Cutting bureaucracy in public services: DfES
21/06/07 11:41 Filed in: Public
Administration | Education
The Cabinet Office is today launching its public
sector better regulation strategy, which aims to
identify and reduce the bureaucratic burden on the
front line. The aim is to find practical ways to
lessen the main administrative and regulatory burdens
on the front line, without creating more bureaucracy
in order to do so.
The strategy follows up some major initiatives to reduce bureaucracy already underway, and also focuses on what’s next. In the HE sector, for example, a recently agreed Concordat is significantly simplifying data collection and quality assurance. Next steps will extend the Concordat to more organisations and professional bodies; seek to address issues of health education regulation; and, ensure that the implementation of Sandy Leitch’s recommendations in the HE sector is consistent with principles of good regulation.
In the schools sector, the New Relationship with Schools (NRwS) was formulated in response to a review of unnecessary bureaucracy. It aims, within the context of delivering school improvement and the five Every Child Matters outcomes, to: lift bureaucratic burdens that schools feel add nothing to their core purposes; remove confusion and irritation in schools as a result of the number and separateness of the initiatives coming at them (‘initiative overload’); improve accountability by helping schools identify priorities according to their needs, based on the evidence of their self-evaluation; and, restore schools’ sense of responsibility for their own actions.
And in FE, there have been a number of recent major reforms - a focus on simplification; the creation of a single inspectorate for FE and of an Information Authority, which sets standards and organises how information about FE is collected, managed and disseminated; the Managing Information Across Partners Programme, which is securing efficiencies by improving how information about learners and learning is shared across the whole education sector; the creation of a communications gateway for the FE System and the establishment of a Practitioner Panel to advise on the timing and content of publications – LSC has reduced by over 60% the number of its publications between January and March this year compared with the same time last year. The Department recognises and values the commitment shown by the members of the gatekeeping groups to helping the DfES and its delivery partners make a real difference for those at the frontline.
For the future, the big thing that will make a difference in FE is the move to self regulation. This offers the opportunity to further streamline and challenge.
The strategy follows up some major initiatives to reduce bureaucracy already underway, and also focuses on what’s next. In the HE sector, for example, a recently agreed Concordat is significantly simplifying data collection and quality assurance. Next steps will extend the Concordat to more organisations and professional bodies; seek to address issues of health education regulation; and, ensure that the implementation of Sandy Leitch’s recommendations in the HE sector is consistent with principles of good regulation.
In the schools sector, the New Relationship with Schools (NRwS) was formulated in response to a review of unnecessary bureaucracy. It aims, within the context of delivering school improvement and the five Every Child Matters outcomes, to: lift bureaucratic burdens that schools feel add nothing to their core purposes; remove confusion and irritation in schools as a result of the number and separateness of the initiatives coming at them (‘initiative overload’); improve accountability by helping schools identify priorities according to their needs, based on the evidence of their self-evaluation; and, restore schools’ sense of responsibility for their own actions.
And in FE, there have been a number of recent major reforms - a focus on simplification; the creation of a single inspectorate for FE and of an Information Authority, which sets standards and organises how information about FE is collected, managed and disseminated; the Managing Information Across Partners Programme, which is securing efficiencies by improving how information about learners and learning is shared across the whole education sector; the creation of a communications gateway for the FE System and the establishment of a Practitioner Panel to advise on the timing and content of publications – LSC has reduced by over 60% the number of its publications between January and March this year compared with the same time last year. The Department recognises and values the commitment shown by the members of the gatekeeping groups to helping the DfES and its delivery partners make a real difference for those at the frontline.
For the future, the big thing that will make a difference in FE is the move to self regulation. This offers the opportunity to further streamline and challenge.