With the long-awaited reshuffle imminent, there are likely to be several changes among junior ministers. While this may or may not make for good party management, it threatens to disrupt policy implementation at the point when stability and focus are needed most.
Junior ministers do the bulk of the heavy lifting in Parliament, with secretaries of state making cameo appearances at the start and the end of a bill. But forthcoming Institute for Government research suggests that junior ministers also play an important role in policy implementation. We looked at the London Challenge school improvement programme, the Fuel Poverty Strategy, Sure Start children’s centres and automatic enrolment into pensions.
These case studies all show that the Secretary of State typically provided political cover and initial impetus, but the grind of driving the policy forward, chasing progress and making change happen fell largely to their junior ministers who tend to play at least one of three roles:
- Convenor: Junior ministers brought and kept people outside of government on board. For instance in the case of the London Challenge, Stephen Twigg, then Minister for London Schools, managed relations with the London boroughs which were singled out for action. Where relationships matter, particularly with elected local politicians, there are limits to what civil servants can effectively do. More recently, Steve Webb, the pensions minister, has worked directly with industry to ensure regulations on automatic enrolment into pensions are as effective as possible.
- Advocate: Junior ministers also added political momentum to implementation. This was the role of ministers in the successful scheme to build 3,500 Sure Start children’s centres across the country in the 2000s. Ministers like Beverley Hughes both built up enthusiasm in localities about creating centres, while also holding the central delivery team to account for the pace of roll-out.
- Internal champion: Junior ministers also acted as internal champions within the department – making sure that the risks of loss of focus and conflicting priorities were managed. Thus in the case of the London Challenge, the Minister for London Schools made sure that other national policies like the ‘academisation’ programme were deployed to support not deflect the work of the London Challenge team.
- Topic
- Ministers Policy making
- Keywords
- Government reshuffle
- Administration
- Cameron-Clegg coalition government
- Publisher
- Institute for Government