I welcome the opportunity to open today's debate on Delivering Better Government — A Programme of Change for the Irish Civil Service. As Members are aware, this Government is fully committed to modernising the Civil Service, thus enabling it to meet better the many challenges it faces in today's more turbulent and demanding environment.
The Irish Civil Service is one we can be proud of; it has served this House well and made a very significant contribution to the development of the country over the past 75 years of nationhood. We have long grown accustomed to, and taken for granted, its integrity, impartiality and equity of treatment for all. These core values have been major assets on which successive Governments have been able to confidently rely.
However, society evolves and changes; economies grow and become more diverse and complex, and both become more demanding on Government and the services it offers. Government must respond to these changes if it is to govern effectively and meet the reasonable expectations of those it represents. Ireland is no exception in this regard. At present, Governments everywhere are faced with similar problems and unprecedented challenges. The result is that Governments throughout the world are reconsidering the way in which they relate to citizens and businesses, how best to ensure provision of public services and how to maintain the capacity to govern in the face of great uncertainty and calls for change.
Given the central, pivotal role of the Civil Service in advising and supporting Government and in delivering services, we must, in the first instance, consider the changes it must make if it is to maintain its proud tradition and record, and if it is to continue to serve the country and future governments to the best of its ability.
There is also the very significant influence that the civil and public service exert on the economy. This involves an array of organisations which interact in a variety of ways with one another, with businesses and with the public at large. The public service employs 189,000 people with a current pay and pensions bill of £4.8 billion per annum. Within the public service, the Civil Service, at which Delivering Better Government is targeted, consists of some 29,500 people costing £713 million in pay and pensions per annum. By any standards, these are large industries making up a very sizeable chunk of the economy and accounting for just over 50 per cent of current public expenditure. We owe it to the taxpayers to see to it that the civil and public services are well managed, operate to their full potential, deliver quality services that meet the needs of their customers and are value for the money spent on them. The Government, as the employer of the civil and public services, has a major responsibility in this regard. In turn, all Members of this House must share in that responsibility and ensure — on behalf of taxpayers, the customers of public services and civil and public servants themselves — that there is an efficient and effective system of public administration.
In considering the changes that are necessary to meet more effectively the challenges ahead, the Government has taken this triangle of shareholders — the taxpayer, the customer and State employees — and comprehensively examined the way in which the Civil Service currently operates and how it might work better in the interests of all three.
The odyssey on which we have embarked commenced with the launch of the Strategic Management Initiative in 1994 by the then Taoiseach, Deputy Albert Reynolds. That initiative, or SMI as it is commonly called, set each Department and Office the task of more clearly defining its role through identifying its objectives and devising strategies to achieve those objectives. In short, the SMI requires management in each Department and Office to ask itself constantly a number of key questions: what business are we in? Are we doing what we should be doing? Who are our customers? Are we meeting their needs? What changes should we be making?
The result is a better understanding and a more explicit articulation of what each Department and Office should be doing rather than what it is actually doing. A great deal was learned through this process, resulting in a sharper focus on objectives and results. The exercise also highlighted a number of constraints commonly perceived as hindering the better use of resources. Accordingly, in 1995, the Government asked the group of departmental secretaries — the co-ordinating group — established to oversee the development of the SMI across the Civil Service, to develop proposals to address these and other constraints. Drawing on the departmental SMI exercises, a number of specially prepared reports on a variety of aspects of Civil Service management, and on their own experiences, the group prepared a comprehensive set of proposals for Government to consider. The Government, having given detailed consideration to these proposals, endorsed them. The result is Delivering Better Government, A Programme of Change for the Irish Civil Service.
I would stress that this is a framework, not a fully articulated programme of change. It will take time to develop. The framework sets out a clear basis on which consistent and ongoing change can be achieved. It also establishes a clear overall direction for change, a set of principles and parameters which will inform and direct the overall process.
The bottom line is excellence. Delivering Better Government thus constitutes a blueprint for change across the machinery of State, a means of steadily enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the civil and public service over time. How much time? Change of this magnitude could not be achieved within the lifetime of a single Government. All-party co-operation will be essential and I am glad to state that such commitment is assured. A broad consensus exists in this House as to the need for change and the general areas where change is required. Some improvements will become apparent almost immediately while others will take time to develop. Many of the expected benefits will be cumulative and dependent on changes in other areas for their successful implementation. It is for this reason that the Government is taking a holistic approach, placing the required changes within an integrated programme rather than a series of loosely related initiatives.
