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Spending Review
To provide better public services, the Government continues to address issues that cut across departmental boundaries, devising solutions focused on the needs of those using the services - whether it's a person, an organisation or a local authority. In addition to services, solutions to some of the biggest challenges do not fit neatly within traditional departmental structures. Better joint-working at the centre of government can directly enhance co-ordination at local level, by eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy and barriers between agencies. Seven cross-cutting issues have therefore been examined in depth as part of the 2002 Spending Review.
24.1 The Government established seven cross-cutting reviews to look systematically at issues that cut across departmental boundaries as part of the Spending Review. The seven were:
24.2 Cross-cutting reviews have been conducted in recent Spending Reviews as a way of addressing critical issues that cut across departmental programmes and policies. The Government's January 2000 Wiring It Up report made a number of recommendations designed to tackle weaknesses in handling policies and services that cut across responsibilities of more than one department. Main recommendations included:
24.3 An example of how the Government has acted on this approach is the creation of Sure Start following the 1998 Comprehensive Spending Review, an innovative programme dedicated to improving outcomes for young children and their parents living in poverty. While the Sure Start Unit sits within the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), management and Ministerial responsibility is shared across both DfES and the Department of Health. Based on its success, an expanded Unit will be created as a result of this Spending Review, drawing together responsibilities for Sure Start, childcare, and early years education. Another example is the Criminal Justice System (CJS) Reserve, established in the 2000 Spending Review, which brings together the Home Secretary, Lord Chancellor, and the Attorney General in developing and implementing cohesive measures to transform and modernise the criminal justice system as a whole, looking across departments and institutional boundaries. In this Spending Review, the joint decision making has been enhanced by further pooling of funds from each department into a separate Criminal Justice System IT Budget.
24.4 For each of the seven reviews, advisory groups were formed which included a broad range of stakeholders such as non-profit organisations, local government, experts, academics and service providers. Reviews consulted widely to learn first-hand what works, and what doesn't, in tackling these complex issues. This section sets out the key outcomes of each review. These include the following:
24.5 Additional funds to address cross-departmental issues have been included in the departmental spending plans set out in Section II. In some cases, these funds have been drawn together into 'pooled budgets', looked after by a single department but managed by a cross-departmental group of Ministers. In other cases, departments have used other mechanisms to improve co-ordination of their policies and programmes - for example, shared or coordinated targets in the Public Service Agreements or Service Delivery Agreements.
24.6 In addition to the funds included in main departmental settlements, the Government will continue the Policy Innovation Fund, created two years ago, worth £150 million over the next three years, allowing new policy innovate
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