It
was some 50 years ago when people first started to promise the “end of bureaucracy” but
centralized control has been too seductive a notion for those with power to be willing to surrender it easily.
We
have talked a lot since then about people getting lost in “departmental silos”
but real reform of public services (and indeed of commercial organisations) is
notoriously difficult.
The
early efforts made in the UK in the 1970s introduced management techniques to
government but Thatcher grew impatient with that and opted instead for the
outright transfer of bodies and services to the private sector and, as a
second-best, the contracting-out of services – with the subsequent explosion of
audit and management controls…
And
New Labour’s “modernization of government” programme from 1999 turned out to be
a modern version of target-driven Stalinism.
The
Coalition government of 2010-15 seemed to offer greater flexibility – with a
new emphasis on the role of the third sector and even of worker-cooperatives. But
that soon dies the death…
So
it’s understandable that people should be cynical when they encounter talk of
reform…..but I’ve just finished reading a rather different sort of book……“Radical
Help – how we can remake the relationships between us and revolutionise the
welfare state” which has come out of someone taking the trouble to immerse
herself for several years in the “Dead-end” worlds in which too many British
citizens live these days – locked in an apparently never-ending cycle of
despair and hopelessness.
We
have all heard of these “Neighbours from hell” cases and it was with such families
that Hilary Cottam then had the courage to work with – unable to accept a model
which allows hundreds of thousands of pounds to be spent on them, taking
up the time of dozens of welfare specialists. One example she quotes was actually
visited by no less than 73 different officials from a variety of agencies!!
Slowly
and patiently she built small teams to work with such families, selected by a
small panel including the mother herself who then became part of “the solution”
– a total inversion of the traditional model. The same, flexible approach was
used for other “wicked problems” – the transition to adolescence; the search
for good work; good health; and ageing well….
At
one stage, the Prime Minister himself visited the project and was so impressed
that he instructed the Cabinet Office to use the same approach on a wider
basis. This was part of the “Big Society” idea which was reflected in ideas
about “the enabling society” which The Carnegie
Trust for one still seems to keep alive.
But government officials simply can’t understand that the mechanistic “scaling up” of such delicate work requires skills and methods not easily found in "toolkits" - and their efforts quickly failed
Seven
years ago, it appears, Cottam was part of a small team which produced a
pamphlet on the same theme - The
Relational State – how recognising the importance of human relationships could
revolutionise the role of the state (IPPR 2012).
Like
me, she is attracted to the recent work of Frederic Laloux and also like me,
she quotes favourably the liberationist work in the 1970s of Ivan Illich and Paolo
Freire
But,
so far, I know of only one government which has abolished Departments of State
and really tried to get officials working flexibly on issues seen by citizens
as problematic – and that is the Scottish government. That experience is
briefly outlined in the pamphlet “Northern Exposure” you will find in the
reading list attached.
A
Resource
Dealing with Dysfunction – innovative problem solving in the public sector (also 2014) by Jorrit de Jong
The Kafka Brigade public management theory in action; The Rise of the
Enabling State (Carnegie Trust 2012)
The
Enabling State; sir john elvidge (2012)
Northern
Exposure – lessons from the first 12 years of devolved government in Scotland;
John Elvidge (Institute of Government 2011)
Why
reforming the NHS doesn’t work – the importance of understanding how good eople
offer bad care. Valerie Iles (2011)
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