Department for Work and Pensions Communication Capability Review February 2013
Management summary 2.1 The Communication Capability Review of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is one of a series across Whitehall. The review fieldwork took place in January 2013. 2.2 Each review is carried out by a combination of peer and external reviewers. Their details are in Annex A. The review methodology is based on interviews and examination of supplied materials. The reviewers evaluate capability against business requirements using an established assessment framework. This report contains their qualitative assessment of capability and provides recommendations for improvement. 2.3 Communication is a pan organisational responsibility. The review s scope covers the breadth of DWP s external and internal communication, as well as the work of the Strategic communications directorate. 2.4 Interviewees included Ministers, DWP officials including Executive Team members, communications professionals and external critical friends. The latter group included journalists, for example the Sun newspaper, and stakeholders such as the CBI. DWP Remit 2.5 DWP is responsible for welfare and pension policy, and for much of its delivery. It has a vital role in helping people out of work back into employment, and in tackling child poverty. It also serves over 12m pensioners with the State pension and Winter Fuel Payments. It is the biggest public service delivery department in the UK, serving approximately 22 million customers. DWP s remit can be broadly categorised into three areas: working age support; disability benefits; and pensions. All three are undergoing major reforms. Radical reforms 2.6 This is a momentous time in the department s history. There are a number of drivers behind DWP s reforms, the most important being economic. DWP spends a greater share of the public purse than any other department in Britain, by a significant margin. Containing its expenditure is crucial to the government s deficit reduction programme. The Universal Credit programme is one of the most significant welfare reforms in a generation. DWP is also planning to reform the state pension, and a programme to reform workplace pensions is already underway. The Work Programme too represents a step change for the way people find work and represents a large scale test of paying for public service provision by results. Organisational context 2.7 DWP itself has been through a period of change with significant headcount reductions in 2011. It delivers its customer services through organisations such as the Pensions Service and Jobcentre Plus. These operations were previously Agencies, at a remove from DWP and now work as part of the DWP whole. Close integration is seen by DWP s leadership as extremely important in achieving the reforms. In effect almost 100,000 people are
employed directly by DWP, more than any other department. It is led by the secretary of state, four other ministers, a Departmental Board and an Executive Team of seven. 2. There have also been significant changes in DWP s Strategic communications directorate. Since March 2010, DWP has reduced it communications staff headcount by 46%, and consolidated the Department's communications expertise within a smaller, more efficient Directorate. The previous leader held the post of Director General of Marketing, Communication and Customer strategy. When she left in January 2011 an interim was put in place until the current Director joined in November 2011. Overview 2.9 The review findings are among the most positive of the communication reviews carried out to date. Communication at DWP is treated seriously and is seen by its leaders as integral to the success of DWP s reforms. It is carried out in a professional and systematic way. Communications professionals are seen by many as trusted advisers within the department and integrate well with their internal clients. 2.10 The Director of Communications (DoC) was singled out for praise. He has had a dramatic impact in the fourteen months he has been in post, making substantial changes and restoring confidence in the Communications Directorate among ministers and senior officials. Reportedly this turnaround was much needed. 2.11 The qualifier to this encouraging assessment is that the scale and ambition of the reforms that DWP is driving through over the next five years is enormous. It demands high quality departmental leadership, communication, operational excellence and management generally. Taking this into account, we would draw attention to: the digital side of DWP s communications, which was not as good as the reviewers expected; the marketing function which the reviewers regarded as good, but were of the view that it will need to be outstanding to support the reforms; and internal communication, which needs a more proactive approach from the Communications Directorate something the DoC is already aware of. This report makes suggestions for improvement in these three areas and elsewhere. Findings 2.12 Leadership The Secretary of State has set a clear direction and timescale for the reforms. The Department now has the task of implementing these. This provides a firm base for developing a clear, single minded communication strategy and executing it. The Permanent Secretary at DWP is personally committed to effective communication and sees it as an important business tool. His particular focus is on internal communication to engage staff with the reforms. He intends to create a corporate culture and infrastructure where the workforce can take personal responsibility for delivering the reforms and have a voice in shaping how this is carried out at an operational level. The Director of Communications (DoC) exhibits strong leadership and has had a transformative impact in a short time. This is manifest both in his approach to developing a receptive external environment for the reforms, and internally in re
