Big Issue founder John Bird fires rockets at charities and civil service
Summary A write-up of John Bird’s recent visit to Cambridge A few of you may know that I am a member of JCI Cambridge, the Cambridge branch of Junior Chambers International, an organisation that seeks to develop the professional skills of young professionals through series of self-organised events and community projects. Last month, our branch adopted the [...]
“Brainwashing under freedom”
Yesterday, Nick Pearce from IPPR suggested in a Guardian blog that Labour should ‘drop its child poverty target’ and new measures should ‘take into account the fiscal realities we now face.‘ One of his proposals included ‘freezing child benefit in cash terms for a decade’ to ‘free up £2.5bn a year to invest in quality [...]
Guerilla Voice: 10 ways to make bad policy
Ministers receive plenty of advice about how to make good policy. But what about those who want to make their name with a costly cock-up? Here’s some helpful advice.
Guerilla Voice: Dividing lines
The story of the week has undoubtedly been class. One debate on class – the ‘strivers’ and ‘skivers’ argument – has been used by the political class to distract from the debate we should be having, about the widening inequalities in wealth, power and influence that have undermined our society and politics.
Guerilla Voice: Universal Credit might work – but it shows our political system doesn’t
Universal Credit might just be shown to work – which is to say not descend into chaos and confusion – but its origins, development and lack of scrutiny certainly suggests that our political system doesn’t.
Guerilla Voice: Government and the grassroots – the issue is power, not politeness
The importance of ‘constructive engagement’ is often used as an excuse for government to avoid engaging with grassroots groups. The real issues are power, money and influence. If you’ve got these, you get heard – even if you are difficult.
Guerilla Voice: Putting practitioners front and centre of the evidence agenda
Imagine if it was suggested that improving services and policy didn’t need to involve frontline practitioners. However odd, this is pretty much how the Government’s evidence agenda has been presented.
Guerilla Voice: Enemies of experience
The idea of public services harnessing talent and experience from other fields seems unarguable, especially in a an era of ‘open policy’ – so why is the Government’s approach generating such antagonism, and why does it risk being self-defeating? This week’s controversy over direct entry into the police service risks the Government appearing dismissive of the talent that already exists in our public services.
Guerilla Voice: Charities need to find ways to speak out
This week, the report of an independent inquiry suggested that charities are increasingly afraid to challenge public policy because of fears of retribution from government, especially if they are reliant on public contracts. At the same time, the Government proclaims its commitment to ‘open policymaking.’ If we are to have better policy, it’s vital that [...]
Frontline voices: Laura McInerney – The Connected Society
“Imagine the wealth of information these online conversations would give to policymakers otherwise locked in their ivory towers and desperate to get the input of workers who might make their policies actually work.” Laura McInerney reflects on the possibility of professionals helping to inform better policy and where this is already starting to happen.
Will the Government rethink its approach to consultation?
“Consultation might not be sexy at the best of times, and has certainly been much maligned, but this debate matters for a (hopefully) functioning democracy.” Michael Harris argues that the Government’s new consultation principles should be developed and drafted publicly in the spirit of open policymaking.
The “critical three”: 3 questions to ask about any new policy
Whenever anyone asks for advice - whether about a policy, opening a new school, starting a business, using a new teaching technique, whatever – my questioning line is always the same: (1) What problem are you trying to solve? (2) What makes you think this particular solution will solve that particular problem? (3) If you’re [...]
Personal health budgets and their evil twin
Like every good comic book hero, personal health budgets have an evil twin. There are personal health budgets as they have been developed through the pilot programme. Then there are personal health budgets as described by people who are, lets say, less than convinced about them. These ‘evil twin’ personal health budgets involve everyone being [...]
We can’t improve consultation without talking about class
Discussions about consultation often focus on methods and means, but of course there’s a broader social context to engagement. Declining trust in political institutions and weakening identification with the mainstream political parties threaten to undermine efforts to engage people in new ways. In short: we need to talk about class. This post is part of [...]
The Government is paying the price for its lack of openness on the NHS
The NHS is facing significant financial pressure as a result of austerity with smaller increases in spending, which are not keeping pace with demand. This has meant that the NHS has to find £20 billion in efficiency savings by 2015. At the same time the health service is facing one of its biggest upheavals ever, [...]
Passion is lacking in politics because the political class is too professionalised
In our previous post we made the simple point that many of today’s politicians don’t look like us. Another reason we feel so disconnected from our politicians is that they seem so detached themselves, and because they express little feeling or passion. The current political class is increasingly technocratic because politics is increasingly a profession rather than [...]
The power of Mumsnet – for Blog Action Day #PowerOfWe #BAD12
This post is about Mumsnet. We believe that sites like Mumsnet could represent the future of developing public policy. They point to the potential of mass membership online platforms to engage thousands of people in practical consideration of policy issues and so radically widen participation in policy – or as we call it, guerilla policy. [...]
Open policymaking: Should there be a ‘duty to involve’ for national policy?
As Edward Andersson from Involve noted in his recent blog reviewing the new consultation principles issued by government: “Today consultation has, for many citizens, become a byword for formalistic, tick box exercises, done to mask a decision which is already a ‘done deal’.” Edward rightly suggested that the new principles, while important, fall short of providing the [...]
The West Coast fiasco points to the real problem with open public services
The West Coast mainline franchising fiasco shows that the current approach to outsourcing public services has serious flaws that need to be addressed – the much too complicated and secretive nature of outsourcing is the problem, rather than the people handling the process. Last week Patrick McLoughlin, the new Transport Secretary, cancelled the West Coast [...]
Political parties need to go ‘guerilla’ if they are to survive
The main political parties are in decline. Their membership is shrinking and the share of the vote garnered by Labour and the Conservatives is at its lowest level ever. If political parties don’t reinvent themselves they will be comprised mainly of members who are increasingly removed from the day-to-day views and experiences of most ordinary [...]