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This is something which I have been thinking about since I started in my current position. I have been working in the public sector full time for about a year now. Prior to this, I worked in the private sector, with the exception of the numerous voluntary positions which I have held over the years. And to be honest, I got a bit of a shock.
In the current climate (how many times have you heard that over the past few months?), businesses have had to look at themselves and really analyse where savings can be made and how they can make their operations more efficient.
Isn’t it strange that we have a ruthless and focused approach when it comes to generating profit and operating within a competitive market place, but when we are dealing with people, the quality of their lives and assisting in improving it, failure, incompetence and general lack of direction seems to be acceptable?
Why is it ok for services to plod along for years without really making any headway with clients, and within the field in general, and no one intervenes or just simply says: ‘This isn’t good enough.’
Why do we think it is ok to let people down within the public sector but if, God forbid, a member of staff is cheeky to you in Tesco we don’t think twice about marching up to the Customer Service Desk to demand our 50p off voucher to compensate us for our bad experience?
What about if we started to treat clients as if they are our customers? Customers who could leave at any point unless we provide them with the best service, at the right time and with their needs at the centre of it all, not ours.
What does our customer need? What does he want when he comes to our service? How can we provide this? How can we retain our customers to ensure they get the outcome they want? How can we help them prepare for the future when they have achieved their goals and no longer need our service?
Simple things such as they way the phone is answered – when you call a business line and get an unenthusiastic hello, it turns you off doesn’t it? You might think twice about giving your hard earned money to this company.
So why should public services be any different? That cheery, bright, ‘Good Morning, how can I help you today?’ answer might just be the thing that makes our customer decide that the time is right and yes, maybe these guys can do something for me. Why should be accept lower standards when we are dealing with lives?
Staffing within the private sector is another area which I think we could take a great amount of inspiration from. I don’t know if anyone else thinks about this, but, do you think there is anything wrong with asking someone to leave and find another job if they aren’t that good at what they are currently doing? Is that such a big deal?
I know we have the mine field of HR to deal with but really, what’s the problem? I know I would rather someone told me I wasn’t doing well rather than thinking everything is ok. I would rather go find something else that I was good at, or go and get the training I needed to get me up to the right level.
When I started uni, I worked in call centres (I am sorry if I called to harass you into buying insurance or rental DVDs or any of the other junk I had to sell) and you had 1 week to prove yourself or you were out…1 week! No questions asked, you do the job and you do it well or you leave. And even if you started out ok and then your sales dropped you had to leave, irrelevant of how long you had been doing ok for previously.
How many people do you know, or have heard of, that work within the public sector and have had ‘jobs’ created for them because no one knows what to do with them? Sack them!!!! It’s just not acceptable.
We are setting ourselves up for a fall if we do not have high standards and high expectations. You are paid a wage to do a job and if you don’t do it well then you don’t deserve to have the job in the first place. Especially as there may be other people who could do the job well and there might be another job somewhere else that needs you!
I am sorry if my views may be slightly extreme but it really, really annoys me! We sometimes try to protect the wrong person’s feelings.
Do you think it is acceptable to tell a client, ‘You will be receiving a sub-standard service from us because we don’t want to offend any of our staff by telling them that they are incompetent’? Who is more important in this situation? Who has the most to lose?
And, it is our cash that pays for all these services! Don’t we want our money to be spent in the most effective ways? And that goes for all public services, not just D&A ones.
It doesn’t make sense and it makes my head hurt!!
Wow – way to start. As you know I do agree with much of what you say and as I get older and grumpier (not sure if these are related but think they might be) I begin to wonder why we keep doing what we keep doing. To use that hackneyed cliche “if we always do what we always did…”
I am not sure if we have worked out why we do what we do – and why we are so unwilling to change- same with outcomes – people keep talking about how we are now going to focus on outcomes not activity and the next thing you know we are getting targets and people talk about staff numbers, not what difference they will make.
Why are we so scared of offending the wrong person?? The answer is in the question, because perhaps the idea of the service user being the important person in the relationship is not an idea that is shared by enough people?
So what we going to do about it??
BRAVO!!
I totally agree sarah. Although there are many good workers out there, there are also a great deal who are totally disheartened and see no way out of addiction – it is inevitable that this rubs off on clients.
