Nick Davies @NJ_Davies Twitter profile | Pikagi

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Nick Davies

@NJ_Davies

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Programme Director @Instituteforgov working on public services

London

https://t.co/5UUZZYR7VJ

Joined June 2009

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

1 month

NEW REPORT: Current spending plans are less generous than any of the 5 spending reviews by Blair + Brown. Without a bold programme of public service reform most most public services will be performing worse at the next election in 28/29 than pre-pandemic🧵

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 months

For reference, the £2.5bn annual cost of the Conservatives new national service policy is roughly twice as much as would be needed to return local authority spending on services for young people back to the level it was in 2010

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

My key Gray takeaway: even when senior people did raise concerns about events their main worry was negative coverage. Nobody - or at least nobody senior - seems to have questioned whether it was proper for scores of people to get repeatedly sloshed in No.10 during lockdown

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

4 years

This is an utterly innapropriate response from a Department of Health spokesman to perfectly reasonable questions about why the government has awarded a PPE contract worth £108m to a tiny firm

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

4 months

Fascinating new @TheIFS paper finds that the closure of 70% of police stations in London was not cost effective and led to higher crime levels, with particularly negative impacts on the poor

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 months

A chunk of the £2,000 tax rise Sunak claimed Labour would be implementing is based on my work. Thread below shows why it's nonsense But the truly silly thing about this 'debate' is that whoever wins the election will be putting up taxes because govt spending plans are a fantasy

@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 months

As someone whose work is cited as the evidence for around 20% of this black hole, it would be fair to say that I’m extremely sceptical of its accuracy or value

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

NEW REPORT: By 2025, public services won’t have returned to pre-pandemic performance, which in most cases was already worse than in 2010 when the Conservatives came to power It's been a lost decade for public services There's no meaningful fat to cut 🧵

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 months

As someone whose work is cited as the evidence for around 20% of this black hole, it would be fair to say that I’m extremely sceptical of its accuracy or value

@rbrharrison

Rupert Harrison

3 months

Impressively thorough costings document from @Jeremy_Hunt to back up the £38bn hole in Labour's plans, and even more impressive to be able to base the whole thing on official Treasury costings.

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

10 months

NEW REPORT: By 2028, almost all public services will still be performing worse than pre-pandemic, which in most cases was already worse than in 2010 when the Conservatives came to power Without a sustained change in approach, public services risk getting stuck in a doom loop 🧵

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

Extremely bad case of West Wing syndrome here. A backbench MP with a *deputy* chief of staff 😬

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

1 year

Recieved this from the head at my son's primary school as part of an appeal for funds from parents. Two reflections: 1) Schools in disadvantaged areas, with less ability to raise from parents, will struggle far more 2) Pissing off headteachers is a really risky political strategy

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 months

My main reflection on Conservative manifesto is that it doesn't remotely address some of the biggest public services issues. Nothing on access to GPs; scores of councils on the edge of bankruptcy; record court backlogs; full prisons; or broken children’s residential care market

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

1 year

We have a new report out today by @Samfr & @racheljanetwolf on the hospital productivity puzzle. We identify 3 key reasons: 1) longstanding underinvestment in capital (beds, scanners, buildings) 2) the loss of senior staff 3) chronic undermanagement

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

11 months

This is a cataclysmic failure of govt policy making MoJ’s own prison population projections have shown for years that there would be insufficient prison capacity to deal with the impact of the police uplift programme And the situation is due to get much worse

@charleshymas

Charles Hymas

11 months

Ministers are to rent prison cells overseas to help tackled the overcrowding crisis in Britain’s jails. Alex Chalk is expected to announce the plan on Wednesday as figures showed that there were just 258 places left in the adult male prison estate.

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

1 year

It’s deeply irresponsible of HarperCollins and Dorries to publish a book using the word assassination to argue the PM was brought down by a shadowy conspiracy. Two MPs have been murdered in the last decade. This isn’t harmless fun

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

4 years

Gold (strategic), silver (tactical), bronze (operational) command structures are common across govt. Setting up a ‘gold command taskforce’ for A-level exams literally just means ‘putting someone in charge of fixing this mess’

@StephenNolan

Stephen Nolan

4 years

Breaking : UK Govt is to set up a “gold command” taskforce to oversee the ALevel exam appeals process. More on Nolan 5Live now

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

The main sources of ‘efficiencies’ in the 2010s were holding down public sector pay and cutting staff Given there are major workforce shortages and strikes across public services already, I just don’t see how tightening things further is political viable

@HSJEditor

Alastair McLellan

2 years

New chancellor @Jeremy_Hunt says ALL gov departments will be asked to make "efficiencies" Asked if that means the Department of Health, he simply repeats 'all'

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 years

It’s convenient for this govt minister to put the blame for a possible delay to June easing at the door of “a small number of idiots” not getting vaccines, but responsibility largely lies with the small number of govt ministers who refused to put India on the red list for weeks

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 years

It’s amazing how different a chart can look if you take account of inflation and start a few years earlier…

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

5 years

First back @instituteforgov after 6 months shared parental leave. Presumably we’ve left the EU in an orderly manner? More seriously, if you’re a soon to be dad, take as much time off as you can. Raising children isn’t your partner’s responsibility! Plus, it’s really fun!

