The Week, 4 May 2018
This week John Manzoni, Chief Executive of the Civil Service, argued for a new employment model for civil servants. They will follow a “career path … to build deeper experience and depth in their profession”, rather than moving quickly between different policy areas. He called this a “significant change”.
Daniel El-Gamry, Researcher
Reformer of the week
East Berkshire CCG, which on Tuesday won an international award for it’s innovative software that identifies those at risk of hospital admission and provides them with preventative care and support.
Good week for…
AI in healthcare
On Monday a report found AI will be able to improve health and research more cheaply than humans alone.
Tax transparency
On Tuesday, MPs backed a cross-party amendment to crack down on corruption, money laundering and other forms of financial crime by forcing overseas territories to adopt public registers of company ownership.
Bad week for…
Etonians
On Monday, the former Education Secretary, Justine Greening, suggested students from fee-paying schools, such as Eton, were “not as impressive” as their peers with similar grades from struggling schools.
HMRC transformation
On Tuesday, HMRC informed its stakeholders that a ‘digital revolution’ of the UK tax system is being postponed because tax collectors and customs officials are too busy preparing for Brexit.
Quotes of the week
“To people who say that now is the time to turn on the spending taps, I say that would be premature. It is very important that we bring down debt as a proportion of GDP. We know that economies with high levels of debt see a drag on their growth rates and are less resilient to external shocks. We also know that we are spending a huge amount on debt interest. With the debt interest we spend—£50 billion a year—we could completely abolish council tax, business rates or fuel duty.”
Liz Truss MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, speaking in Parliament on Monday.
“Building sophisticated and flexible relationships with the private sector needs experienced commercial people – to move us on from the transactional, price-based relationships that still exist across parts of our system.”
John Manzoni, Chief Executive of the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office, speaking on Tuesday.
“I think the NHS probably has a better chance to truly integrate care than almost any other health care system in the world… There’s no reason the NHS can’t have the best care in the world, why you can’t take an appropriate proportion of your efforts and move them upstream to the causes of illness and use social determinants to prevent illness. There’s no reason why you have to waste money; you have limited resources and you can use those resources increasingly wisely.”
Professor Don Berwick, Former Health Adviser to President Obama, in an interview on Tuesday.
Reform’s Week
Reformer Blog
On Monday, Maisie Borrows, Senior Researcher at Reform, wrote a blog discussing the importance of public trust in health data sharing.
On Wednesday, Sarah Timmis, Researcher at Reform, wrote a blog highlighting the need for an ethics based approach to predictive policing.
Media
On Wednesday, Daniel El-Gamry, Researcher at Reform, wrote an article for The Globe Post about what we can learn from the “austerity mindset” when it comes to reforming public services.
On Thursday, Eleonora Harwich, Head of Digital and Technological Innovation at Reform, was acknowledged for her contributions to Future Advocacy’s new report in partnership with the Wellcome Trust.
On Friday, Tom Richmond, Senior Research Fellow at Reform, was quoted in an article by TES exploring university MBA apprenticeship programmes.
Events
On Tuesday, Reform hosted a roundtable event with Sara Thornton, Chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, on ‘Digital Transformation: smarter blue light services’ in partnernship with Motorola Solutions.
On Thursday, Reform hosted a roundtable event with Carl Cresswell, Director of Better Regulation at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on innovation friendly regulation of emerging technologies in partnership with Accenture.
Upcoming Events
On Thursday, Reform will be holding a roundtable with Baroness Beverley Hughes of Stretford, Deputy Mayor of Manchester (Police and Crime), on ‘Collaboration and integration: smarter blue light services’ in partnership with Motorola Solutions.
On Friday, Reform will be holding a panel event with Matthew Gould, Director General for Digital and Media Policy, Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, on ‘Opportunities for the UK Digital Economy’ in partnership with Accenture.
Party Conferences 2018
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