Management Priorities

• Introduction
• Change
• Corporate Support Services

Introduction

66. The HSC Strategic Plan 2001/2004 sets significant challenges for the way HSE works and delivers its key priorities. HSE must ensure that as an organisation it is ready to meet these challenges. HSE published its first Management Plan in October 2001. This contained HSE’s management priorities determined on the basis of business needs to ensure we are able to deliver our contribution to the HSC Strategic Plan.

Change

67. Since the publication of the Strategic Plan and the Management Plan in 2001, HSE has identified that in order to effectively deliver its objectives now and in the future it must change the way it works. For this reason HSE commenced work early in 2002 to review its ways of working and organisation to ensure more effective use of resources to deliver the mission. In April 2002 the HSE Board set out 10 change outcomes and launched a change programme to design capabilities to deliver them. The change outcomes are:

• A small unit facilitating and co-ordinating strategic thinking across HSE leading to the development of integrated tailored strategies and clear priorities;
• A networked intelligence hub gathering robust credible information and presenting it in unbiased and understandable ways to various audiences;
• A centre of expertise facilitating best practice across HSE in the delivery of projects and programmes;
• A strategic thinking informed by science and technology through appropriate and suitable deployed staff;
• A core business, supported by appropriate and suitably deployed science and technology staff;
• An operational capacity, linked to policy, strategy, etc addressing issues identified on operational policy;
• A policy capability, responsive to our developing strategy in a changing world and which integrates health and safety wherever possible;
• Strategy and outcomes which are jointly formulated by policy and operations, with each being clear on the others contribution to delivery;
• Corporate functions which are more efficiently deployed; and
• Behaviours and ways of working which reflect HSE’s values and are consistently delivering a high trust environment and encouraging engagement to help us deliver our mission in a changing world.

68. These outcomes both augment and provide a more solid platform from which to deliver the management priorities set out in the HSE Management Plan published in 2001. The Management Priorities are to:

• Lead and look after staff, valuing their contribution and their diversity and the benefits this brings to the way we engage with stakeholders;
• Get the right people in the right place at the right time, building and making best use of their skills to deliver key objectives;
• Manage our information resources and the knowledge, expertise and experience of our staff, and apply it to our priorities efficiently and effectively; and
• Secure better business planning and better business management through integrating the management of our resources, systems and procedures to deliver high quality business objectives in an efficient and responsive way and giving value for money.

For more information go to http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/plans/hseplans/m-plan.htm

Corporate Support Services

69. HSE’s corporate support services are responsible for the delivery of corporate strategies and providing governance, advice and other services. HSE keeps the delivery of its corporate support (including personnel, business services and finance and planning) under continuous review to ensure central staff resource applied is maintained at or below 8% and staff resource applied to this activity across HSE is kept to a minimum. In addition we manage accommodation, IT and other goods and services to ensure they are delivered efficiently and give best value for money. This ensures HSE is able to operate as an efficient and effective organisation and can deliver its mission.

70. During 2003/04 we will:

• Implement a targetted investment strategy to deliver cross cutting IT enabled business change projects to support our operational work, electronic documents and records management and resource management. This will support the delivery of our mission for next year and into the future, as well as enhance existing services.
• Take forward the outcomes of the Corporate Support Review including:
  1. Rationalise staffing arrangements across HSE to release resource for frontline activity; and
  2. Bear down on areas of spend to ensure best value for money from in particular our use of travel and subsistence; accommodation (especially, strategically significant projects and commitments); and procurement activities (HSE already has a strong procurement record but we will seek to improve on this by better strategic control of purchasing and contract management and of commercial risk).

Business Improvement

71. HSE manages a co-ordinated programme of underlying improvements through a business improvement plan. The plan includes efficiencies in our use of resources and quality improvements. In addition to corporate improvements to be made as part of the change programme, the corporate support review, and investment in IT enabled change, HSE directorates have their own plans. There is also a staff suggestion scheme – Rewarding Innovation – through which individuals can propose improvements across HSE.

72. Our Business Improvement Plans for this year include:

• Providing teleconferencing facilities in all HSE offices to reduce the cost and health and safety risks of travelling to meetings and to improve communications;
• Doubling participation in Rewarding Innovation, especially by staff teams;
• Piloting solutions to reduce administrative burdens on inspection and make better use of administrative staff to optimise resources for delivering the RHS targets; and
• Reviewing quality procedures and business processes to ensure they are leaner.