Widening the SMI to include the public service is also high on the agenda. The SMI reinforces and complements work already under way in relation to the better provision of public services and, in particular, the devolution of functions from central to local government. The Government has already stated its commitment to the renewal of local government on the basis of the principles of subsidiarity, accountability, integration, effectiveness and participation. It has established the Devolution Commission to make recommendations which include that significant additional functions are devolved to the local government system, on the basis of a phased programme, and local authorities are meaningfully involved in policy and administration regarding functions not directly devolved to them.
The critical assessment of Departments' activities and the principles of interdisciplinary partnership and subsidiarity inherent in the commission's task are a key aspect of the approach under-pinning the SMI. The Minister for the Environment has recently extended the SMI to local authorities. Responsibility for the devolution programme has been placed under the aegis of the Taoiseach to highlight the priority being given to the task. The commission has been asked to report in phases and, I understand, is finalising its first statement at present. The extension of SMI to the wider public service will take place during the course of this year.
I have already alluded to the external pressures for change. To these may be added the pressures coming from within the Civil Service where there is recognition that some radical changes are needed if it is to perform to its full potential. Such pressures, both external and internal, are not in themselves sufficient to produce the needed changes. We must be able to articulate a better and viable alternative and a meaningful series of steps that will lead logically to that chosen alternative. It is essential also that any such alternative meet the needs of customers, including Government. It must also be sufficiently inspiring to enthuse and energise those most affected by the envisaged changes. In short, when people believe in what they are doing, they will put time and energy into making it work.
Delivering Better Government sets out such an alternative or vision of the Civil Service of the future. Based on the Government's vision for Ireland as contained in A Government of Renewal, the Civil Service of the future will be open and flexible, operating to the highest standards of integrity, equality, impartiality and accountability, with a mission and culture of quality service to the Government and the public at every level. It will be a Civil Service that will make the maximum contribution to national, social and economic development while making the best use of the talents and skills of its staff. In short, the aim is a Civil Service that retains its core values, while becoming a high performance, efficient, effective and value for money organisation, delivering quality services to all its customers. The bottom line is excellence in everything it does.
I will now address in some detail the main elements of Delivering Better Government. Excellence in performance is the central tenet of the Government's programme. However, for excellence in performance there must be clear lines of responsibility and accountability. Thus, the issue of accountability must be addressed as a priority. When the State was founded the core Civil Service was already in existence. In order to give statutory validity to its activities, it became necessary to introduce special legislation, the Ministers and Secretaries Act, 1924. This crucial statute was designed primarily to underpin already existing structures and to bring order to bear on what was then a somewhat chaotic system of public administration. To that extent, the 1924 Act was very successful and it has many strengths that have served the governance of this country extremely well.
However, a somewhat conservative interpretation of its provisions in the succeeding decades since the 1920s has tended to reinforce a rather static model of government. As a result we have today a system of governance which, while strong and robust, needs to be updated to meet the demands of governing in the late 20th century. This, of course, is not surprising. Those who framed the 1924 Act were basing their model on an administration shaped in, and suited to, the 19th century, not one gearing up for the complexities facing us as we approach the 21st.
Delivering Better Government will entail a number of changes to the 1924 Act and will make it possible also to consider incorporating in legislation a statement of vision to underpin the overall change process. A more definitive allocation of authority, responsibility and accountability in the Civil Service of the future will enable roles and functions to be more clearly defined at all levels. In particular, an amended Act will set out in more specific terms than at present the respective roles and responsibilities of Ministers and Departmental Secretaries and provide for the delegation of functions from higher to lower levels within each Department, depending on the circumstances. This will enable services to be delivered with optimum efficiency and effectiveness.
There is nothing very radical in what is being proposed. The existing situation, where responsibility for all actions in theory falls to one person, namely, the Minister, is no longer a realistic foundation for a modern system of governance. The proposed changes are really nothing more than the application of common sense in a complex and demanding environment, where responsibility for all that transpires cannot reasonably be expected to fall on the shoulders of one individual. The changes I speak of will not, of course, alter the constitutional position of Ministers, who will remain accountable to the Dáil for their Departments.