building confidence in his directorate and putting in place a staged approach to communication improvements. There is evidence of this in the media relations team, the stakeholder engagement team and with internal communications. His senior management team (SMT) is now fully in place with the sixth deputy director arriving in December 2012. 2.13 Integration of operations, policy and communications Almost all of the reviews to date have high lighted the challenge of creating better integration between the communications function and the rest of the organisation. (Tactical media relations being an exception to this.) It is an area many commercial organisations wrestle with. At DWP this integration is generally very good and reportedly much improved during the last 12 months. A business partnering structure and staff talent deployment have contributed to this, but the main driver is the clear leadership in DWP, noted in 2.12 above. 2.14 Management of the Strategic communications directorate A number of important initiatives are in place to support and sustain improvements in the Strategic communications directorate. These include an evaluation hub and a communications operating model. Both of these are in an early stage in their development but are essential characteristics of a well managed delivery department. Personal development is also a highlight, with high performing staff moved to areas of importance such as internal communication. This enables their professional development as well as injecting talent into key areas. The review team was also impressed with the allocations system and the Learning & Development offer. Morale also seemed very good across the interviewees. In the communications workshop the assessment was the most positive of all reviews to date. Opportunities for improvement 2.15 The review team identified four key areas for development and improvement. 2.15.1 Digital communication offers DWP significant opportunities for engaging and interacting with a number of key audiences. In some cases for example in the disability and social justice area this is already happening. But DWP service delivery is increasingly moving online. Universal Jobmatch is already live. There are ambitious plans for online delivery for Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment and Carers allowance. The review team felt that strategic digital communication opportunities are not keeping pace and DWP does not have clear, proactive leadership to drive it forward. Furthermore the relationship with GDS seems to be fractured. Both GDS and DWP need to do more to build the relationship. Overall, in comparison with other aspects of DWP s strong communication capabilities, digital communication seems to under perform. 2.15.2 Marketing capability: the review team concluded that DWP has a reasonable degree of strength in this area. On auto enrolment pensions marketing indicators suggest that initial outcomes are positive. The Universal Credit programme by contrast is in pre roll out phase. This is probably why the review
team did not find in place the sophisticated marketing processes and strategies that the best commercial sector organisations would deploy for a behaviourchange project of this scale. As the roll out accelerates into 2014 and beyond the review team would expect to see an industrial scale, data driven Customer Relationship Marketing approach to managing behaviour change among DWP s enormous customer base. 2.15.3 Communication strategy would benefit from greater attention and Executive Team support. The reviewers were impressed with the detailed DWP strategic communications plan. However it focusses chiefly on objectives, activities and metrics the why and the with what, not the how. It does not aim to set out the rationale for decisions about what approach should be used against which audience. An additional paper on this would be useful. DWP s evaluation hub could provide useful intermediate indicators to test and refine strategy choices. 2.15.4 The Strategic communications directorate has also been challenged to take more of a lead role in driving internal communication, something which is seen at DWP as a strategic priority. This effort is underway; internal communications has been re structured and is moving to more of a campaigning footing to drive the DWP story. The internal communications team needs to ensure that there is a consistent thematic thread to link the different campaigns elements. 2.16 There are a number of other improvement areas for DWP to focus on over the next year, in building on those it has already made. These include: the impact of Strategic communications directorate deputy directors in providing more support for the DoC. There are six but their influence does not yet reflect this; operational efficiency opportunities through shared services, for example with HMRC on developing forms for claimants; the configuration of the Studio, a legacy unit, which has too broad a span of roles to be cohesive; and communication leadership for internal communication. These points are all addressed by the report s recommendations. Recommendations Overarching recommendation. Sustain continued improvements in communication by reinforcing the DoC s leadership. 2.17 The overarching recommendation in this report is that the communication improvements put in place over the last 14 months must be embedded. Furthermore, to keep pace with the reform programme the pipeline of further improvements must be sustained. 2.1 For this to happen the DoC needs to ensure his six deputy directors can grow into a strong and unified leadership force. The DoC is already aware of this priority and is working to give the group more profile and to ensure they work more closely as a cohesive team. (One reviewer questioned whether six was too many.)
