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Let's bring on the people power revolution
Prime minister David Cameron
David Cameron has told civil servants that he wants to transform the way the country is run.
Speaking at the annual Civil Service Live event in West London, Cameron told an audience of civil servants that he wanted to engineer a "people power revolution", where the public sector was accountable to the people rather than to the bureaucracy.
"We are the servants of the people of this country," he said. "They are the boss"
"Where is it said that the boss is told they can't look at the books or know the pay of their staff?
"It doesn't happen in the private sector and from now on it won't happen in the public sector."
And he told the audience of civil servants that this would require "a real culture shift" in the way they worked.
"Where there has been caution about devolving power there's got to be trust.
"Where there has been aversion to risk, there needs to be boldness"
He said he wanted civil servants to come to understand "instinctively" what would be given a "green light" and what would be blocked, or given a "red light" by Downing Street.
"If you want to make our public services more transparent, open them up to make them more diverse, to give people more power and control – you can be confident it will be given the green light.
"But if you want to set targets, set new controls, impose new rules, don't bother because you're likely to get the red light"
Taking questions from the audience Cameron acknowledged that taking greater risks also meant there was a greater risk of failure.
But he said that the price of inaction would be widening inequalities between the rich and poor.
In his speech at the event organised by ePolitix.com publisher Dods, Cameron said the "old top-down system" had failed the poorest.
"In a system where people have no choice, it's the richest who can opt out while the poorest have to take what they're given."
He added: "Let's bring on the people power revolution".
And he told one civil servant who was concerned there was an "agenda" to change civil service pay and conditions piece by piece over time that he had always been upfront about the need for reform.
"There has to be a programme of making government smaller, more efficient, more effective," he said.
Cameron insisted that if it were a Labour prime minister standing on the stage instead of him they would be having to do the same thing, only they would not have been as upfront about it.
Article Comments
In line with this, Departmental Board Meetings should be open to the public to attend and observe.
This would open up transparency on decision-making, and is already practised by many other public organisations such as Transport for London, Local Councils and the General Medical Council.
Richard Price
9th Jul 2010 at 12:08 pm
Remind me which planet we're on again?
How does this risk taking approach fit with the criterion of 'payment by results' that the government wants to apply to public spending?
How are civil servants simultanesously to secure unprecedented cuts in spending on services in this 'rule averse' environment?
Has Mr Cameron read Prof John Hills' report showing the impact on the poorest of the previous Tory years? Or the current influential and independent analyses of the impact of their budget and spending cuts? Beam me up Scottie!
Brenda Weston
8th Jul 2010 at 3:17 pm
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