Capacity building

Lead responsibility within government

Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) – Central Unit
John McMillen - Telephone 028 9052 8615 (Internal 28615)

Background

Implementation of the RPA will result in a radical streamlining of the Northern Ireland public sector. Capacity building will be critical to help ensure that capability exists within the new organisations to develop their structures, systems, people and skills and ultimately to deliver against their business strategies.  
Capacity building is not just about addressing immediate weaknesses or constraints in implementation. It is also a long-term process, in which the public sector becomes better equipped to respond to changing contexts. Capacity building needs are identified at three levels:
  • Continuing to deliver services and run operations, prior to the new organisations being formed;
  • Capacity of the system to manage the transition to the new organisations within the legislative timetable;
  • Developing the new structures in line with the vision of achieving more efficient, coherent, citizen focussed and accessible services which are responsive to the needs of communities and are driven by a commitment to equality, good relations and sustainable development.
The Central Unit has established the following terms of reference for the first phase of the project:
“To examine and produce proposals on an approach to building the capacity and competencies of the public sector to provide modern, effective, equitable and sustainable public services which are responsive to the challenges of modernisation and continuous improvement and which deliver excellent services for customers, citizens and communities”.

Progress/updates

A scoping paper on cross-cutting capacity building issues was agreed by RPA Steering Group in July 2006. As such, a programme of research and a series of cross-departmental events will be undertaken in the coming months.
The RPA Central Unit held an event on 26th July 2006 to explore over-arching issues associated with capacity building and the implementation of RPA.  The event was attended by representatives from each of the Departments and was seen as very useful and constructive. View the presentations given at the event (PPT 940 KB)
An international briefing paper on capacity building was commissioned in September 2006.  The paper is intended to inform the RPA Central Unit and the RPA Steering Group of the key capacity building issues for organisations in managing the transition to new arrangements and sustaining that change.
The research identifies phases of capacity building relevant to the implementation of the RPA as: Creating the Conditions; Preparing for Implementation; Implementation; and Operationalisation.  The research also ackowledges that the implementation of such a programme is a large-scale, complex and sensitive task for which considerable capacity will need to be built. The overall effectiveness of the RPA will ultimately be contingent on the performance of new teams and hence building such capacity is mission-critical.'

Current issues

The DOE sub group on capacity building external website has issued a final draft report to members of the DOE Taskforce Working Group and Political Panel which was discussed at the meetings of these groups on 4 and 17 July 2006 respectively.
The report considers the short, medium and long-term capacity needs of officers (including the people and functions transferring into local government), elected members and organisations.  

Website links