Andrew Turnbull

Sir Andrew Turnbull a director with Frontier Economics is a former Cabinet Secretary who retired from the Civil Service in 2005. In his farewell speech he openly pointed out how the civil service, after an apparent tradition of being inverted had now adopted a far more open approach.

He stated

'The civil service has historically been more focused on policy and administration than delivery, particularly for those services that are delivered through others such as education, health and law and order; The structure has been hierarchal and inflexible and cross departmental working has been difficult; The reward system was based on slow maturing careers with long pay scales and final salary pensions; It has changed, but not rapidly enough; For too long the civil service was a closed world, limiting its ability to attract talent and the outside world's understanding of it; It has been too reliant on the skills of those recruited many years earlier, leaving it underpowered when requirements changed; It has drawn on too narrow a slice of the nation's talent; Little priority was given to developing leadership; It has been slow to take full advantage of outsourcing and to equip itself to manage large projects Incentives to improve efficiency were weak, both for the organisation or for individuals.

So what have I and my colleagues been doing to respond to the concerns expressed?

We no longer claim a monopoly over policy advice. Indeed we welcome the fact that we are much more open to ideas from thinktanks, consultancies, governments abroad, special advisers, and frontline practitioners. In developing policy we not only consult more widely than we used to but involve outsiders to a far greater degree in the policy making process, eg the extensive use of outside reviewers - Turner, Eddington, Sandler, Higgs, etc. The teams which the strategy unit puts together are highly multi disciplinary' ^[1].

Of course Mr Turnbull does not make clear who in particular these groups external to government are. Do they for instance seek a wide a pluraity of viewpoints and interests? Or, does this new found openness and welcoming of external advice only include those with particular interests? A clue to this question is actually given by Frontier Economics when they wrote the report on FOI. During the report they apparently consulted 'FOI practicioners and stakeholders across central government and the wider public sector - but not a single FOI campaigner, journalist or member of the public. It was always going to propduce what the government wanted' ^[2].

References

1. ^ Andrew Turnbull's speech The outgoing cabinet secretary's valedictory lecture before handing over to Sir Gus O'Donnell Guardian 27th July 2005
2. ^ Freedom of Information, Private Eye, no 1170, p11, 27October-9th November 2006