Press Release - Helping Government Learn
27 February 2009
To obtain value for money from public spending, lessons must be
learnt from both success and failure. Although there is some
effective learning within departments, learning is still not as
prioritised as much as it should be, according to a National Audit
Office report released today.
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 evaluations.
Feedback from outside the organisation, particularly from service
users, is also vital for improving service delivery.
In order to learn successfully, many organisations within the
public sector need to change how they approach their work. 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.
Departments should give higher priority to learning within their
organisations. There are too few incentives to encourage staff
within departments 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 reflection and evaluation
of projects put on a more, systematic footing. More departments
need to build learning into their staff appraisal and reward
schemes. Nearly half do not have learning as a part of their
competency framework 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, guidance and other products risk
‘guidance overload’. Guidance 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.
Tim Burr, head of the National Audit Office, said
today:
"We know from our audit work that projects and
programmes are more likely to succeed and keep to time and budget
where lessons have been learned and experience shared. Departments
need to take learning more seriously, and encourage their staff to
give it a higher priority through better recognition in reward and
appraisal structures. Getting better at learning from the past will
help government secure better value for money in the
future."
Notes for Editors
- This report examines how departments could be better at
learning which occurs in many ways. Staff can gain insights and
experience from simply doing their work, whilst training can help
in developing new skills and knowledge. Feedback from customers and
timely analysis of complains can help drive improvements, and
comparisons with the actions of other organisations can act as a
stimulus to do things in new or innovative ways.
- This report looked at 11 case examples of public sector
learning. These were: The ePassports scheme, The Productive Ward
Programme, learning from complaints systems, the response to the
2007 Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak, DFID staff delivery chain,
the Cabinet Office’s Capability Building Programme, HMRC Angels and
Dragons programme, the US Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice
Assistance, OGC Gateway review, local government Beacon Scheme and
Select Committee Parliamentary Scrutiny.
- Press notices and reports are available from the date of
publication on the NAO website, which is at www.nao.org.uk. Hard
copies can be obtained from The Stationery Office on 0845 702
3474.
- The Comptroller and Auditor General, Tim Burr, is the head of
the National Audit Office which employs some 850 staff. He and the
NAO are totally independent of Government. He certifies the
accounts of all Government departments and a wide range of other
public sector bodies; and he has statutory authority to report to
Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which
departments and other bodies have used their resources.
Press Notice 13/09
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