“AI Doomerism” is the popular media sport of generating panic about artificial intelligence and how it will take away everything we hold dear. It was a niche pastime 8 months ago. Now, it’s everywhere.

by Chris Bunting

The New York Times in March: “AI could rapidly eat the whole of human culture.”

We don’t know much about it, the paper said, but we do know we have summoned an “alien intelligence” with “godlike powers”.

Time magazine 5 days later: “literally everyone on Earth will die … We are not prepared. We are not on course to be prepared in any reasonable time window. There is no plan.”

The author made a brief digression about bombing data centres and then got back in the groove: “Shut it all down. We are not ready. We are not on track to be significantly readier in the foreseeable future. If we go ahead on this everyone will die, including children who did not choose this and did not do anything wrong. Shut it down.”

A useful technology

My problem with this kind of sensationalism is that it is scaring the bejesus out of us, just at the moment we need to be engaging with AI.

There are lots of ethical, safety, social and economic, and regulatory questions to be thought through, but we need understanding and experience of this technology to answer them well.

And unlike some of the other two-letter bogey technologies elements of media and social media have hyped up in the recent past – 5G, GM etc. – this is not a technology that is applied behind the scenes and that we only need to buy the products of. This is a technology that is going to make its presence felt throughout our working lives and that we will use, rather than simply consume.

Josephine Graham published a great piece on comms2point0 that covered some of the opportunities and risks of AI in comms. So, I’ve decided to take a sillier and more whimsical approach to expressing  the possibilities I see, particularly around learning new skills.

To do that, I’ve built my own blog page with the help of the AI chatbot ChatGPT. That means I need to take the unusual step of asking readers to leave the comms2point0 platform to find out more:

A ‘choose-your-own adventure’ blog about AI, comms and creativity

Chris Bunting is a senior communications manager at NHS England. You can connect on Twitter and LinkedIn

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image was generated by AI

Original source – comms2point0


I’ve just won a CIPR Excellence award and the feeling of elation is still incredible in the days after the event.

by Louisa Dean

I entered the awards to ensure my team, (and it wasn’t just the council comms team, but a wider group of allies), were recognised for some really special work we delivered.

The award win was for everyone who worked for me over the last eight years planning the communications for the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, also known as London Bridge.

And that’s what awards are – they are a recognition of the work you have delivered, they are a recognition within the sector that you are among the best and they boost morale within your team like nothing else can.

Awards are not evaluation – they don’t mark your comms homework – because if they did, we would all be entering awards and we don’t all do that. There is an emotional element to awards that simply isn’t there when you calculate your outputs, outcomes and outtakes.

Why I started entering awards

I started entering awards when my comms hero, Jill Spurr, told me that the work the team had delivered for the funeral of HRH Prince Philip was worth sharing with our comms community. I felt I was just doing my job but I duly filled in the application and some weeks later, we won our first CIPR PRide award. Actually, we won two.

One of the reasons I started entering awards was to gain recognition for my team’s work from outside of the organisation – a sort of external critic. I was proud of the work we delivered, I wanted to share it and I knew that other opportunities would come from it – presenting at seminars sharing that good practise and mentoring future comms superstars.

Being shortlisted in an award among your peers, even people you admire, is a massive success. That campaign or project you worked on and put all your effort in, has been recognised by your industry, by people you respect. I’m told it is great to be shortlisted and that is an achievement – I’m not a great loser and have practised my happy loser face – but it’s true, being shortlisted is an amazing achievement.

The UnAwards

At the UnAwards last year, the feeling in the room was immense. There were over 130 comms professionals who were excited that they could win, although they knew not everyone would. Everyone was supportive, everyone was proud and everyone wanted to talk to each other and learn about their achievements.

Choosing the right awards

You do have to pick and chose the right awards for you and your organisation, what would your senior leaders be proud of and doesn’t seem frivolous. But when so many of us struggle to have the work of communications really understood by the top table, having an award that demonstrates the degree of your passion, professionalism and knowledge, that’s easy to understand. It’s easy to say (with pride) “We have an award-winning Comms team” and understand what that means.

