Working to make government more effective

The Institute for Government building

Our work programme in 2025

Our work will focus on how the state can improve the lives of people across the UK and build confidence and trust in government.

This will be a crucial year for good government – with public services under pressure, spending plans to be set and new approaches to governing starting to take root. Our work will focus on how the state can improve the lives of people across the UK and build confidence and trust in government, drawing on our unrivalled expertise about Whitehall and Westminster.

We will continue to make our arguments on everything from reforming the way the centre of government works to completing the map of English devolution.

But we will also be developing innovative new ideas for change that are rooted in an understanding of frontline services, local context and the public’s experience. We’re excited to announce plans including:

  • New work looking at what a ‘government of service’ means in practice, including: the relationship between the effectiveness of the civil service and the ability of government to deliver its objectives and how the new ‘duty of candour’ should work.
  • A series of projects on the best options for public service reform – building on our work on prevention. We’ll start by looking at what it means to take a place-based approach to public services. We will also be pursuing work on how collaborative commissioning can be used to deliver missions.
  • New projects that will generate new options for reform on some of the major challenges facing the government – from public sector pay and what can be done on recruitment, retention and motivation, to how government can tackle the huge challenge of rising illness-related inactivity and incapacity in the workforce.
  • A new ‘Devo Lab’ – events and case studies on topics including skills, regeneration and growth, shining a light on innovative practices and sharing lessons between local areas about what works. 
  • A series looking at groups of people who have been under-served by the state with the aim of bringing together policy makers and practitioners to develop propositions for reform. We’ll focus groups important to the delivery of the government’s missions – such as cohorts of children who are often left behind in early years policy
  • And through our IfG Academy, we will be expanding our ambitious programme of professional development and support for decision makers working at the heart of government.