The Pushmi-pullyu approach to social reform

 The idea that there can be perfect congruence from the vision and aspirations of an organisation all the way through its various strategies and action plans to an individual employee’s objectives has always struck me as overly simplistic. In practice, the so called ‘golden thread’ tends to be as elusive as the golden medina. In a similar way, [...]

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Rebranding the CAA

Rebranding exercises are always suggestive – you only have to think about Windscale’s rebirth as Sellafield.  Along similar lines, the Audit Commission looks to be trying to reposition the Comprehensive Area Assessment as oneplace (oneplace is onelowercaseword for this purpose.)  For sure, oneplace certainly sounds less clunky than Comprehensive Area Assessment which reeks of clipboard [...]

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Too much of a good thing

In a Work Foundation report, Public Value: The Next Steps in Public Service Reform, David Coats and Eleanor Passmore suggest that our pre-occupation with constant reform of public services may have its downsides.  They argue that, ‘the continued use of the language of reform has convinced the public that something is wrong. After all, ‘reform’ [...]

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The answer to the question is scrutiny

I went this morning to the Institute of Mechanical Engineers to hear John Denhan, the Secretary of State for Communities, launching a new Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) consultation document, Strengthening local democracy. I gathered that it was a hastily arranged and low key launch and while Chris Leslie of the New Local [...]

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World Class Omelettes – the oeufal truth

On my way to and from work I pass a pub which has recently had a make-over and now advertises as one of its main attractions, ‘world class omelettes’.  I’ve had my fair share of omelettes over the years and while some have been better than others, I can’t say that any stick in my [...]

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Nutmeg, the local government apprentice

There were always targets for breakfast.  There were always performance indicators for lunch. There were always inspections for supper.  The civic offices were full of files of data. Nutmeg, the local government apprentice, looked out of the window.  Cllr Nesbit fiddled with bits of things.  Nicodemus, the chief executive, sat in his chair and dozed. Nutmeg [...]

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Beyond the downturn

‘Local government in Britain needs to be less passive and resist the central diktat on policy that has undermined local services and engagement. Authorities need less, rather than more guidance, and they need to be brave enough to drive fundamental change themselves.’ So says Michael Frater, Surrey CC’s interim chief executive in an essay in [...]

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Regulation Regulation Regulation

The increased regulation of public services through inspections and targets over the past twenty years is something with which we are all familiar.  Both Conservative and Labour governments have seen regulation as an important way of driving improvement, given the absence of ‘market pressures’.   At the same time that public services have become more tightly regulated, [...]

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End of an era?

Today for the last time the Comprehensive Performance Assessment results are published.  I believe that since its introduction in 2002 the CPA has provided a positive source of external challenge and has contributed to improvement.  I think that its greatest impact was in its early years.  Despite regular tweaking and the development of the harder [...]

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Targets and primary education

If, like me, you have children who are currently at primary school, you will probably be famliliar with being handed on laminated cards the individual literacy and numeracy targets the teachers have set for your children.  So I’ve been interested in the coverage of the Cambridge Primary Review’s interim report published last week.  The report which is independent of the [...]

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