OVERVIEW

Phrases such as transformation and continuous improvement (CI) are appearing more and more in the rhetoric of government and the wider public sector. Driven by the imperatives of efficiency and transparency, the realisation is dawning that things are not going to go back to the way they were. There is a change of culture going on, moving away from the old hierarchical organisations of the past to a new, agile, business-like public sector.

Really good work has been done in pockets across the public sector, but a lot is being replicated in different parts of the UK. The Continuous Improvement conference provides an excellent opportunity for organisations to share what they have done so far, as well as to learn from what others are doing. It must be remembered that each organisation is unique, and the unthinking transplant of a model from one to another is not the way forward.

There is an awful lot of work still to be done to make CI unexceptional – so well embedded within an organisation that it is simply the way things are done. With an urgent need across the public sector to deliver efficiencies, the benefits of CI are clear, but success depends upon strong leadership and the engagement of staff at all levels.

Run in association with the Institute for Continuous Improvement in the Public Sector (ICiPS), Continuous Improvement: embedding the culture in the public sector seeks to support the public sector in becoming self-sufficient in the implementation of continuous improvement, facilitating cross-cutting initiatives, encouraging skills development and supporting delivery.