Whitehall must ‘reinvent' policy-making and engage frontline staff more effectively to improve the delivery of public services, a long-awaited report has claimed.
A Cabinet Office-commissioned study, published on 26 March, explores different ways of developing better links between policy-makers and frontline professionals, following heavy internal criticism that Whitehall departments lacked delivery expertise.
The report concludes that Whitehall must make better use of frontline staff, including those operating at local level, because they often have a better grasp of what citizens want from their public services – and how to deliver them.
Sir David Omand, a former Whitehall mandarin and co-author of the study, said: ‘This report is a call to the Government to rediscover the old truth that good policy-making involves teamwork, uniting from the outset political vision, assessed evidence on the problem being addressed, and the practical wisdom of those on the frontline experienced in serving the public.'
The authors found a high degree of support for the Government's ‘localisation' agenda.
But the study concludes that localisation programmes ‘seem to exist as isolated examples rather than flowing from an integrated, joined-up strategy for frontline engagement'.
The report's key recommendations include:
Cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, has long been aware that Whitehall's must improve delivery frameworks and commissioned the NSG's study last summer.
While the Cabinet Office's departmental capability review (DCR) process has revealed departments are adept at managing and creating policy, they have exposed delivery problems at organisations, such as the Home Office, which oversee crucial ‘local' services including policing.
Sir Gus has also asked Sir Michael Bichard, a former chief executive of Brent LBC and Whitehall permanent secretary, to explore ways of harnessing frontline expertise.