This calls for a total overhaul of the way addiciton is viewed. We need to promote recovery – and the MANY ways it can be achieved. Workers and clients need to view recovery as a feasible option, not as an unobtainable goal (or even not an option).
This field needs a shake up. There needs to be better training, understanding and goals!
Sarah, great I spotted this blog, wonderful! My first thoughts where “GET OUT!” for your sanity! yet that is not for me to tell you what you need to do?
I was a professional in the public sector for 9 years going back many years, those days there was a saying, after 7 years your burnt out, well with drugs and alcohol ibeat that stistic and burnt out after 9 years.
I was there when it went into 3 into 1 patrnership with health welfare and education, what a load of nonsense, I was there when it started to purchase the private sector for services, starting with retirement homes for the elderly, so much more has happene for the worst, it is seriuosly now like a huge administration block.
i have 2 daughters who are both now with diplomas and i have managed to steer them away from the public sector and are both happily working in the private sector, less red tape crap, less if any boxes to tick, and far less dick heads (sorry to offend anyone!) to work with.
The primary aim in a caring sector is the client, they are paramount, not in the public sector anymore, not in any way at all. Everyone is scared of “Risks” taking “Decisions” and being accountable?
It has become a sector that is shameful in so many ways, most of the time is paper work, if you are really pro active at working with and for the client, boy o boy you sure are pushed aside and given a hard time, if you know the sytem and the rights the clients have and fight for them, then you have your cards marked.
Worse still, from personal experience and i have many contacts in this sector still, if you know the sytem is failing and “Whistle Blow!” ha ha, this is the last thing Chief Executives or managerment want to know, its a business, and some one has to be accountable for the budgets etc.
I think, Sarah! you can see from my comments that I have given a very upto date valuation of the sytem which is failing in all sectors.
hear hear, and a fantastic start to your blog, I dont think your views are extreme at all, as it is peoples lives we are dealing with and a sub standard service or worker is not only unaceptable but unethical and neglegent. Welcome to the wiredin community and i look forward to more of your thoughts.
Hold on a minute – who are you to preach about this? We have no idea what sort of worker you are – I’ve met several people who believe they are great at a job, relating to clients and understandding the world, yet have no idea what-so-ever. Where do you stand? You obviously think you’re good and thats dangerous. There are many out there who want to be doing a good job yet are fairly ineffective, but this can be for numerous reasons. I would expect if someone was employed, its generally as they appear to be the right person. If they do not deliver, it may well be the company themselves are not meeting their obligations r.e interviewing and training and placing people in an area they can achieve in. I believe its the providers who often dont do what they promise for their staff and discuss service users as units. If you’ve got a problem with your co-workers, bring it up at base and dont start preaching ridiculous ideas about providers being able to sack someone so simply. Its the providers responsibility to deliver the service they collect tax payers money for. Let them also carry blame when they fail in their promises.
Thanks for your comment Rob. Wasn’t really preaching, its a blog after all and was just my thoughts on the impression I have got since starting working in the public sector. Sometimes when you can take an outsiders view of a situation you can see things more clearly. Isn’t it a positive thing that we can say how we feel without people attacking us? Do we always have to say the PC thing, even if it isn’t how we are feeling?
Have a look at my other comments and you will see that I have said before that it is important that all levels of an organisation are performing well, including (and most importantly sometimes!) management. I totally agree with you when you say that its the organisation’s responsibility to ensure their staff are performing well and, again, I have discussed this in a previous post so will not go into any more detail here.
I 100% understand that there are amazing workers out there, and, personally, I don’t believe that they get enough credit or are rewarded enough for their efforts. Just today, I read the Personal Story of Chris, another member, and he talked about when he called Addaction for the first time, and the person, who eventually became his worker I gather, was really nice and warm when she answered the phone. He said this made a big difference to him and his decision to go and meet her for a chat. These small things obviously do make a difference, as I have read other personal stories which have discussed opposite situations where people have been put off just by the initial phone call and their recovery has been knocked back by a few weeks/months until they decide to pick up that phone again. Why should this be standard in the private sector when the motivation is making money and not in the public when the motivation is helping people improve their lives?
