Letter - from Chief Minister to CSSP - Response to Review Hearing Residual Questions - 24 November 2

19-21 Broad Street | St Helier Jersey | JE2 3RR

Deputy Sam Mézec

Chair, Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel

BY EMAIL

24 November 2022

Dear Sam,

Thank you for your letter of 9 November 2022. Please see the answers, below, to your residual questions. Apologies for the delay in responding.

VALUE FOR MONEY PROGRAMME

1. How will you know that you have achieved your intended outcome of providing trusted, reliable and value for money public services?

The Government is improving the feedback that it receives from Islanders on the quality and effectiveness of public services, the information received should be a reliable indicator of public sentiment.

2. How will you confirm that the Government is responsive, compassionate, and accessible by 2026?

Government has already published proposals for how it can engage with Islanders better in the development of government policies, including hearing more consistently from less heard voices. These proposals will shortly be consulted on to help ensure that they work for Islanders. We intend to better measure the level of engagement, including from the less heard voices in our communities.

We have been reviewing the way that information is made available to Islanders on the development and progress of government policies, so that it easier for Islanders to be informed, to engage with government developments, and to hold government to account. We hope that these improvements will lead to positive outcomes in attitudes towards government.

The Jersey Opinions and Lifestyle Survey asks questions about trust in various institutions in Jersey, including government departments, the States Assembly, and Parishes. These questions were asked in 2022 and can be repeated to provide evidence of how trust has changed over time.

3. How will you know that public servants are supported to do their best work by 2026?

We are introducing a competency-based performance management programme which will provide greater accountability and evidence of individual performance. There will be an enhanced connection between  performance  management  and  learning  development.  We  are  introducing  a  new organisation wide learning management system that works for everyone. Public servants will be more empowered to take ownership for their own learning journeys and managers will have comprehensive meetings to discuss career development and career pathways.

The learning management system will support with talent management by maintaining individual continuous development records.

We carry out annual staff surveys, we can also send specific learning surveys via the system to ensure that public servants feel supported in their learning. We can also measure the value of the learning by asking public servants to complete pre and post learning questionnaires to measure learning, suitability, and level of learning.

4. Can you provide more detail into the Productivity Improvement Programme?

The roll-out plan for VFM Programme is currently under development. We would be happy to provide a briefing for the Panel once the plan has been signed of by the COM

1. Who will be accountable for the delivery of the Productivity Improvement Programme?

A Political Oversight Group, will be established to steer and monitor the VFM programme across GoJ, including Productivity Improvement.

A governance structure for the programme is currently in development, as part of the programme roll-out plan, and will be shared following COM agreement and approval.

It is anticipated that the framework and tools will be developed centrally for consistency and respective Ministers and the Directors General will be responsible for delivery in Departments.

2. How will the progress of the programme be monitored and measured?

Delivery plans including SMART targets will be agreed tracked and monitored, with progress reported through the VFM programme governance to Council of Ministers with regular reporting to stakeholders for transparency and scrutiny.  

3. Will the programme training be mandatory for all employees?

Various options for training are being considered in the planning stage. The aim will be to ensure successful delivery of the programme and to embed the right skills, knowledge and awareness within the organisation. It is also important to build success for the medium- and longer-term sustainability of the GOJ.

5. The Best Value Reviews are a fundamental part of the Value for Money Programme.

The roll-out plan for VFM Programme is currently under development. We would be happy to provide a briefing for the Panel once the plan has been signed of by the COM

1. Can you explain the aims and objectives of the Best Value reviews?

The Council of Ministers will look to simplify operations, stop services that are no longer required and improve efficiencies across government. This will allow funding to be reprioritised into areas needing further investment, or further reduce overall spend. This work is part of the longer term VFM programme

Best Value reviews are intended as deep-dive tool. This is not an exhaustive list but for illustrative purposes potential examples for Best Value reviews:

1. To confirm or reset service delivery and resourcing alignment with strategic priorities

2. Assess whether service, form of delivery and/ or outcomes are still relevant to Government
3. Assess and consider alternative forms of operational delivery
4. Service re-engineering or redesign

 Reviews will be co-ordinated by a partnership between the Treasury and the Cabinet Office.

