Cuts deepening silos, not breaking down barriers

Guardian Weekly reports that “if it is now looking unlikely that the cuts will "transform" the way public services are delivered, it is certain that spending reductions are doing nothing to change the way Whitehall operates. If anything, spending cuts are reinforcing the autonomy of departments and the strength of the silo walls.


That much is clear from the Commons public administration committee's end of term report on Whitehall departments' plans, which comes on top of all the other evidence that departments are baronies and central coordination mechanisms are weaker than they were under the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, which were not noted as exemplars of a joined-up approach.”


http://www.guardian.co.uk/public-leaders-network/2011/jul/20/mps-criticise-whitehall-silos?&

And just for fun, I do like checking in occasionally with John Cridland of the CBI who has this wonderful way of basically saying, "give it to the private sector and we'll sort your public services". In his repsonse to the local services White Paper, bearing in mind he'd just recently rubbished the Government's reform agenda as being slow and not deep enough, he returned to the  private sector theme with gusto, just stopping short of saying, "never mind those pesky little mutuals and social enterprises - give it to the big boys and they'll do a job for you". He's about as one-eyed on the matter as it can be, naturally enough perhaps given who he speaks for. At least he provides a clear boundary for us to see how far right-wing thinking goes.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/public-leaders-network/2011/jul/11/reactions-public-service-reform-white-paper#start-of-comments