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Patrick Hackett, Registrar, Secretary and Chief Operating Officer and Beth Dodd, Director, Transformation Programme share how the impact of COVID-19 is shaping the way we will deliver Our future.<\/strong><\/p>\n COVID-19 is currently re-shaping and re-defining so much of what we do in all aspects of our lives. How it\u2019s affecting our working lives is no exception. On a personal level, COVID-19 has certainly been the most profound and sustained challenge in our own careers to date. <\/p>\n For many of us it is difficult to look beyond the immediate situation, but our University must continue to look ahead \u2013 not only at how we emerge from the current crisis, but also to how we realise the ambitions in Our future<\/a>, the strategic plan which so many of you contributed to developing.<\/p>\n The good news is that the purpose, vision, values, core goals and themes outlined in Our future remain unchanged \u2013 they are still critical to achieving our ambitions for the future. <\/p>\n Whilst our strategic plan, core goals and themes are still very much our intended destination, the steps we take in getting there will now need to be re-ordered and re-prioritised. As we find ourselves operating in a very different world, new paths will need to be taken as unforeseen challenges (and opportunities) arise – it\u2019s clear some tough choices will need to be made.<\/p>\n Also key to how we deliver our vision, are our values<\/a>. Over the past few weeks and months, the lockdown has provided us with even more opportunity to demonstrate and be proud of our shared values \u2013 be that in our pioneering spirit, in helping to shape our future for the greater good, respecting and supporting each other during these difficult times, or sharing and applying new knowledge for the benefit of society. These are not only \u2018ways of being\u2019 which we uphold but also are an aspect which we feel society also increasingly values in us. Especially when needing to make difficult decisions, how we deliver will be as important as what we deliver.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the strategic portfolio and what\u2019s been the impact?<\/strong> Each initiative delivers outcomes which take us a step closer to achieving our vision. Whether it\u2019s these initiatives or others, many of you reading this blog will have invested significant time and energy in supporting their delivery and may now be in the process of understanding whether these outcomes still hold true in the circumstances; whether the approaches and timescales are still viable and whether the initiatives themselves are still affordable, given the financial challenges we face. We are conscious we can take nothing for granted. Hence a number of our teams involved in these projects are currently in the throes of working out whether to postpone activity within the initiatives, re-plan, accelerate or descope the activity altogether.<\/p>\n Initiatives which are currently re-planning include: RLP, SEP<\/a> and MIBI. In some cases this may mean extending the delivery over a longer time frame or reducing scope, or conversely, accelerating delivery to bring forward its benefits, as is the case with the rollout of Office 365 as part of the IT Modernisation programme<\/a>. <\/p>\n In addition to this, for many of us it\u2019s been all hands to the pump in responding to the initial incident management phase and our capacity to deliver many of the activities contributing to these initiatives has also been significantly impacted. <\/p>\n How are we re-shaping the strategic change portfolio?<\/strong> As part of our re-assessment, Faculties, Schools and Professional Services teams have been asked to identify the shared priorities<\/a> we are all working hard to achieve. Some of these have been about ensuring the safety of staff and students returning to campus in the coming months; planning the start of our academic year including continuing to develop and refine our online offering in order to provide high quality experiences for all our students, as well as ensuring our University is financially sustainable given the predictions around the financial scenarios. <\/p>\n We\u2019ve now begun to establish delivery teams around these priorities with the intention that local solutions can be enacted within a shared framework, helping to minimise any duplication of effort, as well as align our energies in working together collaboratively to achieve our shared goals. The delivery teams consist of academic and Professional Services staff. Student representatives are also members of the relevant steering groups to ensure the student voice is central to these activities. <\/p>\n Whatever our financial standing, we must ensure we make strategic and carefully thought out investments and changes which support our long-term future.<\/p>\n What will be important to us in how we move forward?<\/strong> Our response to the crisis has already provided many new ways to live our values. It\u2019s perhaps also provided the opportunity to work in a very different and more flexible way. This is something that we are keen to capture and build on, as and when we return to campus and welcome back colleagues who are currently on furlough leave. Hence, whilst the specifics of what we deliver may change, our values will remain key in ensuring that we carve out our new path together.<\/p>\n There will be opportunities over the coming weeks to share your own ideas about how we can bring our values to life as we move forward. Although if you have any thoughts to share right now please share your comment below.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=”3.17.6″ prev_text=”Previous” next_text=”Next” in_same_term=”off” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=”3.17.6″ custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#ffffff” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Related posts” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ locked=”on”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=”Subscribe” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”et_pb_widget_area_3″ locked=”on” \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”sidebar-1″ show_border=”off” locked=”on” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Key to how we deliver our Vision, are our Values. Especially when needing to make difficult decisions, how we deliver will be as important as what we deliver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":3384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" [et_pb_section bb_built=\"1\" fullwidth=\"off\" specialty=\"on\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"][et_pb_column type=\"2_3\" specialty_columns=\"4\"][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=\"Row\"][et_pb_column_inner type=\"4_4\" saved_specialty_column_type=\"2_3\"][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" featured_placement=\"above\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"]<\/p> When I\u2019m out and about meeting staff I hear much debate about the why, what, when and how of change in our University. I wanted to share my thoughts on this often contentious topic \u2013 and hear your views too.<\/p> Early in 2020 we will launch our University\u2019s new vision and strategic plan \u2013 Our future. In order to fulfil Our future we need to ensure that we are in a financially sustainable position so that we have the funds to invest in the new staff, facilities and infrastructure which will be needed to bring our plans to life.