Adopting and working in accordance with standards and legislation are of vital importance to public and independent sector organisations. Doing so contributes to service quality, cost-efficiency and capacity to work with other organisations. It is also prudential – as clear evidence of a best practice approach.
However, legislative overload and the pressures caused by the torrent of new initiatives can make it very difficult to ensure that your organisation is compliant. Often no one understands the full picture, and the departure of a ‘champion’ in a particular area can lead to confusion and uncertainty.
The results can include staff time wastage, because of a lack of or poorly understood standards for filing, report writing, publishing, communications etc, black marks from the external auditor relating to compliance to standards, threat of loss of ISO 9001 or other kitemark, or inability to share data with other organisations.
Socitm Consulting carries out strategic reviews of standards across all areas within an organisation, including:
- Technical standards, such as e-GIF, XML, metadata;
- Standards for internal processes, such as filing, report writing, publishing
- Statutory requirements, such as data protection, freedom of information
- Standards for corporate governance
- Customer service standards
We will identify the standards adopted by your organisation, clarify which ones are actually in use, assess their effectiveness, and show where the efficiency of the organisation can be improved by changing, replacing or introducing new standards. We can then deliver the required change programme and transfer skills to your own staff. The focus can be on a single standard (such as e-GIF) or we can take a synoptic view to uncover possible synergies, overlaps and contradictions.
A key aspect of our work in this area is to go beyond the issue of pure compliance and draw out its benefits in the context of the transformation agenda. We can ensure that compliance serves your business objectives and helps your organisation to become more effective and efficient through the use of relevant world class standards.
Our consultants come armed with years of involvement with the organisations setting the standards, such as the local government e-GIF standards body, British Standards Institute etc. Many of our consultants are nationally recognised experts in areas such as FOIA, Data Protection, Information and Records Management. Even more importantly, they have experience as practitioners and understand how public and independent sector organisations will react to the implementation of standards.
If you would like to discuss how we may be able to help you in this area, please call us on 0845 450 0904, email consulting@socitm.gov.uk or use our online enquiry form.