2. Will these be conducted by an in-house team or external consultants?

The explanation is to use internal resources where possible. Dependent on the nature of review, we may need to use external input or alternative expert insight. Such decisions will be set out in the terms of reference for each specific review.

3. How long do you anticipate this to take?

The length of time for each review will be dependent on the subject matter. However, we want to ensure that the process is not burdensome in resource time and delivers recommendations that are impactful, timely and relevant.

4. Which areas will be reviewed first as a matter of priority? The detail of the programme is yet to be agreed
5. What data will be collected, and will this be made publicly available to ensure full transparency with Islanders?

Data collection will be relevant to the subject matter under review. Analysis and insights will be shared where possible and appropriate to provide transparency, while observing and complying with any data requirements.

6. What is the expected cost of the Best Value Reviews?

At this stage, it is anticipated that additional costs will be limited as we will largely draw on internal resources. However, the costs of the programme will be monitored through the programme governance.

7. Will service providers as well as service users be consulted with?

We will consult service users and service providers as appropriate to the reviews undertaken.

8. When will the programme's first report be produced? Will be shared in due course

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

6. What affect has the previous Government's decision to defer the Electronic Document Management and Cyber projects in order to continue funding the Our Hospital project, had on the progress of IT developments?

There was no direct impact on progress, as it had been identified through ongoing forecasted expenditure, timing, and scheduling, that these initiatives would not require this funding in year, therefore allowing the reprofiling to future years.

7. Could you give us an update on the progress to date of the Integrated Technology Solution (ITS)?

The ITS Implementation commenced in January 2021, planning to take approximately 3 years, with the conclusion of the Programme at the end of 2023. It is constructed of 4 separate Releases and the product it delivers will be known as Connect.

In total ITS will deliver 7 Connect Modules:

• Finance

• Suppliers Ariba

• People

• Inventory

• Estates

• Health & Safety

• Assets

The key partners in the ITS Programme are:

Delivery Partner – A consortium led by Deloitte including Sysdoc, SAP and WARM (an on-island IT firm), providing the technology, Systems Integration and Business Change.

Programme Partner – Ernst & Young, providing Programme Management and Programme Management Office services.

Procurement and Quality Assurance Partner – Credera, who supported GoJ in the procurement in 2020 and are now providing ongoing commercial support and undertake monthly quality assurance reviews.

Legal – Legal support in relation to the commercial contracts is provided by DLA Piper.

The GoJ of course cannot rely solely on third parties to successfully deliver ITS, it has also engaged and received commitment from many of our skilled, subject matter expert colleagues from across the organisation to work with the programme to make it a success.

In addition to delivering the 7 Connect modules, the Delivery Partner and Programme Partner are committed to delivering Social Value initiatives. These initiatives include work experience and internships, training courses delivered through Digital Jersey and Highlands College, recruitment of 3 people from "back to work" into full time roles and 180 laptops for schools.

The ITS programme has an allocated budget of £62.52 million to deliver releases 1 to 4 between 2020 to 2023, from 2024 the ongoing revenue implications will be met from allocated budgets within departmental base budgets. In addition to the above budget allocation further modules were introduced the programme (Health & Safety and Estate Management) for which additional funding was allocated in the amount of £1.28 million.

ITS Schedule and Timing

The ITS Programme will be delivered in 4 Releases:

Release 1 replaces the heavily customised, outdated, and unsupported JD Edwards system with a cloud based S4/ HANA SAP Solution (Connect Finance) as well as replacing Supply Jersey with an industry standard SAP procurement system (Connect Suppliers Ariba). Release 1 also includes the introduction of Connect Inventory into some of the GoJ's warehousing. This will be delivered in January 2023.

Release 2 delivers SAP SuccessFactors HCM (Human Capital Management) system (Connect People). This will replace a significant part of Resource Link as well as Talent Link and Virtual College. It also provides additional functionality around workforce planning. This will be delivered from January 2023.

Release 3 replaces Concerto with Connect Assets, introduces Connect Estates and Connect Health and Safety. This will be delivered in increments from April 2023 through to August 2023.

Release 4 would add additional features for the Finance and Commercial elements to those introduced in Release 1.

At present Releases 1, 2 and 3 are expected to be completed by the end of 2023 within the current budget. Release 4 has yet to be contracted.