Part of the problem, perhaps, is that there is not a clear path of progression through the field and this may discourage people from improving their skills, accessing training etc. Prof. McKeganey’s article on Workforce Development is really interesting and is highly relevant to this topic. If anyone would like a copy to read over get in touch and I can email it to you.
I don’t have any problems with my co-workers, and as we do not work in an organisation which has contact with clients, perhaps you misunderstood the angle which I was coming from. My comments are based on my observations as a newcomer. I haven’t come across many people (yet) who have moved from private to public – I would be interested to hear their views on this if anyone else is out there!!
I just have never experienced a situation where it was ok not to be good at your job. And I don’t think it is rediculous to expect services to employ people fit for the job, and sack people who are not. I would say that’s common sense.
Hi Sarah,i have just read your blog and i have to say that i agree,your passion floods the wages…Nice one!!.
And for Rob-A..I can agree to a certain extent in what your saying aswell..In any industry we will always have issues,these can range from as you put it’interviewing,training and placing people within their skill sets’.
In my industry this is how i place people,on every contract we control we recruit individuals with experience in different sectors of the same industry,then unite them.
This allows me to pool all the knowledge that these specialists have to create great depth and understanding,covering all bases.
Im not in your industry,just an ex-user..but i am versed in business and understand fully the needs to have structure in any organisation.
Which is something even an outsider can see is clearly missing in your industry,it seems to be more of a free for all with every organisation scrapping it out.
I just dont understand why you are getting so narked and taking Sarah’s comments so personally???
Bad day is it???
Hi Chris,
Thanks! Glad to hear from someone with similar perspective. As a previous service user as well as someone who has a lot of business experience and knowledge you must be in a great position to comment on how things could be improved.
So, on that note… what do you think we should do? I think we should talk about possible solutions and not just about the problems, do you agree?
Hi Sarah,,absolutley!!!..
I hear all the time about the negatives..o.k we all agree there is alot of room for improvement and we need to discuss these as a whole to be able to draw up a short list of aims!!!..
I dont know the inns and outs,company structures,so forth of the care industry..maybe you could open my eyes to this,then we may have something to work on.
If i feel there is something wrong on a contract,then first port of call.isnt the managers.its the workers..Each and every one of them gets a chance to explain his and her take on things,whats wrong and what they think we could do better..
Obviously the more areas where there are the same conclusions are the parts we hit first!!.
We need a national survey..with key questions..
If this is too big a job to start off with,then we aim at a certain area..
See what sort of response we get,tailor a solution or draft up plans and go from there!!
I think we need to focus on the purpose of the services. My concern is that over the past few years as the sector has grown so rapidly, the sector has almost become “the beast that feeds itself”. Service are created and posts filled without always being clear as to what they will do that is different from that what already exists.
Sometimes a new service is created because the existing service is either not fulfilling its remit, does not want to or have the right staff to do so
But the original service is not challenged.Why? well one of the reasons is as Sarah suggests, fear of giving offence.
In England in recent years there has been an increase in the use of competitive tender, i don’t know if this has improved the quality of services? I would hope it had, but I guess it depends on how it has been done and whether that “playing field” is actually remotely level or looks like the field round here!
I do think that public sector services should all have a service specification, by properly monitored, and reviewed regularly. However this is not about target setting nor about another layer of bureaucracy. The vol org’s are used to this process but the scrutiny of the whole sector needs to be more proportionate and accountable.
Why are some very small vol org’s subjected to greater scrutiny through numerous reports and yet much larger public sector organisations have no significant reporting demands place on them.
Related to this why do funders/commissioners ask for lots of data on service activity and then do nothing with it. Oh I feel another blog coming on.
Oooh, I like that idea. A sort of massive SWOT analysis? I don’t think it would too big a job getting the survey out there, it would be what to do with the information once we have it! And who would do it? Maybe something could be produced so that each service could analyse themselves and then feed back into the national base to give an overview of the situation. It would then be the responsibility of each service to tackle the issues which have been raised.
It sounds so simple doesn’t it? That must mean that its not.
