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Public Service Agreement 2010-2014 (Croke Park Agreement) Part A - Progress on Central Statistics Office Action Plan | |||
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Terms of Agreement 2010 - 2014 (refer to all relevant paragraphs) |
Target Date as per current action plan |
Action (CSO action number in brackets) |
Comment |
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4.4
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2010-2014
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(1) Further advance the structural and operational recommendations made by the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes. | Savings identified in CSO Action Plan are being delivered in full. 2010: €3m saved (exceeding McCarthy recommendation €2.7m of this is ongoing structural saving. 2011: Further ongoing core saving of €1.5m, comprising €850,000 in overhead costs and €650,000 of output reduction. Once-off savings of €4.7m in 2011 in Census of Population project costs. Output Reductions: National Employment Survey (NES) reduced from annual to every four years; lower priority to Health Accounts pilot project and compilation of County and Regional income data. |
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1.10
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Ongoing
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(2) Continue to implement the CSO Plan for Business and Organisational Development (PBOD). | Completed. The organisational changes recommended in this plan have been fully implemented. Longer-term changes are incorporated in the CSO's Croke Park Action Plan - see in particular Actions 6 to 9 below. |
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1.10
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Ongoing
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(3) Implement the CSO’s ORP Action Plan. | On target: Progress on the 37 action points in the plan is in line with target. |
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1.10
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2010-2012
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(4) Implement the CSO’s IT Strategy 2010-2012. | On target: Progress on the IT Strategy is being managed by the IT Strategy Board and is in line with target - see also Action 10 below. |
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4.4
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2010
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(12) Rationalise the Directorate structure of the CSO, reducing from six to four directorate posts, and implement a reduced divisional structure, as identified in the PBOD. | Completed October 2010 |
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4.10
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2010-2011
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(14) Optimise our organisation of fieldwork by implementing a more flexible field organisation in which interviewers and other field staff may be assigned to work on any survey (household, tourism, CPI etc.) or to any equivalent fieldwork task; and in which assignment to a given survey or task may vary from week to week. | Household Survey Transformation Project (see Action 6 below in Section 2) has commenced. This project will identify the options for re-developing the household survey collection system to meet current and future needs. Action 14 - optimisation of how we organise our fieldwork - depends on the overall transformation project described under Action 6 below. |
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4.40
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2010-2014
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(15) Where surpluses are identified (due to imbalance of workloads, short-term peaks / valleys, efficiency gains from process improvements / new work practices etc.), actively re-assign staff as necessary, including assignment between field and office-based work where appropriate. | Ongoing: - Peak processing requirements for Census of Population 2011 being met by short-term assignment of surplus staff from other Departments and, once this route was exhausted, by employing temporary clerical staff. - In 2010, the Census of Agriculture peak processing requirements were met by employing temporary clerical staff, with significant benefits for cost management over the previous approach of hiring extra permanent staff for short-term cyclical projects. - Business re-organisation (see also Actions 2 and 13) has also resulted in more active identification of workload peaks and valleys in the processing of surveys. |
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4.4
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2010-2014
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(16) Full implementation of a work-recording system for all staff to provide information on how we allocate staff resources and to support decisions on effective allocation. | The work recording system is in use in IT areas and has been extended to corporate and EU projects in 2010. The system will be rolled out office-wide in 2011/12, with adaptation as necessary for its use in specific business areas. |
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4.4
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2010-2014
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(17) Eliminate any demarcations or work practices which block individuals from doing relevant and fulfilling work of which they are capable. | Ongoing: No problems encountered in this area. - The IT Strategy, including SAS BI analysis software, is supporting improved delegation practices. - In preparing for the Census of Population, a staff member from Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI) was assigned to assist with mapping operations in the period to March 2011. Actions 16 and 17 are complementary to the ongoing approach to process improvement set out in Action 8 below. |
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4.4
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2011
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(18) Allow flexible work and grade assignment in print / postroom operations for outbound and inbound mail. | Management proposals were developed in Q1/2011 and discussions with Unions commenced in March 2011. Objective delayed by a number of weeks. |
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4.4
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2011
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(19) Implement rostered work arrangements for specific support services: a) for opening and closing of buildings and related services; b) for IT support to provide greater cover for upgrades etc. to be implemented at weekends. | Management proposals were developed in Q1/2011 and discussions with Unions commenced in March 2011. Objective delayed by a number of weeks. |
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4.12
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2012
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(20) Review how we implement PMDS and the level of challenge in individual work roles at all levels. Ensure that individual roles are sufficiently challenging and that work is delegated effectively, to avoid upward drift. | Ongoing: Initial review at Head of Division level completed in 2010. More integrated review of performance management being undertaken in Q2/2011. |
