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Colin Talbot is professor of government at the University of Manchester. He writes 'Whitehall Watch' in a personal capacity.
Colin’s Tweets
- RT @Puffles2010: …there is more than an element of compulsion & denials of basic liberty. Eg prisons 5 hours ago
- RT @Puffles2010: There is something that deeply troubles Puffles about outsourcing public services to mega corporations - esp with vulnerab… 5 hours ago
- RT @jameswilsdon: "I don’t know how we got caught on this treadmill." Willetts tells business schools to ignore journal impact factors http… 8 hours ago
- RT @cath_haddon: And if you want more history, try the latest history of government blog Cabinet Confidential series ow.ly/lkzi3… 8 hours ago
Colin’s latest book
Comment is free…
Please feel free to comment and especially to add your own analyses or experiences. Just click on a blog and go to the comment section at the bottom. Or you can email me at colin.talbot@mbs.ac.ukTop Posts
- Visions of Subsidiarity and the Curse of the British Political Tradition
- The Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything? It’s 43.
- Spending Review 2013 – politics trumps planning, again.
- The UK in 2013: A Failing Economy or a Failing State?
- Andy Coulson and and his non 'Developed Vetting' - why on earth did the Civil Service let this happen?
- Universities and Public Policy
- Lies, Damned Lies and Government misuse of official statistics: Select Committee Attacks Government
- Why Spending Review 2013?
- BT Infinity - Infinitely Unavailable?
- Top Twenty Whitehall Watch blog posts
Discussion
- colinrtalbot on Visions of Subsidiarity and the Curse of the British Political Tradition
- Brat on Lord O’Donnell Suggests …. that someone rather like him should be put in charge of vetting government policy. Seriously?
- Inquisitive Practitioner on Lord O’Donnell Suggests …. that someone rather like him should be put in charge of vetting government policy. Seriously?
- Chris Wilson on UKIP: Building a Party when the “Party” is Over?
- brian carr on UKIP: Building a Party when the “Party” is Over?
Tags
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Category Archives: Performance
NHS Efficiency: who’s kidding who?
Yesterday (29 March) I gave evidence to the Treasury Select Committee on this year’s Budget. I concentrated on the so-called ‘efficiency’ savings. One of the things I pointed out was the frankly fantastic projections for savings in the Health service … Continue reading
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Lord make me chaste, but not yet
The central message of yesterday’s PBR was that we need to put the national finances in order, but not quite yet – in fact not for quite a long time. That does not mean there will not be severe cuts … Continue reading
Posted in Performance, Spending
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The Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything? It’s 43.
According to the supercomputer Deep Thought the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything was 42 (in Douglas Adam’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy). It turns out however that this number may be subject to localised quantum … Continue reading
Posted in Performance
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Hidden Wealth of Nations
I thought I’d share this interesting message from David Halpern, Research Director, Institute for Government London: NEW BOOK: HIDDEN WEALTH OF NATIONS DAVID WRITES: As you may know, since leaving No10 and Cabinet Office, I’ve spent some time revisiting the … Continue reading
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Theories of Performance – the book: coming soon.
My new book on ‘Theories of Performance’, which has come out of my ESRC Public Services Programme Fellowship – is more or less finished, bar some minor edits. I’ve added a new page (ToP Book – see tab above right) … Continue reading
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Recessions Come and Go
Don’t dismantle the public domain because of this latest one…. see my article in today’s Guardian. See also my brief comment on George Osborne’s ‘cull’ of Whitehall in todays Financial Times.
Posted in Performance, Public Management, Spending, Whitehall
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Targets: more effective than we think?
A very well-balanced and interesting BBC programme and article by journalist Michael Blastland on the UK experience with performance targets, especially in the NHS. Well worth a read/listen.
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Public Finance roundtable on ‘performance’
Participated in a useful roundtable discussion on performance reporting and management, organised by Public Finance magazine - for a full report see Public Finance
Posted in Performance, Spending, Whitehall
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Universities and the Impact of the Recession
I recently attended a ‘professorial dinner’ at Manchester, the purpose of which was to discuss our future strategy. The main message at the start was – universities, after a decade of a relatively benign environment, face a decade or more … Continue reading
Zen and the Art of Cutting without Cutting
When is a cut in public spending not a cut – when you can disguise it as an “efficiency saving”. The first big round of ‘fantasy efficiency savings’ took place before the 2005 general election when the Labour and Conservative … Continue reading
Posted in Performance, Spending, Whitehall
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Quality Performance Data – for the NHS and everyone else too?
A new Audit Commission report published today assesses progress in improving data quality – especially performance data – in the NHS. It reports on-going problems with embedding a culture of good data quality into NHS organisations.
HMRC – Efficiency or ‘Stealth Cuts’?
In the ‘2004 Spending Review: final report on the efficiency programme’ (published Nov last year) the government claimed that the Chancellor’s departments – including the mammoth HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) had allegedly ‘saved’ £680m (against a target of £550m) … Continue reading
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HM Treasury and “Efficiency”
To London yesterday (25 Mar 09) to brief the sub-committee of the Treasury Select Committee which is carrying out an enquiry into efficiency of HM Treasury and its departments, including the mammoth HM Revenue and Customs. It was great session … Continue reading
Posted in Performance, Whitehall
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Damned Targets?
“On Tuesday, the Healthcare Commission report revealed that between 2005 and 2008 there were 400 excess deaths at [Stafford] hospital – although it was impossible to say whether these had all been caused by bad care. The report said there … Continue reading
Whitehall inefficiency a thing of the past?
After the government allegedly exceeded its own target to save £21.5bn from its last efficiency drive – the ‘Gershon’ programme 2004-7 – and actually save £26bn, you would think there is little left for the National Audit Office to do. … Continue reading
The Art of Performance
The major first report by the UK’s latest ‘think tank’, the Institute for Government led by well-known and outspoken former Permanent Secretary Sir Michael Bichard, bodes well for the future of the new body. It is a serious, measured and balanced … Continue reading
Posted in Performance, Whitehall
Tagged Civil Service, government, performance, Public Value, Whitehall
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Capable in a Crisis?
Sir Gus O’Donnell, head of the UK civil service, in a recent speech outlined why he thought the British civil service would perform well in the current financial and economic crisis. In an article – “Mandarin-tinted glasses” - published in Public … Continue reading
Posted in Performance
Tagged Civil Service, efficiency, government, NAO, performance, Whitehall
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