Key Principles

• Lead From the Top
• Address Behaviour and Culture
• Engage Your Stakeholders
• Communicate, Communicate
• Design the Change Programme
• Manage the Change Process
• Further Guidance

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Further Guidance

The following sources of guidance are relevant to managing change in the public sector.

• NAO Report "Change Management in the Inland Revenue", HC 140 1995-96
  Report on a government department change management programme.
   

• NAO Report “Delivering Successful IT-enabled Business Change”, HC 33, 2006-07
  Nine Key Questions for departments embarking on major IT-enabled business change.
  Exec Summary Para 7, Figure 2, [2.16]
   

• NAO: Effective communication with the public: A toolkit
   

• NAO Efficiency Toolkit topic Project Management
  The Toolkit provides practical guidance on assessing an organisation's current approach to achieving efficiency. It helps identify opportunities for improvements and develop actionable recommendations.
   

• NAO/LSE “Focus: Innovation Special” (December 2006)
  Guidance and examples on bringing innovation into the public sector.
   

• Northern Ireland Audit Office: "Insolvency and the Conduct of Directors", HC 817, 2005-06
  Includes reference to Insolvency Service’s change management programme.
   

• Cabinet Office: PMDU Strategy Survival Guide (May 2004)
  The Strategy Survival Guide aims to support strategy development and promote strategic thinking in government. It encourages a project-based approach to developing strategy and describes four typical project phases. It also discusses a range of skills and useful tools and approaches that can help to foster strategic thinking. It is offered as a resource and reference guide, and not intended as a prescription or off-the-shelf solution to successful strategy work.
   

• Cabinet Office: PMDU Strategy Development> Policy & Delivery Design> Tasks
  Developing a Change Management Plan is identified as a task within the Policy & Delivery Design stage of "Strategy Development":
  “Implementing the new policies will inevitably require some degree of change to organisations, systems and processes. A pro-active approach to change management is essential if the benefits of the new policies are to be realised. Developing a change management plan is a way of defining and agreeing what change is required and how it will be brought about. Building on the organisational analysis conducted in the Research & Analysis phase, the plan should be grounded in a thorough understanding of the obstacles and constraints to change and lay out a realistic road map for achieving it.”
   

• Cabinet Office: PMDU Strategy Skills> Planning Delivery> Change Management
  Change management is outlined as skill within the Planning Delivery skill-set within the group of “Strategy Skills”. The guidance on this skill includes:

  • A flow chart of the change management process
  • Key success factors in the delivery of change management
  • Strengths and weaknesses impacting the delivery of change management
  • References
     
• Change Management Info Toolkit, NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and University of Luton, 2002
   
• Managing Change in the NHS, Organisational Change: A Review for Health Care Managers, Professionals and Researchers (May 2001)
   
• Chief Information Officer - Reliable Project Delivery Programme
  Cabinet Office guidance on measures to increase the success rate of the government’s major IT related programmes and projects. (Jan 2007)
   
• The European Information Society Group (2001): “Change Management for e-Whitehall: Delivering change in the public sector”
   
• Every Child Matters
  Summary of approaches to structuring change management programmes used in public services reform.
   
• Improvement Network Change management checklist
  The Improvement Network is a partnership between the Audit Commission, the Improvement and Development Agency, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, and the Leadership Centre for Local Government.
   
• Leading Change, Professor John P Kotter, Harvard Business School Press 1996
   
• National School of Government: Change Management
  The National School of Government provides training in Change Management. These are designed for managers and change agents who are actively involved in leading teams and large groups through organisational change (3 day course) and for individuals fulfilling the role of Business Change Manager in a programme management environment, sitting on project boards representing the needs of the business (1 day course).
   

• OGC Gateway Review
  The OGC Gateway process examines a programme or project at critical stages in its lifecycle, to provide assurance that it can progress successfully to the next stage. The process is based on well proven techniques that lead to more effective delivery of benefits, together with more predictable costs and outcomes. It is designed to be applied to delivery programmes and procurement projects, including those that procure services, property and construction, IT-enabled business change and procurements using framework contracts.
   

• OGC Managing Successful Programmes
  OGC Managing Suiccessful Programmes provides a framework for senior management to direct and manage the change process.
   

• OGC ‘PRINCE2’
  PRINCE2 is recognised as a world-class international product and is the standard method for project management, not least because it embodies many years of good practice in project management and provides a flexible and adaptable approach to suit all projects. It is a project management method designed to provide a framework covering the wide variety of disciplines and activities required within a project. The focus throughout PRINCE2 is on the Business Case, which describes the rationale and business justification for the project.
   

• OGC Successful Delivery Toolkit (May 2003)

  • Definition of Business Change Manager
  • Briefings on delivery lifecycle (change management covered in Strategic Management, Setting Direction, Implementing Plans, Managing Services)
     
• Overseas Development Institute: Successful Communication: A Toolkit for Researchers and Civil Society Organisations
  This toolkit includes guidance on “How to Write a Communications Strategy”