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4.11
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2011
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(21) Complete the substantial progress already made to having 100% of promotions filled on merit. | Ongoing: No new issues to report. |
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4.10
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2011 (5% reduction) |
(22) Set and monitor targets for systematic reduction in annual days lost due to sick leave over the period 2011 to 2014. | Sick leave target has been agreed by Senior Management Committee (SMC) and is being actively managed by divisional and section managers. |
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4.11
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Ongoing
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(23) Allow for external recruitment of IT, Accountancy and HR and other specialist skills, where needed, up to and including PO-level. | At EO level, 2 IT staff have been recruited to the CSO from outside the Civil Service in the year to 31 March 2011. |
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Terms of Agreement 2010 - 2014 (refer to all relevant paragraphs) |
Target Date as per current action plan | Action (CSO action number in brackets) | Comment |
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1.10
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2010-2014
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(5) In business statistics further advance the use of administrative data sources, electronic data capture and linkage between data sources: This action includes Business Process and Customer Service components: Business Process aspects are shown here and Customer Service improvements are reported in Section 3 below. |
Ongoing: The principal business process outcomes from this action in the year to March 2011 include: - Business Field Force abolished in October 2010, as part of re-engineering of business surveys (saving of €309,000 per annum); - Development of methodology for use of Revenue administrative data to reduce burden and cost of annual business surveys, for implementation in 2011 & 2012 (see also Action 9 below). - Reduction of 7.3% in the statistical burden on business in 2009 and estimated further reduction of 7-8% in 2010 (definitive results to be published in December 2011). Other actions below contribute to achieving the developments in Business Statistics - see in particular Actions 8, 9 and 10 on process review, methodology and IT strategy respectively. |
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4.4
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2010-2014
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(6) In our household surveys, implement a phased transformation of the present system, including re-organisation of area & household sampling, the use of geographical information systems (GIS) in field organisation, re-organisation of field forces, introduction of computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) systems and introduction of new field / survey management systems and processes. | A Transformation Project Team has been established to develop a costed proposal to redevelop the household data collection system in the CSO. This work is critical given the wide range of new EU Regulations and national demands for household survey statistics over the coming years; and the resultant need to plan for a cost-effective and efficient way to meet those current and additional requirements. The project team is scheduled to report in June 2011, with costed options for this. (This report will influence Action 14 above, relating to the household survey field organisation.) |
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4.4
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2010-2014
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(8) Across the CSO, ongoing implementation of business process reviews on a rolling basis throughout the Office, as a means of identifying and implementing better and more efficient work processes. Acceptance that change and improvement of work processes is an ongoing part of our work at all levels. | Ongoing: Rolling programme of process review / improvement projects, using Lean-Six Sigma methodology, completed in year to 31 March 2011: Trade Statistics (joint project with Revenue). Retail Sales Index - review has improved timeliness of monthly retail sales data by 28 days. Earnings, Hours and Employment Costs Survey (EHECS) - review has identifed further opportunities to improve timeliness (See also Action 5 in Section 3 below). Reviews currently in progress: Annual Services Inquiry; annual Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC); National Accounts. |
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4.4
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2010-2014
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(9) Develop generic methodologies across the CSO for statistical processes such as data editing and imputation, to improve efficiency and quality of outputs. | Methodological projects completed in the year to March 2011 include: - The development of a methodology for modelling annual business data based on Revenue administrative data. This methodology will be rolled out in 2011 & 2012 and will result in further reductions in respondent burden and in survey processing costs. - The preparation of Best Practice Recommendations on Seasonal Adjustment, for use by CSO survey areas, reflecting advances in seasonal adjustment software and methodology. |
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1.1
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2010-2012
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(10) Implement IT developments which support business transformation and more efficient implementation of statistical processes. | Ongoing: For Census 2011 a number of IT developments have resulted in a more streamlined field operation: - online field staff recruitment; - the introduction of GIS which allowed all maps to be produced internally and each dwelling in the State to be identified using the GeoDirectory (the national address database); - the introduction of electronic reporting of travel and subsistence costs; and - the use of mobile technology to provide up-to-date management information on the progress of the field operation. Apart from the Census, the following were the other main IT developments to support statistical business processes in the reporting period: - The CSO's Data Management System (DMS) - an application used for data capture and processing across multiple surveys - is being continually developed in line with business needs. In 2010, improved features for data entry and for across-survey management of respondent data were added. The additional features support the process-based organisational structure and the reduction of respondent burden. - Migration to the new SAS BI environment for data analysis was completed on target in 2010. - A new e-forms solution was deployed in early 2011 and is being rolled out for a number of business surveys during 2011. |
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1.10
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2011: Pilot: 2011-2012: Roll out reporting system on a divisional basis.
