Support Process Review

• About the programme
  • Vision
  • Objectives
  • Programme governance structure
  • Information about role of the Process Owner
  • Phases
• New and communications archive
• Qs and As
• Impact and Benefits of SPR

A new vision for support of the academic endeavour

1.0 Why are we doing this?

The University’s overarching aim is delivery of academic excellence, which demands not only resource and investment, but also freedom for academics to devote their time to research and teaching, rather than administrative tasks. Currently our overall core salary costs represent a higher proportion of the cost base than at many of our peer institutions. Indeed there is prima facie evidence that our support structures and processes are sub-optimal, thereby contributing to our high salary cost. This fact, together with significant adverse changes to the external environment within which we operate, has increased the urgency of achieving a major transformation in how we support the academic endeavour.

2.0 What is wrong with what we have at present?

The initial phase of the Support Process Review, combined with feedback over a long period from across the organisation, provides clear evidence that the University’s present support structure:

• Gives rise to poorly supported systems, leading to lack of resilience, local system obsolescence and single points of failure;
• Does not encourage sharing of best practice, which results in inconsistent support for students and academics; and
• Allows or even encourages inefficiency and duplication of activity, therefore wasting scarce resources;

This situation is partially attributable to historic under-investment in, and commitment to, a single set of ‘fit for purpose’ processes and systems that can be applied across the University. Indications are that the current situation cannot be improved significantly by small operational changes at the margin, but will require a major programme of transformation, underpinned by continued investment in improved systems and processes.

In order to successfully deliver a change programme, it is essential that the University’s senior managers set out a vision of what the change must deliver. This document sets out this vision, as endorsed by the University Planning & Resources Committee (UPARC).

3.0 What do we aim to achieve?

We aim to provide an effective and efficient support structure which:

• Enables academics to optimise the time that they have available for teaching, research and enterprise;
• Optimises the proportion of the University’s resources available for academic activities and student support;
• Provides administrative and support services in a more resilient University-wide structure, rather than on a piecemeal basis across departments/units;
• Provides readily accessible, responsive and effective services at appropriate levels;
• Delivers processes in a consistent manner for both academics and students;
• Is understood, accepted and actively championed by senior academics and managers across the University; and
• Is not based on compromises and ‘fudges’ to satisfy individual preferences.

In order to achieve these, we have set the following goals (to be quantified during the establishment of the programme):

• By 2011-12 the University will have moved significantly closer to its objective of achieving a sustainable level of cash generation capable of delivering its infrastructure investment programme.
• Service levels to the academics will be improved by delivering more effective support processes and building on the culture of service and professionalism.

4.0 How will this be achieved?

4.1 Process Owners will be established:

For each identified process there will be a single process owner with clear responsibility, accountability and authority for the design, service quality and overall delivery objectives of the process and any IT systems that support it. Process owners will have the necessary resourcing to exercise their responsibilities, which are to:

• Specify the way in which processes are organised and delivered;
• Specify the resources required to deliver processes (people and IT systems);
• Direct the work of staff who deliver the process – regardless of their physical location; and
• Deliver an appropriate level of service.

Process owners will operate in a consultative way to ensure that the needs of those impacted by the process are met. In this way, we aim to foster an environment of mutual respect and trust between those who provide support processes and their ‘customers’. Processes will be standardised in order to achieve efficiency gains, and only process owners will be able to authorise variations to the University standards.

4.2 Support staff roles will change:

Because the same processes and systems will be used everywhere, support staff will be able to move more easily between similar roles in different parts of the University. Members of staff who provide support to faculties, academic departments and divisions will be deployed in the most appropriate place, using the following principles as a guide:

• There must be no single ‘points of failure’ i.e. material risk that the process or service would fail due to staff absence;
• There is to be no duplication of tasks within a process;
• Use of electronic systems or tools will be considered provided that quality of service can be maintained; and
• The University will be aiming to achieve economies of scale, provided that quality of service does not suffer adversely.

Technical and other support staff whose roles are specific to their unit and not part of University processes will continue to be managed from within their units. Members of staff who are accountable for delivery of University processes will be trained and managed through the process owner line. However, where members of staff are physically located in faculties and departments, they will also be accountable to those to whom they provide a service. A transparent and consistent rationale will be applied to determine the level and type of resource deployed between different faculties, schools/departments and divisions. A centrally managed pool of staff will provide resource to cover resource gaps (e.g. vacancies, maternity cover, and secondment to projects); the pool will also support career development. In all cases, process owners will be responsible for providing training to ensure that members of staff delivering University processes are doing so effectively. Support staff resilience will be improved through appropriate staff flexibility (mobility and knowledge base), appropriate career opportunities and succession planning, effective staff development and the nurturing of a ‘professional’ culture.

4.3 The way IT systems are defined, developed and supported will change:

Process definitions and IT systems needs and specifications will be challenged and informed by user groups comprising both academics and the relevant process community to ensure that the resulting developments are fit for purpose. All systems developments will be based on an agreed enterprise-wide IT system architecture, with no duplication of systems at departmental, faculty, or central locations. Where possible, the flow of information will be managed through common electronic systems, with data captured electronically. System support resources will be aligned to support development, maintenance and delivery of the enterprise-wide systems.

4.4 The annual financial planning process will change:

The annual financial planning process will be grounded on an annual review and prioritisation of strategic academic and support goals that are in line with the University’s long-term financial imperatives. There will be a closer and visible link in budget setting between investment in academic infrastructure and the necessary academic and financial performance to deliver the benefits of that investment.

The annual academic budget setting process will focus less on negotiating the cash contribution or surplus in a FIS Income & Expenditure account and more on agreeing and setting the key targets that academic units are expected to deliver, e.g.

• Numbers and profile of new students to be recruited;
• Number and value of new grants and contracts to be won;
• Number and grade profile of academic staff (including new and lapsed posts), allowing for new and replacement appointments where appropriate;
• Numbers and grade profile of staff whose role is unit specific (e.g. technical support for laboratories) and not part of cross-University processes; and
• Which non-salary resources need to be funded from University and which from grant sources.

The annual support budget setting process will focus on the total resource requirements of each major University support process, service or specialist activity. Support budgets will be set with input from process owners, Deans and representatives of the key users of that process or service, and will determine the number and profile of support staff to be deployed within each Faculty, School/Department and Division to operate the process or service.

5.0 What will we do next?

A small group of representatives from across the University has started to develop a ‘target’ organisation structure for the delivery of support processes. This will be subject to rigorous challenge and testing with appropriate senior managers. Whilst this is being done, a detailed implementation plan will be developed, which will include an assessment of all current projects and programmes in order to establish whether and how they will contribute to achievement of the goal.