This workstream supports HSC/HSE's aim to develop new ways to "establish and maintain an effective health and safety culture in a changing economy, so that all employers take their responsibilities seriously, the workforce is fully involved and risks are properly managed."
This workstream covers the activities undertaken to ensure we have effective information management, continuous improvement in business processes and an environment that supports and promotes knowledge sharing and good practice. It covers:
Business Improvement can be regarded as any measure that achieves improvement in business practice to ensure best use of resources. Business Improvement is an initiative agreed by HSE Board and managed on behalf of the Board by the Business Efficiency Unit (BEU). BI is used by each D/D as a means of achieving HSE's overall annual 3% PSA savings target, as well as a means to promote continuous improvement.
Business Risk Management has been introduced in HSE in response to a number of initiatives and reports on the effective management of risk in government departments. Each division has to identify and manage the risks to its delivery of outcomes, within a suggested matrix based framework, to monitor, document and deal with emerging risks, and provide regular reports to senior management.
The Central Intelligence Unit (CD4) provides key service and intelligence functions in HID and, as appropriate, within the major hazards programme. It seeks to ensure a sound evidence base is provided to those developing and delivering operational strategies, policies and plans. This evidence is derived from operational data and intelligence, which is subject to quality control and challenge, from impact evaluations of HID's activities, from auditing and reviewing processes against key business risks and from a programme of prioritised research and scientific support work.
It provides managers with assurance that key risks to HSE business - as outlined in HSE's Business Risk Management strategy - are being properly managed and resourced.
Business Improvement can be initiated at any level, and staff are encouraged to identify areas of possible improvement. There are three categories of improvement:
Each D/D produces an annual Business Improvement Plan (BIP) that details its efforts toward continuous improvement and its contribution to the overall HSE picture. This is an ongoing process with some projects taking longer than one year to realise benefits, and others being initiated in-year. The programme is integrated with HID's planning process. The capture of initiatives under one programme helps to ensure the efforts of staff are recognised and the sharing of good practice. Improvement ideas can flow from many sources and the administration and resources devoted to their development depends on the potential impact on HID's business.
HID's Business Risk Management regime is an amalgamation of divisional risk management plans and procedures. Each division identifies the risks to its business, determines priority, implements appropriate counter-measures and monitoring arrangements. Consistency of approach and reporting arrangements is co-ordinated by central division.
We support front line work and senior management by providing assurance in areas of key business risk. We do this through a programme of systems audits, compliance audits, benchmarking reviews and separately, through exercises for Impact Evaluation.
An annual programme of system and compliance audits - and beginning in 2004 impact evaluation exercises - is agreed with HID managers, following discussion of a range of options. The audit/compliance team needs the close co-operation and contribution of other HQ and field staff to deliver the programme.
Operational intelligence can be requested at any time to inform particular pieces of research or to help evaluate the impact of work already undertaken.
3% of HID's total resources are put to this workstream.
Business Improvement is an initiative agreed by HSE Board and managed on behalf of the Board by the Business Efficiency Unit (BEU). BI is used by each D/D as a means of achieving HSE's overall annual 3% PSA savings target, as well as a means to promote continuous improvement and a necessary culture of change.
Business Risk management is an HSE-wide requirement in response to the government's wish that departments manage risk in a more structured, transparent and documented manner. It supports all HID's work activities.
HID must be supported by effective operational intelligence to ensure it allocates the appropriate resources to key areas of activity, and to assure managers that our activities are producing the intended outcomes. Our business processes must be scrutinised to ensure that they continue to be fit for purpose, that they are being followed in a consistent and productive manner, and that any opportunity to improve procedures can be exploited quickly and effectively.
We must manage the data, and the systems used to record and manage them, to inform our operational and strategic decisions, to ensure it is timely, accurate, comprehensive, authoritative and accessible. Any results of data analysis that we publish or otherwise disseminate must have the assurance that this is the case.
This work is vital to the support of the aims of the HSC Strategy, without the necessary data and systems we cannot work effectively with business to prevent failures in major hazard industries.
The amount of resource devoted to this programme is modest and not disproportionate to the activity itself. Reducing the resource even further would restrict our ability to deliver a demanding workload, and call into question HID's commitment to effective business management, business improvement and risk management. We would be unable to meet political expectations and those of senior managers. Cutting back on the numbers of reviews/audits creates logistical problems, prioritisation issues and increases business risk in those areas that would fall out of the programme.
It is axiomatic that investment in business improvement and business risk management are effective in ensuring that organisations operate effectively within their resources. The regimes HSE have implemented are consistent with the government's approach to these issues, informed by numerous studies and reports. The activities encompass means to measure effectiveness in qualitative and quantitative terms.
Changes to business procedures
In response to uncovered inefficiencies and shortcomings have already been implemented, and our expectation and intention is that intervention should lead to improvement.
We assume that:
These activities help the organisation to effectively discharge its duties in relation to the management of Major Hazard Risks.
The internal risks to be managed are:
Approximately 21.5 staff years are directed to Business Improvement, Information & Quality Management at an estimated cost of 792,180 (677,820 staff costs and 114,360 GAE).
Funded from HID resources.
These activities are highly collaborative and involve consultation and discussions at team, unit divisional and directorate level. Annual programme proposals are discussed and agreed with colleagues and managers, and are open to scrutiny at any time. Engaging field and other HQ staff in the conduct of audits/reviews ensures a collaborative and informed approach, and commitment to delivering outcomes. Encouraging and recognising the efforts of staff in the implementation of business improvement projects also promotes co-operation and commitment. In meeting the information needs of colleagues we need to understand their requirements, and the business use to which the information will be put, this is achieved through ongoing discussion. We have regular and close contact with other divisions and directorates, with planning managers, budget managers and internal audit. This helps to ensure we carry out our activities consistently, effectively, to agreed standards and protocols, and that we operate in an effective learning and knowledge sharing environment.
Business risks are monitored and regular reports on progress are provided to the Operation Policy Division who co-ordinate this activity across HSE.
To what extent we respond to corporate drivers in IT developments, regulatory change implementation and process and procedure developments will be a gauge of our effectiveness in these areas. As part of HSE's drive towards continual improvement we will monitor the effectiveness of service delivery, seeking optimal solutions to business problems. Existing monitoring, appraising and accounting systems for the activities we undertake are integral to the workstream.
HSE has an annual overall 3% PSA savings target, which is to be achieved through Business Improvement measures. BMI initiatives are tracked from initiation to completion and regular reports are provided to operations and finance managers who report onwards to the Board. We can anticipate, record and track both quantitative and qualitative savings - and such information has already been provided to PEFD. One constraint to measuring effective performance is that some business improvements can be subsumed in more general operational or strategic initiatives and the BI element can be overlooked or undervalued.
The programme detail is put together from HID's OG Core operating plan - resources are allocated to it at Unit level.
This programme is allocated to the Core workstream (along with Science and Innovation, Resource Management and Horizon Scanning/Impact Analysis).
Our own internal processes are subject to external scrutiny from planning and finance managers, budget holders, Boards, committees and working groups and Internal Audit.
The structure of auditing activity within HSE is to be reviewed with the possibility of centralisation.