Allied to more clearly defined roles and responsibilities are openness and transparency. Openness and transparency are intended to connote an atmosphere or ethos in which the provision of information is the norm rather than the exception, leading to an organisation whose innermost workings are explicit and readily understood. In our programme for Government we gave high priority to the introduction of legislation which would greatly increase both the quantity and the quality of the information available to the public on all aspects of public administration. Freedom of information legislation, once introduced, can be expected to make a meaningful and lasting impression on the way the machinery of government operates. Internal openness and transparency are needed to support an improved system of accountability. In order to identify clearly points of responsibility and the lines of accountability running between them, we need to be able to distinguish between staff goals and activities and the underlying quality of their performance. This requires a structured flow of information and feedback. The more flexible or intricate the lines of accountability, the greater the importance of timely and accurate information on performance and the achievement of objectives. Only in this way can excellence in performance be pursued and service quality guaranteed.
The changes we will make to the Minister and Secretaries Act will underpin the framework of accountability. Delivering Better Government sets out such a framework which essentially ensures that Government, the Dáil and the people of this country will be better served, be more aware of who is responsible and accountable and get better value for money.
I will turn now to the delivery of services. I do not want to give the impression that public servants have not traditionally been concerned about the quality of service delivery. This is far from being the case. Many Government Departments and public bodies have made significant and laudable advances in recent years in this area, developing an ethos which centres very much around the needs of the customer and his or her perception of service delivery. Delivering Better Government reinforces this trend and incorporates it into a general management framework applicable across all areas of the public service. In so doing it is making explicit what has already been implicit in many parts of the civil and public service for several years now by identifying ways in which a more streamlined, systematic approach can be developed. It is also the pursuit of excellence wherever possible, through exploring ways of making what already works well, work even better. This is what the delivery of quality services is all about. It means looking afresh at the rules and procedures, questioning the fundamentals and asking our customers about the services. It means having the courage to examine old assumptions and ask whether they continue to be valid in today's ever-changing environment.
This means thinking deeply about the needs of our customers and how they are likely to evolve over time. It means asking if the civil and public service can continue to evolve in tune with those needs? That is often the critical question. The Government's proposed quality service initiative will focus very strongly on this issue, pursuing excellence on the basis of the following principles: a specification of the quality of service to be provided to customers; consultation with and participation by customers on a structured basis; the provision of quality information and advice to customers; reasonable choice for customers in relation to the method of delivery of services; the integration of public services at local, regional and national levels; and a comprehensive system of measuring and assessing customer satisfaction and complaints mechanisms which operate close to the point of delivery.
A working group on quality customer service is being established to develop and implement the quality service initiative. This group, which comprises both public and private sector interests, will report to the Government in the summer and on the basis of its recommendations the initiative will be put into effect.
As Minister of State with responsibility for the consumers of public services, I am personally very committed to this initiative. I intend to have it implemented as soon as possible. The quality service initiative underscores the Government's commitment to excellence in the Civil Service and sets out a rational and consistent basis for pursuing excellence in service delivery in an orderly and systematic manner. It will also address an area which is too often overlooked in speaking of quality of services, namely, the Government itself as a customer of the Civil Service. Without high quality policy advice, no Government, however committed, would be able to formulate and implement suitable strategies for national development. It is only by considering informed analysis and expert advice that Government can pursue excellence in its own sphere.
I should also advert to the impact of freedom of information legislation on service delivery. Not only will the customer of public services enjoy a closer relationship with those who provide those services, he or she will also be able to influence their design and delivery, particularly in any instance where their own case is directly affected. In other words, the traditional distance between the customer and the service provider will be reduced and, where possible, eliminated. Until now, the customer of a public service has normally been entitled only to information where the procedures and guidelines specifically make such provision. But under the freedom of information legislation a new principle will operate, namely, that the customer will normally be entitled to information pertaining to his or her case unless some provision to the contrary has already been stipulated. This will greatly extend the range of information available in many cases and enable civil servants to work more closely with the customer without feeling constrained by an ethos of secrecy.
The delivery of quality services to the individual customers should not distract attention from the need to consider the commercial or corporate sector in general. They too are customers of the Civil Service. We cannot expect to further develop an enterprising economy equal to the demands of international competition if we are not alert to the many factors which influence the performance of the commercial sector. Experience in OECD member countries shows that regulatory simplification can do much to assist the smooth operation of business and promote economic growth. While there are several schools of thought on the way regulatory reform should be addressed and how far it should go, it is generally accepted that all Government bureaucracies tend over time to add to the regulatory burden on the private sector and that Governments must make a conscious effort to question and redress this tendency.