When something means as much to you as the work I planned for the funeral of HM The Queen, Elizabeth II, you have to enter some awards – although it does cross your mind, will other people recognise how much this means?

Why we should all enter awards…

Being shortlisted was enough, but winning was something else… amazing, incredible, and produced some tears.

It was about the partnership working, it was about the hours meeting other communication professionals to plan activity, it was about re-writing messages, it was about sitting in meetings for hours on end and it was about something that really mattered to me.

I won three awards at UnAwards and recently the CIPR Excellence for my work on delivering the communications for the funeral. I have one more award entry to hear about and then I will stop talking about the funeral, maybe!

But I won’t stop entering awards – and here’s why I think you should keep on entering too:

–         Do it for recognition within your organisation and your profession

–         Do it because you are proud of the work you have delivered

–         And do it because your team deserve that morale-boosting feeling that you get when a short list is announced.

It’s a bit of an over-used saying, but we really are all winners.

The 8th annual UnAwards will open in September. You can find out more HERE

Louisa Dean is head of communications at Reading Borough Council. You can say hello on Twitter at LouisaDean23

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Original source – comms2point0

DWP Digital colleagues celebrating winning the Founders Award.

The Digital Leaders (DL) 100 list, in its 11th year, celebrates the teams and individuals who are working hard behind the scenes to secure the UK’s Digital Transformation.  

The DL100 Awards took place on 22 June in Leeds. This was the first time the ceremony has taken place in the North. 

DWP Digital made the finalist list with 6 of our people and projects shortlisted including the Digital Public Service Innovation of the Year, AI and Data Innovation of the Year, Digital Leader of the Year and Young Digital Leader of the Year categories.  

The Founders Award 

On the night, we won the prestigious Founders Award. This was the first time the award, given for outstanding contribution to digital leadership, had been given to an organisation rather than an individual. We were chosen because of our focus on the use of data, emerging technology, and innovation to drive our vision. 

Jacqui Leggetter, Head of Integration at DWP Digital said, “This award is fantastic recognition for the innovative work that we are doing across DWP Digital; it is not just for one team; it is for every team that is helping to drive transformation and pushing the boundaries of modern technology whilst never losing sight of our users and the citizens we’re here to serve.  It was great having the six finalist teams represented at the event to celebrate; everyone in Digital Group should feel very proud of this award. 

Coaching the next generation 

Richard Corbridge, Chief Digital and Information Officer (CDIO) was in attendance on the night presenting the Young Digital Leader of the Year award and providing a keynote speech.  

He said: “The part that we as digital leaders play in the delivery of customer services makes us essential to all successful transformation not just digital transformation. You are truly inspirational. I would particularly like to shout out to people in the room who are mentors, you play a vital role in building the next generation of leaders to win these awards in years to come. You are not just leading digital delivery but coaching the next generation. We can all learn from each other, and I encourage you all to do that here tonight, tomorrow and ongoing.”   

Digital Leaders Week 

The awards brought a successful Digital Leaders Week to a close, which saw several of our DWP Digital colleagues participate in sessions and panel discussions. 

As a proud partner of the week, we had 9 sessions across the week, a mixture of online webinars and in-person sessions. This included John Keegan, Head of Digital Security leading a session on ‘How DWP is utilising a two-pronged offensive against cyber-attacks.’ Jacqui Leggetter, Head of Integration and David Kibble, Lead Integration Architect held a discussion about how DWP Digital are transforming customer and agent facing services using composite architecture through a scaled test and learn approach.  

Roni Colling, a software engineer talked about being a ‘Reluctant Leader.’ And, Duncan Parke, Integrated Risk, and Intelligence Service, joined the Digital Leaders conference in Manchester in a panel discussion about AI and public services.  

We had further online sessions with Alex Coomer, a lead product manager delivering the session ‘How to transform services in Government,’ Tony Sudworth, Head of Sustainability spoke about next steps in digital sustainability and Neil Owen, our Tech Services, Collaboration and Communication Lead, talked about transforming a Digital Workplace at scale. Jacqui also joined a ‘Policy Jam’ session in partnership with BCS to discuss ‘Responsible leadership in a Digital Age.’ 