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(11) Define and implement performance and cost metrics for statistical processes / outputs and for internal support services including IT, to support ongoing process improvement. | Ongoing: Quarterly reports on IT services and costs were introduced in 2010. The monthly financial management reports to the Senior Management Committee (SMC) have been expanded to include more analysis and commentary. New reports on PMDS and Sick Leave have also been prepared for the SMC. |
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1.10
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2010 to 2014
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(13) Continue to implement and further develop process-based organisational structures (based on collection and analysis units) across the statistical areas of the CSO. | Ongoing: No developments to report beyond full implementation of Action 2 (PBOD). |
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4.15
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Timetable dependent on Civil Service development of shared services.
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(24) Migrate HR and Finance transaction processing to a shared services approach, in line with central Civil Service plans; and re-define the HR and Finance unit roles towards higher-level management support processes. | HR Shared Services dependent on central Civil Service implementation. Finance shared services options to be reviewed after completion of Census of Population field staff payments. |
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Appendix 1 Paragraph 4
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Ongoing
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(25) For IT developments, the choice between outsourcing and in-house development to be based on scale and skills requirements. | Ongoing: - Support and development of the DMS and other core applications is provided in-house. - The processing system for the Census of Population, a large and complex 5-yearly requirement, has been provided by a specialist company. - Provision of a Content Managment System, to enable further development of CSO on-line services (see Action 7 below), has also been outsourced. - The Census support systems listed above under Action 10 (recruitment, GIS, travel & subsistence, field management) have been developed in-house by the CSO. |
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1.10
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2010-2014
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(5) In business statistics further advance the use of administrative data sources, electronic data capture and linkage between data sources: | Ongoing: The principal Customer Service outcomes from this action in the year to March 2011 include: - Improvement of 6 months in timeframe for publishing earnings statistics (EHECS); - Business Burden Barometer for 2009, published December 2010, demonstrating a reduction of 7.3% in the statistical burden on business; - Estimated further reduction of 7-8% in statistical burden on business in 2010 (definitive results to be published in December 2011); - New online CSO publication on "Job Churn", based on analysis of administrative data sources, to provide insight into the dynamics of employment, job creation and job loss at sectoral level. |
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4.13
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2011-2012
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(7) Continue to improve our online statistical dissemination services and streamline the internal work processes and systems for the production of statistical releases. | Ongoing: A new Content Management System (CMS) for the CSO website is currently being commissioned and will be live by June 2011. This will enable more streamlined internal processes and ongoing improvement of online statistical products. Other improvements to CSO products and services: Publication in December 2010 of CSO report on Mortality Differentials in Ireland. This report was based on the linkage and analysis of Census 2006 and deaths registration data by the CSO. It follows other reports in recent years based on the greater use by the CSO of administrative data sources, including the reports on "Foreign Nationals: PPSN Allocations, Employment and Social Welfare Activity" and the more detailed report on Live Register Flows, based on linked administrative data, published in February 2010. |
Text in Green = On Target
Text in Orange = Ongoing with no new information to report