For this reason the Government has included in Delivering Better Government a set of regulatory reform principles which are designed to increase the quality rather than the quantity of regulation; eliminate unnecessary and/or inefficient regulations; simplify necessary regulations and related procedures as much as possible; lower the cost of regulatory compliance; and make regulations more readily understood by the public. The application of these principles will, of course, be guided by the need to protect the public interest in all cases. The programme of regulatory reform will also include the introduction of national guidelines to improve the quality of new regulations; the development of self-regulatory mechanisms where feasible and effective; and the review every five years or so of existing regulations.
A high level working group, again involving private sector expertise, will drive this initiative and ensure that it meets the objectives set by Government. Regulatory reform is intended also to make civil servants increasingly mindful of the needs of business and to avail of every opportunity to reduce to the absolute minimum the administrative and other overheads imposed by the State.
A great deal of attention is devoted to the area of human resources — the major asset of the Civil Service — in Delivering Better Government. I alluded earlier to the importance of enthusing and energising those who will have a major role to play in bringing about the changes we are now embarking on. Indeed, it should be very clear that Delivering Better Government will be demanding on the creativity and initiative of civil servants by allowing them greater scope to debate and apply more innovative solutions and ideas.
I believe this will lead to greater job satisfaction and a renewed sense of involvement in how their Departments operate. But this cannot be expected to occur in a vacuum. Staff will need assistance in developing and shaping their skills in a way which best suits the needs of their Departments while complementing their overall carrer development requirements.
Delivering Better Government, there-fore, provides for a renewed focus on the human resource function. That function will be redirected to take on a strategic role in managing and developing staff, operating on the principle that the most important resource in the Civil Service is its staff and their talents. I am speaking here of a new era in people management, designed to bring the best out in our civil servants and to enable them to use their talents to best effect.
Up to now the approach to managing staff and their development has been too ad hoc and short term in approach. Such shortcomings have become increasingly evident to staff at all levels. Indeed, if the approach now envisaged had been operating earlier, the need to resort to ad hoc measures such as restrictions on the filling of vacancies would not have arisen. Such measures only highlight the need for a more strategic approach in the human resources area, where changing needs and demands can be better anticipated, planned for and more rationally addressed, thereby greatly reducing the risk of having to resort to rough and ready solutions.
Delivering Better Government is designed to strengthen the strategic management process so that staff can be readily redeployed to areas of greatest need, where our major resource can be used to best effect, where staff have the opportunity to use their skills and potential in the most creative and satisfying way, and where the most productive individuals receive rewards commensurate with their performance. This will require an increased emphasis on skills acquisition, training and development. For this reason Delivering Better Government proposes that each Department increase its training budget to 3 per cent of payroll costs compared to an average of 0.75 per cent at present.
There are also many other aspects of human resources management that have to be adapted if we are to achieve a high performance, results oriented service. Accordingly, existing policies and practices in areas such as recruitment, training, redeployment and promotion will be subjected to critical examination. We are seeking to put in place policies and practices that enable the Civil Service to respond quickly and flexibly to changing needs and work requirements. This will essentially entail that state of the art human resources management practices become the norm. Where existing practices are found wanting or inhibit the best use of personnel, they will be adapted and improved.
A major goal of the new human resources management approach is the creation of a performance management system that ensures staff at all levels can work to their full potential. Traditionally, managing performance has not been a strong feature of staff management in the Civil Service. The strategic management initiative and the change in approach now being pursued are designed to address this weakness. There is little value in more clearly allocating authority, responsibility and accountability and setting objectives at all levels unless there is a means of assessing progress and performance. An effective, pragmatic performance management system is, therefore, an essential element in achieving a more accountable and results driven Civil Service.
Effective performance management also means that good and excellent performance are openly recognised and rewarded. Equally, it means that poor performance be better managed and that there are appropriate sanctions to help deal more effectively with this problem when it arises.
I am aware some concerns have been aired in relation to the changes designed to enable better management of performance generally and underperformance in particular. Let me say here and now that such concerns are misplaced and that civil servants and their unions have nothing to fear. What is involved is quite simply the placing of responsibility for all aspects of performance and its management on those who should have that responsibility — senior management in each Department and Office.
This is acknowledging reality and allowing management to exercise fully a basic management function, thus ensuring a more transparent and pragmatic approach to managing performance. The proposed change will also bring the Civil Service into line with practice in other administrations and organisations. The changes will be accompanied by appropriate safeguards and due process to protect both management in exercising its functions and the rights of staff. They will also be the subject of detailed consultation and discussion with staff interests.