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

Public services problems have been exacerbated by the Covid crisis but are not new. Rather, they are the product of austerity. Governments since 2010 may have been seeking efficiency over resilience but achieved neither

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

This is a ridiculous and damaging way to make critical spending decisions We’re potentially talking about tens of billions of pounds of cuts

@kitty_donaldson

Kitty Donaldson

@kitty_donaldson

2 years

Graham Brady confirms the fiscal event will go ahead on Hallowe'en. That makes Jeremy Hunt the most powerful man in Britain now. The new PM will have TWO DAYS to consider Hunt's decisions before the 31st.

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 months

I'm relaxed about Rishi copying my homework, but don't read out the wrong answer in class and get me in trouble with teacher

@GeneralBoles

General Boles

3 months

Rishi says Keir's going to cost you £2k. Keir said "you lie". James said don't bring him into it. Clare was like "yeah whatevs". IFG Nick said Rishi copied his homework wrong. Fraser says Rishi's going to cost you £3k which is awks cos other James left Fraser for Rishi. Clear?

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 years

This comment from the PM is galling on a personal level and utterly incorrect when describing the country. People have worked much harder during the pandemic

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

4 years

Two things that can both be true: 1) Kate Bingham has done an excellent job and deserves praise 2) If the govt gives important jobs to friends and family without open competition then it’s likely to make suboptimal appointments

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

1 year

Why have so many schools, hospitals etc built with RAAC not been replaced? A big reason is deep cuts to capital budgets. In decade before Covid, DfE cut spending by 20% on average vs 07/08. In MoJ spending was cut by more than half. Even DHSC, which was protected, saw cuts of 8%

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

4 years

In this analogy, Jacob Rees-Mogg set up a special phone line for his friends to pitch plumbing ideas, agreed with the first quotes offered, continued paying emergency rates months after experienced plumbers became available again, and then scolded his wife for questioning him

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 years

This is a lovely sight after an unexpectedly busy night @AndertonDavies rocked it, midwives were brilliant and baby boy is in rude health Tweeting will be light over the coming weeks...

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

7 months

As Giles says in this thread, public services are in a terrible state right now. Getting back to square one (2010 performance levels) in most services would be a genuinely impressive achievement for the next govt. Realistically it's a 2 parliament project

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@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

7 months

Sincerely, in good faith, I'd strongly urge the Tories to drop their use of "don't let's go back to square one" in the upcoming contest. Surely there's nothing voters detest more than a false premise, and the notion that the last 14 years have generated progress is jarring 1/

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

1 year

Either Steve Barclay genuinely believes that the key to improving hospital performance is cutting managerial posts further or he knows that this is complete nonsense but keeps pushing this rubbish anayway to generate headlines. I genuinely don't know what's worse

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 months

As @jamesrbuk points out, it would also be enough to reduce child poverty substantially We included cases studies on both the impact of the two child limit and youth work in the recent @instituteforgov report on prevention

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A preventative approach to public services | Institute for Government

The next government must focus on prevention or risk worse public services and higher taxes.

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

@jamesrbuk

James Ball

3 months

For less than £2 billion a year, you could end the two-child benefit cap, which would lift 300,000 children out of poverty entirely – and reduce the depth of poverty for around 700,000 more.

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Nick Davies

2 years

Another day of revelations and still the only person to have done the decent thing and resigned is Allegra Stratton who didn't even attend the parties and was obviously embarrassed at the attempt to explain them away

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

6 years

We've launched a new @instituteforgov report on the scale of government outsourcing. I'm 100% certain that this will be the most exciting thing that happens in UK politics today...

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Government procurement | Institute for Government

One third of government’s spending is with contractors: last year, four departments spent more than half their budgets with external suppliers.

