Cabinet Office Staging Sensitisation Seminars on Citizen's Charter Programme
Cabinet Office Staging Sensitisation Seminars on Citizen's Charter Programme
KINGSTON (JIS):
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The Public Sector Modernisation
(PSM) Division of Cabinet is staging a series of sensitisation seminars
on the Citizen's Charter Programme, which seeks to inform Government
agencies and departments about the procedures involved in formulating a
Citizen's Charter.
Speaking with JIS News
following the seminar for parish councils, which took place yesterday
(November 16) at the Department of Local Government in Kingston,
Principal Director for the PSM Division, Dwight Uylett, explained that
the sensitisation seminars are the first step in the process to create
the Citizen's Charter.
He said that for this financial
year, emphasis is being placed on health centres, early childhood
institutions and the local authorities.
"For 2009/10, we are focussing on
the health centres in keeping with Government's imperative to
strengthen health care delivery at the primary level. In terms of the
issue related to the development of the child and the protection of the
child's rights, we have been working with the Early Childhood
Commission and the Ministry of Education to commence the (Citizen's
Charter) programme in the infant schools and we have been prioritising
the parish councils as well," he informed.
Sensitisation sessions have
already been held with some health centres, while a strategy is to be
ironed out with the Early Childhood Commission through the Ministry of
Education, to implement Citizen's Charters in infant schools, Mr.
Uylett said.
He noted that a number of parish
councils have been working at formulating Citizen's Charters for a
number of years "but the issue was that not every entity was able to
move into the charter programme. So what you would have had is that
some went and some didn't. What we are saying now is that a cohesive,
coherent approach is needed so that more persons are involved so that
the benefits can be greater."
According to the PSM head, the
entities being targeted have significant interface with clients and "we
think that it is imperative that they be targeted immediately to ensure
that they are brought on the service programme. We will assess
thereafter, how ready the organisations are to move to level two, which
is the implementation of the Citizen's Charter".
The Citizen's Charter Programme
sets out the service standards of an organisation and what citizens of
the country can expect from that organisation. Over 120 Government
entities have developed or have published charters.
The initiative is a component of
the National Customer Service Programme (NCSP), which the PSM Division
is in the process of implementing. The NCSP, Mr. Uylett explained,
"encapsulates a number of tools, methods, and mechanisms that allow
organisations to look at how service is delivered, and put in place
continuous improvement programmes."
There are four levels or steps in
the programme. The first two steps entail the sensitisation programmes
and the implementation of a Citizens Charter, while the third step
involves the formulation of a Customer Service Improvement Programme in
order to determine how effectively service is being delivered. This
includes undertaking substantive testing, and conducting service
audits. In the fourth step, organisations are expected to now put in
place a customer service monitoring and evaluation framework.
The Principal Director told JIS News
that the response to the programme "has been great. I think the
opportunity to communicate and interact with each other is very good,
because entities don't feel isolated, and they don't feel like they are
on their own and if they are not sure about something, there is a
support group around them that will help them through."
He informed that there is a
support group in the Cabinet Office that provides technical support and
guidance to the entities. "If there are any issues you need resolving,
we can work with you to help you to resolve it. But primarily, we would
want the organisations to take ownership of managing their service
delivery," he said.
He pointed out that service
delivery is no longer just about the persons at the front desk who
smiles and are pleasant "but there are other things that need to be
addressed - the issue of communication, the issue of managing your
service portfolio, the issue of knowing that the service you are
delivering is what is expected of you, the issue of how are you
planning for service delivery."
"It's not after the fact, its real
time, its interactive, service delivery is now. We do mystery shopping,
we go into any Government organisation at any time to see how they are
doing there and we would want those issues to be resolved there and
then. We are not only cognisant of the entities that are giving good
service, we are also cognisant of the entities that are frustrating
citizens in their need for service delivery and those entities need to
be addressed as well," Mr. Uylett added.