What is Sustaining Progress

Benchmarking in the Public Service

Agreed Action Plan under Sustaining Progress

Third Progress Report on Sustaining Progress

What is Sustaining Progress

Introduction

Sustaining Progress was negotiated early in 2003. It is the 6th in a series of agreements between Government and the social partners dating back to 1987.
The Sustaining Progress Agreement will run for a 3 year period between 2003 and 2005.

The implementation of Sustaining Progress is linked with the Public Service Benchmarking Body (PSBB) exercise on pay. See http://www.dcu.ie/partnership/ for further information on Benchmarking..

Commitments under Sustaining Progress

Under Sustaining Progress, the following commitments were identified for the Education Sector as a whole:

• Stable Industrial Relations
• Flexibility
• Performance/Accountability
• Partnership
• Efficient use of Resources
• Customer Service
• eGovernment
• Development and Training
• Equal Opportunities
• Principles of Organisation Change
• Team Working and cross functional working
• New Technology and eGovernment
• Typical working arrangements
• Attendance Patterns
• Redeployment of Staff
• Modernisation of the Education Sector

In terms of the translation of these commitments into an ‘Agreed Action Plan’ within the Higher Education Sector, the following was agreed:

• Full implementation of a Performance Management Systems by 1 January 2005
• Embed, Refine and Mainstream the ‘Partnership’ Process
• Improve Financial and Management Information Systems
• Set Customer goals, develop measure for assessing their success and provide information on the performance of the institution
• Publish customer service standards.
• Improve information access and service delivery through the use of ICT
• Continue training & development for all staff
• Promote equal opportunity and widen access to family friendly initiatives
• Promote opportunities and implement agreed codes of practice for the employment of people with disabilities
• Initiatives involving organisational change, team and cross functional working and new technology and co-operation with the design and implementation of eGoverment projects
• Atypical working arrangements, flexible attendance patterns and staff redeployment in response to work and consumer demands.
• Enter discussions on a voluntary Code of Practice in relation to terminal examinations.
• Adopt a new and more flexible work patterns through measure arising from the implementation of Institutional Planning and strategic development.
• Specific initiatives arising from Quality Assurance, continuous quality improvement and service delivery
• Changing structures and reporting relationships arising from new research institutes and other organisational developments

Please view http://www.dcu.ie/partnership/index.shtml for full details of the specific commitments that DCU has made in its Agreed Action Plan under Sustaining Progress.

Please view http://www.dcu.ie/partnership/index.shtml for full details of the first ‘Progress Report’ by DCU submitted to the Performance Verification Group (PVG) via the Partnership Forum in November 2003.

Assessment For Payment

The agreement for Sustaining Progress provides for the establishment of ‘Performance Verification Groups (PVG) in each Sector who will verify that the conditions for payment of the increases provided for in the agreement have been met. Conditions for payment will be;

‘dependent, in the case of each sector, organisation and grade, on verification of satisfactory achievement of the provisions on co-operation with flexibility and ongoing change; satisfactory implementation of the agenda for modernisation set out in the various sections of the agreement, and the maintenance of stable industrial relations and absence of industrial action in respect of any matters covered by this Agreement’.

Payment of Sustaining Progress in conjunction with Benchmarking will be assessed by a ‘Performance Verification Group (PVG) which is an independent group that has been set up under Sustaining Progress for this purpose.

The Pay Terms of Sustaining Progress

In line with the terms of Sustaining Progress, payments should be made as follows:
3% from 1st January 2004
2% from 1st July 2004
2% from 1st December 2004

Benchmarking in the Public Service

The Public Service Benchmarking Body (PSBB) was established in July 2000 under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF). The overall aim of the exercise was to compare public service pay with that of the private sector. The exercise ensured that comparisons were made between similar roles by studying job content in terms of roles and responsibilities of certain grades.

The Terms of Reference for Benchmarking

• The need to ensure equity between public and private sector employees
• The need to ensure ongoing modernisation and change in the public service
• The need to sustain Ireland’s competitiveness and to develop economic prosperity on a sustainable basis and
• Recruitment and retention problems in the Public Service

In summary, the PSBB translates as follows within the Higher Education Sector as meaning:

• an end to the cross-sectoral pay links
• no public sector industrial action over pay (ie. benchmarking will not be paid if strikes or industrial action happens),
• improved services
• ongoing flexibility and change
• improved staff performance though the introduction of a performance management system
• streamlined recruitment
• new financial management systems leading to better value for money and accountability.

PSBB Report

The PSBB’s report was published in June 2002, two years after the Body had been established. It recommended a range of increase for specific grades, ranging from zero to 25%. The average award across the civil service was 8.9%.

Conditions for Payment of PSBB and Link to Sustaining Progress

The implementation of the benchmarking report was negotiated as part of the talks on Sustaining Progress. Sustaining Progress includes a detailed outline of the modernisation and change required in each sector within the Public Service.

Under the Programme for Prosperity in December 2000, it was agreed that 25% of the PSBB would be paid with effect from 1st December 2001. The balance of the increases due under PSBB was to be linked to Sustaining Progress and paid on the following basis:

50% of the PSBB increase from 1st January 2004
25% of the PSBB increase from 1st June 2005.

See http://www.dcu.ie/partnership/index.ie for further information about Sustaining Progress including payments due under Sustaining Progress.

Payment of Benchmarking and Sustaining Progress is being independently verified by a Performance Verification Group(PVG). The PVG have approved modernisation action plans for each sector in the Public Service. The Education Performance Verification Group (EPVG) have approved the DCU Modernisation Action Plan which can be viewed at http://www.dcu.ie/partnership/index.shtml In addition to this, the first Progress Report against the Agreed Action Plan can be viewed at http://www.dcu.ie/partnership/index.shtml

The Action Plan itself was drawn up in line with the requirements set out in the Sustaining Progress Agreement for the Higher Education Sector through the Partnership Forum.

See http://www.dcu.ie/partnership/index.shtml for further information about the Partnership Forum).