Reducing bureaucracy for public sector frontline staff: Briefing for the ...

8 Introduction and objectives Reducing bureaucracy for public sector frontline staff
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the Department of Health;
the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (now part of the Department
for Business, Innovation and Skills) 3 ;
the Department for Children, Schools and Families;
the Ministry of Justice; and
the Home Office.
5 This paper comments on the Government’s reported progress in implementing its
strategy to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for frontline workers but does not seek to
validate directly the quality of the claimed improvements. It does however comment on
the scrutiny and oversight by the Better Regulation Executive. The findings are based on
a review of five Departments’ simplification plans and other available documentation, and
interviews with the Better Regulation Executive and the Departments mentioned above.
The December 2009 simplification plans will provide an opportunity to update these
findings. This paper does not review progress on the wider value for money programmes
in the public sector.
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In this paper we cover:
the scale of the bureaucracy imposed on frontline workers and how the
Government is responding through its public sector strategy (Part 1);
¬ ¬ reported progress to-date and key challenges ( Part 2); and
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the governance arrangements in place to support the Government’s delivery of its
strategy (Part 3).
3 During research for this briefing paper a machinery of government change merged the Department of Innovation,
Universities and Skills and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, creating the
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.