Author Archives: John Tizard

Local Government Should Be At The Heart Of Our Democracy – It Must Be Defended And Strengthened

If any authors were going to make the case for local government as a crucial element in the democratic viability of our unitary state and equally as crucial to local social, economic and environmental welfare it would be Professors George Jones, John Stewart and Steve Leach. Their new book ‘Centralisation, Devolution and the Future of… Read More...

Public sector outsourcing and contractors must always be transparent

The BBC programme Panorama recently reported that it had seen documents suggesting that G4S has been making significant profits from running two immigration removal centres near Gatwick Airport. One of these, Brook House, was the focus of a Panorama investigation, which exposed chaos, bullying and and the abusive treatment of detainees by some staff. Panorama… Read More...

Practical question to keep Labour’s PFI policy prudent

Labour’s break with PFI is exciting and timely but unpicking deals is likely to be difficult and potentially expensive, argues John Tizard When John McDonnell announced to the Labour Party Conference yesterday that a Labour government would not let one more PFI contract and would bring existing contracts ‘in-house’ you could feel the conference hall… Read More...

Let’s take stock

For many in local government and the wider public sector, there is unlikely to be much time to take a break and clear one’s mind of work related issues. The pressures of austerity, Brexit uncertainty, social housing standards, social care, health inequalities, air pollution and so much more don’t conveniently take a long vacation over… Read More...

Is It Time For Trade Unions, Charities And The VCS To Find Common Cause?

Today’s landmark judgement by the Supreme Court on the Government’s unlawful imposition of fees for access to Employment Tribunals represents a huge victory for fairness, justice and rights for employees. It also demonstrates the value and importance of effective trade unions – in this case Unison, which deserves massive congratulations and thanks for this long… Read More...

Grenfell Tower – procurement lessons must be learnt

The Grenfell Tower fire was an appalling atrocity. The human consequences are horrendous and will sadly continue for many years. Lessons must be learned. Quite rightly, the Government has established an enquiry, which must have as wide a brief as the local community wants, and all local stakeholders must have confidence in this enquiry. Just… Read More...

Accountability Matters And Should Never Be Ducked By Leaders

Accountability is core to good governance, democracy and trust. It enables lessons to be learnt and for mistakes not to be repeated. It requires leaders to take responsibility and where necessary accept the consequences for failure. This issue is both topical and important. There are two clear caveats to what follows: press coverage of disasters… Read More...

Listen to, and above all involve the real experts – service users, tenants, staff…

There is absolutely no excuse for not involving and listening to critical stakeholders when the public sector is developing policy or designing, commissioning, procuring, monitoring and reviewing services. At a practical level, for local government this means ‘involving’ local communities, service users, local businesses, and voluntary sector bodies – all, in their own way, representing… Read More...

Charities Should Seize The Opportunity Offered By The Parliamentary Arithmetic

Reading the 2017 Queen’s Speech and comparing it with the Conservative Party manifesto is very revealing. Many of the headline election manifesto commitments including an expansion of the number of grammar schools, the ending of the free school lunches, removing the pensions’ ‘triple lock’ and many more policies have been ejected. The next two years,… Read More...

Memo To New Minister For Civil Society

The Prime Minister has appointed John Glen as the new Minister for Civil Society. This a very important role though it has not always had the recognition nor political clout it should have. One hopes that this will change under Mr. Glen’s tenure. This tenure may be short if the Government does not last and… Read More...