2.19 To complement this added support from below, the Executive Team should consider whether the DoC should be a member of the Executive Team. The test for this is whether it would help to deliver the improvements outlined in this report by making him more closely integrated with DWP s leadership. For example it might help drive internal communication priorities more widely across the Executive Team. This matter is for consideration and not a recommendation per se. The reviewers acknowledge that there will be wider factors that need to be taken into account. 2.20 In addition there are four main recommendations. They are listed in priority order. Recommendation one. Elevate digital communication to a more strategic level and put authoritative leadership in place. 2.21 The review team recommends putting in place for 12 months an expert, senior leader (i.e. at deputy director or grade 6 level) of digital communication. Their remit would be to ensure that digital communication plays a strategic role in stakeholder and operational activity to deliver the reforms. The role would be strategic and distinct from the digital implementation work currently performed by the Studio. This move might need some SMT re balancing, to prevent the senior team being top heavy. Recommendation two. Secure a senior call off marketing resource now, so that 2014 and 2015 Universal Credit reforms can benefit from best practice from the outset. 2.22 This initiative would use time limited input from sophisticated relationship and online marketing experts to ensure the latest thinking (possibly from the commercial world) is employed on Universal Credit. To do this the reviewers suggest securing the use of a consultant to act as an adviser for a limited number of weeks over a two year period, starting as soon as possible. This expert would be sufficiently immersed to ensure that the marketing strategy is robust and all approaches including innovation trials are documented. The role would include subsequent reviews of progress on a regular basis, for example to ensure that behaviour change modelling is used for different segments using a rigorous test schedule, and that the claimant database is optimised for effective Customer Relationship Management, online and off line. Recommendation three. Sharpen the communication strategy, starting with internal communication. 2.23 As part of the phased Communications Operating Model roll out, the review team recommend that the Strategic communications directorate strengthens the how part of its communications plans. Internal communication is high priority and would be an appropriate place to start. The communications strategy would link the peaks and troughs of each internal communications campaign in the DWP story with a clear, audience driven narrative. Recommendation four. Re configure the Studio, to support strategy development and performance, and to deliver efficiencies in operational support communications. 2.24 The review team recommends splitting the resources that currently sit within the Studio. A strategy development and performance side would be housed in a performance and strategy unit, alongside market research, resource allocations and professional development. The transactional elements could form part of shared
services operational delivery unit with Hub partner HMRC. The strategic side of Digital would be separated from the operational, as indicated in 2.21. Further recommendations. 2.25 These are described in more detail in the main report. They include: broadening the reach and impact of the communications senior management team under the Director of Communications, in particular the deputy directors; achieving greater Strategic communications directorate leadership in internal communication; ensuring DWP s stakeholder and media relations operations have sufficient regional capability as the reforms progress; and balancing managed moves with the need for staff continuity and stability. The Director of Communications has already initiated work in some of these areas. Recommendations: action and progress review 2.26 The reviewers have recommended a number of specific actions and assigned specific deliverables and evidence points to them. These are not intended to be prescriptive. Their aim is to help secure the outcomes intended in the recommendations described above. The Cabinet Office would be happy to meet with the Director of Communications and the Permanent Secretary and the Director General for Professional Services to review improvements in six months and 12 months time. Recommended actions Progress in six months Progress in 12 months Overarching recommendation: sustain improvement momentum Evidence that the SMT is seen as a cohesive unit, and is driving further improvements effectively. Examples to show evidence of further improvements pipeline. Delivery of the improvements below. 1. Digital Evidence of compelling digital communication leadership and a clear, innovative strategy. 2. Marketing Arrange access to leading edge specialist expertise. 3. Strategy Internal communication strategy in place, signed off by the top of the office Plan to ensure that digital communication is becoming mainstream at DWP and digital no longer needs separate leadership. Evidence of detailed behaviour change e CRM / CRM strategy for Universal Credit. Positive feedback from Perm Sec. on communications directorate leadership of internal communication. High level communication strategy for key reforms.
Recommended actions Progress in six months Progress in 12 months 4. Split the Studio into performance and delivery hubs Re configure to separate performance and delivery into different units. Agree deeper shared services arrangements with HMRC. Evidence of cost savings from shared services with HMRC. Evidence of strategy hub output making a positive contribution. Note: for prioritisation and focus, not every section in this report has been given a set of time bound recommended actions.