Policy Hub
On 27 February 2009, the National Audit Office published a report (Helping government learn) which suggests that, to obtain value for money from public spending, government departments must learn lessons from the success and failure of policies and projects.
The report finds that, although there is some effective learning within departments, it is still not as prioritised as it should be. The report contends that much learning in government occurs after large projects, initiatives or crises, but important learning should also take place routinely on a day-to-day basis, as teams and individuals carry out their work, or as a result of research and evaluation. Feedback from outside the organisation, particularly from service users, is also vital for improving service delivery.
The report explains that the main barriers to learning within departments are: ineffective tools to capture and share learning, keeping insights and information within the team rather than sharing them across the organisation; high turnover within the workforce leading to a loss of knowledge; and a lack of time given to capturing lessons from experience.
It suggests that there are too few incentives to encourage departmental staff to devote more time to learning from their work. Staff should be encouraged to consider in detail why projects went well or not and to offer new ideas, with the evaluation of projects put on a more systematic footing. A greater number of departments need to build learning into their staff appraisal and reward schemes. The report notes that nearly half do not include learning as a part of competency frameworks for senior staff.
Departments appreciate much of the support and guidance they receive from the centre of government including both the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury, but they are often confused about which units and organisations they should approach for guidance. The proliferation of toolkits, advice and other products risk ‘guidance overload’. Support needs to be focused on what departments find useful. Efforts should also be made to build on cross-government networks, which are highly rated for supporting learning.
This report looks at 11 examples of public sector learning, including the government’s response to the 2007 foot and mouth disease outbreak and the Cabinet Office’s capability building programme.