Whitehall's failure to deliver key public services targets can be attributed to ‘poorly conceived' goals and ineffective co-ordination of cross-departmental challenges, a new report has concluded. A study of Whitehall's performance, published on 27 July by the independent Institute for Government think-tank, concludes ‘the UK is among the world's highest-performing governments', outperformed by just a handful of states, mainly in Scandinavia. But the report could be construed as damning Whitehall with feint praise, as it goes on to describe a poor performance against the Government's key policy targets – the Treasury-led Public Service Agreements (PSAs). Just 40% of PSA targets were met between 2005 and 2008. ‘This may be because goals were poorly framed or over-ambitious rather than reflecting a failure of departmental performance,' the study by IfG fellow, Simon Parker, states. ‘For instance, the Department for International Development faced a series of demanding targets relating to the Millennium Development Goals, over which the UK has limited influence.' What is also clear, however, is that Whitehall has struggled to master how disparate bodies can deliver cross-departmental policy aims, such as tackling child poverty and reducing teenage pregnancies. Just seven out of 20 (35%) joint PSAs were met over period. With £90bn likely to be cut from public spending by 2017, the study also warns there must be a ‘more strategic focus on a small number of government priorities'.
