Internal performance management is a much better way to monitor council
services than external inspection, so the scrapping of an assessment method that made councils more accountable to central government than their residents was greeted with great delight. Read more...
Opinion about Regulation
Good riddance to CAA, by David Hodge
5 August 2010 | David Hodge
Celebrate the end of CAA, by John Seddon
The new government has abolished Comprehensive Area Assessments. Hoorah. Public servants will be breathing a sigh of relief now that the burden of self-assessment, a costly exercise in representation rather than accuracy, has gone. The public couldn’t care less and those of us who know the ratings were at best spurious and at worst plain wrong will be pleased if the Audit Commission has its power to pontificate on management methods removed. CAA’s demise should herald the end of the era of compliance. Read more...
24 May 2010 | John Seddon
In defence of tick boxes, by Colin Talbot
The Conservatives shadow Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, was yesterday widely quoted as condemning the government’s health “targets” regime for forcing staff to “focus on ticking boxes not patients.” We’ll leave aside why anyone would want to tick patients, and concentrate on Mr Lansely’s opposition to ‘ticking boxes’. Read more...
10 March 2010 | Colin Talbot
Gove in a muddle, by Conor Ryan
The Conservatives’ shadow schools secretary is finding himself in an increasing muddle as he starts to put flesh on his schools’ policy. One day Michael Gove is extolling the virtues of free schools, liberated from the shackles of Whitehall, with the touchy-feely charms of Goldie Hawn jostling alongside Swedish companies to deliver. Days later he is laying down the level of detailed knowledge that every youngster should have of their kings and queens, their classical poetry by heart and their algebra under the tutelage of the Tories’ maths mistress Carol Vordeman. Read more...
8 March 2010 | Conor Ryan
Non-executive nightmare, by Malcolm Prowle
The recently published report into the appalling failings of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust brings the issue of organisational governance once more back into the spotlight. Read more...
26 February 2010 | Malcolm Prowle
A change in the weather, by Ian Mulheirn
For his next trick Lord Turner has turned his hand to solving climate change. The striking if obvious conclusion of this week’s Climate Change Committee report was the authors’ observation that: “Investment in low-carbon generation is risky and may not be pursued sufficiently under current market arrangements”. In essence this was an observation that the EU’s emission’s trading scheme allows too much CO2 emission. The result is a carbon price that’s way too low to make it worthwhile for the energy industry to expend the necessary effort developing alternatives to fossil fuels. Read more...
16 October 2009 | Ian Mulheirn
Why turkeys don’t vote for Christmas, by Max Wind-Cowie
David Walker’s response to Demos’s call for greater freedom and trust for frontline services was not entirely unexpected. Whilst we do call for the Audit Commission to go, the report – Leading from the front – is a wider framework for reform, which emphasises the need to empower professionals and the people they serve. It is clear that we are unlikely to ever agree on the issue of axing the Audit Commission, but his critique misses the point. Read more...
24 September 2009 | Max Wind-Cowie
Submerged thinking, by Mike Thatcher
Thinking the unthinkable, a sackable offence in New Labour’s heyday, has suddenly come back into fashion. Read more...
24 September 2009 | Mike Thatcher
Demos deconstructed, by David Walker
It’s open season on quangos, and Demos (a little tardily) has joined the hunt. Congratulations to the struggling think-tank for securing a slot on the Today programme this morning and a ream of publicity. Read more...
22 September 2009 | David Walker
The Audit Commission must go, by Max Wind-Cowie
The six largest audit quangos cost the UK taxpayer £1bn a year to run and the biggest beast in this motley crew is the Audit Commission. That billion pounds looks like a pretty attractive saving in an era of austerity, but it’s only half the reason Demos is arguing for the abolition of these bodies. Read more...
22 September 2009 | Max Wind-Cowie
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