Sue Pritchard

Since devolution, Wales has been developing a distinctive and exciting vision for public service reform. Bath Consultancy Group is leading a leadership development inquiry with Denmark to push forward public service reform in Wales.

Last year, the Beecham Review, ‘Beyond Boundaries’, confirmed this direction and further challenged the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) to step up the pace of change, encouraging bolder, more confident leadership throughout the public services. The Review specifically suggested learning with other small countries about governance, leadership and public service development to improve the citizen experience.

Bath Consultancy Group is helping Public Service Management Wales design and organise this ground-breaking leadership inquiry with Denmark, working in partnership with Gerard Muller, Hepta, Denmark, and with support from the Welsh NHS Confederation.

The Inquiry brings together 24 leaders, policy makers and professionals across public services – including WAG, Local Government, NHS, Public Health, Environment, Police, Inspection Services, and Education. Through the programme:

• participants will understand how another small country organises and leads its public services - what’s similar, different, intriguing and new...
• they will learn what creates highly valued public services and how to involve citizens meaningfully in their public services.
• they will explore the nature of leadership, and their own practice, comparing approaches to leadership, organisation and community development and learning about new models and frameworks for leadership and collaboration that create ‘whole system’ improvements.
• leaders will become more confident in the Welsh public policy direction and therefore what they need to do to implement change on the ground.
• and they will develop networks with colleagues in a comparable European country with a view to further exchanges and development.

The programme comprises two preparation meetings, the study tour to Denmark and two follow up meetings, with an invitation to continue in self-managed action learning sets.

Download the full report:  Leadership Inquiry with Denmark 433 Kb

Why Denmark?

There are two reasons for choosing Denmark. Firstly, it’s a ‘small country’ with demographics similar to Wales. It could be over-shadowed by the size and proximity of its immediate neighbour Germany, but instead has strong social and cultural relations with its Scandinavian neighbours. It has a democratic constitution that promotes regional autonomy and public service collaboration. And perhaps most importantly, Denmark has the highest customer satisfaction rating in its public services in the whole of Europe.

The second reason is that over the course of the past two years Denmark has redefined the boundaries of its public service organisations. Throughout this transformation it has developed and refined the relationship between local, regional and national government to attain more integrated governance and promote greater service accountability.

These features suggest that the long established small country of Denmark has much in common with the current experiences, challenges and policy aspirations of a newly autonomous small country – Wales.

This programme offers an exciting and inspiring opportunity for leaders in the Welsh public services to learn together and work together to deliver the high aspirations of their public policy. We anticipate writing up the findings of this Inquiry.

For further information on this project call Sue Pritchard on 01225 333737.