I thought this as interesting enough to share….. especially as an awful lot of public management reform is predicated on trying to replicate in the public sector the sort of outmoded private sector practices discussed below….
July 30, 201312:49 PM
In his New York Times Magazine column this week, Adam Davidson writes about the challenges of measuring productivity in today’s economy. Here’s an excerpt. Continue reading “NYT Excerpt: Radical Accounting And The Value Of Ideas”
Hi all,
I thought I should give you a quick update. Over the summer Whitehall Watch will be changing.
First of all, Whitehall Watch will slowly become more of a multi-author blog, drawing on our community of “Whitehall Watchers” at Manchester, and, we hope more widely. We will be inviting anyone who shares our interest in Whitehall, and public administration and public management more widely, to send us posts (for now you can send them to policy@manchester.ac.uk but we will have dedicated email shortly). I’ll still be here, blogging away, but hopefully the voices you hear here will become a bit more diverse. Continue reading “Whitehall Watch is changing”
We, as a country, are failing dismally to provide a proper broadband infrastructure. While debate rages around whether or not we’ll have HS2 sometime in the dim and distant future, right here right now we are lagging behind in our 21st century cyber infrastructure.
I suppose I ought to declare an interest. I used to work for BT. As a telephone engineer, from 1979 to 1986. And for part of that time I was a full-time Branch Secretary for Westminster branch of the old POEU (Post Office Engineering Union) – long since merged into the CWU. Continue reading “BT: To Infinity and Beyond, or not”
Many of us who study public policy academically often discuss just what impact our work has – do we influence anything?
With the Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise fast approaching, academics across Britain are busily putting together ‘impact’ statements to show just how much impact they have had. And one crucial area of ‘impact’ is on public policy. Everyone has been thrashing around for metrics.
So it was with great interest that I started playing around with the ‘Who’s Lobbying’ database (after my colleague at Manchester, Alex Waddington, spotted it). Continue reading “Engaging with Policy: Whitehall, Westminster and the Academy”
by Colin R. Talbot and Carole L. Talbot[1] University of Manchester
Originally published in a CIPFA/PMPA pamphlet here (April 2011). Some of the data may be slightly dated, but the thrust of the argument remains valid and even more topical as a fresh round of 10% local government cuts in 2015-16 has been announced.
Local government in England is faced with probably the biggest challenges it has had since at least the end of World War II, if not longer. Not only is it facing front-loaded cuts to its income of an unprecedented scale, but the demand for services, especially for the elderly, continue to rise and in many areas the return of mass unemployment, especially amongst young people, threatens new problems. Continue reading “Local Government Strategies in an Age of Austerity”
I have heard some ludicrous claims by politicians in the past but the claim that this government is launching one of the biggest programmes of public investment in our history is breathtakingly ridiculous. Continue reading ““Investing in Britain’s Future” Not so much.”
by Dave Richards and Martin J. Smith[1]
In penning this review of the IPPR’s newly published report on Accountability and Responsiveness in the Senior Civil Service: Lessons from Overseas we’d like to invoke the spirit of Frankie Howard by starting with ‘The Prologue’. Continue reading “Ministers and Mandarins : The IPPR’s 2013 Review of the Senior Civil Service: A Commentary”
The Chancellor, we are constantly being told, has stuck solidly to “Plan A” – the spending reductions set out in SR2010. And today’s “Spending Round” was only about 2015-16. Really? Continue reading “SR2013 and SR2010: “Life is What Happens Whilst You’re Making Plans” (John Lennon)”
(This is the second of a series of comments I’ll be making addressing different aspects of SR2013 over the next few days)
SR 2013 has been agreed, we are told today. And some are claiming it was all settled amicably in the end (see Benedict Brogan at the Telegraph), without even having to convene the so-called “Star Chamber” to bring the last ‘hold-outs’ (Vince Cable, Theresa May and Phillip Hammond) to heal. Continue reading “The Politics of Spending Review 2013: The ‘Star Chamber’ Phantom Menace and Turf Wars”
Colin Talbot - my blog 