Institute for Government

For more than 50 years, the civil service has committed to being better at external recruitment. But it continues to fall short at attracting, retaining and properly using the knowledge and skills present in wider society. Little progress has been made on the recent pledge, contained within June 2021’s Declaration on Government Reform, to “establish new, appropriately and consistently managed, entry routes for professionals from outside government”. The civil service is suffering as a result. So what more could be done to bring external talent into the civil service – and why has the government’s approach failed to make a difference? Building on the Institute’s recent report on the topic, this important event will discuss why external recruitment is so important to an effective civil service and how to make it happen in practice. To discuss the above and more, our expert panel included: Katharine Braddick, Group Head of Strategic Policy and Adviser to the Group CEO at Barclays and former senior civil servant Jonathan Simons, Partner at Public First and former senior civil servant Rt Hon Baroness Gisela Stuart of Edgbaston, First Civil Service Commissioner Jordan Urban, Researcher at the Institute for Government. The event was chaired by Alex Thomas, Programme Director at the Institute for Government.

Six years ago, the Institute for Government, Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Chartered Institute of Taxation published a joint report on Better Budgets: making tax policy better. Based on extensive interviews with tax policy stakeholders, the report concluded that the tax policy-making process was seriously flawed and that – to reduce taxpayer confusion, cut down costly errors and avoid embarrassing U-turns – the government should overhaul how it makes tax and budget decisions. Six years on from the report, and as chancellor Jeremy Hunt prepares to present his first budget following a tumultuous autumn for tax policy, this event will look back on the conclusions we reached and the recommendations we made. Did our report identify the right problems and solutions? Have there been any improvements in tax policymaking since then? And have any new problems or unexpected solutions appeared? To discuss these questions and more, our expert panel will include: Bill Dodwell, Outgoing Tax Director at the Office of Tax Simplification and former CIOT President Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies Jill Rutter, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government Sir Edward Troup, Tax and Tax Policy Commentator and former HMRC Permanent Secretary The event is chaired by Gemma Tetlow, Chief Economist at the Institute for Government.

Ombuds schemes enable citizens to complain about the service they receive – and in the case of public services they play a crucial role in the balance of power between citizen and state. They hold government, the NHS, councils and other public bodies to account when their failings harm people – both resolving individual cases and informing public service improvement and reform.  However, the public service Ombuds system in England is hamstrung by outdated powers and organisational structures, and has fallen behind systems in the devolved nations and other modern democracies.   So how could Ombuds schemes be reformed? What are the options for reform? And why has it been so hard to achieve progress? One proposal is to establish a new Public Service Ombudsman (PSO) to bring together the jurisdictions of existing public service Ombuds schemes, but a bill drafted in 2016 was never passed.  To discuss potential next steps for Ombuds reform, the Institute for Government was delighted to host an expert panel including: Rosemary Agnew, Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Rob Behrens CBE, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Sir Bernard Jenkin MP, former Chair, Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Sandra Verkuyten OBE, Former CEO of the Hearing Aid Council Patrick Vernon OBE, Social Commentator and Campaigner The event was chaired by Dr Matthew Gill, Programme Director at the Institute for Government.

Better use of data is key to more effective government. Across government, teams are doing fascinating work with data. But those projects don’t get the attention they deserve. Data Bites aims to change that. Our latest event, the 39th in our series, was a health special, where the speakers presented their work in an exciting, quickfire format. Each speaker had eight minutes, followed by eight minutes of questions from the audience. This month's speakers were: Elliot Bridges, Senior Data and Insights Analyst at Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, on trends in egg, sperm and embryo donation and their implications Sarah Deeny, Deputy Director, Analytics at the UK Health Security Agency, on how the use of data and forecasting during the pandemic can help us protect the NHS and the public during the winter Valentina Sassow, Deployment Strategist at Palantir Technologies, on Palantir's work on cancer pathways Becky Taylor, Director of Transformation and Quality Improvement at University Hospitals of Northamptonshire, on building the future of integrated care at Kettering General Hospital and Northampton General Hospital The event was chaired by Gavin Freeguard, Associate at the Institute for Government.

The centre of government does not function as well as it needs to. Successive prime ministers have complained of ‘rubber levers’ and reflected that the nature of the government machine can make it difficult to deliver their priorities. The last three premierships have not been helped, and sometimes have been hindered, by the failings of No.10, the Cabinet Office and Treasury. The civil service is not working as well as it should and Brexit and Covid in particular exposed deep problems with the whole of the government machine. But what exactly are these problems? Why have they not been solved? And what could be done to radically improve how the centre works? To launch a major new programme of work, we brought together an expert panel to discuss the current state of the centre and suggest how it could be reformed and improved. Our panellists were: Lord Robin Butler, Cabinet Secretary 1988-98 Baroness Simone Finn, Downing Street deputy chief of staff 2021–22 Peter Hill, former principal private secretary to the prime minister (2017-19) and CEO of COP 26 The event was chaired by Dr Hannah White, Director of the Institute for Government and Sir Anthony Seldon, author, political commentator and historian.

