Well if you think the above title is a mouthful why not try Results Based Accountability (RBA) which of course as we all know, don't we? is a performance management tool.
Why mention both these? Simple I was invited the other day by Denbighshire Local Service Board together with a cast of what appeared to be thousands to the Oriel House, St Asaph where we were treated to the joys of IPS and RBA. It was as much as I could do to contain my excitement.
Seriously though the Local Service Board are trying to streamline their approach to the various plans and strategies they have which to be fair they should be applauded because when you have four different strategies as at present (Health, Social Care and Well Being, Community Safety, Children and Young People and the Local Development Plan) and many of the actions cut across one another then you might well ask what is the point of them and how much duplication is there?. At least with the IPS approach there will be just one plan - easy , which is what you want if you are seriously planning on tackling the issues in a logical and co-ordinated way.
Where I start to stray is when we are confronted with a "new" performance tool such as RBA which is heralded as the magic solution we have been waiting for not just by Denbighshire but by it seems numerous august bodies across Wales and the UK. Its as if by magic if we embrace this tool then everything will be clear and all our delivery plans and actions will be sorted - if only. At every RBA presentation I have been to the speaker somewhere in the presentation says they are not doing a hard sell on the performance tool, if they really mean that I would like to see a presentation where they are giving the hard sell as I am sure someone like Lord Sugar would equally be mesmerised by their salesmanship prowess.
How many times over the years have we heard about new performance management tools being the answer?
OK , so what did I think of the event at Oriel House. Well if you strip away the RBA discussion then I thought the concept of the one plan was great and Denbighshire should be congratulated. What we should all be doing now is making sure that our own plans are equally smart so that as a Denbighshire partnership we can genuinely provide public services in a co-ordinated way that will be the envy of the rest of Wales - it is possible.
On my way out of Oriel House I heard mutterings of unhappiness about the plan and the view that already there had been a lack of consultation with the community given that this brave new plan was already in full development and was in some way being rolled out at Oriel House for acceptance . The words " community engagement" sprang to mind and it was quite clear that a number of attendees felt that the new plan would be introduced with very little consultation and engagement and that would be a shame given the new plan if built on the back of what the people in our communities want would be "owned" by everyone. Whereas if the plan is developed by a handful of people with low level input from the Denbighshire communities the result will be a plan that will not find favour with the communities and if it is not widely accepted then the plan will not have achieved its objective namely providing the public service partners in Denbighshire along with the people of Denbighshire the opportunity to make a difference and improve the quality of peoples lives right across the County.
Personally I don't think the plan has been fully developed and so the opportunity I believe to influence the final document is still there. But its not about what I think , its all about what the people of Denbighshire think and if there are concerns then they should be aired. We live in a healthy democracy and its good that we debate. I am sure if we had been given a powerpoint presentation about how the plan will be developed in terms of timescales and community engagement and the interface with the other statutory plans then I am sure the attendees would have felt better informed. I remember someone at a conference once telling me that if you have one unhappy person they will tell 8 of their friends and colleagues which merely compunds the issue and so the goal is always to have people leaving an event feeling they have been fully involved and informed and that way you reduce the 8 fold problem. To let people walk away not fully engaged is a recipe for future difficulties. Whats the answer? I have seen a few but I won't go into them now but will keep them for a future blog.
Meanwhile to keep the momentum going - what is needed now is for people to contact the Local Service Board setting out their views and on a positive note to say what they can do to help in the engagement process because after all its up to us all not just a handful to get this plan right.
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