Before I leave the subject of human resources, I want to direct the attention of the House to the matter of equality of opportunity for women and for people with a disability. In the case of women, we have long had an imbalance whereby women are not adequately represented in middle and higher management grades in the Civil Service. Below these levels, women outnumber their male counterparts. The charts on page 48 of Delivering Better Government illustrate this imbalance in a stark and graphic way.
Putting aside the traditional constraints that prevailed up to 1973 on women staying in the Civil Service after marriage, the progress since then is disappointing to say the least. Clearly, there are barriers at work which we must identify and address. For example, women graduates are not being recruited in the numbers one would expect. Neither are women in the Civil Service advancing as they should. It is not clear why this should be the case. We are now committing ourselves to finding out why this is happening and what needs to be done to redress the serious imbalance that exists.
In contrast to other countries, where admittedly there is a stronger tradition of women working outside the home, our recent record is dismal. We owe it to that one half of the population who are women to determine the causes and take the necessary action to remedy the situation. I am strongly committed to improving the current position and I look forward to examining the results of the researches we are now going to undertake and acting on them.
Equally, we must cater for those who have a disability. They, too, have a contribution to make commensurate with their talents. I am pleased to say that the Civil Service has filled the 3 per cent employment quota laid down some years ago. However, we must now also ensure equality of treatment by applying the code of practice drawn up in 1994. There is also a need to pursue the 3 per cent quota in the wider public service to ensure its attainment as soon as possible.
In addressing accountability, transparency and openness, improved human resources management, as well as the delivery of quality services, there is also a clear need to assess financial performance and the extent to which financial targets are being achieved. This calls for a high standard of financial management, with accurate and timely information on the way funds and assets are being deployed. Accordingly, delivering better Government provides for a number of significant developments in the area of financial management. For example, the increased emphasis on devolving responsibility and accountability will necessitate an enhanced system for setting overall expenditure allocations and for delegating authority to Departments to manage the resources allocated to them.
This system of multi-annual budgeting, which the Minister for Finance announced earlier this year in his Budget Statement, will operate to a fixed annual cycle to produce a rolling three year budgetary framework. This process will facilitate changing circumstances, both budgetary and economic, while accommodating existing and emerging priorities in public expenditure. A key feature of the overall process will be a thorough review of each programme of expenditure at least once every three years. This will ensure the continued relevance of programmes and that they are value for money.
The administrative budget system, which deals with the ongoing operating costs of each Department, will also undergo a number of improvements to develop a more effective structure for devolving responsibility to a local level and promoting greater autonomy and discretion, as well as accountability, at the point where services are delivered.
The system of administrative budgets, which are now in the third year of their second three year cycle, has proved to be a positive development and has helped to keep running costs lower than they would otherwise have been. Linked to the strategic management process, it is an invaluable tool for ensuring best use of resources and value for money are achieved. It is essential, therefore, that, as now envisaged, it be subjected to continuous improvement to allow for the optimum exercise of local autonomy in managing departmental resources.
The financial management improvements now being pursued would be difficult, if not impossible, to carry through without the necessary means of handling the additional data requirements. Existing financial management systems will, therefore, be extended to embrace wider information needs such as planned resource allocation, programme evaluation, ongoing management control, day-to-day financial reporting, performance assessment and demonstrating value for money. Such a multi-dimensional approach will necessitate the introduction in some areas of an accruals based accounting system.
Such improvements will yield a better picture of the unfolding budgetary position at any given time and enable a more accurate assessment to be made of the extent to which programme expenditure is achieving its intended purpose. All in all, they will ensure that the ideal of excellence extends also to the management of the public finances and that it is supported to the greatest extent possible by hard information and timely feedback and analysis.
It should now be clear that the changes being pursued in a number of areas will require the enhancement of a range of systems from those under-pinning service delivery to human resources and financial management. It is vital that such systems be properly supported by the innovative and effective use of information technology. New technology has made a very significant contribution to the delivery of services and performance generally in the Civil Service. However, studies have shown that even more can be achieved, for example, by harnessing technology to redesign long standing work processes, reporting arrangements and information management practices which have their origins in the pre-technology era.
The use of information technology to effect significant improvements in the way the Civil Service carries out its business will be proactively pursued. In particular, exploiting the potential of technology to enhance further the delivery of services and to enable higher levels of performance to be achieved in all Departments will be a top priority.
