EARLIER this week Health and Social Services Department chief officer Mark Cooke let his 2,000-plus staff know that he was making changes to its management structure.

In essence, he is looking to flatten the various tiers and remove a number of posts, which will bring some welcome savings.

That, however, is not the primary purpose of the changes. The headline reasons for them is to provide a focus for quality and governance, introduce a change in culture, improve financial management information and provide what he calls the right vehicle for future change.

In other words, this is just the start of what will probably be a major remodelling of the health and social services infrastructure of the island since one of the other objectives was to create a ‘much needed’ strategy function.

True, this is a miserable time for HSSD staff. Having had the morale-sapping time of being seen as the States biggest overspender, they now face top-down change – and that is very unsettling.

However, if their boss gets it right, the agenda should lead to an improved working environment, less bureaucracy and more sense of purpose in what is Guernsey’s largest department. It should become an organisation in which wasting taxpayers’ money on providing unused childcare places at a nursery simply cannot happen.

What others will also be waiting to see, however, is whether this might prove a catalyst for other departments.

As an outside appointment, the HSSD chief officer had no preconceptions or baggage when he took on the post and his internal review led him to conclude that there is a better way of running the department.

He is now acting on that view which – according to the Robinson report of 2008 commissioned by the Policy Council – is simply not the traditional Guernsey civil service way.

Despite much good work that the public sector does, it needs to change, to modernise and become more customer-focused.

What is happening at HSSD might just be the first indication that much-needed reform is finally on its way.