Labour failing to live up to ambition to overhaul public services, analysis finds | Public services policy
Keir Starmer’s push to overhaul public services is failing to achieve its aims of shifting power from Whitehall to local areas, according to a report by the Institute of Government (IfG).
Last summer the government set out its three guiding principles for reform aimed at making public services such as the NHS, the court system and children’s social care easier to access and helping people better.
The goals were to “organize public services around people’s lives,” improve outcomes by focusing on preventing problems, and devolve power to local areas that best understand the needs of their communities.
But IfG’s analysis found that none of this could happen at the next election in summer 2029.
IfG public services expert Stuart Hoddinott, who wrote the report, said: “Our assessment is that by the end of this parliament, on the government’s current course, public services will become more centralised, integration will slow or even reverse, and no measurable change towards prevention will occur.
“This would be a failure on its own terms and represents a historic missed opportunity for a government that has devoted so much energy to civil service reform.”
People with knowledge of Downing Street’s ambitions for civil service reform said the government’s desire to make public services more local runs counter to the impulses of many ministers and officials in Whitehall who want to keep power at the centre.
The report underlined that one of the biggest changes in healthcare was the abolition of NHS England and the placing of power under the direct control of the Department of Health. In local government, the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government is abolishing the lower tier of local government to create larger unitary councils.
The report said: “In three reorganizations (police, local government and NHS), ministers chose to bring together smaller organizations to create a smaller number of bodies spread over larger areas.
“It revealed a preference for centralisation, bringing control over the four core services (including the NHS) closer to ministers, rather than devolving powers to local level services.”
He added: “Further structural changes will at best delay local integration objectives and change towards prevention, and at worst complicate. There is a mismatch between the objectives set and how departments are driving change.”
The IfG suggested that any effort to change course should be led by people close to the prime minister, such as general secretary Darren Jones, with the public services cabinet committee as a logical forum for coordination.
Jones is leading the government’s drive to introduce digital ID, which will integrate more public services under one platform and make it easier for people to access them.
The aim is to deliver “a new digital government that delivers public services directly to you, can act quickly and fix things.”
However, it is not known when the digital identity will be available to the public, and it is hoped that it will be ready before the 2029 elections.
The Cabinet Office has been approached for comment.
