons, as well as their day-to-day operation. We run world-class scientific establishments, provide critical information to manage traffic, operate world-class transportation systems help secure borders and improve education standards.
Even with this experience and our established position, it is clear the next few years are going to bring new challenges, as our customers - primarily national and local governments and large private companies - face profound questions of how to continue to improve vital services when faced with intense financial pressures.
Despite this adversity we view this as an opportunity, for all of us who care about services to the public, to think again. There is now the stimulus to look more radically at how we can achieve fundamental change in the delivery of public services to meet people's expectations. If we fail to do so, there may be a temptation to only look at cutting services, when we should be asking: How do we achieve greater value for money? How do we adapt to citizens' rising expectations and make services flexible and responsible? How do we meet sustainability targets and environmental challenges? How do we reduce the cost of services and maintain quailty? I truly believe that the private and public sectors together can develop solutions, even in the current economic climate, that will increase effciency while delivering a quality level of public services.
We have been presented with a chance to go back to the drawing board and - knowing that there might be no new money - innovate.
It is a challenge which the private sector and particularly those in the public services industry, like Serco, should embrace. As 90% of our work is as a partner to central and local governments, our customers' challenges are also ours.
We have put forward to governments departments detailed suggestions for innovation, transformation and savings. These are based on the inputs of our employees, who deliver front-line services for our customers and on a daily basis identify opportunities to improve performance and efficiency. I often find that people assume that because we work in the private sector we lack the strong sense of public duty of public servants. This could not be further from the truth. Our success is borne out of our people having a very strong public service ethos combined with the commercial know-how. This is a combination which enables our people to deliver more efficient but also better quality public services.
To allow us to drive better public service delivery, we have a commitment to removing barriers which can frustrate new ideas and wear-down enthusiasm.
Transformation is also at the heart of what Serco does. Our experience reveals how when you free people from constraint and allow them to be ambitious, then the ideas they come up with will not just be limited to producing gradual improvements, but may lead to effective and fundamental reinvention of services.
As the Serco Institute's report "Good People, Good Systems" reveals, public service managers who have come to work for us from the public sector are now able to deliver better outcomes because of greater managerial autonomy and personal accountability.
Businesslink.gov.uk is just one example of this in action. A powerful online channel, in part dedicated to transforming relations between business and government, a service which 94% of its users are very happy with.
We also believe that one size does not fit all and that there are a wide range of approaches available to government to achieve change in public services. These include, joint ventures, outsourcing, government owned companies, contractor operated Design-Build-Finance-Operate, the sale of franchises PPP's and PFI. The Serco Institute helps to inform this debate. Founded in 1994 it is the only UK think tank dedicated exclusively to the study of competition and contracting in public services. It is led by Gary Sturgess and draws upon industry experience to deliver practical insights for stakeholders across the public, private and voluntary sectors.
This is absolutely vital because whatever the next few years bring for public services it is clear that just as there is a developing "mixed economy" of provision, there will also be a need for a "mixed economy" of ideas.
If you would like to talk to any of our team and find out more, please contact us at publicservices@serco.com