Arm's length government

"The more I look into these bodies, the more convinced I am that the current situation owes far more to history than it does to operational effectiveness" (Sir Gus O'Donnell, Speech at the Institute for Government, 2009)

At the launch of the Institute for Government, the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, identified the complicated landscape of arm's length bodies as an area where the Institute for Government could add real value. 

What are Arm's length bodies?

'Arm's length bodies' (ALBs) is a general term, used to cover at least 11 types of organisation which operate at varying (and quite often contested) degrees of independence from government.  

They range from big organisations employing thousands of public servants and administering billions of pounds of public money, to small advisory committees with no independent budget.

They regulate some of the most sensitive areas of public and private activity. At the same time they seem to suffer an ongoing crisis of legitimacy as all political parties feel the need to rein in the quango state.

Our research

Over the past year, The Institute for Government has been working with insiders from both Whitehall and arm's length bodies, the National Audit Office and external experts to shed light on this area of governance and identify options for reform.

The result of our research is a report entitled Read Before Burning: how to increase the effectiveness and accountability of quangos that was published in July 2010.

Further comment from our researchers is on the IfG Blog:

Practical help

One issue our research identified was the lack of a mechanism within government to share best practice about how to manage at arm's length.

Working with Professor Matt Flinders at the University of Sheffield and sponsor teams across Whitehall, we produced four 'user' guides for sponsor teams and Ministers / special advisers new to sponsorship.

None of these substitute for existing official advice from the Cabinet office - but they are designed to offer practical help based on experience. The guides cover:

We want these to be living documents - so if you have any comments, please send them to alg@instituteforgovernment.org.uk and we will incorporate them in the next update.

Resources

An Institute for Government seminar on 26 April drew on private and public sector experience to learn lessons from past mergers and consolidations.

Following presentations from Deloitte (Powerpoint, 161KB) and Hay Group (Powerpoint, 450KB), participants discussed how to achieve savings in practice and address cultural issues that often are left on one side in public sector reorganisations.

Many of these issues are also addressed in our guidance note on mergers.

We also want to make available useful resources to people in sponsor departments, ALBs themselves and to anyone interested in how this part of government works. The Scottish government has been doing thinking about how it relates to its own ALBs - and set out its approach in a letter from Finance Minister, John Swinney MSP to all arm's length bodies.

Interesting insight on the Department of Health's cull of arm's length bodies is contained in this speech given by former DH civil servant and Minister, Lord Warner.

The National Audit Office (NAO) gives a broadly positive verdict on the same review in the 2008 survey report, Releasing resources to the frontline: the Department of Health’s Review of its Arm’s Length Bodies.

The NAO's views about the limitations of performance management across a sample of ALBs are set out in this report. It concludes that while increasing focus on ALB results is positive, it rarely yields an overview of value for money, and doesn’t drive performance improvement as vigorously as it might.

Organisations

The Public Chairs' Forum (PCF)

The PCF is a member led, exclusive information sharing and networking resource for chairs of public bodies that exists to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery of public services in the United Kingdom.

The PCF offers Chairs the chance to listen to and engage with senior, high profile figures from across government, business and the media through a series of unique and exclusive seminars. It also draws on the perspectives of its members to provide information, advice and guidance to Government on best practice for arm's length bodies and their role in the delivery and reform of public services. 

The collaboration helps to strengthen the Public Chairs’ Forum and its capacity to make a real contribution to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of public bodies. The collaboration also enables the PCF and IFG to work together to develop contributions to policy making and practical proposals for steps that Chairs of ALBs can take to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their organisations.

Christopher N. Banks CBE, chair of Directgov, is the current Chair of the PCF. Chris is Founder of Big Thoughts, the food and drinks business he set up to lead a management buy-out from The Coca-Cola Company early in 2001 and was previously Managing Director of Coca-Cola Great Britain.

Amy Noonan is the Manager of the Public Chairs’ Forum and works closely with the PCF Chair and Management Committee to engage new members and  implement a successful programmes of seminars and events, helping to increase the influence and size of the PCF.  Amy is based in the IFG offices in Carlton Gardens.  She worked previously as Policy Advisor to the Chair of the Learning and Skills Council.

For more information, visit the Public Chairs Forum website.

The Association of Chief Executives (ACE)

The ACE was founded in September 2003 and became the United Kingdom ACE Association in May 2006 and exists to promote excellent working relationships throughout all aspects of government. You can find out more about ACE at www.uk-ace.org.uk