By David Williams
June 26, 2009
Experts have questioned the role of ministers in departmental management, urging politicians to adopt a hands-off approach and base more of their decisions on evidence.
Geoff Mulgan, director of the Young Foundation, called for reform of ministerial structures during a panel session at the CIPFA conference on June 24.
‘The idea that they’re chief executives who can deliver a solution to every problem was never plausible, and it’s even less plausible when the money is short,’ he said.
‘We also need fewer ministers, who I think create initiativitis in order to justify their roles in the media. We’re an outlier as a nation, in terms of numbers of ministers we have.’
Mulgan also said departments should publish more data on procedures and best practice, citing the website evidence.nhs.uk as an example that other bodies could follow.
‘When that happens, ministers will behave in a much more rational way,’ he predicted.
Management consultant John Seddon said ministers were not suited to running departments. ‘We’ve got to get ministers out of management,’ he argued. ‘I don’t pretend to be a politician,’ he fumed, ‘why do they pretend to know anything about management?’
Seddon also dismissed as ‘absurd’ the notion that ministers were accountable for what happened in local services.
He said ministers who relied on target-based assessments would be unaware of how effective services on the ground really were.
Risk management expert David Kaye warned delegates: ‘Ministers are not all fools, but they’re working to a different agenda to you. They’re working to a political agenda.’
Earlier in the session, Mulgan predicted the recession would force public bodies to become much more innovative and experimental.
‘There’s no shortage of ideas out there,’ he said, ‘but we’re still not all that serious about how innovation is really done.
‘The British public sector is using only about 5% of the methods it could be and only aware of a tiny fraction of the methods it could be using for more rigorous, systematic innovation to discover savings to reshape services.
‘It may be okay in the boom years, but it is rapidly ceasing to be okay as we hit an economic crisis.’
June 26, 2009
Experts have questioned the role of ministers in departmental management, urging politicians to adopt a hands-off approach and base more of their decisions on evidence.
Geoff Mulgan, director of the Young Foundation, called for reform of ministerial structures during a panel session at the CIPFA conference on June 24.
‘The idea that they’re chief executives who can deliver a solution to every problem was never plausible, and it’s even less plausible when the money is short,’ he said.
‘We also need fewer ministers, who I think create initiativitis in order to justify their roles in the media. We’re an outlier as a nation, in terms of numbers of ministers we have.’
Mulgan also said departments should publish more data on procedures and best practice, citing the website evidence.nhs.uk as an example that other bodies could follow.
‘When that happens, ministers will behave in a much more rational way,’ he predicted.
Management consultant John Seddon said ministers were not suited to running departments. ‘We’ve got to get ministers out of management,’ he argued. ‘I don’t pretend to be a politician,’ he fumed, ‘why do they pretend to know anything about management?’
Seddon also dismissed as ‘absurd’ the notion that ministers were accountable for what happened in local services.
He said ministers who relied on target-based assessments would be unaware of how effective services on the ground really were.
Risk management expert David Kaye warned delegates: ‘Ministers are not all fools, but they’re working to a different agenda to you. They’re working to a political agenda.’
Earlier in the session, Mulgan predicted the recession would force public bodies to become much more innovative and experimental.
‘There’s no shortage of ideas out there,’ he said, ‘but we’re still not all that serious about how innovation is really done.
‘The British public sector is using only about 5% of the methods it could be and only aware of a tiny fraction of the methods it could be using for more rigorous, systematic innovation to discover savings to reshape services.
‘It may be okay in the boom years, but it is rapidly ceasing to be okay as we hit an economic crisis.’
