Thanks so much for such a clearly and forcibly written piece on what is such a terrible national embarrassment that is good for no one. I just wonder how anyone starts to turn around such apparently deeply ingrained culture and practice?
It’s a good question. Part of the answer has to be leadership combined with management. At the very least, signals can be sent by those on high. Part of the answer ought to be finding ways to build in processes that encourage desirable outcomes. One bugbear of mine is how much personal power the Home Secretary holds, which means it is easy to change the rules badly and often with no real thought. Self restraint is hard for politicians because of the media environment. So making it harder to change the rules so often or making it necessary to consult first or something like that might help.
I agree with almost all of this excellent piece, Colin. The ability of new Ministers to develop a strong relationship with their top officials and of those officials to give new leadership to the frontline workers will be key. A change in culture will happen through an evolving series of conversations, or not at all. And those conversations need to include advocates from the outside.
No disagreement on specifics but wasn't sure about the framing of values vs evidence. I think both are needed in setting policy - but they need to be the right values, of course, and preferably explicit. And the same values to guide both policy and casework and other operations.
"Right" values is always going to be subjective and changeable. There's an interesting book on this by an old friend of mine, Stephen Muers: 'Culture and Values at the Heart of Policy Making'. He's definitely on your side of this. But the whole hostile environment thing has made me rather sceptical.
Thanks so much for such a clearly and forcibly written piece on what is such a terrible national embarrassment that is good for no one. I just wonder how anyone starts to turn around such apparently deeply ingrained culture and practice?
It’s a good question. Part of the answer has to be leadership combined with management. At the very least, signals can be sent by those on high. Part of the answer ought to be finding ways to build in processes that encourage desirable outcomes. One bugbear of mine is how much personal power the Home Secretary holds, which means it is easy to change the rules badly and often with no real thought. Self restraint is hard for politicians because of the media environment. So making it harder to change the rules so often or making it necessary to consult first or something like that might help.
I agree with almost all of this excellent piece, Colin. The ability of new Ministers to develop a strong relationship with their top officials and of those officials to give new leadership to the frontline workers will be key. A change in culture will happen through an evolving series of conversations, or not at all. And those conversations need to include advocates from the outside.
Thanks, Jonathan. Makes me curious about which bits with which you disagree!
No disagreement on specifics but wasn't sure about the framing of values vs evidence. I think both are needed in setting policy - but they need to be the right values, of course, and preferably explicit. And the same values to guide both policy and casework and other operations.
"Right" values is always going to be subjective and changeable. There's an interesting book on this by an old friend of mine, Stephen Muers: 'Culture and Values at the Heart of Policy Making'. He's definitely on your side of this. But the whole hostile environment thing has made me rather sceptical.