How Keir Starmer’s government can be built for delivery

As the dust starts to settle following the tumultuous beginning of Keir Starmer’s shift to a delivery-focused ‘phase two’, the government – and Darren Jones as the prime minister’s new right-hand man – must now focus on practical action.   

Fortunately, there is much Labour can learn from its predecessors. Tony Blair's establishment of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMDU) in 2001, run by Michael Barber, is still seen by many as the gold standard of 'delivery'. Barber’s PMDU relentlessly and rigorously tracked departmental progress against a small number of key priorities. This model was successful: targets were met in education, transport, healthcare and the Home Office, and delivery units promoted greater collaboration and problem-solving between departments. Oliver Letwin later reflected that his decision to abolish the PMDU was a “terrible mistake” – and indeed the Conservative government’s redesigned Implementation Unit utilised many of the same staff, tools and processes as the PMDU. Keir Starmer’s government should take its lead from the Barber model.  

The revamped structure at No.10 brings welcome clarity  

Delivery units need a clear and central driving force. The appointment of Darren Jones as chief secretary to the prime minister, along with the transfer of the mission delivery unit from the Cabinet Office into No.10, puts welcome political weight behind delivery. Jones was also appointed chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the reshuffle, which gives him responsibility for delivering the government’s missions. This will avoid duplicating roles at the centre by putting a single figure at the heart of Starmer’s delivery drive, something previously recommended by the IfG.  

Jones has the difficult task of straddling No. 10 and the Cabinet Office, and will need to work closely with the PM’s chief-of-staff Morgan McSweeney. Nevertheless, it is promising to see the centre seizing delivery , and the appointment of a senior figure closely resembling our recommendation for a ‘first secretary of state’.

What Jones tracks – and how consistently he does so – matters for what he delivers

For Jones to deliver, he will need to be clear about what metrics he chooses to measure progress against. The obvious answer would be the milestones set out in Labour’s ‘Plan for Change’, but the key risk is that headline targets are met at the expense of the government’s long-term missions. For instance, the 18-week NHS waiting time target could risk focussing too narrowly on hospitals, making it more difficult to shift attention to communities and prevention. Similarly, too narrow a focus on the target of 75% of five year-olds being school ready could inadvertently widen inequalities between groups.  

All targets create distortions, but there are ways to keep long-term priorities from falling by the wayside. The centre of government should define and track intermediate outcomes that show progress toward missions, alongside the headline milestones. At the same time, it should coordinate with departments to avoid a proliferation of different metrics and ensure the critical ones they choose are fit for the challenges facing the government today. After Barber’s resignation and the PMDU’s move into the Treasury in 2007, its remit broadened to cross-departmental targets – with mixed results. Starmer’s delivery unit should heed this lesson and work with departments to update the model to make it fit for the cross-cutting nature of the government’s missions.

Clarity on metrics must also be followed by routine data collection and check-in meetings. The success of Barber’s PMDU was down to regular stocktakes with the PM, heads of department, ministers and civil servants, with officials encouraged to chart progress against chosen metrics, identifying and addressing problems early. Darren Jones should prioritise holding regular stocktake meetings to sustain the current momentum behind delivery in Starmer’s phase two.  

Short feedback loops across the whole delivery chain will be essential to success  

Delivery also needs feedback loops: between the centre and departments, and between policy teams and frontline operations. Central delivery units should monitor progress via routines and metrics, unblocking the barriers departments come up against. This depends on delivery units engaging with departments and responding to feedback to monitor, evaluate and adapt delivery. For instance, progress on the 2001 Fuel Poverty Strategy was frequently stymied in its early years by delivery being jointly overseen by two departments – Defra and the Department for Trade and Industry – which led to disjointed priorities and policies. Progress was only made once both departments began to report to the centre of government, which replaced distinct objectives with shared fuel poverty delivery targets.  

Departments must also remain responsive to feedback from frontline operations to understand the impact of policies on the ground. In the case of the London Challenge (a secondary school improvement programme launched by the Blair government in 2003), former headteachers liaised between underperforming schools and the Department for Education, providing rapid feedback to policy teams. This collaborative model helped to transform secondary schools in inner London local authorities from “the worst performing to the best performing nationally”. With the mission delivery unit sitting under No.10, Darren Jones needs to respond to feedback from policymaking teams – who are themselves receptive to feedback from frontline operations – and be ready to unblock issues on their behalf.  

With half of Starmer’s cabinet having changed jobs following the recent shakeup, many ministers will be rapidly getting up to speed on their new briefs. For Starmer’s ‘phase two’ to succeed, these ministers – and Darren Jones in particular – must get the metrics, routines and feedback loops of delivery right.