Regulation is undermining innovation, efficiency and the spirit of citizenship and public service.
Author: John Seddon
From the Introduction by John Seddon:
Since the 1980s, successive governments have adopted a wide variety of approaches to boosting public-sector productivity, ranging from the New Public Management, consultancy-led service industrialisation and digital transformation at one end of the scale, to benchmarking, training, leadership, employee engagement and future planning at the other. All have ended in failure. Productivity improvement is described by politicians as a vexing conundrum.
Few people, perhaps especially those in government, would imagine that the UK’s model of regulation could actually damage productivity. But that is certainly the case. The proof is twofold: there is clear evidence that adherence to regulatory requirements prevents productivity improvement from happening and just-as-clear evidence of significant productivity improvements that have been made falling foul of regulatory requirements. This manifesto employs evidence of both sorts to argue that fundamental reform of our regulatory model would have a profound positive impact on public- sector productivity. The evidence is garnered from interactions with ministers, public servants, regulators and the regulated over more than 20 years working with public-sector services. As Carl Rogers, the eminent psychologist, observed, the particular is often general. As I shared my encounters and the arguments here with public-sector audiences, I found they resonate with their experiences. There is no doubt that they would welcome a more constructive and positive experience of regulation.
Simon Duffy, Director of Citizen Network, comments:
It's an honour to include this paper by John Seddon in our library. Our experience chimes completely with his analysis: regulation of the process of care, education or any public service is a direct route to inefficiency, poor morale and systemic breakdown. In fact the myth of the rational regulator is akin to the challenge of modern democracy. We do not see ourselves as citizens with a duty to share, innovate and learn together. We delude ourselves that we can transfer responsibility to some mysterious external body who can do all these things for us. But they can't. It is time to listen to John's words, to be honest about the dangers of the wrong kind of regulation and to start building a better alternative.
Read and download the free pdf in your browser, link below.
This Manifesto is available is also available as a printed booklet from Triarchy Press: https://www.triarchypress.net/manifesto24.html
The publisher is Vanguard Consulting Ltd. Rethinking Regulation A Manifesto © John Seddon 2024.
health & healthcare, local government, politics, regulation, England, Paper
