Sean Worth

This article is part of the Revolving Door project of Spinwatch.

This article is part of the Lobbying Portal, a sunlight project from Spinwatch.

Sean Worth was a special adviser to the Prime Minister David Cameron until June 2012. He left to join the think tank Policy Exchange to head up a six-month project on public services reform, known as the 'Better Public Services Project'.

In September 2012 Worth also joined lobbying and PR firm MHP Communications as a senior adviser, "providing strategic advice to clients across a range of policy areas".

In 2013, Worth left MHP Communications to join Quiller Consultants in a leadership role.

Worth announced in July 2014 he would be leaving his role at Quiller Consultants to set up The Westminster Policy Institute. He continued to appear on the APPC lobbying register as working for Quiller until November 2015.

Background

Worth has a PhD in labour market policy from the University of Bath and worked as an academic specialising in social and economic policy. Following this, he spent two years as an adviser on social policy for the Conservative Party. In September 2005, Worth joined the Association of British Insurers (ABI) as a financial inclusion adviser. Additionally, he specialised in employment, welfare and inclusion policy consultancy "for a range of public and private sector organisations".

Worth returned to the Conservatives as Head of the Policy Unit in 2008.

Health reform

Worth is widely credited with devising the Tory proposal for a voluntary insurance scheme to fund long term care for the elderly. In 2010 his brief covered communication between the Department of Health and Downing Street, which according to the Health Services Journal, was likely to be aided by a good working relationship with Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s policy adviser, Bill Morgan. Politically astute and dedicated to market ideology, it said Worth would "be relied on to push through reform if the DH stumbles". In 2011 Worth was seconded to the DoH to help Lansley with his NHS reforms.

Policy Exchange 'Better Public Services Project'

Worth reports to Policy Exchange director Neil O'Brien in his role as head of a project on public services reform, which 'aims to use innovations to improve the quality of public services at a time where budgets are being cut'.

Set up against the backdrop of the UK government's recent commitment "to opening the whole public sector to competing providers", this project is clearly pitched at shaping how this should be done.

We need a revolution in our public services. People should have the right to choose from an open field of the best charity, business and social enterprise providers. Fair competition should be used to get people the best possible results. And the new technologies modernising every other service sector should be used to transform our public services too.

...with policy detail still forming, concerns remain about how improvements can be achieved practically and fairly. The Better Public Services Project is conducting new evidence and research to form concrete recommendations for how government can meet its reform ambitions.

In September 2012, Policy Exchange published opinion research which it claimed showed "that many people cannot access good public services and a majority – even of public sector workers – want charities and businesses to replace them".

Joins MHP Communications in September 2012

According to PR Week:

Gavin Devine, chief executive of MHP, said that Worth is ‘an acknowledged expert on politics and how policy is formulated’. He is exactly the kind of bright, experienced person who can do smart thinking, and offer the best advice to really add value for our clients,’ he added.

MHP pointed out that, in line with the rules set down by the Government's advisory committee on business appointments, Worth will only offer strategic advice and will not lobby Government.

ACOBA had approved Worth's part-time appointment working with MHP's public affairs practice, "providing political counsel to some clients and in order to help to train MHP staff" on the basis that:

The Committee noted that Dr Worth had had no official dealings with his new employer and that he had not had access to any commercially sensitive information about its competitors.

The Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office accepted the Committee's recommendation that the application be approved subject to the condition that, for 12 months from his last day of service, he should not become personally involved in lobbying Government on behalf of his new employer or its clients.

As with all Special Advisers, the Committee made its recommendation on the understanding that, if he had already done so, Dr Worth would be required to confirm in writing to the department that he recognises he will continue to be bound by the provisions of the criminal law (including the Official Secrets Act) which protect certain categories of information and by his duty of confidentiality owed to the Crown.

Contact

Twitter: @SeanWorthPX

Email: sean.worth@policyexchange.org.uk

Tel: 0207 340 2650

External resources

• Tom Mills, Compassionate Conservatives go to war, Spinwatch, first published on New Left Project, 3 January 2013
• Sean Worth, Fighting back against the Left-wing guerrillas, The Telegraph, 02 Jan 2013, 7:58PM GMT
• Sean Worth, Let us face down the enemies of social reform, The Telegraph, 10 Sep 2012
• Patrick Wintour, Tories must go further and faster on public sector reforms, ex-adviser warns, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 June 2012 16.02 BST
• Better Public Services Project. http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/better-public-services/item/better-public-services-project-2
• Journalisted, Articles by Sean Worth