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	<title>Blog &#187; 2010 &#187; August</title>
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		<title>Just how Big is the Big Society?</title>
		<link>http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/479/just-how-big-is-the-big-society/?source=rss</link>
		<comments>http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/479/just-how-big-is-the-big-society/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:33:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adrian Brown</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[New models of governance and public services]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Big Society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Devolution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Localism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mutuals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Services]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Transparency]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/?p=479</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist reportedly said that &#8220;anyone who isn’t shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.&#8221; And so it is with the Big Society. Over the past few weeks, the Institute for Government has been hosting a seminar series on Big Society Public Services along with NESTA and the Design Council. The series provided an opportunity to explore what the Big Society means in five different policy areas. It is fair to say that for each area, from education to criminal justice, the full implications of the Big Society for policy and the management of services are still being worked out. What is already clear is that many of those implications are likely to be profound. A new relationship Most people solve most of their problems most of the time without reverting to the state. Families, friends, communities and the marketplace can all help individuals to solve problems with minimal involvement from government. Even when the government does get involved there is a great deal that can be achieved without the state providing all the funding, assets or people involved in the solution. This switch in emphasis lies at the heart of the Big Society argument and suggests [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
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		<title>Reflections on the Institute for Government&#8217;s first two years</title>
		<link>http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/449/reflections-on-the-institute-for-governments-first-two-years/?source=rss</link>
		<comments>http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/449/reflections-on-the-institute-for-governments-first-two-years/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:46:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Bichard</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[A more effective Whitehall]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/?p=449</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When I first heard of the plans to set up a new Institute for Government, I did wonder whether we needed another Think Tank or National School of Government. The answer of course is that we don&#8217;t, but that there was and still is a niche for something different. These first two years have been about defining the niche that the Institute for Government should occupy, whilst producing work which has an impact &#8211; whether in the realm of research or development. So, the Institute for Government has sought to demonstrate that it: is non aligned, and apolitical in the best traditions of the British Civil Service so that it can work with all mainstream political parties can be trusted to keep confidences &#8211; whether personal or organisational is independent in the sense that its research is objective and free from vested interest expects to be measured by the input it has and the difference it makes &#8211; and will therefore work to persuade decision makers to adopt the recommendations of its research will be relevant in that it concentrates on the issues that really concern Whitehall and Westminster must be rooted in experience with enough staff and fellows who [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Closing quangos: lessons from Ofcom and the Hearing Aid Council</title>
		<link>http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/390/closing-quangos-lessons-from-ofcom-and-the-hearing-aid-council/?source=rss</link>
		<comments>http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/390/closing-quangos-lessons-from-ofcom-and-the-hearing-aid-council/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:31:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ian Moss</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[New models of governance and public services]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Arm's length bodies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/?p=390</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The latest government cull of Arm&#8217;s length bodies (ALBs)  may be different in scale and speed from anything we have seen in the recent past – but there are many useful lessons out there on how to navigate through the minefield.  In particular it pays to learn from those who have already been through it. Bodies may close but the functions they undertake may remain crucial. Government has to guard against the inevitable blight that hits condemned organisations so essential services do not suffer as a consequence of rationalisation and change. The work of the Financial Services Authority going to the Bank of England might come into the category of issues where high risks are attached if staff turnover leads them to take their eye off the ball on financial regulation. Elsewhere the Government has given commitments that changes in structures will not affect the outcome the body supports. For instance, that the abolition of the UK Film Council will not lead to a loss of support for filmmaking in the UK. Interested parties will be watching closely to ensure this promise is kept. Learning from experience Most Departments will be grappling with the same set of issues, many of which [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Friends, Romans and Coalition Partners</title>
		<link>http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/350/friends-romans-and-coalition-partners/?source=rss</link>
		<comments>http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/350/friends-romans-and-coalition-partners/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:10:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zoe Gruhn</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Leadership for government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Coalition Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Political leaders]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/?p=350</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Since 5 May pundits have had a field day arguing about whether coalition government can work and the life chances of the current coalition. Reading some commentators, it is almost as though we are now in a brave new world with little precedent. However, as a recent event at the Institute showed, coalitions are nothing new. Far from it. They played, for example, a key role in the politics of the Roman Republic in the first century BC as it struggled for survival. What we did at the event was to take Shakespeare&#8217;s &#8216;Julius Caesar&#8217;, which, unusually for him, is reasonably closely based on historical fact, and use it to look at how coalitions are built and mobilised. Reasons for the coalition In the play the main motivation for the plotters was to maintain the purity of the Roman Republic and prevent it falling into tyranny under Caesar’s leadership. What was needed was to bring together people who shared that common aim although who, in most other respects, were not natural allies. This meant that the faction which emerged and led to Caesar’s assassination included some very different personalities who, in other circumstances, would certainly not have been natural bedfellows. [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Why fairness matters when the cuts begin to bite</title>
		<link>http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/322/why-fairness-matters-when-the-cuts-begin-to-bite/?source=rss</link>
		<comments>http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/322/why-fairness-matters-when-the-cuts-begin-to-bite/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:37:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Julian McCrae</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Parliament and the political process]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Budget deficit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cuts]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/?p=322</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Institute set out its views on fiscal consolidation, alongside the IFS, in a briefing shortly after the election.  A vital element, based on the experience of countries like Canada and Sweden, is securing a public mandate. This is not about trying to get people out campaigning for cuts.  Rather the two parts are that the public have to accept at a basic level that action is necessary, and that the particular actions of the government are guided by an underlying sense of fairness. Where are we on establishing these elements of a successful consolidation?  The insights from a three and a half days Citizens’ Jury event in Coventry, convened by Price Waterhouse Coopers, where 24 members of the public were asked to do their own consolidation process provide an intriguing set of lessons for Whitehall. Two important headlines stand out. Firstly, people can accept the case for difficult decisions when they are engaged in a meaningful discussion about the options. Secondly, fairness was a very important concept to the jury, who had a remarkably clear idea of what fairness meant to them and how they expected to see that play out through the consolidation process. So the starting point [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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