There’s been a cross party report issued by a group called the Effective Governance Forum (EFG) and it contains some quite interesting ideas. The main points of the report are to highlight that how Britain is governed and managed is now not fit for purpose. They say that the functions of government have expanded greatly since the Northcote-Trevelyan report of 1854 which professionalised Britain’s Civil Service and made it recruit by merit rather than patronage, but the machinery of government has stayed roughly the same since then.
As regards the national government and the management of individual departments the report recommends that Ministers should be the defacto chair of their departments who should set policy and strategic objectives whilst the management of the department and the implementation of Government policy should be undertaken by a departmental Chief Executive Officer. I find this idea peaks my interest as there should be in departments a Big Boss who is neither an elected Member of Parliament nor a permanent Civil Servant who may not be all that supportive of a Minister whom they know is going to be gone at either the next election or the next reshuffle. The only thing that concerns me about this suggestion is that it gives us yet another layer of expensive administration. But if it worked and cut the cost of government whilst making it more efficient and responsive to what voters choose then it might be worth a try.
The report also recommends that local governance should go back to being local and not be too hidebound by requirements imposed by central government. Councils should be smaller in order to bring councils closer to those who elect them and be responsible for things like health, education, transport and housing. I like this idea although it will take more money from granted from central government to local government if local councils are going to go back somewhat to a pre-1948 situation where hospitals in some cases were owned and run by local authorities. Not only would it make healthcare more responsive to the needs of those who use it and tailor healthcare to the areas that it is being needed but would break up the inefficient and sclerotic behemoth that is the National Health Service. As a parent I am quite enthusiastic about the idea of directly elected local councillors in councils that are much smaller and more human-sized than our current ones running education. It would make education more responsive to parents and to the needs of the local and national economy and would take education policy out of the hands of central government Civil Servants who lean to the left education-wise and who have too often run rings around education ministers.
This report looks interesting and I’m putting it up for discussion. I can see a fair few holes in it from a practical perspective if implemented, but what do you all think?
