Effective Management
The mechanics of the UK government are not working.
Public services – health, housing, immigration, policing, potholes, even probate to name just a few – are poor quality.
And they are expensive because of low increases in productivity in the public sector – just 1/6th over the 12 years to 2019 compared to the private sector.
The failure has been acknowledged
By almost every Prime Minister since Harold Wilson. They instigated investigations and reports to find out why the mechanics were not working and what changes were necessary.
And by the public who are losing faith and trust in our system of government.
A recent poll showed that of the people who had an opinion:
58% agreed that 'The management of public services does not improve regardless of which party is in power'.
84% think that too much power is held centrally and want more decisions to be taken at a local level.
Only 21% are confident that national politicians are able to meet the challenges that face the UK
72% don’t expect them to tell the truth.
Why reforms have not succeeded
The reforms implemented, as a result of the 13 major reports since 1968, have either been shut down or petered out.
The reason? They did not diagnose two basic causes of failure – the mismatch of Minister’s and senior Civil Servant’s skills and expertise to the needs of their roles, and centralisation.
However, the blame lies not with politicians or senior civil servants but with the UK’s system of government, which has given both of them impossible jobs.
How to achieve an effect and efficient system of government
As a result of a study of the system of governance of 10 peer countries and input from our cross-party Advisory Board, the Effective Governance Forum {EGF) has produced two strategic reports showing how this can be achieved – see Reports.
The Northcote-Trevelyan Report of 1853 introduced professionalism into the civil service. In the last 170 years the role of government has changed significantly but the system has hardly changed at all.
Hence, our reports are under the Northcote-Trevelyan Revisited banner.