Clause 12
Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill
5:30 pm
Mark Harper (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; Forest of Dean, Conservative)
I have a couple of brief points to make. On the point that the hon. Gentleman has just raised, when reviewing Sir David Henshaw’s report I looked at some of the work on transition between organisations. I would appreciate it if the Minister outlined the thinking within the Department about how the transition from the existing organisation to the new one might be managed. Many hon. Members, including the Minister and his colleagues, talk about a clean break. Sir David’s report said that there are a number of successful business models in the private sector for making a success of a clean break and on how to deal with a new business, a new model and the old arrangements. A key lesson from successful operations of that type was that the two different activities require different skills, organisational cultures and performance management.
As the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey said, we have not heard a great deal about how transferring all of the functions and all of the people, as proposed by the next clause, will create a new organisation with a new mindset, a new culture, and—most importantly for the outside world—a new image. By that I do not mean just a new brand or identity, but a difference in performance that people can see as a real change. Persuading people that there has been a real change and a break with the past when they see effectively the same processes, the same people and very little difference, is going to be quite difficult.
It will be encouraging for the Committee if the Minister outlines some of the thinking in the Department because the commission will have to hit the ground running. If that culture change does not succeed right at the beginning, I am afraid that it will be too late. If the new organisation starts working without successfully doing that, it will not be possible to do it later. Will the Minister run through that for the benefit of the Committee?