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

1 year

We might need to revisit the @instituteforgov ’s assessment of whether outsourcing catering services is beneficial. We had not considered that ‘armed revolt’ might be a relevant quality indicator

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

1 year

100% right from @stephenkb on lack of seriousness in UK politics. Gov spending plans from 25/26 onwards are v tight and it’s unlikely that next gov will be able to stick to them, given woeful state of public services. But neither main party will be honest

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

5 years

NEW: @instituteforgov & @CIPFA analysis of performance of 9 public services. We project that money pledged by govt will not be enough to improve services, and may not even be enough to maintain 2018/19 standards (well below 2009/10 standards)

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

The govt's recklessness at the mini-budget has put it in an invidious position. But any attempt to balance the books on the back of public services will have devastating consequences

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

4 years

Today is exactly three years since I joined @instituteforgov ! In order to annoy @GavinFreeguard I've decided to celebrate by making the worst chart possible

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 months

@HPIAndyCowper Not bad value for working public services

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 years

Despite rumours to the contrary, I can confirm that my closest adviser is still fully committed to my political project

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 years

Targets are used extensively across public services. But do they improve performance? How do they change behaviour of staff? When should govt apply targets? How can it design them well? A new @instituteforgov report answers these questions and more

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Using targets to improve public services | Institute for Government

Government targets in public services may do more harm than good.

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 months

To use IFG research to partially justify this figure is misleading. The evidence base for cost savings from outsourcing is limited and cant be applied to all services that might be outsourced. We make this clear in our analysis but the Conservative party’s assumptions ignore this

@RishiSunak

Rishi Sunak

3 months

It couldn’t have been clearer in last night’s debate. Keir Starmer’s tax rises will cost working families £2,094.

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

1 year

It's Alex Chalk's first week as Justice Secretary Now that he has responsibility for the criminal justice system I thought it would be helpful to provide a 12 chart summary of the state of criminal courts and prisons 🧵

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

23 days

To those saying public sector pay rises are a choice, that’s technically true. BUT given huge recruitment/retention problems across public services and the risk of strikes, it wasn’t much of one. Even Sunak, who took a hardline on pay negotiations, felt obliged to accept PRB recs

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

Just a complete failure of leadership from the PM and senior officials

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

The prison population at the end of July was almost 4,000 lower (4.5%!) than MoJ projected it would be You might think fewer people in prison is A Good Thing, but it's only happening because the rest of the criminal justice system is so gummed up + few cases are being prosecuted

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 years

Devastating new @instituteforgov report on the govt’s schools omnishambles during the pandemic. As with so many Covid mistakes, problems principally stemmed from the PM’s unwillingness to discuss anything but the best case scenario, hobbling the response

Schools and coronavirus | Institute for Government

The government's failure to make contingency plans for schools is the most “unforgiveable aspect” of its handling of education during Covid.

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

Astonishing to hear the PM talking about ‘leadership’ and ‘taking responsibility’ while using this statement to minimise his role in the repeated parties that took place in his house

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 years

Good appointment. I was concerned about how independent this review would actually be but Baroness Casey can be guaranteed to speak her mind

@SkyNewsBreak

Sky News Breaking

3 years

Baroness Casey of Blackstock will lead an independent review into the Metropolitan Police's culture and standards in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard, the force has announced For more on this and other news visit

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

4 years

I have grudging respect for BT who’ve designed a WiFi troubleshooting app that only works when connected to the internet and therefore finds WiFi is working perfectly every time you use it

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

All the evidence suggests that the NHS is actually drastically *under-managed* compared to other countries and the private sector

@thetimes

The Times and The Sunday Times

2 years

Hundreds of NHS bureaucrats are earning more than £100,000 a year as frontline staff including nurses prepare to strike over their low pay, figures show

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

4 years

Great advice from @jillongovt on how @HMTAllegra can reset govt comms: 1. Stop anonymous No.10 briefings 2. End exaggerated 'world-beating' claims 3. Be honest and admit shortcoming 4. Answer questions, don't evade 5. Explain, explain, explain

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Five ways Allegra Stratton can reset government communications | Institute for Government

The necessary resetting of government communications requires the new No.10 press spokesperson to take control and do it her way

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

1 year

Rishi Sunak in January: "NHS waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly" Jeremy Hunt in the autumn statement: "NHS’s performance is closely tied to that of the adult social care system" Government today:

@Davewwest

Dave West

1 year

Exclusive: ‘Shameful’ £500m cut to workforce and reform budgets

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

5 years

When you’re very serious about digging for foam bricks but aren’t sure if it’s the job for you @youngvulgarian

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

6 years

Daisy has been returned! Two very relieved owners. Thief still at large but most important thing is dog is home. Thanks to everyone who RT’d

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 months

As IFG colleagues have noted, all of the figures in this ‘analysis’ are highly questionable. So while it provides a striking headline, you’re better off enjoying something reliable like the British weather…

@timd_IFG

Tim Durrant

3 months

Jeremy Hunt has a big speech criticising Labour policy - if he's trotting out Treasury costings of Labour proposals, a reminder that these are based on his and his advisers' interpretations of those proposals, so Labour may well challenge the numbers...

