Office of the Premier

Organisational Review

Your chance to shape the future of the Office of the Premier

We have been commissioned by the Government of Montserrat to advise on how the Office of the Premier could evolve to improve its effectiveness. The Office of the Premier sits at the centre of the Government of Montserrat with a vision outlook to engender best practice in strategic leadership, policy co-ordination and the coordinated delivery of programmes for Montserrat’s sustainable development and resiliency. This review is therefore intended to examine the structures and functions with a view to make recommendations on what is required to make the Premier’s Office more nimble and productive.

As part of this, we are reaching out to Montserratians for their views on what the Office does well and where it could do better. This portal will help you to learn more about the project and the opportunities to contribute, and follow its progress.

Our Team

We have five consultants committed to this project - all of whom know Montserrat or the Caribbean well and bring a wealth of experience in helping governments and agencies serve people better.

James Humphreys was a senior adviser in the UK Prime Minister’s Office and co-founded Woodnewton in 2006. He also is a former Professor of Government at City University in London and is leading the project. Jacqueline Wilson was a Permanent Secretary in the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and a Director in the Commonwealth Secretariat. She also has wide experience in consultancy, including working in Montserrat and other small island states. Angela Greenaway is a former Cabinet Secretary in Montserrat who is now a lecturer and consultant in economic development who will provide the team with a permanent resource on the island. Mark Gill is a leading practitioner in public and stakeholder research who has been working on projects in the Caribbean since 2005. And Kelly-Anne Amin is a HR professional with qualifications from UWI and the UK who has supported governments and utilities across the region with organisational transformation.

Consultation is Open!

We have begun our work with initial consultations with staff working within the Office of the Premier, and we plan to speak to more stakeholders over the next few weeks.

We also have some broad questions about what changes people would most like to see in how the Office of the Premier works, and this is open to anyone. You can complete it by using this link. (For those do not have access to the internet, there will be other opportunities to contribute.)

OP Survey Findings

The survey of staff in the Office of the Premier closed on 12th May and there are some clear findings emerging from our analysis.

Overall, 63% of participants said they were satisfied with their job in the Office of the Premier and 19% said they were dissatisfied. It is encouraging that more are positive than negative about their jobs.

53% agreed with the statement that “they feel valued and recognised for the work they do” (14% disagreed), and 43% said they were proud to work there (11% disagreed). However, only 11% of staff in the OP said they had enough support to develop their careers and the same proportion (11%) said there are sufficient opportunities for promotion.

One clear issue is internal communication. For example, around three-quarters of the survey respondents said they felt they understand what is happening in their own department, but this fell to a quarter who felt they understand what is happening across the OP as a whole. Similarly, 86% said they had a clear idea of the objectives of their own department, but only 54% said they had a clear idea of the objectives of the Office of the Premier. 

We are pleased that a majority of respondents (59%) replied that now is the right time to have an organisational review, while only 3% thought it was not. At the same time there is also some concern about how well the review’s recommendations will be implemented: slightly fewer than half (46%) are confident the Review will lead to positive changes.

The total number of participants was 38 (which equates to 68% of those invited to take part), which is a good start. Encouragingly, we received at least one reply from every department within the OP.

The Woodnewton team is continuing to analyse the survey results and all of the feedback will be considered as part of the review. The consultation is continuing with interviews with staff across government and with external stakeholders. 

Interested parties are also encouraged to share their feedback through contributing to the open consultation here.