In regards to the structures etc you mentioned – there are so many fingers in the proverbial pie that its hard to give you a definitve answer. You have voluntary organisations, statutory services such as social care, health care, education and prision services. Then you have specialist D&A services )which is really an umbrella for everything that’s left). Maybe this contributes to the problem as we have so many different structures and sets of goalposts that we might forget that we are all working towards the same end goal?
We have something called the National Quality Standards for Substance Misuse Services in Scotland (you can read this doc. here: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/09/25092710/0
This basically gives services a check list of things they should be doing. No excuses really. Maybe we should look at the barriers for services in achieving these standards?
Although a blog may be ‘just your thoughts’ you are well aware that these are open to anyone on the web, so they may be far from harmless. As far as i’m aware, companies already have the option of sacking someone if they cant do their job. What you are suggesting is that companies have even more power over the individual. I’m an ex-user, and have been working in the area for 4 years with a healthy positive cynical attitude. I work for a very large voluntary sector provider and i amazed at the corruption i’ve witnessed in management and above. When a manager started trying to bully me, spread rumours and lies and undermine my work and a colleagues, i complained and was promptly moved, with no care for the work i had been doing for over a year with some clients, or the service i’d set up. She was eventually investigated and, quite rightly, sacked. The mechanisms are already there. I believe i would simply have been sacked, if you’re more extreme ideas were adopted. Workers need to feel empowered, trained properly and recognised. You are, however, correct in pointing out that there is little opportunity to progress and thats why i’m happily leaving soon.
As far as speaking to people politely on the phone goes, we should all do that, its quite enjoyable and novel sometimes. However, i generally speak to the people i work with as i speak to everyone and as i’ve always been spoken too – something you may very well find is not PC, but it usually gets the response needed and people engage.
Hey Rob,too often i have heard and seen what had happened to you, and it is far from acceptable..
People believe that a position of power(for want of a better word) is there to be used as a controlling tool.Far from it,the real purpose of power is to be able to pass it on to the people that work below you in the management tree!!.
I know the inns and outs of the person above me,the person below me knows the inns and outs of my position which allows us to spot the blind-spots which we all miss from time to time.
It should never be about ego’s and self-righteousness and i am truly sorry that you were one of the unfortunate one’s who suffered by her negligence..
You seem to have great passion and thats exactly what we need,we need to gather all this passion,information and knowledge and use it to our advantage!!.
And Sarah, i will have a look at it now,will let you know what i think(in my uneducated view).Do you fancy the challenge then???
I’m always up for a challenge Chris! Its how we know we are alive.
It was actually a great experience chris – obviously it had its lows but i new i was right in my fight and i’ll never give up blabbing about peoples rights, worker or service user – hence my annoyance at sarahs simple solution to what is obviously an acknowledged problem, but one with a great number fo causes.
Excellent..always up for a challenge??
So i can put your name down for running the london marathon next year with me to raise money for Wired In???
Chris,
Me and my big mouth, eh? I could be your cheerleader? That’s about as far as my sporting abilities will stretch.
if you can get sponsored as a cheer-leader then good for you!!
if not you better get training!!!
Hahahaha!!
Sarah, you fell for that one hook line and sinker!!!
A word of advice – never accept a challenge before you know what it is (especially from a certain person!!!!). He has been trying to rope me in all morning – I like your cheerleader idea though – nice escape!!!!
All – great debate going on here – brilliant to read!!
Ah,,Miss James..you know me too well!!!
Sarah, this is sure a debate you have brought up which is good for all to express and respect others views, I am now becoming angry,(my stuff!) And i choose to expand why!
I was a professional in the field as a Social Worker, working with vulnerable and abused children and young people, supervised contact and court apperarances. I loved my job, and so did my team, we did our utmost and beyond to cook the books for the benifit of the young people, it was a monthly challenge who could make the best expense sheet and milage. No one was there for financial gain, far from it.
Yet, Sarah, new in the Public sector, I took a young individual to a prospective childrens home, in broad day light I witnessed, emotional, mental and physical abuse, from the Deputy manager, Asssistant manager to 2 R.S.W’s, I was to put it mildly shocked beyond believe.
This sarah was a Public sector Home, I reported it to my Line Manager, a very caring wonderfully devoted happily married lady, It took me a bottle of whiskey and a mixture of speed and dope to write my report out that night.