Original source – DWP Digital

DWP Digital colleagues celebrating winning the Founders Award.

The Digital Leaders (DL) 100 list, in its 11th year, celebrates the teams and individuals who are working hard behind the scenes to secure the UK’s Digital Transformation.  

The DL100 Awards took place on 22 June in Leeds. This was the first time the ceremony has taken place in the North. 

DWP Digital made the finalist list with 6 of our people and projects shortlisted including the Digital Public Service Innovation of the Year, AI and Data Innovation of the Year, Digital Leader of the Year and Young Digital Leader of the Year categories.  

The Founders Award 

On the night, we won the prestigious Founders Award. This was the first time the award, given for outstanding contribution to digital leadership, had been given to an organisation rather than an individual. We were chosen because of our focus on the use of data, emerging technology, and innovation to drive our vision. 

Jacqui Leggetter, Head of Integration at DWP Digital said, “This award is fantastic recognition for the innovative work that we are doing across DWP Digital; it is not just for one team; it is for every team that is helping to drive transformation and pushing the boundaries of modern technology whilst never losing sight of our users and the citizens we’re here to serve.  It was great having the six finalist teams represented at the event to celebrate; everyone in Digital Group should feel very proud of this award. 

Coaching the next generation 

Richard Corbridge, Chief Digital and Information Officer (CDIO) was in attendance on the night presenting the Young Digital Leader of the Year award and providing a keynote speech.  

He said: “The part that we as digital leaders play in the delivery of customer services makes us essential to all successful transformation not just digital transformation. You are truly inspirational. I would particularly like to shout out to people in the room who are mentors, you play a vital role in building the next generation of leaders to win these awards in years to come. You are not just leading digital delivery but coaching the next generation. We can all learn from each other, and I encourage you all to do that here tonight, tomorrow and ongoing.”   

Digital Leaders Week 

The awards brought a successful Digital Leaders Week to a close, which saw several of our DWP Digital colleagues participate in sessions and panel discussions. 

As a proud partner of the week, we had 9 sessions across the week, a mixture of online webinars and in-person sessions. This included John Keegan, Head of Digital Security leading a session on ‘How DWP is utilising a two-pronged offensive against cyber-attacks.’ Jacqui Leggetter, Head of Integration and David Kibble, Lead Integration Architect held a discussion about how DWP Digital are transforming customer and agent facing services using composite architecture through a scaled test and learn approach.  

Roni Colling, a software engineer talked about being a ‘Reluctant Leader.’ And, Duncan Parke, Integrated Risk, and Intelligence Service, joined the Digital Leaders conference in Manchester in a panel discussion about AI and public services.  

We had further online sessions with Alex Coomer, a lead product manager delivering the session ‘How to transform services in Government,’ Tony Sudworth, Head of Sustainability spoke about next steps in digital sustainability and Neil Owen, our Tech Services, Collaboration and Communication Lead, talked about transforming a Digital Workplace at scale. Jacqui also joined a ‘Policy Jam’ session in partnership with BCS to discuss ‘Responsible leadership in a Digital Age.’ 

Original source – DWP Digital

View through a partially glazed, vaulted roof to a skyscraper with many floors of windows in a grid
Tuesday trip to Canary Wharf

What did I enjoy?

A chance to meet with members of the 111 online team in person as part of their monthly team day in London. I enjoyed the show and tell, including a proper live demo by one of the developers of the work he’s doing to integrate the service with NHS login. Later in the morning, I talked with the team about the various strategies and initiatives that our work is part of, and answered their questions about how we can contribute.

On Wednesday night, I went along to a Product Tank event hosted by Leeds Building Society, where my NHS England colleague Annie presented on ‘Small Steps towards a Product Mindset’. I also enjoyed the talks by product leaders at Asda and Leeds Building Society, and mingling with other product and UCD people based in the city.

