“The Privilege of Public Service”
Public service reform in a post-pandemic world
Part one: Leadership and the battle of ideas — Part of a series of blogs exploring the future of public service reform in a post-pandemic world, with a focus on local government.
In ‘The Privilege of Public Service’, Michael Gove draws upon Franklin D. Roosevelt’s analysis of the ‘critical needs’ facing his administration in the 1930’s in order to set out his own approach to public service reform capable of addressing the ‘moribund symptoms’ of the 21st Century:
“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 focuses on the political as opposed to the managerial or the technocratic elements of this approach, and specifically the ways in which ‘The Privilege of Public Service’ takes the significance of the former for granted.
‘The Privilege of Public Service’ points to “the establishment of new bodies such as the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Public Works Association, the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration’’ in FDR’s America as examples of the changes in ‘structure, ambition and organisation’ required to meet the challenges of the day. These institutional innovations led to the creation of new organisations with the regulatory authority and resources to intervene directly in markets. In other words, FDR’s commitment to ‘the forgotten man’ was backed up by a political programme with clear ideas about the best form and function of state institutions.
Whilst ‘The Privilege of Public Service’ recognises the need for brave, bold, and creative political leadership, most of its practical ‘reform’ suggestions, including moving Government to different parts of the country and bringing in new skills in data science, evaluation and project management, are heavily weighted towards the technocratic or the managerial. And whilst it rightly points to Roosevelt’s overarching commitment to experimentation, it fails to acknowledge that experimentation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. The art of the possible was defined by the values, principles, and — critically — the ideas within FDR’s political programme.
I work for Barking & Dagenham Council, which has done plenty of its own experimenting over the last four years. But the art of the possible has always been well defined by the political programme of the political administration. First elected in 2014 under the leadership of Councillor Darren Rodwell, the Council’s leadership is clear about its goal — ‘No-one left behind’. But it is also clear about the role the Council must play in order to achieve this goal. Their’s is a political programme underpinned by a clear ‘theory of change’: Adopt an investment mindset that allows the Council to make use of its balance sheet in order to invest in new opportunities in the Borough; create new institutions that combine the entrepreneurialism of the private sector with the values of the best public services; use these institutions to channel this investment to projects, interventions and/or developments that deliver long-term social and financial value, and in so doing intervene directly in the market’s for land, housing, and energy (Be First, Reside, and B&D Energy, in that order). This ‘theory of change’ has enabled the Council to pursue a model of ‘Inclusive Growth’ that would otherwise be unattainable.
The story of how a Borough that was once famous for factories and Fords will soon be famous for Films (as told in this article in the Financial Times) illustrates this point. The Council bet £40m to buy the old May & Baker chemical factory in Dagenham and to put through planning permission for new studios. Long before this investment, the Council had taken the decision to target the film industry through setting up a dedicated film unit that sold the borough as a film location, providing credibility and experience. In November, Hackman Capital Partners, the owner of storied US studios where Citizen Kane and ET were filmed, agreed to put £300m over three years into transforming the site into Eastbrook Studios, with 12 sound studios spread over 11 acres, and significant investment in job opportunities for local residents. All of this was brokered by Be First, and made possible by the strength of the Council’d political programme.
The onus here is not just on civil servants or local authority officers to reform their institutions, but also on the wider body politic — and in particular the network of political parties, organisations, think tanks, policy organisations, and special advisors — to be better at coming up with political programmes capable of addressing the moribund symptoms of the day: Public service reform must start with the battle of ideas.
In Barking & Dagenham, I have seen that this is as true for local authorities and the communities they serve as it is for Westminster and Whitehall. I have have also seen that the stronger and more creative the political programme the easier it is to manage crises like the pandemic. By placing the practical emphasis on technocratic and managerial reforms to government departments, ‘The Privilege of Public Service’ risks at best understating the importance of its own political programme, and at worse passing the buck for its potential failure.