8. Has any data been collected from test users thus far? If so, what is the feedback?

Connect Finance, Connect SAP Ariba and Connect People are all in the User Acceptance Testing phase. As at Friday 11 November, there were 153 scenarios performed and from these scenarios there were 145 defects raised, with 88 of those defects having been resolved. It is expected that the User Acceptance Testing to enable a Go-live date of January will be completed by the end of November in advance of the first of 2 Go / No-Go decisions.

9. There is no allocated funding for the ITS system past 2023, are you confident that this timeline will be adhered to?

The ITS programme will close at the end of 2023 and will therefore not require further capital funding. However, should the GoJ require future amendments, supplements, or to adjust elements of the Connect platform that has been delivered by the ITS Programme, this will need to be applied for through the business case process thereafter. As previously stated, the ongoing revenue funding e.g., Licences, is included in the Departmental base budget.

10. What benefit will service users and providers receive from the £1.3m spend on the ITS Release 3 Additional project?

Estates Replacement

Consolidation of Property Management onto a single solution, which is integrated with wider Connect systems, will enable Jersey Property Holdings (JPH) and building users to access data and report, from a single source of information. This will lead to improvements in the management of building tenancies, and service for our tenants, in addition to improved capital and investment planning, enabled by delivery of more robust Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) modelling. A single integrated solution, coupled with improved ways of working will enable GoJ to target a reduction in the cost of managing GoJ assets whilst improving the quality of our maintenance.

Health & Safety

The system will deliver demonstrable industry best practice, driving improved regulatory compliance and mitigate the risk of days lost due to workplace accidents as well as potentially reducing the financial impact of non-compliance. The system will provide end-to-end management of a Health & Safety Incident through its lifecycle enabling lessons to be learnt from past failings, reducing the likelihood of reoccurrence. The user experience will be improved via a better user interface and accessibility, promoting an increase in near miss and incident reporting. The integrated nature of the system will also enable GoJ to link incidents to Assets, improving oversight, management and mitigation of problematic areas and equipment.

11. Can you confirm whether a centre of excellence for the ITS has been established?

The CoE Team responsible for running Connect once embedded have been identified and are currently working within the Programme, receiving Knowledge Transfer and hands on Training in readiness to support Hypercare for the first 2 months post Go Live.

12. What update can you give us on the staff training programme for the ITS?

Staff training is being performed in many ways, from early awareness of the Programme through to Roadshow activities that take the Programme to our key workers who are generally harder to reach (examples being but not restricted to, the Hospital, the Prison, our Fire and Ambulance services and Highlands college). We have a Knowledge Portal that all colleagues have access to which contains the latest news, responses to FAQ's, the benefits of each Connect module, as well as, short videos/Demos on specific modules.

The ITS Programme has developed a number of "Day in the Life" brochures that explain, for example, the changes to the day in the life of a Requisitioner or Budget Manger. Similarly, as different colleagues learn in different ways, we have developed a number of Stop / Start / Continue booklets that quickly explain what colleagues will continue doing, do differently, or no longer need to do as part of their role.

The ITS Programme has installed a Vision Room where Leaders / Managers can bring their teams to immerse themselves in what the Programme is doing, how they will be benefited and how they can support the successful take up from Go-live. Additionally, we are developing more specific role- based training material in a variety of formats (200 videos, e-learning, Quick reference guides). This is that a variety of learners can draw down at the point of need material that is easily consumable. For functions that have more intense engagement with the new systems and processes as well as for audiences with limited digital access, The ITS Programme is developing Instructor led training (60 courses for Finance, Commercial and People functions).

Finally, The ITS Programme has also defined the time commitment recommended by role, over the next three months. Employees for example will access the introduction modules (30min) and additionally 1h online learning to explain processes around changes to employee data and holiday booking. Line Managers will have access to material around approvals, team management, learning and absence management with a recommended time commitment of 8.5h over three months.

13. Given the commitment to the reduction of outsourcing talent, are the IT projects mostly reliant on consultants?

Many  of  the  existing  in-flight  IT  projects  are  heavily  reliant  on  consultants  for  design  and development, in part down to the model of procurement.

It is our ambition to deliver a Digital Strategy that places a greater focus on intelligent procurement through less dependence on large consortium capital contracts, and by developing iteratively and building GoJ skills and capacity to deliver.

Yours sincerely,

Deputy Kristina Moore Chief Minister