What did I learn?

I started to see the edges form for a couple of important initiatives that will help us clarify the future direction for our Digital Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) products and services.

Members of my team supported our colleagues who own overall UEC policy and operations to prepare for a workshop that took place on Friday afternoon. As part of that, I facilitated discussions to identify the main themes we need to explore around service design and digital enablers for NHS 111. The biggest items on the evolving word clouds from those conversations covered clinical decision support, service information, interoperability, and equity. On the latter, we discussed both digital inclusion and equity of healthcare outcomes that our national digital services play a role in enabling.

I also started to gain more clarity on a piece of work I want to kick off that builds on the work we’re already doing to integrate 111 online and the NHS App. I’m certain there’s a big issue we need to address for patients, and the next step is to gather a small team of experts to scope it further. This will need involvement from other teams, who are all busy with demanding commitments of their own. They’ll only be able to spare the time to take part if they can see that this is part of the answer to their own questions too.

What was hard?

I felt my team’s best efforts to adopt a new reporting tool in our directorate were unfairly represented when a report went to my boss’s boss showing us as not having provided a sufficient update. We’ve been trying to make this tool fit for purpose in partnership with the central team that owns it, and clearly there’s more work to do before we can rely on it as a single souce of truth for product oversight.

What do I need to take care of?

Creation of a shared team culture following our merger is being held back by the lack of fit-for-purpose collaboration tools. To be fair, this is really complicated stuff. Colleagues are working to fix the legacy organisations’ unique flavour of IT fragmentation, and it can’t come fast enough. But even when that’s addressed, we’ll still have to tangle with the innate clumsiness of Microsoft Teams, and its ugly grafting onto the gnarly rootstock of Sharepoint. That really matters now more than ever before.

In my career, I’ve been involved in several large-scale mergers, and there is always a phase where people find it hard to see the best in their colleagues from “the other side”. That would normally be overcome as people work together, get to know each other as humans, and achieve things together that form the basis for a new shared narrative. When we inhabit the same workplaces, we gain ambient awareness of what other people do, and discover that we have more in common than at first we perceived.

But this is the first time I’ve been in a merger where the participants had to do most of that delicate work remote first. Nerves are frayed and goodwill is already stretched. The frustration at not being able to collaborate seamlessly or gain ambient awareness of how our new colleagues work reinforces a false narrative that those other people are less than competent, not prepared to co-operate, or have hidden agendas. When someone hits a roadblock that says “access denied,” or doesn’t get a reply because a message fell into an unmonitored inbox, do they only blame the technology or does some of the blame rub off on their colleagues?

At this moment in a merger, our prime directive should be to assume good intent. Working tools configured for segregation of information at the cost of open collaboration make that so much harder.

Original source – Matt Edgar writes here

View through a partially glazed, vaulted roof to a skyscraper with many floors of windows in a grid
Tuesday trip to Canary Wharf

What did I enjoy?

A chance to meet with members of the 111 online team in person as part of their monthly team day in London. I enjoyed the show and tell, including a proper live demo by one of the developers of the work he’s doing to integrate the service with NHS login. Later in the morning, I talked with the team about the various strategies and initiatives that our work is part of, and answered their questions about how we can contribute.

On Wednesday night, I went along to a Product Tank event hosted by Leeds Building Society, where my NHS England colleague Annie presented on ‘Small Steps towards a Product Mindset’. I also enjoyed the talks by product leaders at Asda and Leeds Building Society, and mingling with other product and UCD people based in the city.

What did I learn?

I started to see the edges form for a couple of important initiatives that will help us clarify the future direction for our Digital Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) products and services.

Members of my team supported our colleagues who own overall UEC policy and operations to prepare for a workshop that took place on Friday afternoon. As part of that, I facilitated discussions to identify the main themes we need to explore around service design and digital enablers for NHS 111. The biggest items on the evolving word clouds from those conversations covered clinical decision support, service information, interoperability, and equity. On the latter, we discussed both digital inclusion and equity of healthcare outcomes that our national digital services play a role in enabling.