The pressures on public services have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Recruitment and retention of staff is a growing problem, with widespread strikes, backlogs have increased and the public are waiting longer to access support. So what was the pandemic’s impact on spending, staff, and service performance? What does rising inflation mean for public service spending? And what impact will the spending announced in the autumn statement have on public services? As the Institute for Government and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy published new analysis on the performance of public services, Nick Davies, Programme Director at the Institute for Government, presented the key findings. He was joined by Stephen Morgan MP, Shadow Minister for Schools, and Aileen Murphie, Honorary Professor at Durham University Business School and Specialist Adviser to the Levelling Up, Housing & Communities Select Committee. The event was chaired by Emma Norris, Deputy Director of the Institute for Government, with opening remarks by Jeffrey Matsu, Chief Economist at CIPFA. We would like to thank the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) for partnering with us on this event. https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/spring-budget-public-services

The Institute for Government was delighted to welcome the Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper MP. In a major speech, the Shadow Home Secretary set out the ways in which a Labour government would take a different approach to law and order and outlined her priorities for the Home Office should Labour win the next general election. In one of a series of speeches setting out Labour’s home affairs policies, the Shadow Home Secretary's speech at the IfG saw her discuss Labour’s plan to rebuild neighbourhood policing and reverse the collapse in charges and prosecutions over the last 13 years. Following her speech, Yvette Cooper was in conversation with IfG director Dr Hannah White. Yvette Cooper has been the Member of Parliament for Normanton, Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley since 1997. Before her appointment as Shadow Home Secretary, she served as Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee. In Government, she served as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Housing Minister. https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/yvette-cooper-shadow-home-secretary

Sharing data across and beyond the public sector was critical to the government’s pandemic response. From providing vital information needed by leaders to make big decisions to standing up new services drawing on a range of data sources to serve citizens, data was used at the heart of government like never before. We discussed how to maintain this ‘high watermark’ in data use, drawing on various pandemic case studies to highlight lessons and best practice behaviour to continue into the future. The event picked up on different themes from a upcoming IfG report, Data sharing during the pandemic, including: What data sharing lessons should government learn? What are the benefits of existing rules and legislation for enabling data sharing? How do multidisciplinary teams contribute to data sharing success? What qualities, skills and experience do data-literate leaders require? What steps can be taken to reduce the perceived risks of data sharing? The panel, who represented different themes contained in the report Data sharing during the pandemic, were: Jess McEvoy, Principal Consultant at Scott Logic Paul Shepley, Data Scientist at the Institute for Government Ming Tang, National Director of Data and Analytics for NHS England and Improvement Juliet Whitworth, Head of Research and Information at the Local Government Association The event was chaired by Gavin Freeguard, Associate at the Institute for Government.

The Levelling Up the United Kingdom white paper, published in February 2022, was meant to provide the Johnson government’s flagship domestic policy. Containing 12 missions and pledging a ‘rewiring of Whitehall’, ministers heralded the white paper as a blueprint for a radical overhaul of the UK’s governance and economic geography. While Boris Johnson is no longer in post, prime minister Rishi Sunak has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to levelling up. But one year on from the levelling up white paper’s publication, how much progress has been achieved against its ambitions? What do the UK’s economic challenges mean for the levelling up agenda? And what more does the government need to do to reduce regional inequalities? To discuss these questions and more, our expert panel included: Councillor Abi Brown, Leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council Anneliese Dodds MP, Chair of the Labour Party and Labour Policy Review Professor Richard Jones, Vice-President for Regional Innovation and Civic Engagement at The University of Manchester Councillor Jane Mudd, Vice-Chair of the Western Gateway Partnership and Leader of Newport City Council The event was chaired by Thomas Pope, Deputy Chief Economist at the Institute for Government.

Better use of data is key to more effective government. Across government, teams are doing fascinating work with data. But those projects don’t get the attention they deserve. Data Bites aims to change that. Our latest event, the 38th in our series was a defence special where the speakers will present their work in an exciting, quickfire format. Each speaker has eight minutes, followed by eight minutes of questions from the audience. This month's speakers were: Cameron Douglas, Engineering and Logistics Defence Lead at Palantir Technologies, on how to maintain vital control over sensitive data Ben Holloway, Head of Royal Navy Digital Anna Knack, Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Emerging Technology and Security, The Alan Turing Institute, on their new report, Human-Machine Teaming in Intelligence Analysis Commander Sue Seagrave, Data Sheriff for Royal Navy Project Renown, on growing the ‘data posse’ to improve Royal Navy ship availability The event was chaired by Gavin Freeguard, Associate at the Institute for Government.