Chapter 22

Cross-Departmental Reviews: Overview

Summary

Many of the biggest challenges facing Government do not fit neatly within traditional departmental structures. Tackling problems like drugs, crime and social exclusion requires better coordination and teamwork across a wide range of departments and agencies.

15 cross-departmental reviews were established as an integral part of the 2000 Spending Review. These have produced bold and innovative outcomes that will make a real difference to the quality of public services in Britain.

BACKGROUND

22.1  As a key part of this Spending Review, the Government established 15 cross-departmental reviews to look systematically at issues that cut across departmental boundaries. The 15 reviews were as follows:

• Government Intervention in Deprived Areas (Chapter 23);
• Sure Start and Services for Under Fives (Chapter 24);
• Young People at Risk (Chapter 25);
• Welfare to Work and ONE (Chapter 26);
• The Criminal Justice System (Chapter 27);
• Crime Reduction (Chapter 28);
• Illegal Drugs (Chapter 29);
• The Active Community (Chapter 30);
• Care and Support for Older People (Chapter 31); 
•  Rural and Countryside Programmes (Chapter 32);
• Local Government Finance (Chapter 33);
• Science Research (Chapter 34);
• The Knowledge Economy (Chapter 35);
• Conflict Prevention (Chapter 36); and
• Nuclear Safety in the Former Soviet Union (Chapter 37).

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22.2  These cross-departmental reviews were established building on a recommendation of Wiring It Up, the Government's report on Whitehall's management of cross-departmental policies and services. Further details are in Box 22.1.

Box 22.1: Whitehall's management of cross-departmental policies and services

Wiring It Up, a report on Whitehall's management of cross-departmental policies and services, was published by the Government's Performance and Innovation Unit  in January this year. The report made a number of recommendations designed to tackle weaknesses in the handling of issues which straddle the responsibilities of more than one department.

The recommendations included:

• emphasising the importance of strong leadership from Ministers and senior civil servants to create a culture in which cross-departmental policies and objectives are valued as highly as purely departmental ones;
• improving the process of cross-departmental policy-making by involving outside experts and practitioners more fully and at an earlier stage, and focusing on what users of public services actually need, not what it is convenient to provide;
• equipping civil servants with the skills and capacity to handle the more complex relationships involved in partnership working;
• making greater use of budgetary flexibilities, with development of cross-departmental budgets and pooling of funds where appropriate;
• appreciating the role of audit in encouraging the greater risk-taking inevitable in cross-departmental work; and
• creating a strategic framework in which cross-departmental working can thrive.

The 15 cross-departmental reviews have played an important role in driving these reforms forward.

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OUTCOMES

22.3  For each of these reviews, cross-departmental groups were set up, often including frontline service providers and outside experts. This section of the White Paper sets out the key outcomes of each review. These include the following:

• a radical new strategy for tackling the problems of deprived areas, underpinned by new targets to close the gap between the most deprived areas and the rest of the country; and a Neighbourhood Renewal Fund worth £800 million over three years to ensure that these targets are delivered on the ground;
• the establishment of Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) as part of Community Planning, to bring together service providers at local level; underpinned by a Market Towns Initiative for rural towns;
• a major expansion of the Sure Start programme - doubling the number of programmes from 250 to at least 500 by 2004, to reach one third of all poor children under four years old;
• a Children's Fund to tackle child poverty, worth £450 million over three years, with a strong emphasis on voluntary sector delivery, along with an integrated delivery strategy for the new Connexions service, to ensure that young people at risk make the transition safely and successfully from childhood to adulthood;
• an Employment Opportunities Fund, worth £875 million in 2001-02 and increasing to £1.4 billion by 2003-04, to enhance the New Deal and extend the ONE service, helping people move from welfare to work;
• new investment in local Crime and Disorder Partnerships; with a new, better integrated strategy to reduce delays and inefficiencies across the Criminal Justice System;
• a National Treatment Agency for drug abusers, underpinned by a pooled treatment budget;
• a strategy to bring about a step change in volunteering, with involvement of the new Experience Corps in pilots for Care Direct, a new gateway to care and support for older people;
• new PSA Contracts with individual local authorities, supported by a new Performance Fund, to create stronger partnership between local and central government and to underpin the drive to improve performance;
• a £1 billion Science Research Investment Fund over 2002-02 and 2003-04 to tackle the backlog of investment in university research capital, in partnership with the Wellcome Trust;
• a new strategic role for the e-Envoy, overseeing new investment in electronic service delivery in Government; and
• new cross-departmental budgets for conflict prevention and nuclear safety, underpinned by joint working arrangements, to ensure that the UK meets its international obligations in an efficient and effective way.

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SPENDING PLANS

22.4  Additional funds to address cross-departmental issues have been included in the departmental spending plans set out in Section III. 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 better coordinate their policies and programmes - for example, shared or coordinated targets in the Public Service Agreements.

22.5  In addition to the funds included in main departmental settlements, the Government has created a Policy Innovation Fund worth £150 million over three years. Ministers will allocate this fund over this period, allowing major new policy innovations to be piloted and implemented.

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