With the Government Plan now approved, chief executive Charlie Parker has effectively issued an open invitation to Islanders to use ‘metrics’ that will start becoming available next year to measure the success not only of politicians but himself personally.
Previously, Mr Parker and Chief Minister John Le Fondré have argued that they have been working with policies created by their predecessors.
The chief executive – who was brought in almost two years ago to spearhead an overhaul of the public sector – has also called on Islanders to engage with the government in 2020 as it seeks to rebuild trust and improve services in a collaborative way.
‘2020 is a staging point but it is the next part of the journey,’ he said. ‘We have got a responsibility to deliver the Government Plan and with it comes accountability – we need to start to show the metrics to the Island about where we have got improvements, what we are doing, where we are benchmarked.
‘If we don’t deliver that is going to be a point of failure, and I have to take a responsibility for that. But it is not just me, and it isn’t an opt out, we now need to deliver it. In 2020 we will start to get those metrics.’
Those ‘metrics’ will, he says, be transparent and include a new outcome performance framework, the publication of departmental business plans for the first time and six-monthly reports on progress on the Government Plan that will be lodged with the States Assembly.
The States approved the plan earlier this month following a debate spanning a number of days. The decision paves the way for £100 million of efficiencies to be made in the public sector by 2023, £900 million of spending, tax hikes on fuel, tobacco and high-strength alcohol and the establishment of a £5 million Climate Emergency Fund.
Jersey is, Mr Parker says, starting from a ‘low base’ but Islanders should begin to see services improve next year as a result of the ‘ambitious’ Government Plan.
‘The number of people who have said we get the plan, we understand the plan, we like the plan but our real problem is are you going to deliver the plan?
‘It is about making it ours. The Government Plan is ours.’
Mr Parker added that in 2020 the government plans to engage with Islanders and stakeholders to ensure meaningful change.
‘Islanders will be more trusting of us. They won’t see us through a cynical lens if we are more outward focused,’ he said.
