“The Privilege of Public Service”
Public service reform in a post-pandemic world
Introduction to a series of blogs exploring the future of public service reform in a post-pandemic world, with a focus on local government.
For two years, conversations about public service reform have centred around one man, and one blog. For those with an interest in public service reform, ‘DominicCummings.com’ was as good a source as any when it came to interpreting Government attitudes towards the inner workings of public sector institutions. And whatever you thought about the man or his actions, it was impossible to deny that somewhere within this labarynth of ‘computational thinking’, ‘superforecasting’, and straight forward political commentary, were some big, bold ideas about the future of public service reform.
DC mark-II may have left the building, but his ideas haven’t. And given this Government has until 2025 to deliver its agenda, it feels incumbent upon those of us with a material interest in the future of public service reform that we try to understand its guiding principles. This blog series is an attempt to do just that, with a particular focus on the implications of this approach for local government and the communities it serves.
My starting point for these reflections is the annual Ditchley lecture delivered by Michael Gove in July 2020 — ‘The Privilege of Public Service’. This speech is the best articulation I have seen of how ‘the Cummings Doctrine’ could become something resembling a distinct and coherent approach to public service reform, only this time tied to the future of the Government — or at least one its key political figures — rather than its former advisor.
‘The Privilege of Public Service’ grounds the importance of public service reform in a Gramscian analysis of the challenges — or moribund symptoms — that public sector institutions are being forced to grapple with: Growing inequality; the breakdown of trust in public institutions and the rise in populism; the fourth technological revolution and its impact on work; climate change; and — ofcourse — an unparalleled global pandemic. And it draws upon another political icon of the 30’s — Franklin D. Roosevelt — to create a theoretical framework for public service reform capable of meeting these challenges. Faced with a series of crises no less ‘moribund’ in nature, Roosevelt identified three ‘critical needs’ that formed the basis of his approach to reform, and that will form the basis of the Government’s approach:
“First, to make the Forgotten Man — i.e. the victim of crisis and inequality — our first concern; second, to transform Government to make it the efficient force for good the times command; and third, experiment and explore different routes in a crisis in order to escape with an emphasis on risk-taking.
This blog series is an attempt to explore the implications of this approach for local government — drawing upon the lessons we have learnt through our own reform journey in Barking & Dagenham — with a focus on four areas:
- Leadership and the battle of ideas
- Diversity of thought and experience
- Diversity of skills and expertise
- Creating the space to experiment
It’s goal is to map the territory for other reformers working in or on behalf of local communities. What should we expect in the next four years? How can we take advantage of these trends? And how can we plot our own path that respects the priorities, values, and aspirations of the communities we serve? As we start to emerge from the grip of the pandemic in the weeks and months ahead, a serious approach to the reform of public service institutions will be essential. Nowhere is this more true than in Local Government.
