Member News
Public sector workers are demoralised and believe that middle managers and Whitehall do not trust their abilities, a report has said.
Recent reforms have left frontline staff feeling like "untrustworthy teenagers" and have done little to improve services, according to the study from think-tank Demos.
The report, 'Leading from the front', says watchdogs like the Audit Commission and the National Audit Office should be abolished and replaced by a single body which measures public service performance.
"In a post-bureaucratic state, staff should look out to citizens, not up to central inspection regimes," it said.
"In the first instance, accountability should come from the ballot box or through citizen choice. Where it cannot, central government’s role should be to capture, collate and provide information on the outcomes that services provide.
"Where services are failing, government should look to successful professional peers to turn organisations around."
Ministers were also urged to make it more difficult for individuals to become a teacher or social worker.
This would aim to improve the skill levels of frontline staff, who can then take more responsibility for managing their own time and budgets.
Those who meet the new levels should be rewarded with "more independence, more autonomy more prestige, and ultimately, better pay".
Improvements would be made in the NHS, teaching and social services if staff are given further autonomy, as they know their jobs "better than anyone else".
And measures were recommended to cut bureaucracy and empower frontline staff, through the removal of middle management.
"We can prevent the steady sagging of morale in the public sector, but only if we are prepared to hand back the reins to those who know what they’re doing," noted the report.
One of the authors of the report, Max Wind-Cowie, said: "All the talk at the moment is about protecting frontline staff from cuts, but that alone won't make the difference if we continue to treat them like untrustworthy teenagers.
"Every government has the tendency to centralise. Whoever wins the next election must do everything they can to resist that urge and let go."
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd