Have written about why this is so good. Yes, there's miles more that's needed, but before you dunk on this it's worth getting to grips with the bind civil servants are in at the moment, where your choices are: move dept, move job, or see your pay stagnate. This is a route out, and that is good.

Is the UK ungovernable? A question that the IfG has been asked a few times this week... So here's the official verdict from @drhannahwhite.bsky.social www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/is-u...

NHS staff increasingly believe Wes Streeting is doing a bad job as health secretary and that the Labour government is handling the NHS badly Streeting as health secretary Good job: 22% (-3 from 19-28 Feb 2025) Bad job: 53% (+13) Labour handling of NHS Well: 24% (-6) Badly: 66% (+13)

Miatta Fahnbulleh - the minister for devolution, faith and communities - has resigned from govt this morning, calling on the PM to set a timetable for an orderly transition of leadership. Our ministerial resignation tracker has the latest info... docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

This briefing by @adalovelaceinst.bsky.social provides a great toolkit to evaluate claims about AI. Alights on the same point in Whitehall Monitor: productivity gains are more complex than time savings alone. Govt is an org w/ existing problems - there needs to be a clear purpose for AI adoption

Our new @instituteforgovernment.org.uk report lists 10 things the government needs to do to fix the children's social care market. 👇I've done a little run down of some of the key charts

As we wait for the PM‘s speech, and to see how Catherine West (and the cabinet?) respond, here’s your handy Labour leadership contests revision guide from @meganbryer.bsky.social and @instituteforgovernment.org.uk www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/la...

Conservatives take control in Westminster and are also now the biggest party in Wandsworth But might be a poisoned chalice: both councils have to raise their council tax by something like 75% over the next three years

A PAC report on the NHS's New Hospitals Programme says: - the final schemes will be finished in 2045-46, more than 25 years after being announced - 7 RAAC hospitals will not be replaced until 3 years after they're considered safe Staggeringly bad delivery so far

ICYMI: Great run through of what the government's high level stated goals across public services were when it came in to power, and how it's got on...

New from me and @stuarthoddinott.bsky.social for @labourlist.bsky.social drawing on our recent @instituteforgovernment.org.uk reports we set out the challenge for current ministers in reforming public services and some of the lessons they can learn from past successes labourlist.org/2026/04/what...

This quote (left picture) in the HSJ claiming the NHS is not "locked in" with Palantir is a bit baffling. If lock in isn't high barriers to switching, then what is it? The image on the right is a quote from the government digital service defining lock in in almost exactly those terms

Government should devolve greater responsibility for employment support. Our report, published today, sets out how government could better support people out of work due to ill health: www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/... Why write this now?

In a first for the IfG, @meganbryer.bsky.social and I have translated two pieces about the upcoming Welsh and Scottish elections into Cymraeg! 1/🧵

Streeting loves fighting straw men in this debate The NHSE/DHSC split is really odd! It is duplicative! He's right! But given huge ambitions to improve NHS performance in a single parliament, is this *really* how you want to spend time and attention? It's a Q of prioritisation, not of merit

This is an awful story It's also a case study of why services are costing more and still failing people This is the worst possible outcome for the children, for the NHS, for the councils, and for national govt It's worth looking at how they ended up there 👇 www.hsj.co.uk/emergency-ca...

Also really enjoyed reading this - not sure I agree with it all, but a lot of good points in there. As ever, I come back to the fact that ministers are ultimately the decision-makers, and should be held accountable for the decisions they make...

This article is great because it ignores tech marketing babble and argues that AI is really about political power "The wholesale adoption of AI by our government, public services and wider economy is handing power to models built in the US and China" www.newstatesman.com/technology/2...

The constant Westminster-based attacks on S. Cambs by Conservatives and Labour are both depressing and incredibly boring It’s good for councils to try new things! Evidence suggests the 4 day week scheme has been successful! If residents don’t like it, they can vote out the Lib Dems next month!

I'm surprised it's taken so long for non-doctor NHS staff to get fed up Since 2023, resident doctors' pay has risen faster than other staff (10.9% in real terms) They are also the group that has been most persistent with industrial action, this will be the 15th time they've walked out since 2023

There's a pattern emerging with Streeting: when he's in a dispute he makes rash, reactive decisions that actively harm his agenda in the long run Most recent example is cancelling 1,000 additional training places for doctors, but same is true of NHS England abolition and ICB cuts

A new report from the IfG published today sets out 4 key lessons for ministers on how they can be effective leaders of public service reform. A thread of our main findings below… www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

Have written about why I think the sludge stuff (announcements from gov last week on consultations etc) is of a different quality to the 'rewire the state' sloganeering that we have had before and why that is good!

NEW REPORT: the government claims that it wants public services to be more devolved, better integrated, and more focused on prevention With a raft of reform programmes now underway in services, are they on track to achieve those aims? www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

NEW BLOG: a year ago, the government announced the abolition of NHS England and the reorganisation of integrated care boards (ICBs) What has happened since then? And how is that decision affecting the NHS and other services? www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/one-...

Prompted by @jillongovt.bsky.social I looked at what happened to NHS energy usage and spending during the energy shock in 2022 Spending increased dramatically between 2021/22 and 2022/23, from £779m to £1.2bn, an increase of 53.4% in cash terms. It's remained high since Energy usage barely changed

One thing that stood out from the govt's announcement on its NHS population funding model is how much analytical and managerial work trusts and ICBs will be required to do But who's going to do that work? The NHS is rapidly cutting managers due to ICB reorganisation and tight finances

DHSC officials have reportedly raised concerns about the cost of this deal, as it requires cuts to other parts of NHS spending It's very unclear to me what the UK gets from pharma companies in return for higher drug prices Instead, it all sounds like thinly-veiled threats about reducing investment

This would obviously be very bad for state capacity. The binding constraint on civil servants getting stuff done is, very clearly, not their belief in the political project. Have tried to capture some of this - while obvious it still bears saying. www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/refo...

NHS leaders and Wes Streeting should be alarmed by this. These figures point to a genuine collapse in NHS staff morale pretty much across the country - though with interesting variation too. E.g. what explains the v different figures in Norfolk and Suffolk?

It's not just DHSC where morale is plummeting; the HSJ reports that morale declined in every NHS integrated care board that answered the NHS staff survey in 2025 Worth remembering that these are the people who are supposed to deliver Streeting's 3 shifts www.hsj.co.uk/policy-and-r...

The wider point here is that you can only sell assets once. Sales such as these, which many councils are being forced to make, are not a sustainable solution to financial pressure. Likewise drawing down reserves, which an increasing proportion of councils have now been doing for 3 years or more

Everyone is analysing the implications of the byelection for Keir Starmer and Labour but the most important lessons are for democracy - my latest for @instituteforgovernment.org.uk www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/gort...

Yes it's really quite astounding that DHSC morale has gone all the way back down. DESNZ was the other morale win last year (7 ppt increase) and has very much held on to that improvement. We did wonder whether both depts got a 'mission' boost in 2024, but clearly that has played out...differently..

The civil service people survey results are out DHSC has the largest drop in engagement (staff morale) among Whitehall departments, 6ppts from 63% to 57% The dept also had a *13 ppt* drop for its leadership and managing change theme Seems like NHS England abolition is causing serious discontent

Great to give @instituteforgovernment.org.uk's take on the feasability of Reform's immigration enforcement plans in an Observer article today, in the venerable company of Prof Alan Manning and Dr Madeleine Sumption. You can read the article here: observer.co.uk/news/politic...

Punchy editorial from the Health Service Journal calling on Streeting and Milburn to go "Put bluntly, those that were dying waiting for an ambulance are now doing so on a trolley in a hospital corridor."

Been thinking about the balance Romeo now needs to strike - which is somehow making civil servants (and politicians) really feel how bad things are in the civil service and how sorely needed reforms are, while also convincing them that she is the person that can change it. Quite the tightrope...

Have written about how the below is one symptom of a really bad set-up at the centre of government. It makes sense that in the moment prime ministers keep trying to find a different person to do various jobs, but the problem is also a structural one, and the dysfunctional structure keeps on winning

Our @instituteforgovernment.org.uk conclusion on Chris Wormald’s time as cabinet secretary - and what needs to come next By me and @hannahkeenan.bsky.social www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/next...

Major news for local government finance. Great that there's now more certainty - without action it's likely the majority of councils would have faced 'bankruptcy' in 28/29. But unclear (at least to me) where the £5bn is coming from. For context that's about 8% of the core schools funding for 25/26

Obviously major Whitehall news if it happens Perhaps not surprising given briefing. And if the PM loses confidence in a cabinet secretary then it’s pretty inevitable they go But an impartial civil service cab sec exiting as fallout from a government scandal/attempted reset is very much not great

Tim Allan only joined No10 in September last year as part of the most recent (very turbulent) 'reset'...

On 14 January Wes Streeting said that waiting lists had fallen three times faster in 20 areas of the country where crack teams had been deployed. We’ve looked at this claim and have questions. 🧵 www.gov.uk/government/n...

*shocked face* The quotes are brilliant: Yusuf pinpointed Kent, saying that government officials’ “snouts have been in the trough for too long” But, Chamberlain said there “just weren’t big cuts to make, because services had been hacked away for years and years” www.ft.com/content/fc3c...

Happy new year (is it too late to say that?) from the Week in Public Services team! This week: the government’s addiction to pilots; the failure of ed tech; and Reform UK’s row about pensions medium.com/week-in-publ...

12:30 TODAY 💻 Join a webinar panel of Nuffield Trust and IfG experts as they explore the policy implications of the abolition of NHS England. Featuring @markgdayan.bsky.social @sjanereed.bsky.social @stuarthoddinott.bsky.social and @njdavies.bsky.social Register to watch online for free 👇

This Economist article seems relevant for this announcment www.economist.com/united-state...

TOMORROW | How can the government make a success of the abolition of NHS England? Join our webinar on Thursday 29 January, 12:30, with Mark Dayan and Sarah Reed @nuffieldtrust.org.uk, @stuarthoddinott.bsky.social and @njdavies.bsky.social www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/govern...

Reading an interview with Streeting in the HSJ on 31 Jan 2025 When asked if he would abolish NHS England his response was: "I could spend a lot of time and money changing job titles and email addresses and not make a difference to the patient interest" 2026 Streeting would strongly disagree