Comments for Blog http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog Institute for Government Blog Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:45:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Comment on Government reshuffles by Jill Rutter http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/4043/government-reshuffles/comment-page-1/#comment-1079 Jill Rutter Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:45:53 +0000 http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/?p=4043#comment-1079 A comment from IFG senior Fellow, Ian Magee It’s possible that the problem may be more deep-seated, too: there was some Cabinet Office data from 5 or 6 years back suggesting that the average length of time spent in post by senior civil servants was just over 2 years. I haven’t seen anything more recent, but it’d be surprising if it were much different now, given cut backs, changing Ministerial priorities – the best people sent to the hotspots – and so on. There’s also an important point about accountability. This is a disaster for example in the IT area, where you need continuity to understand the scope of projects; build effective relationships with suppliers, Ministers, policy people, etc, and just be prepared to see the whole thing through. That might take 4 or 5 years. As far as I’m aware the civil service has never given enough thought to incentivising people to stick with the tricky tasks; and you need powerful line support to resist the kneejerk reaction of seniors to move x to post y because it’s a short-term priority. At the risk of sounding very old, time was when the average time spent in a policy post was 3-4 years. You weren’t very effective for the first few months, until you got to know the patch, Ministers, pressure groups, Treasury and others. Ian Magee A comment from IFG senior Fellow, Ian Magee

It’s possible that the problem may be more deep-seated, too: there was some Cabinet Office data from 5 or 6 years back suggesting that the average length of time spent in post by senior civil servants was just over 2 years. I haven’t seen anything more recent, but it’d be surprising if it were much different now, given cut backs, changing Ministerial priorities – the best people sent to the hotspots – and so on. There’s also an important point about accountability.

This is a disaster for example in the IT area, where you need continuity to understand the scope of projects; build effective relationships with suppliers, Ministers, policy people, etc, and just be prepared to see the whole thing through. That might take 4 or 5 years. As far as I’m aware the civil service has never given enough thought to incentivising people to stick with the tricky tasks; and you need powerful line support to resist the kneejerk reaction of seniors to move x to post y because it’s a short-term priority.

At the risk of sounding very old, time was when the average time spent in a policy post was 3-4 years. You weren’t very effective for the first few months, until you got to know the patch, Ministers, pressure groups, Treasury and others.

Ian Magee

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]]> Comment on New Year’s resolution: Make policy better by Professor Matthew Flinders http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/3949/new-years-resolution-make-policy-better/comment-page-1/#comment-968 Professor Matthew Flinders Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:45:10 +0000 http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/?p=3949#comment-968 Life as a senior politician is actually far-tougher than many observers realise. Politics at the sharp-end is about squeezing collective decisions out of multiple and competing demands and as a result the role of a politician is - if we are honest - to devise solutions that are the least unsatisfactory to the most people. This is not, as Bernard Crick argued almost exactly fifty years ago in his brilliant 'In Defence of politics', the failure of politics but is actually the great value and beauty of democratic politics. It is in exactly this context that the Institue for Government's report identifies a set of common factors that are to be found lying below the surface of most government policies that are generally regarded as great successes. Possibly the clearest insight that can be gleaned from this research, however, is that good policy-making demands time, flexibility and (above all) clear and stable political leadership. Life as a senior politician is actually far-tougher than many observers realise. Politics at the sharp-end is about squeezing collective decisions out of multiple and competing demands and as a
result the role of a politician is – if we are honest – to devise
solutions that are the least unsatisfactory to the most people. This is not, as Bernard Crick argued almost exactly fifty years ago in his brilliant ‘In Defence of politics’, the failure of politics but is actually the great value and beauty of democratic politics. It is in exactly this context that the Institue for Government’s report identifies a set of common factors that are to be found lying below the surface of most government policies that are generally regarded as great successes. Possibly the clearest insight that can be gleaned from this research, however, is that good policy-making demands time, flexibility and (above all) clear and stable political leadership.

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