OPM’s blog articles

Richer mix for leaders

August 5, 2008 – 1:51 pm
By Stefan Cantore Surgeon, psychiatrist, manager, GP – bringing together a diverse set of professionals can be a hugely rewarding learning experience. But combining such group development with one-to-one approaches can lead to results that are greater than the sum of the parts. OPM chose to use a mix of techniques in our leadership development programme for NHS East of England. The success of this mixed approach led to the programme receiving a commendation at the 2008 Health and Social Care Awards. Senior Clinical Leaders programme (or SCLP as it is fondly known) was designed as a powerful experiential programme that helps clinicians to reflect on what effective leadership is needed in their context and then to make a difference through practical action. The programme’s 100 participants have been drawn from a very wide range of clinical backgrounds. In a typical ‘action learning set’ you would find a consultant orthopaedic surgeon sitting alongside ...

Posted in management development, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Creating innovation

August 5, 2008 – 1:40 pm
By Simon Parker What if you could get a group of public servants in a room and help them to innovate? Better still, what if you could have a lot of fun doing it? OPM is experimenting with the idea that we can do both these things. By combining the latest evidence with a range of creativity techniques, we think we can help people in local government develop and implement new responses to social challenges. The idea that public services need to become more innovative is rapidly approaching the status of a new orthodoxy. Whitehall-sponsored conferences invite the Cabinet Secretary to talk about the need for a new culture of experimentation to replace the old one of control. Leading edge local authorities are embracing this new culture by setting up social innovation laboratories or inviting design companies to help renew their services. There is a large amount of research and policy work going ...

Posted in local government | 1 Comment »

What does the future hold?

August 5, 2008 – 12:29 pm
OPM recently launched Public Service Futures, a major programme exploring the challenges, threats, opportunities and risks facing services across the public, private and third sectors. As part of the Public Service Futures programme, we are publishing a series of reports featuring articles from visionary thinkers, launching an online discussion forum, and running a range of events. Our first report brings together leading-edge visionary thinking about the principles, models and issues relevant to public service provision in the future. It considers, for example, the impact that technology and concern for the environment  will have in transforming service provision in the future. Our contributors question whether service users will have enough involvement in service design and delivery, and whether the public sector (in particular) is set up to cope with increasingly complex 21st century human beings. Other articles examine the challenges the third sector faces if it is to fulfil the delivery role ...

Posted in futures research | No Comments »

State of trust

July 14, 2008 – 1:51 pm
OPM fellow Simon Parker comments on his new research about how local government can build trust with its citizens. Trust is one of the most important assets that local government can possess. Its presence helps to foster democratic participation, economic success and public sector efficiency. Its absence can lead to grinding battles between the state and its citizens, and sometimes to an outright refusal to participate in council activities. In State of Trust, a study written for the leading think tank Demos (and funded by Communities and Local Government and the IDeA), Simon Parker, Phil Spires, Faizal Farook and Melissa Mean explored what trust might mean, why it is useful and how councils can get more of it. The result is a set of practical tools and recommendations that can help local authorities to build trust. The key message from the research is simple: trust is not built solely through improving services. At ...

Posted in local government | No Comments »

Capital results

May 8, 2008 – 4:00 pm
Capital results OPM principal Clive Miller looks at using co-production and social capital to create the outcomes people really want.

Posted in places that work, local government | No Comments »

The creative challenge in performance management

May 8, 2008 – 3:48 pm
The creative challenge in performance management by Helen Brown, OPM Principal. I once took a group of senior NHS managers on a study visit to a global company. They were particularly interested in how people in that company were motivated and rewarded, and

Posted in management development, leadership | No Comments »

A future for London

May 8, 2008 – 3:24 pm
A future for London. Phil Copestake explains how the London Collaborative developed future scenarios to help London's public services work together more effectively.

Posted in futures research, places that work, local government | 1 Comment »

Commissioning community health services

May 8, 2008 – 2:57 pm
Commissioning community health services. Strategic commissioners need to think carefully about which commissioning responsibilities they delegate to practice based groups and which they retain. OPM Principal Judith Smyth looks at ways to proceed.

Posted in health and social care, children's services | No Comments »

Local area agreements

May 8, 2008 – 2:20 pm
One borough council shares its successful approach to deciding priorities. by Colin Sumpter Improving outcomes for local people means selecting the most relevant measures to include in the Local Area Agreement (LAA). All local authorities are facing - or have faced - the challenge of finding the best ways to make these decisions.

Posted in places that work, local government | No Comments »

Across the divide: evaluator and commissioner perspectives

May 8, 2008 – 2:02 pm
Across the divide: evaluator and commissioner perspectives. Phil Copestake, Deputy Head of OPM's Analytical Studies Unit, looks at how working relationships can influence the success of an evaluation Sound theory and process are fundamental to the completion of evaluations of public service projects, organisations and interventions of any scale, but the way that the relationship between evaluator and commissioner develops - and is managed - can be a key factor in achieving success.

Posted in organisational development, evaluation | No Comments »