The background to the Cranfield Project Delivery Programme module
Partnerships for People and Place (PfPP) was a two-year programme of work funded by HM Treasury via the Shared Outcomes Fund. It ran from February 2021 to March 2023.
It aimed to test a new approach to how government departments undertake ‘place based’ policy design and delivery, by working in 13 places facing social policy challenges which they felt could be better tackled via closer working between central and local government.
When we talk about stakeholders the most important for many politicians will be the public. There are of course many filters like the media, social media, lobby groups etc that sift how the public will perceive a policy, but at the end of the day people’s lived experiences will determine support or otherwise!
Twenty-first century policymakers in the UK face a daunting array of challenges: an ageing society, the promises and threats for employment and wealth creation from artificial intelligence, obesity and public health, climate change and the need to sustain our natural environment, and many more. What these kinds of policy challenges have in common is complexity. Their implications spill over and transcend established boundaries between departments, policy domains, sectors and research disciplines.
The session I run at Cranfield is largely THIS book. What lies behind the formal models of policy making, delivery and evaluation is a political system that doesn’t quite work. This book and many of my blogs and teaching try to bring the soft power questions to life. These are situations that defy the formal models loved by academics.
This is not quite a full Book Review but a recommendation to read the frustrations Rory Stewart outlines about the way politics works (Or doesn’t work) in the UK.
As I read the book I found myself nodding in agreement at the same observations.
Over £100 billion is passed on in inheritances and gifts in the UK each year, and the value passed on in inheritance in England is set to double by 2040. Despite this, it is not widely discussed in policy conversations, unless the policy is to abolish inheritance tax.
Often the things I am traying to say have already been written about and far better than I could manage.
Here are some of my recommendations!
How do we avoid our programme and project being a political football during the build up to an election?
Why do we have a culture of blame that pervades our politics and the management of the civil service?
Ironically there is little academic literature on policy success!
It is easier for everyone to focus on the failures.
A policy is successful insofar as it achieves the goals that the proponents set out to achieve.
However, only those supportive of the original goals are liable to perceive, with satisfaction, an outcome of a policy success. Opponents are likely to perceive failure, regardless of outcomes because they did not support the original goals.
I teach at Cranfield University Management school on the Project Leadership Programme - highlighting the politics and policy programme behind many of the projects and policies civil servants are asked to deliver by government. I have been capturing the questions and point of view from hundreds of civil servants over the last 4-5 years and applying some of my own thoughts. The mini blogs below are just a taste of the discussions that have taken place.
