Expert insight, analysis and comment on key public policy issues
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Here are a few of the articles I have published in ‘Public Servant’ monthly magazine over the past couple of years. More can be found on their website by searching.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Here are links to a few of the articles I have published in ‘Public Finance’ weekly magazine over the past year or so.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
from the FT – By Nicholas Timmins Published: March 10 2009 00:39 | Last updated: March 10 2009 00:39
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Even when the Government claims to be ’empowering patients’ it manages to do it in a Whitehall-centric way.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Back in 1999 ‘Modernising Government’ was finally published. After nearly two years gestation the general verdict was that it was indeed an elephant – huge, sprawling and ungainly. Everything including the kitchen-sink had been thrown into the lengthy, turgid and mind-numbingly boring document. Well, now we have Modernising Government II – or ‘Working Together: Public […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
“Gizza job”, those with long-enough memories will recall, was the catch phrase of the central character- Yosser Hughes – in Alan Bleasedale’s very dark BBC TV comedy ‘The Boys from the Blackstuff’ which aired in the middle of another big recession (1982).
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
The Audit Commission published its final CPA (comprehensive performance assessment) report on English local government this week.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
In my recent article for Public Servant magazine I speculated that the new ‘joined-up’ Children’s Services departments might have been a contributory factor in the failure to protect Baby P in Haringey. Now it turns out that Children’s Services across the board are the worst performing service in English local government. The Audit Commissions latest […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
The old joke that consultants borrow your watch and then charge you if you want to be told the time has finally come true. The UK Treasury has announced it will step in to provide the finance for £8bn worth of PFI (private finance initiative) deals this year, as other sources of finance dry up […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
A new NAO Report – Helping Government Learn – sets out to encourage better policies and practice for ‘organisational learning’ in government.