Gary's views

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

JOINED UP GOVERNMENT

For many years now we have been promised joined up government. We still don’t get it, either nationally or locally. Instead we get: money lavished on eye catching initiatives, but vital intervention on heroin addicts goes unfunded; decisions made to cut support by some wings of government that only increases the budget somewhere else in the system; absurd traffic calming in Woodford and Hooe, while social services faces a funding crisis.

This is largely due to the departmental nature of government. The primary focus of too many bureaucrats, it seems, is departmental. Too many separate agendas, and not enough focus on the big picture. They operate like lofty silos standing side by side, with only a small walkway between them, rather than a purpose built complex.

What are 3 of the most challenging issues facing this country right now? I would say: the scourge of drugs; the threat of terrorist attacks and our future relationship with Europe. Only in relation to the third of these is there anything like a coherent departmental approach.

Our response to the drugs epidemic is scattered between at least 3 departments: the Home Office, Health and Education, with the Deputy Prime Minister’s office chipping in with responsibility for social exclusion, and the police begging for extra funding. Each one has its own budget, its own agenda and its own back to protect. Oh yes there are committees at which ministers and officials meet, but they tend to be toothless talking shops.

The Americans, in response to the new threat of terror quickly appointed a new cabinet minister for Homeland Security, a high ranking politician in overall charge of keeping his country safe. Our Home Secretary, in comparison, has to grapple on a daily basis with prisons, asylum seekers and turbulent judges, hardly a good platform for rooting out the suicide bombers.

Our society does not develop in watertight historic compartments or according to Whitehall manuals. The issues change, but civil service organization lags behind. Who would have said drugs and terrorism were big issues 30 years ago? Time moves on and so should our structures.

What am I suggesting? A more flexible approach to government so that a decision is made every few years on priorities, and the shape of Whitehall follows that focus, with dedicated ministers at cabinet level and budgets in support. What, a departmental shift every Parliament? Why not if it brings joined up thinking and better government.

posted by Nigel on Tuesday, June 10, 2003