<\/p> Our Financial Statements<\/a> for 2018\/19, which have been published following approval by the Board of Governors, confirm that more than 95% of our \u00a31.1bn income is spent on our core goals - on our staff and our students - to deliver research, education and social responsibility; with the remainder invested in the long term sustainability of our University. You can find a summary<\/a> of the Financial Statements on StaffNet.<\/p> However, this is a testing time for UK universities, due to the many external factors that have an impact on us - current home tuition fees are falling in real terms, whilst our costs (not just pay but non-pay too) are increasing. There are further and even greater tuition fee funding risks outlined in General Election manifestos as well as a range of Brexit-related risks that could affect our operations. The Office for Students (OfS) demands that we demonstrate both value for money for our students and our financial sustainability (in the sense of being able to invest to deliver our ambitious strategy, rather than survival). There are, of course, also ongoing unresolved national issues around pay and the continuing challenges around funding pensions in the higher education sector.<\/p> Our Financial Statements show an improved operating surplus (3.7% of income compared to \u00a324.7m (2.3%) in 2017\/18), with a rise in income from tuition fees, education contracts and research. As I mentioned earlier, we re-invest the surplus we achieve each year in activity in line with our strategy. Recently our funds have been used to create some new academic and Professional Services posts; to invest in key infrastructure including IT; to invest in some new buildings like our student accommodation at Unsworth Park; to improve the student experience by funding more full-time Residential Life staff and to upgrade a range of buildings and research and teaching spaces and resources. Increasingly it is also invested in environmental sustainability and meeting our ambitious carbon targets. So even when we are making difficult decisions in some parts of the University we continue to invest our surplus.<\/p> Whilst we have reported an operating surplus, our Board of Governors expects us to deliver a much larger surplus than this (at least 5%) if we are to be sustainable in the long-term. Our strategic change programme (including IT Modernisation<\/a>, the Student Experience Programme<\/a>, and the Research Lifecycle Programme<\/a>), alongside our continuous improvement plans, will ensure that we create the financial headroom to invest in people and facilities. The strategic change programme will also enable us to embrace new technologies and new ways of doing things that better support all our staff and students to be the best that they can be.<\/p> Yes, this means that some individual roles will change. New roles (some that we haven\u2019t yet identified) will be created and some roles will no longer be required. I appreciate that this will cause some uncertainty and where that is the case we will do everything we can to support staff, but the alternative is that we never change anything. If we fail to take advantage of advances in technology and develop more joined-up ways of working we will ultimately find ourselves outdated in the eyes of future students, funders and other stakeholders. Staff want to work for a progressive and successful institution, of which they can be proud. This means we cannot stand still.<\/p> When I talk to staff and students I often hear their frustrations about how difficult it be can be to get some straightforward things done, grappling with paper-based, manual and repetitive processes, on outdated systems and infrastructure, all of which serves to increase staff workloads. Everyone wants to do a good job, but regularly feel that our world-class status is earned in spite of our internal systems and processes, not because of them.<\/p> To deliver our new vision and strategic plan we will need to embrace new opportunities and face challenges with courage and determination. That will sometimes mean we have to make tough decisions and no-one is claiming it will be easy or that mistakes will not be made along the way. But where we do have tough choices to make we will commit to implementing changes fairly and with compassion to support the wellbeing of all our colleagues.<\/p> [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" prev_text=\"Previous\" next_text=\"Next\" in_same_term=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" custom_button=\"on\" button_text_color=\"#ffffff\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text admin_label=\"Related posts\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" locked=\"on\"]<\/p> [related-posts-thumbnails]<\/p> [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=\"1_3\"][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=\"Subscribe\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"et_pb_widget_area_3\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"sidebar-1\" show_border=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pslt","category-registrar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3239"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3381,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3239\/revisions\/3381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nKey to our core goals around research, teaching and social responsibility and underpinning our strategic plan are a number of significant initiatives. These span right across our University, and include programmes such as the Student Experience Programme<\/a> (SEP), Research Lifecycle Programme<\/a> (RLP), IT Modernisation<\/a>, Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD)<\/a>, Employee Lifecycle Programme<\/a> and Management Information and Business Intelligence (MIBI) to name a few.<\/p>\n
\nJust before COVID-19, and working with colleagues across the University, we\u2019d got to the point where we understood the broad size and shape of the future change portfolio and which strategic initiatives would need to call on the strategic change funds. The impact of COVID-19 has meant that we\u2019ve had to re-assess the whole portfolio<\/a> and work out which of our initiatives are a priority now. <\/p>\n
\nIn making way for the new recovery and transition priorities, we know we can\u2019t deliver everything in the same way we used to and that we simply won\u2019t have the time, capacity or funds to deliver everything we\u2019d like to. We know we will have to prioritise the activities that will deliver the best outcomes in the post-COVID world and acknowledge that in order to do this there are activities within the strategic initiatives that will need to be postponed or paused \u2013 including some specific elements of MECD<\/a>. We need to be realistic about what we can achieve.<\/p>\nRelated<\/h1>\n
Related posts:<\/h3>
Patrick Hackett: Our University approach to change and looking forward<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
Jonathan Winter: A time of learning<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
Stephanie Lee: Removing barriers and boundaries to learning<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>
Improving our financial performance will help to deliver our ambitious future plans, but we must also increase our capacity to create the funds and time to invest in our core goals. One of the ways we can do this is by changing what we do and how we do things.<\/p>Related<\/h1>