I was sent home for nearly 9 months on full pay while my Line manager was given an office job at County offices, the NCH and NSPCC came in and did a investigation, the end result the public funded home and grounds where closed and sold, everything hushed up.
I was offered every job other than going back to working with children and families, I reacall sitting outside the head office with my line manager having a cig, and she stated, “I think our days are numbered “
The abuse went back to over 10 years, I never was asked to go to court, it had a direct result towards the increase break up of my marriage, a direct result to feed into my addiction, had no support, was given a postion which was having to supervise 6 to 7 staff and 32 clients on my books.
The hardest part was confidentiality, well inforced, and boy o boy, was I hounded, was I checked, double checked with reviews with clients, The whole thing tore me and my old work mates apart, so much so our departent i was working from they tendered to NCC, only recently it has been taken back to what it was and should be.
You say you are not directly in contact with clients Sarah, you are so lucky, stay that way, the front line workers, and boy o boy there are some really geniune descent hard working people within the public sector, just can not do what they are paid to do because of red tape crap, health and saftey bla bla bla.
Just look at Harringey, this all happened 16 years ago, yet it is still in the papers today, same problem, same investigation tactics and same blames.
I seriuosly can not found a reason to carry on with this as a debate, no offense to anybody at all out there.
Lastly sarah, you blogged at the start about loosing jobs in the public sector, well, to put it mildly the only way you can be sacked with out any problem is “CAUGHT STEALING & CAUGHT ABUSING” to proove it is another thing and the public sector prefers to hush things up and move people on. I feel better for this now. Time for a cuppa and a cig.
Great post! Many commissioners in the North West have attempted to address this issue by re-commissioning (i.e. putting the service in question to the market), The problem is that the new providers are faced with a thing called TUPE. This means that the very workers you are on about know that all they need to do is sit tight. This gets a bit more robust when a NHS service is re-commissioned and goes from the NHS to 3rd Sector. There has been a discussion on SMMGP about this and I have posted a link to your blog. In this circumstance, TUPE can mean losing a NHS pension that has been paid into for many years.
Hi Mark,
I have had a look at the regulations you mention. Am I right in thinking these apply to the whole UK seen as though they are based on EC Directives?
I think the idea of competitive tendering is worth thinking about. I am currently studying this in my politics module at uni so I am aware of the potential problems. Of course the issues you mention would be a particular hurdle. But perhaps if it was introduced with the proper regulations, and hindsight, it could be a success. I think it would encourage more professional development within the field.
We haven’t mentioned the laws which are already in place can assist in helping employers deal with staffing problems. If robust HR procedures are in place, i.e. warnings at escalating levels, Personal Improvement Plans etc, then staff who do not perform to set levels are offered the opportunity to improve over a certain period of time. If they continue to genuinely fail to meet the standards set then surely they can be legitimately dismissed? I know this is the case in the private sector. Of course, people will argue that this is open to abuse, but then isn’t everything? The important thing to remember is that everyone is given opportunity to improve and should be given all the support they need. It makes it a level playing field and everyone will be kept on their toes (in a good way!). And I don’t want to sound like I want to sack everyone! I’m talking about a very small minority, or at least this is what my impression has been. I would hope that most folk would welcome the chance to demonstrate that they are competent; everyone likes to know when they are doing a good job!
I have read that HR is a difficult area for small organisations to get to grips with – perhaps others with experience with this can comment further? You can do a whole degree in the subject so it’s pretty strange that we expect managers to be HR officers as well. Even in large organisations, such as local authorities and the NHS, it still may be managers who have to implement the above policies, despite having large centralised HR departments. They may be uncomfortable with this and may avoid the subject altogether in order to avoid yet another batch of hassles in their already over-stretched, under-staffed, under-funded schedule. Then add in the whole issue of personal friendships that may have developed and you’ve got a nightmare situation. It’s understandable when you think about it. How could we support this? Surely it would benefit everyone?
You will usually see in the tender documents or even in the advert “TUPE applies” . This means that if you are an organisation interested in bidding for the business you need to be prepared to take on some of the personnell in the posts now. In these processes the TUPE list is a crucial document. I have known organisations who have decided against bidding for a new contract based on the names on the TUPE list. Of course, this gives your post more credence.
