The UK's civil service needs reform for government to work better

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/15/uk-civil-service-needs-reform

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David Cameron is dead against an inquiry into the civil service, because he believes Francis Maude's reform plan is enough. This is increasingly hard to defend when all the chairs of the parliamentary select committees join together to ask for a parliamentary commission. This institution is sick. It needs more than another round of politically appointed special advisers with dubious expertise.

The civil service should matter to anyone who believes in effective government and management of the public space. On the progressive side of politics, a well-functioning state is the first building block of ambition for change. If government does not work, it cannot deliver reform. Government that is seen to fail is a gift to those who do not believe that it can solve problems, and simply want less of it.

That is why the polling on public trust in government is so dispiriting. This year, Eurobarometer found that just 22% of the British trusted their government. We lack the long historical data to show the UK trend, but I suspect it would be similar to the horrifying United States Pew polling which shows that "trust in the federal government to do the right thing most of the time" has collapsed from 73% in the late 1950s to just 19% today.

The 33 chairs of the cross-party select committees matter because they oversee departments, and they are at the sharp end of reviewing government success against its own objectives. Sir Alan Beith MP, who chairs the chairs, highlighted the problem of managing contracts. Civil servants do not have enough people with the skills needed to specify, negotiate and then litigate (where necessary) over contracts with outside suppliers.

Bernard Jenkin MP, who chairs the public administration committee, said our system of government showed "some of the characteristics of a failing organisation". The new Border Force is missing eight of its 19 seizure and detection targets. The GoCo defence procurement company recently collapsed. You could add the west coast rail franchise cock-up. Rural broadband delays. The tagging of dead offenders.

A new Northcote-Trevelyan – the seminal 1854 report that established the modern civil service – is essential because the world that government is trying to influence is so much more complex. How do you measure success and failure? What are the staging posts? How do you ensure competence and institutional memory? How do you abandon public services that no longer meet modern challenges?

A generalist civil service is no longer appropriate in many technical areas. Too often, the civil service moves people on as soon as they understand their job. Officials should see projects through, and carefully acquired specialist knowledge of an area should be rewarded.

An inquiry also needs to make clear what politicians and civil servants should expect. In my experience, the blame is often political. Too many ministers think you can pull a lever and the civil service will shunt the train on to the right track. But government is a people business, not a series of cogs and wheels. To accept change, people have to be coaxed, wooed and motivated by a clear vision set out by the minister.

Stein Ringen's new book, Nation of Devils, is a good start to the debate. He quotes President Harry Truman handing power to his successor, General Dwight D Eisenhower: "Poor Ike. He'll sit right there, and he'll say do this, do that! And nothing will happen – it won't be a bit like the army."

Plans for change have themselves to be changed as they come across the real world they are trying to influence, and it is crucial to have the implementers on side and clear about what the minister is trying to achieve. They have to be prepared to tell ministers when plans are going awry. If civil servants think ministers are merely trying to offload blame, the chances of success are already slim. I fear that is where we are now with Iain Duncan Smith's universal credit.

Bad workmen blame their tools, but the tools need to be updated for a modern world. The select committee chairs are also right to highlight Whitehall's demarcation lines. Many problems cut across departmental responsibilities, but ministers and senior civil servants are bad at co-ordinating a response. Look at bed-blocking in the NHS because local social services did not take patients quickly. Look at knife crime because not all hospitals report anonymised data on where it happens, allowing police to stamp it out. Look at climate change, which needs more departments on side than any problem short of winning a war. There are many easy wins from working together, but departments often prefer inertia or a good fight.

A senior civil servant once told me our department was good at policy, but not at implementation. I put my head in my hands. Policy is implementation. If things do not change on the ground – a messy and iterative business that involves telling truth to power about its own inadequacies – then policy has failed. For the sake of our public realm, we need a new Northcote-Trevelyan. Public service is too important to be allowed to decay.

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