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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 14 Feb 2002

Vol. 548 No. 4

Written Answers. - Strategic Management Initiative.

John Bruton

Ceist:

155 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Health and Children the updated achievement of each target set for his Department under the strategic management initiative; if the targets in question are sufficiently measurable, quantifiable and focused on outcomes rather than activities to be an effective tool of real accountability; and if not, if he proposes to refine the targets. [5178/02]

My Department recently published Quality and Fairness – A Health System for You; a major strategy for the health service for the next 7-10 years. This document is based on the strategic management initiative philosophy of better government and improving services to the public and its core principles include accountability and people-centredness. As a statement of reform for health and social services in this country it underpins all aspects of my Department's work including targets under the SMI. This major work occupied most of the Department's resources in 2001.

My Department's progress under the strategic management initiative targets is summarised as follows. Following the national health strategy, my Department is now preparing its statement of strategy which will be directly based on the strategic objectives of Quality and Fairness – a Health System for You as quickly as possible. In conjunction with the preparation of the strategy statement, the Department's business planning process is under way for 2002 and will be completed shortly.

The roll out of the performance management and development system is well under way. Training in the first phase, the planning stage, has been completed and training in the second phase of the system, interim review, is currently ongoing. Training for the third and final phase, the annual performance and development review, is planned to commence in the coming months. Already, engagement with phase one of the process, which involves the completion of role profile forms and the identification of personal training and development plans, is contributing in a positive way to the formulation of appropriate and relevant training and development approaches.

My Department's policy on training and development identifies the commitment to providing investment in staff through training and development and provides a framework of principles within which those needs should be addressed. With the progress of the performance management and development system, training needs are currently being identified at an individual level and on a Department wide basis. A composite response to those requirements is now being finalised in the form of a training and development implementation plan which addresses not only individual needs, but will bring about the development of sets of skills and competencies which will contribute to the progress towards the Department's overall vision, strategy statement and customer service goals.

To date, each member of staff has already received the first two days training – planning stage – of the performance management and development system. My Department is currently training staff on the second phase – interim review – of the performance management and development system. The third and final phase – annual performance and development review- training is scheduled to begin in July 2002.

The Health (Amendment) (No. 3) Act, 1996, was put in place to improve accountability in the health services and the resultant service planning framework has led to significant benefits in the management of health service delivery. My Department is represented on the high level group on regulatory reform by the deputy secretary. In line with the implementation of the health strategy, my Department is establishing a new legislation unit which will address the broader issues of regulatory reform.
The freedom of information unit in my Department has developed new procedures to address the issue of timeliness and to strengthen existing quality control measures. The Department has also set up a panel of senior staff, chaired by an assistant secretary, to conduct internal reviews.
A dedicated modernised customer services call-in centre is in place and is functioning effectively. The customer service action plan for 2002 to 2004 is being formulated. Steps are being taken to improve turnaround-response time for key items, for example, replies to correspondence, treatment of phone calls, involvement of partnership in QCS initiatives.
The partnership committee to date has been involved in a number initiatives and sub-groups have been put in place to drive forward initiatives such as the performance management and development system, gender equality issue, customer care initiatives, human resources strategy and training plan. A high-level human resources strategy was drafted and circulated in late 2001. Work has now commenced on drafting an operational human resources policy for the purpose of aligning the personnel function with the strategic human resources approach.
The national health strategy will have a significant impact on developing the management model, in particular, having regard to the commitment in the strategy to a restructuring exercise in the Department. The Department expects to make immediate progress on phase one and to meet the timescales as set out in relation to phases two and three. When implemented, the objective of MIF is to provide information at a high level for internal management through the provision of output measurements and performance indicators which will allow high level evaluation of programme investment.
Within the service planning framework under the Health (Amendment) (No. 3) Act, 1996, a set of conjointly agreed performance indicators has being put in place to enable better performance and accountability in the delivery of health board service plans. A programme of work is continuing by joint Department and health board teams to further enhance these performance indicators. In addition, the strategy actions in relation to the development of three to five year implementation plans in health boards will assist greatly in providing a clearer linkage between service plans and policy-strategic objectives generally.
An ICT and e-government strategy for my Department for the next three years has been drafted and is being finalised. The national health information strategy is also in final draft. Programme expenditure reviews have been carried out and published covering intellectual disability and dental services under the Department of Finance programme expenditure review policy. In the course of preparing Quality and Fairness – A Health System for You, a major review of all current health strategies and policy statements was undertaken and informed the production of the strategy.Two major reviews, Acute Hospital Bed Capacity and the Value for Money Audit of the Health Services have recently been published.
Performance indicators on the above initiatives were forwarded to the Civil Service quality assurance group as part of the review process under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness and were approved by the group. A full progress report, which must be agreed through the Department's partnership committee, will be submitted to the Civil Service quality assurance group post April 2002.
I am satisfied that the progress being made as outlined above will ensure that my Department's targets are sufficiently measurable, quantifiable and focused on outcomes. As the work under way is constantly subject to review the associated targets are subject to ongoing refinement with a view to ensuring effective accountability. An overall review of the strategic management initiative throughout all Government Departments has recently been conducted and when the results are available they will further inform the refinement of targets.
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