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.
Resources and Links for further reading.
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/better-policy-making
This report highlights five main problems: •
Short-termism: the organisation of government is not set up to secure good long-term outcomes from policy, with ministers and officials constantly moving between departments and drawn to focus new and short-term initiatives, and immediate results. •
A lack of policy knowledge: an outdated model of ‘generalist’ policy civil servants discourages officials from staying in post long enough to develop sufficient knowledge and experience, or relationships with internal and external experts. •
Poor implementation: project management has often been considered the main weakness of UK government, but policy failures often stem from the people developing policies having a weak grasp of implementation and not consulting those involved in delivery. And similarly those teams working on implementation not having enough knowledge of the relevant policy area, while having too many changes of membership and leadership. •
Poor cross-government working: co-ordination of cross-government policy initiatives is often ineffective, and ministers and officials work in departmental silos. •
Whitehall parochialism: central government is too closed off from the experiences of the public, as well as from expertise held outside government and in other countries.