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To help improve public services, stop repeating past mistakes

Seismic shifts in the political landscape have led to uncertainty about the future direction of public service reform

Seismic shifts in the political landscape have led to uncertainty about the future direction of public service reform. Sophie Wilson explains why learning from the past instead of reinvention is the way to improve citizen outcomes.

New leaders often want to shake things up and make their mark when taking on a new role. The new post-referendum administration is no different and a substantial level of uncertainty surrounds a whole sweep of policies and projects put in train by David Cameron’s government. But before Theresa May and the new Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid, start to introduce further reforms, they should pause to ensure they aren’t repeating mistakes of the past. This is particularly important when capacity within local government is in decline and less money is available for service delivery. We cannot afford to let the insights from the frontline about what’s working (and not working) go to waste. It is therefore vitally important that people in local areas can prioritise learning without the distraction of more policy churn emerging from Whitehall. Instead of changing priorities or introducing further reforms, the focus should be on rising to the dual challenge of spending pressures and increasing demand by making the most of what we already know. Central government should encourage areas to borrow from one another, not just invent new things, as one way to efficiency savings and better services for citizens. Adapting ideas from one part of the country to the local context and needs of another can provide a shortcut for developing programmes and put a stop to reinventing the wheel. In practice this should be done by giving people in local areas:
  • More opportunities for real-time learning from progress, challenges and setbacks;
  • The chance to ‘dig deeper’ into the messy reality of implementation.
This involves learning from what went wrong as well as right, and understanding the nitty gritty of implementation: where an initiative came from, how it developed and the ways of working that can be applied elsewhere not just the policy details of a programme. As one senior policy adviser in local government described: “the conversation you should always have is: what are the bits we would have done differently, what are the bits we messed up and this is what we learnt from it.” The best way to do this is through:
  • Face-to-face conversations that allow people to break out of organisational and professional silos; and
  • Sector- and peer-led approaches that help to build the necessary trust and credibility to make interactions effective.
When people voluntarily come together with peers they are much more likely to share experiences openly and pick up useful insights that can be applied back home. Whitehall should also get better at learning from local places. Maintaining strong links with what is happening on the ground and actively listening to local areas about what is working (and not working) should be the first step for a new Secretary of State. These insights should then be used to make changes to national policy, regulatory, legislative and funding frameworks that currently hinder local public service reforms including attempts to integrate services. So this is a reminder to the PM and Sajid Javid: take the time to learn from what has been tried and tested before reaching for the drawing board when thinking about what next.
Keywords
Public sector
Publisher
Institute for Government

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