Cabinet Office
A radical and far-reaching change programme, involving the reduction of 11 public service inspectorates to four was announced in the 2005 Budget. This structural change is part of a wider strategy for public service inspection that is now being taken forward in conjunction with the key public service Whitehall departments.
The Government is committed to the inspection of public services, placing great value on the independent judgements of inspectorates and the way these help service providers in their drive to improve performance. In this way, independent inspection and assessment has been an important lever for government in its reform and delivery of public services and sector-wide shifts in performance have been cited as evidence.
However, as the Prime Minister commented in a recent speech we need to ensure that “public sector entrepreneurs are not discouraged by unnecessary interference”. There has been a large growth in inspection during the last several years, leading to demands for multiple information and visits, and the view from the front line is that inspection is becoming more burdensome.
The strategy is to re-focus, rationalise and reduce the volume of inspection in order, primarily, to make it more effective at achieving better service outcomes. Implementing structural change will facilitate a wide and fast reform – achieving a balance between accountability and letting professionals get on with the task in hand.
The creation of four public service inspectorates will focus on the following four service areas:
The new bodies will be expected to develop common approaches, based on the agreed principles of government inspection (Inspecting for Improvement, and The Government’s Policy on Inspection OPSR, 2003) which were endorsed by the Hampton Review. In particular their level of inspection will need to be clearly proportionate to risk, take account of the user’s perspective, focus on outcomes and improvement, and provide value for money. Ultimately, they should give best performers as much freedom as possible, help good performers improve, and help ensure appropriate and swift action and intervention takes place when performance is below standard or unacceptable.
As part of the implementation of these proposals, stakeholders will be fully consulted on the arrangements for and governance of the new bodies. As announced in the Budget plans are to have a new single inspectorate in justice and community safety; children’s services, education and skills; health and social care; and local services by 2008.
The team leading on the implementation of this strategy recently transferred, within the Cabinet Office, from The Office of Public Services Reform (OPSR) to the BRE.