I also started to gain more clarity on a piece of work I want to kick off that builds on the work we’re already doing to integrate 111 online and the NHS App. I’m certain there’s a big issue we need to address for patients, and the next step is to gather a small team of experts to scope it further. This will need involvement from other teams, who are all busy with demanding commitments of their own. They’ll only be able to spare the time to take part if they can see that this is part of the answer to their own questions too.

What was hard?

I felt my team’s best efforts to adopt a new reporting tool in our directorate were unfairly represented when a report went to my boss’s boss showing us as not having provided a sufficient update. We’ve been trying to make this tool fit for purpose in partnership with the central team that owns it, and clearly there’s more work to do before we can rely on it as a single souce of truth for product oversight.

What do I need to take care of?

Creation of a shared team culture following our merger is being held back by the lack of fit-for-purpose collaboration tools. To be fair, this is really complicated stuff. Colleagues are working to fix the legacy organisations’ unique flavour of IT fragmentation, and it can’t come fast enough. But even when that’s addressed, we’ll still have to tangle with the innate clumsiness of Microsoft Teams, and its ugly grafting onto the gnarly rootstock of Sharepoint. That really matters now more than ever before.

In my career, I’ve been involved in several large-scale mergers, and there is always a phase where people find it hard to see the best in their colleagues from “the other side”. That would normally be overcome as people work together, get to know each other as humans, and achieve things together that form the basis for a new shared narrative. When we inhabit the same workplaces, we gain ambient awareness of what other people do, and discover that we have more in common than at first we perceived.

But this is the first time I’ve been in a merger where the participants had to do most of that delicate work remote first. Nerves are frayed and goodwill is already stretched. The frustration at not being able to collaborate seamlessly or gain ambient awareness of how our new colleagues work reinforces a false narrative that those other people are less than competent, not prepared to co-operate, or have hidden agendas. When someone hits a roadblock that says “access denied,” or doesn’t get a reply because a message fell into an unmonitored inbox, do they only blame the technology or does some of the blame rub off on their colleagues?

At this moment in a merger, our prime directive should be to assume good intent. Working tools configured for segregation of information at the cost of open collaboration make that so much harder.

Original source – Matt Edgar writes here

Rishi Sunak and the drip-drip of bad news
melissa.ittoo
Fri, 30/06/2023 – 11:57
ConservativeHome’s Henry Hill joins the podcast team to discuss the latest headache for the prime minister.
1
Podcast
Institute for Government
No
Regulation
Ministers
Civil service
Net zero
Ethical standards
Ministerial code
Energy
Climate change
Environment
Conservative
Prime minister
Sunak government
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

No

Thames Water is struggling to stay afloat. But who is to blame? Will the taps dry up? And what solutions are there? ConservativeHome’s Henry Hill joins the podcast team to discuss the latest headache for the prime minister.

Are there any ‘good chaps’ left in politics anymore? Boris Johnson’s new job as a newspaper columnist has caused controversy – so perhaps it is time to overhaul the rules for jobs after government.

And does Rishi Sunak actually believe in the net zero agenda? A new report by the Climate Change Committee is far from impressed with the government’s efforts to drive down emissions. 

What we talked about in this episode

05 JUL 2023
Online event

5 July 2023


IfG Net Zero Conference

Chris Skidmore and Ed Miliband join us for our net zero conference, examining what government needs to do to meet its climate objectives.

People featured in this episode

Rishi Sunak
Boris Johnson
Off

Original source – Institute for Government

The Sue Gray ACOBA saga must lead to better rules around government exits
sam.macrory
Fri, 30/06/2023 – 16:17
Lessons need to be learned after the saga over Sue Gray’s move to become Keir Starmer’s chief-of-staff. 5
Comment
Alex Thomas
Jordan Urban
Institute for Government
Yes
Former senior civil servant Sue Gray has been cleared to start working for the Labour Party in September.
Civil service
Ministers
Civil servants
Ethical standards
Official opposition
Labour
Chief of staff

No

After months of fury, whether real or confected, from government ministers and plenty of angst from senior civil servants, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) has decided to recommend Sue Gray serves a six-month waiting period before taking up her post as Keir Starmer’s new chief of staff. The prime minister has accepted the ruling, so Gray will be able to take up her new role in September. 

