Current Work Areas
The Strategy Unit works closely with No 10, the Cabinet Office and other government departments on the development of the Government’s policy agenda, and is currently focusing on two key themes: public service reform and the future of the economy.
The current work and activities include:
Public Service Reform
- Employment - joint work with the Department for Work and Pensions on a White Paper to get the UK back to pre-recession employment levels.
- Maternity and Early Years’ services - working with the Department of Health and the Department for Children, Schools and Families to develop a vision for 21st century maternity and early years’ care.
- Preventative NHS strategy - working with the Department of Health and other departments on developing a preventative care for all strategy, as announced in Building Britain’s Future.
- Police reform - work with the Home Office (HO) on a White Paper aimed at strengthening the accountability, effectiveness and productivity of the police service.
- Public Services Strategy - ongoing work with HM Treasury and other departments on a public service improvement strategy. This includes work on how public services can empower citizens and ensure front-line professionals have freedoms and flexibilities to successfully respond to users’ needs, as well as work on how to continue to drive value for money across public service delivery.
- Youth - looking at the changing experience of youth and transitions to adulthood, and implications for policy - including the provision of youth services.
Future of the Economy
- Skills - work with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to develop the National Skills Strategy - which will set out our approach to adult skills for the upturn and beyond in the light of the government’s wider economic strategy as in New Industry, New Jobs.
- Value for Money - understanding how best to embed value for money across the public sector.
Other work areas
- Social Europe - working with a range of departments, including the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, looking at the UK’s approach towards ‘Social Europe’, and how the EU and Member States can best work together in the global age to deliver social objectives.
Examples of recent outputs from Strategy Unit work include:
- Power in People's Hands: learning from the world's best public services, a joint study with HM Treasury on international innovations in public services, published on 16 July 2009.
- Supporting work on Unleashing Aspiration: The Final Report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions, published in July 2009
- Supporting work on Building a society for all ages, published by HM Government in July 2009.
- Extending Our Reach: A Comprehensive Approach to Tackling Serious Organised Crime [PDF 2.6MB, 83 pages], produced jointly with the Home Office and published on 13 July 2009.
- Building Britain's Future [PDF 811KB, 126 pages], produced jointly with a range of departments and published on 29th June 2009
- Supporting work on Your child, your schools, our future: building a 21st century schools system [External website], a White Paper published by DCSF in June 2009
- Quality of Place: Improving the Planning and Design of the Built Environment [PDF 4.78MB, 107 pages], published in June 2009.
- World class places: The Government's strategy for improving quality of place [External PDF] published on 12 May 2009
- Working together - Public services on your side [External PDF], published on 10 March 2009
- Next Steps for Early Learning and Childcare– Building on the 10-Year Strategy[PDF, 1.8MB], published on 28 January 2009
- Next Steps for Early Learning and Childcare – Building on the 10-Year Strategy (summary) [PDF, 1MB], published on 28 January 2009
- New Opportunities: Fair Chances for the Future [External website], a White Paper produced jointly with a range of Whitehall Departments and published on 13 January 2009
- New Opportunities: Fair Chances for the Future White Paper [PDF, 1.16MB, 108 pages]