There is one other element of Delivering Better Government which I want to address, that is, the need for greater co-ordination between Departments. We are increasingly faced with issues and problems which do not fall within the sphere of activity and responsibility of any one Department. In such cases Departments need to work closely with one another in identifying appropriate solutions and to co-operate in their implementation. This calls for a dynamic and corporate approach within the Civil Service as a whole and the development of mechanisms to facilitate closer cross-departmental co-operation. In response to this need, a number of dedicated cross-departmental teams will be set up on a pilot basis to develop new approaches to such issue as, for example, employment, competitiveness and local development. The lessons to be learned from their experiences will be used to develop a systematic and innovative process for tackling key issues of national importance. The work of such teams will be co-ordinated by a Minister or Minister of State to ensure the needed political direction and commitment to acting on the results.
It is planned also that strategic results areas — or SRAs — that is, key priority areas of Government activity, and the means of implementing them, be developed for the Civil Service. One important outcome of the SRA approach will be a shared agenda for Departments which will focus their attention on their individual and joint contributions to the achievement of objectives. This will lead also to improved levels of co-operation between Departments.
Time does not permit me to discuss in further detail the many elements that go to make up the comprehensive programme of change that is envisioned in Delivering Better Government. However, I must address a further question, indeed the major question, of how it is going to be implemented. In the first instance, unlike previous programmes, Delivering Better Government enjoys a high level of commitment and support from across the political spectrum. I welcome this as it ensures that it will continue to be supported over the long term. It will need that long-term support because it will take many years, and a few governments, to see to its ongoing implementation.
I mentioned at the outset that we had embarked on an odyssey — indeed one may say an odyssey of Homeric proportions — when the previous Government launched the Strategic Management Initiative. Delivering Better Government was born of, and is part of, the SMI process. Given the nature of that process, it is but another step along the road to putting in place a strategic management culture committed to continually renewing and refocusing organisational effectiveness in the interests of maintaining the relevance of the Civil Service and of meeting the changing needs and ambitions of the Irish people.
Second, embedded as it is within the SMI, Delivering Better Government can draw upon an already existing set of mechanisms for managing change. It has also been developed at the Government's request by a group of Secretaries established to represent the Civil Service as a whole and has drawn heavily from ideas and suggestions emanating from a wide variety of sources, including the main Civil Service unions.
Third, in order to provide the broadest possible foundation for promoting and supporting the programme, the SMI is being extended beyond the Civil Service, its domain to date, into the wider public service. There is also a requirement on all Departments to develop further the SMI within their own organisations and to publish a strategy statement by the end of this year. This will be the first time that any Irish Government has published a set of policy documents setting out the broad strategic process employed by the Departments of the State in the achievement of their objectives. This will constitute a valuable contribution to the debate on how best to advance the cause of excellence in the Civil Service and establish a sound basis for implementing Delivering Better Government.
Fourth, the co-ordinating group of Secretaries is being extended to include representatives of the most senior levels of management in the public and private sectors, as well as the trade union movement. It will continue also to occupy its pivotal position by reporting directly and regularly to the Taoiseach on the progress being made in implementation. The Government will shortly announce the membership of the extended co-ordinating group.
Fifth, there will be, as I have already indicated, a number of high level working groups set up to develop action programmes for the various change initiatives now being pursued. These groups will be given strict remits and timetables within which to deliver results. Moreover, their work will be overseen by the co-ordinating group which, in turn, will report to Government on the progress being made. I assure Senators that early results will be forthcoming and I look forward to keeping the House fully informed and up to date on developments and progress.
It is recognised that change and the achievement of excellence cannot be imposed from above. To be successful, change must evolve from a recognition by all concerned of the need for it. All concerned must also be involved actively in helping to determine the best means of effecting such changes. To this end, Delivering Better Government incorporates a process of consultation and dialogue which will involve staff at all levels having the opportunity to contribute to the change process, to influence its final shape and to have a real say in its implementation. The Government is fully committed to such dialogue and to ensuring that it takes place at all levels within the Civil Service. The objective is, as I have said already, to enthuse and energise all involved so that they will take the process forward and take ownership of it. With that kind of ownership and commitment, Delivering Better Government cannot but succeed. I am confident this will be the case.
Delivering Better Government marks a major step towards a better Civil Service — a goal we are all interested in reaching. It sets down a comprehensive framework in which change, both in the short and long term, can be managed in a rational and coherent manner. The change we speak of is change for the better, change that will result in a Civil Service which is both more efficient and more effective. I have every confidence that the Civil Service will respond positively, as it always has done to major challenges. I know this House will support it in its efforts; the people we represent and serve will expect nothing less from us.