It is welcome that ACOBA has demonstrated its independence and resisted a punitive approach, and that the prime minister has not overruled the committee. But Gray’s move to the Labour Party has exposed long-standing flaws in the way that the movement of civil servants into and out of government is regulated. It is impossible to conclude that this process has worked well. 

Civil servants must be able to move to political jobs with reasonable safeguards 

Gray’s choice to accept a role as Labour’s chief of staff was controversial, but not unprecedented. Since 1997, three No.10 chiefs of staff – the most senior political aide in government – have had a civil service background. Recently Lord Frost made the transition from civil servant to special adviser and then cabinet minister and Conservative peer (albeit after a gap); Siobhan Benita resigned from the Department of Health to twice run for London mayor, first as an independent and then as a Liberal Democrat; and former civil servant Alicia Kearns is now a senior Conservative MP and chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. 

But Gray was in a much more senior role when she left the civil service, and had occupied much more politically sensitive positions. Gray’s previous job as the Cabinet Office’s head of propriety and ethics – and her continued involvement in that area, including through the ‘partygate’ investigation – does make this an unusual case. Now that she has made the transition to former employee, it is legitimate for the government to seek to protect its interests, just as any private company would do. But Gray, and any other senior civil servant who wants a path into party politics, also has the right to expect that the system regulating movement into and out of government works better than it currently does. 

Much of the debate has been about the extent of Gray’s contact with the Labour Party while still a civil servant. Reports suggest that the government believe she broke the civil service code.
1


Beth Rigby, Twitter, 30 June 2023, https://twitter.com/BethRigby/status/1674780789006036993

 But the lack of clarity over what is and is not acceptable put her in a difficult position. Clearly to take a job with Labour she had to talk to them first. But who was Gray meant to inform when contact was first made – presumably the permanent secretary in her department or the cabinet secretary? What were their obligations to pass on – or not – that information to ministers and the prime minister? Should Gray have recused herself from certain activities while in discussions with Labour – and how would she have done that while maintaining reasonable confidentiality about the recruitment process? ACOBA found “no evidence” that she had acted improperly or favoured Labour in her official duties. But it is still unsatisfactory that there was no established route for her to follow when seeking the chief of staff job. 

It is also unfair to Gray that the snail-like ACOBA process forced her to wait months to get clarity on her future while a psychodrama about her employment status played out in public. And, although it is welcome that both Gray and the Labour Party committed to abiding by ACOBA’s judgement, it undermines the system that they – or others – can choose to ignore the rules without sanction. 

The system regulating conflicts of interest must be overhauled 

The Gray saga should be a catalyst for an overhaul. To regulate post-employment activity the government should introduce a system of ‘restrictive covenants’ – agreements written into civil servants’ contracts that set out how restrictions on their activity will work after they leave the civil service. Recommended by the Boardman Review in response to the Lex Greensill affair (and in previous Institute work), such rules would provide certainty to all parties ahead of time. If the government feels strongly that a former head of propriety and ethics should have to wait longer than six months before taking on a new role, it is only fair that this is a known condition of them taking on the role in the first place.  

Meanwhile, there needs to be better oversight of civil servants’ activities while in post and a route for civil servants to report contact with opposition parties over potential jobs. A clear expectation should be established that senior civil servants who have contact with the opposition in this way should, in strict confidence, inform the Civil Service Commission and agree private restrictions on their activity while discussions are ongoing.  

A system that allows for properly regulated movement between the civil service and political parties benefits good government 

One of the reasons a civil service background has come to be seen as a helpful qualification for a No.10 chief of staff is because it brings with it knowledge and experience of public administration. If Labour wins the next election, Sue Gray will bring rare expertise to her post.

Similarly, an understanding of politics can be useful for civil servants. Democratic government is not a purely technocratic exercise and an appreciation of the political constraints acting on ministers is vital. 

