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Autumn season under way at the Institute |
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With membership in decline, political parties are looking seriously at how they can broaden their appeal. Making sure that MPs represent a cross section of modern Britain is one clear way of doing this and this year, we joined forces with Progress, IPPR, Policy Exchange, and Centre Forum to host fringe events on candidate selection at all three main party conferences. Lively debate ensued and you can catch up with this on the website. We also produced a discussion paper to accompany the series and we’ll be updating this with observations and insights from the fringe meetings soon.
In September we also held our inaugural Inside Devolution conference, accompanying the event with an insightful InsideOUT publication from former Scotland Permanent Secretary, John Elvidge. This week, Home Office senior official and Winston Churchill Fellow, Emily Miles also shared her observations on collaborative working in an InsideOUT for IfG.
Autumn is shaping up to be a bumper season at the Institute. We’re kicking off our Media & Government series (in partnership with Fishburn Hedges) with an event asking Who Matters? Newspapers v broadcast v social media. Speakers include Jon Snow, Iain Dale and our own Peter Riddell. Further events will consider the future of media regulation and the impact of Twitter on policy making. We’ve developed a special microsite with information about all the events and accompanying material to the series.
Finally, our busiest week of the autumn so far is nearly upon us, when we’ll be hosting three important women from the world of economics, social policy and politics. On Monday 17th October, Vicky Pryce will share her thoughts on the impact of economics in government. On Tuesday 18th, Naomi Eisenstadt
, originator of the Sure Start programme will join us to discuss the past, present and future of this important policy. And on Wednesday 19th, we’ll get insights on life at Westminster from the country’s only Green MP, Caroline Lucas. I’ll look forward to seeing you at the Institute this Autumn and in the meantime, you can follow many of our events @ifgevents.
Andrew Adonis
Director of the Institute for Government
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InsideOUT: two new reports published
The InsideOUT series gives people a platform to share ideas on how to improve government. We have recently launched two new InsideOUT reports:
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In Northern exposure, IFG associate and former Permanent Secretary in the Scottish government, Sir John Elvidge, sets out the lessons Whitehall should learn from the first 12 years of devolution
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Meanwhile in Collaborative working, former Institute for Government Whitehall fellow Emily Miles shares her views on the benefits of collaboration and how to make collaboration work.
Read the reports >>
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Candidate selection
The Institute co-hosted fringe events at each of the three party conferences, where our panelists discussed the merits of recent reforms to candidate selection and reflected on the impact they have had on candidate diversity and public engagement.
Read more >>
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System Error wins Agile Award
The Institute's System Error report was awarded best agile innovation at last week's annual Agile Awards Dinner. The black tie event involved a range of innovative ICT suppliers and government officials, with the Department for Work and Pension's Steve Dover delivering the keynote speech.
Read more >>
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Learning from pilots
The government is currently piloting different methods of creating markets and quasi-markets for public services including Individual Budgets and Payment by Results. As part of our new models of public services programme, the Institute is hosting a series of ‘Learning from pilots’ roundtables.
The Institute is interested in both what the pilots suggest are the strengths and weaknesses of these methods, but also more broadly in what policy makers, practitioners and providers suggest are the tricks to running a successful pilot.
For more information contact Kate Blatchford >>
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Cutting Edge policy series
IFG played host to Paul Ormerod who spoke about networks and policy and Eric Beinhocker who talked about the changes implied by complexity economics, illustrating themes from the Michael Hallsworth’s working paper on system stewardship.
Read about these events >>
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New live twitter feed for events
The Institute has a new twitter feed to complement our forthcoming events. We'll be tweeting live from selected sessions on @ifgevents, leaving our main twitter feed @instituteforgov available for all our other news. We're opening the new feed because of growing demand from people who want to attend the Institute's events but can't always be there.
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| Should Bristol Have an Elected Mayor? |
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With a referendum likely in May 2012, Bristol Festival of Ideas launches its first annual Ideas Forum with a day conference on whether an elected mayor would be good for Bristol. Speakers include the Institute's Director Lord Andrew Adonis.
Read >>
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| Bold and reforming? |
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What impact has the coalition government had so far? What's been prioritised, promised, cut and changed? Peter Riddell, Senior Fellow of the Institute for Government, reports.
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| Primaries: what works? Report from Liverpool |
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At the joint Institute for Government and Progress Labour Party Conference fringe event we hotly debated the possible impacts of launching a trial of primaries in Labour's selections.
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| Prime time |
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In the future, the public could be given a say in selecting Labour leaders, says Institute Director Andrew Adonis.
Read >>
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| The Thick of It, a Better Civil Service for Wales |
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On the very same day that Labour in Wales admitted that they aren't going to bother to try and make the Civil Service work better for Wales, a report has been published [by the Institute for Government] showing how the Civil Service in Scotland has been successfully transformed.
Read >>
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| Is it time for primaries? |
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Jonathan Slater's account of the fringe event jointly organised by Progress and the Institute for Government on whether we should have primaries to select Labour parliamentary candidates.
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| Civil service not afraid of change |
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John Elvidge has said in a recent Institute for Government paper that the UK should follow Scotland's example of slimming down the number of departments and ministers.
Read >>
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The Dismal Science? Is Economics Influential Enough In Government Decision Making?
The Institute for Government invites will be launching a new IFG InsideOUT publication by Vicky Pryce, former joint Head of the Government Economic Service and Chief Economist at theDepartment of Business, Innovation and Skills.
Vicky will discuss her views with Rt Hon Vince Cable MP, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and former Chief Economist at Shell and Jonathan Portes, Director of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research and former Chief Economist in the Cabinet Office. The discussion will be chaired by Evan Davis, presenter of the Today programme, former BBC Economics Editor.
This event is now fully subscribed but we will be tweeting live from the event @ifgevents, and please check our website for recordings and blogs soon after.
Find out more about this event >>
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Policy Reunion: Making Sense Of Sure Start
Sure Start has been hailed as one of the successes of the last Labour government, but the Coalition has reduced overall funding for children's services, and left it to local authorities to decide what to cut - leaving many Sure Start Children's Centres facing an uncertain future.
The Institute for Government is bringing together some of the key players in the original Sure Start scheme to look at how the policy was developed and implemented and the lessons for policy makers now.
Find out more about this event >>
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The Power of One: Making an Impact as the only Green MP with Caroline Lucas, MP
Winner of the Women in Public Life Awards ‘MP of the Year’, and ‘Newcomer of the Year’ in the Spectator’s 2010 Parliamentarian of the Year Awards, Caroline has been praised for the impact she has made so far. At this event, Caroline Lucas will talk about her experience as the UK’s first Green MP and discuss the challenges of influencing policy from the backbenches, and how the dynamics of the coalition affect her job.
The discussion will be chaired by Peter Riddell, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government, and former Times Political Commentator.
Find out more about this event >>
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Media & Government: Who really matters? Newspapers v Broadcast v Social Media’.
The first in a series of events, held in collaboration between the Institute for Government and Fishburn Hedges, takes place on Wednesday 3rd November and asks ‘Who Really Matters? Newspapers v Broadcast v Social Media’.
Speakers include Jon Snow, the face of Channel 4 News since 1989; Iain Dale, LBC radio presenter and influential political blogger; and Peter Riddell, the former Times and Financial times journalist and now Senior Fellow of the Institute for Government.
They will explore which part of the media really holds sway over public opinion and policy-making. The event is shaping up to be a fascinating insight to the latest trends and freshest thinking on the complex relationship between media and government.
Find out more about this event >>
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