The House | Recent history proves that ministers have the power to do serious public service reform

4 min read48 min

Labour came into office with big ambitions for public service reform. Health, education and public order were three of the Keir Starmer government’s five initial missions, and while we don’t hear the M-word as often as we used to, ministers are still keen to improve the performance of public services across the country.

Public service reform is never easy – making a decision in Westminster does not magically lead to change in how people experience the service in their day-to-day lives. Ministers can feel removed from the services they oversee. But as the leaders of the system, there are some things that only ministers can do. Our recent Institute for Government (IfG) paper looked at lessons from successful reforms by recent governments that will be of use for any ministers today trying to improve how public services work.

Have a clear – and clearly thought-out – goal for your time in office

The most effective ministers have a clear idea of what they want to achieve in office. This will help them to articulate their vision to their civil servants and ensure that the department is pulling in the same direction to implement their objectives.

Nick Gibb, as minister for schools for much of the 2010-24 period, was relentlessly focused on his vision for reform. Having shadowed his post for five years, he entered office with an excellent knowledge of his brief and a clear idea that he wanted to improve the standards of teaching in schools. He is perhaps best known for pushing the synthetic phonics method for teaching children how to read, and introducing the phonics screening test to check how well schools were using this method. Not all ministers will have the same opportunity to shadow their posts, but it is crucial that they set out their priorities early and communicate them effectively to guide action throughout the system.

Build the team to achieve that goal

Once ministers know what they want to do, they need relationships inside and outside government – the strength of these relationships can determine whether reform is successful or not.

The success of the previous Labour government’s Sure Start programme – the inspiration behind the current government’s Best Start programme – relied on a cross-government coalition of support. Sure Start was overseen by a ministerial steering group that brought together several departments, including ministers responsible for health, education and social security. The idea was based on work by a senior Treasury official, and support from Gordon Brown as chancellor was crucial to its success. 

During the coalition, Norman Lamb was particularly skilled at building networks outside government as minister for care and support. He saw himself as a campaigner and an advocate for mental health in government, which lent him credibility and authenticity with the sector. Open engagement across government and the wider sector is therefore essential for ministers to secure buy-in for their agenda.

Choose the right tools to achieve the goal

To deliver tangible change in real-world outcomes, ministers need to use the right tools to embed their reforms. One way to help keep momentum on delivery and monitor progress effectively is by using accountability mechanisms.

As home secretary tasked with completing the rollout of the Neighbourhood Policing Programme, Jacqui Smith stripped back an array of inherited top-down targets for the police and focused instead on retaining one target, which measured public confidence in policing. Policing is operationally independent from the government, but Smith was able to negotiate targets collaboratively with police chiefs and use them to hold local police forces to account from the centre.

By using the right tools, ministers can maintain strategic oversight of reform without trying to solve every problem themselves. These are useful lessons for Home Office ministers, who have recently announced a set of targets for policing in England and Wales and a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee to restore confidence in policing.

Public service reform is an ongoing slog for ministers and their teams. They will inevitably face criticism from inside and outside government, so they need to be prepared to dig in and defend their objectives. Having a clear goal, communicated to the right team and delivered with the right tools, will make this task much easier.  

Megan Bryer is a research assistant at the Institute for Government, and Tim Durrant is programme director of the IfG’s Ministers team.