Properly regulated movement between a permanent, impartial civil service and political parties is beneficial to good government. But the civil service needs to retain the confidence of politicians of all stripes and officials must be treated fairly when making the switch. Where movement happens it needs to be on clearly understood terms and with appropriate constraints. The Sue Gray saga has shown a system unfit for purpose. 

The regulator of post-employment restrictions has demonstrated its independence but the circus around Sue Gray’s new job shows a system in need of an overhaul, argue Jordan Urban and Alex Thomas The Lobbying Scandal: ACOBA on the ropes
Keir Starmer’s job offer to Sue Gray causes a civil service headache
Sue Gray
Rishi Sunak
Keir Starmer
Off

Original source – Institute for Government

The NHS workforce plan is welcome – but just one part of improving the health service
sam.macrory
Fri, 30/06/2023 – 14:11
The NHS workforce plan is backed by Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak – and is a huge commitment to substantial health spending increases.
4
Comment
Nicholas Timmins
Institute for Government
Yes
The NHS workforce plan could mean the health service has an extra 60,000 doctors, 170,000 more nurses and 71,000 more allied health professionals in place by 2036/37.
Public services
Public finances
NHS
Health
Social care
Public sector
Public spending
Conservative
Health secretary
Chancellor of the exchequer
Prime minister
Sunak government
Department of Health and Social Care

No

The oh-so-long awaited NHS workforce plan has finally landed. Perhaps the first and most important thing to say about it is something that it does not itself say. Namely that if all its promises are honoured – a big if – this is a huge commitment to a really substantial increase in health spending.

There is, after all, no point in planning to have some 60,000 extra doctors, 170,000 more nurses and 71,000 more allied health professionals by 2036/37 if you are not going to employ them. Employing them will dwarf the £2.4bn that has been announced today for the first five years of this 15-year plan.

And it is that, of course – the long-term spending implications of training more staff – that has always made the Treasury decidedly wary of such long term plans. However, Jeremy Hunt as chancellor, backed obviously by the prime minister, has overcome that – delivering what Jeremy Hunt the health secretary and Jeremy Hunt as chair of the Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee has long said is needed: a proper plan. If nothing else, that is honourable.

And it is, of course, entirely sensible to have a plan: no business of any size should operate without a good understanding of what its future workforce needs are likely to be. Doing so is not always easy – particularly in an area as complex and evolving as health care.

The NHS workforce plan is for 15 years – but will need to be constantly refreshed

Technology has always driven medicine and is arguably driving and changing it faster today than ever before. In the past the arrival of keyhole surgery and of interventional radiology changed, over a remarkably short number of years, the skills and staff numbers needed for a wide range of procedures. Robotics is starting to do the same, as is AI – which will clearly change the management of health as well as its procedures. A little like the general’s cliché that the best laid battle plans rarely survive entirely intact after the first contact with the enemy, so a workforce plan can very rapidly look out of date unless it is constantly refreshed.

Which makes the promise to revisit this every couple of years a good one. Needs, and thus staffing numbers, will change and the plan will need to adapt continuously to that.

As for the plan itself, at the first glance much looks very sensible. Not just the additional doctors, nurses and other staff but the additional ways, such as apprenticeships, to get into these roles. More medical and clinical schools will in time have economic benefits for the places in which they are located. Implementing all this will, of course, be a challenge. Training doctors, for example, is not just a case of getting them through medical school but creating good on-going training in the junior doctor years that lead to consultant and GP appointments.

Workforce planning is crucial – but is only one part of improving NHS performance

And it is equally true and obvious that the immediate impact of this will be limited. There are some measures to seek to improve retention, but it does not, by definition, resolve the acrimonious on-going pay disputes in the NHS. Implemented well, it could well improve NHS productivity in the long run. But as the Institute for Government’s recent report on the NHS productivity puzzle makes clear, there is much else that can be done and needs to be done in the short to medium term to improve that.

Workforce planning is crucial. But it is only one part of improving an NHS that is too often failing to deliver timely care. Others include the capital needed to provide the modern IT, equipment and buildings that this expanded workforce will require. And some solutions to the never ending problem of social care – which has its own, glaring, workforce issues.

Nonetheless, today is an important day – if this is all seen through and not allowed, quietly and slowly, to run into the sand. It also comes with big implications for spending.

The NHS workforce plan is full of sensible ideas, but Nick Timmins says there are many other steps that need to be taken to improve NHS performance
How bad does the NHS crisis need to get?
Boris Johnson must now deliver his promised plan to fix social care  
The NHS productivity puzzle
Steve Barclay
Jeremy Hunt
Rishi Sunak
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Original source – Institute for Government

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC)
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Thu, 29/06/2023 – 14:25
What is the Committee on Climate Change and what does it do?
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Explainer
Jill Rutter
Institute for Government
Yes
The Climate Change Committee advises the government on five-year “carbon budgets”. It reports to parliament annually.
Net zero
Public bodies
Climate change
Environment
Energy
Energy Security Strategy
Agriculture
Conservative
May government
Sunak government
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

No

What is the CCC and when was it established? 

The Committee on Climate Change was established in the 2008 Climate Change Act which also set the UK’s legally binding target on greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The initial target was to reduce emissions by 80% compare to 1990 levels; in 2018 Theresa May’s government increased that target to “net zero” by 2050. The CCC is an executive non-departmental public body, whose sponsor is the lead climate change mitigation department, currently the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (though the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs leads on adaptation issues). 

There are currently seven members of the Climate Change Committee (including the chief executive Chris Stark). It has been chaired since 2012 by Lord Deben, former secretary of state for the environment, John Gummer. A new chair is in the process of being appointed. 

There is a separate six member committee on adaptation, chaired by Baroness Brown (professor Dame Julia King), which reports on progress in adapting to climate change. Professor Michael Davies is a member of both committees. 

What are its principal functions?  

The Climate Change Committee has two principal functions: 

  • To advise the government on five-year “carbon budgets” necessary to meet its 2050 target. Its most recent advice, in December 2020, was on the “sixth” budget for 203337. 
  • The committee reports annually to parliament and the devolved legislatures on progress towards the UK’s carbon budgets. That report needs to be made by 30 June in any year. The UK government must lay a response, after consulting the devolved governments, by 15 October that year. 

The original legislation had no provision for the committee to look at adaptation, but was amended during its passage to establish the Adaptation Sub-Committee. It has two functions:

  • To produce a UK Climate Risk Assessment (the most recent was the third risk assessment in 2021) as an input into the Climate Risk Assessment the government is obliged to produce every five years. 
  • To assess progress on adaptation every two years. There is no comparable target to the emissions reduction target, with the focus instead on the National Adaptation Plan the government produces. Nor is there any obligation on government to respond to parliament in the same way as there is on emissions reduction.  

Does the government take the committee’s advice? 

Thus far, the government has always accepted the advice of the Climate Change Committee on carbon budgets. It also sought advice from the CCC before increasing its legally binding target to net zero in 2019. But while recent reports have suggested pathways to meet the net zero target, the government has not necessarily adopted ideas proposed by the CCC (for example, it has been highly resistant to reducing meat consumption).

On adaptation, although individual recommendations have been accepted reports have pointed out that the UK has not been making adequate progress and indeed has been going backwards.  

In the CCC’s most recent report, published on 28 June
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2023 Progress Report to Parliament – Climate Change Committee (theccc.org.uk)

, the committee warned that progress was stalling, that the government was not on course to meet the 2030 target it set before COP26 in Glasgow and that it risked losing its international leadership position. 

Has it been copied in other countries? 

Yes. The UK governance arrangements on climate change legally binding targets and an independent oversight committee have been widely regarded as world-leading and have been copied elsewhere. For example, Ireland established a Climate Change Advisory Council in 2015 and New Zealand established a Climate Change Commission in 2019 (preceded by an interim committee in 2018). 

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Original source – Institute for Government