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

4 months

This is so counterproductive. Cuts to management, admin and support staff are a key reason why the huge increase in clinical staff over recent years has not resulted in substantially more hospital activity

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

6 months

I'm a big fan of the RAG tie being worn at the budget. Very much like our 2022 RAG chart for public services, just with more green...

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

1 year

“This is obvs good news about spread of the virus. But hard for my target” This perfectly encapsulates a key problem with badly designed targets. People end up caring more about the proxy for success rather than the thing that actually matters

@BenKentish

Ben Kentish

1 year

What you see here is the then Health Secretary, in the middle of a global pandemic, asking a newspaper editor who happens to be his former boss for a favourable front page to help him meet an arbitrary target, and the newspaper editor responding: “Yes of course.” Lost for words.

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

9 months

Today the Chancellor will say govt’s prudent decisions have allowed it to cut taxes. But the only reason he has fiscal headroom is because spending plans from 25/26 are implausibly tight. Most services on track to be performing worse in 27/28 than 19/20 and that’s not sustainable

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

Today @instituteforgov & @CIPFA 's Performance Tracker found that public services are in a fragile state with no fat to trim. Rushing cuts will only make things worse

@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

NEW REPORT: By 2025, public services won’t have returned to pre-pandemic performance, which in most cases was already worse than in 2010 when the Conservatives came to power It's been a lost decade for public services There's no meaningful fat to cut 🧵

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

Boris Johnson has damaged the office of the prime minister and the credibility of government New comment from @instituteforgov

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Sue Gray’s report shows how Boris Johnson has damaged the office of the prime minister | Institute...

Boris Johnson has damaged the standing of his government and public faith in his leadership

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

1 month

I'm surprised module 1 of Covid Inquiry didn't focus more on the impact of austerity. You can't fully understand the response (or recovery) of public services without exploring the effect of staffing shortages, underinvestment in building/equipment, and declines in performance

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

1 year

Just caught up with the transcript from @HSJnews ’s interview with Steve Barclay. They repeatedly put to him the point from @Samfr & @racheljanetwolf ’s recent report that the NHS is ‘catastrophically undermanaged’. Notably he wouldn’t give a clear answer

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 years

Many thanks to @melissaittoo for screenshotting this hugely flattering pic of me and the cat at this morning’s event

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

I love Twitter but I'm delighted the BBC Political Editor is taking this approach

@ChrisMasonBBC

Chris Mason

2 years

@CobblerSeanTB @sima_kotecha @itvnews It’s not weird. My focus is on television, radio & the BBC News website and app. I’m less fussed about Twitter, to be honest.

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

Nadine Dorries is right. The NHS (along with other public services) was not well prepared for covid @instituteforgov found services were weakened after a decade of austerity: quality declined, staff became stretched, buildings weren't maintained and vital equipment went unbought

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

11 months

Yes frontline staff are wasted on admin. In some cases this is about unnecessary paperwork. But bigger problem is politicians cutting ‘public service bureaucrats to invest in frontline’. We’re not getting most out of doctors/nurses because we’ve cut their management support

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 months

Really interesting comments from @wesstreeting on managers. I think the answer to his query is that the system is excessively managed, with far to many targets/demands from NHSE/DHSC/ministers, but that there is insufficient management/analytical capacity in hospitals and ICBs

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@HSJnews

Health Service Journal

2 months

Streeting: We’ll raise the share of funding for primary and community care within five years

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

There aren't many positive things to say about the performance of govt right now but today @instituteforgov is publishing a report on something that actually went well: the insourcing of probation services Short 🧵on the key findings:

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Reunification of probation services | Institute for Government

MoJ's preparations for the reunification of services and their transition back into the department.

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

4 years

The ultimate blame for this lies with Johnson for his inability/unwillingness to act before he's forced to. It might have been a different story if we had a more competent Education Secretary but we don't and Johnson is to blame for that decision too

@tnewtondunn

Tom Newton Dunn

4 years

You couldn't blame some ministers for a bit of ‘I told you so’ today. I hear when senior Cabinet members met last week, Matt Hancock and Michael Gove argued to follow SAGE advice and close schools until February. Gavin Williamson (+ others) persuaded the PM not to.

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Nick Davies

1 year

@ScotFinlayson @instituteforgov @Samfr @racheljanetwolf You would definitely get that impression from many politicians and much of the media but they've got the situation exactly backwards

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

There aren't just isolated problems in individual services but interconnected structural failures – particularly in health and care, and criminal justice systems. In many cases, there are too few staff, with excessive workloads, working on outdated equipment in rundown buildings

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Nick Davies

4 years

This is so classy and effective. No idea how the govt wins a political fight against someone this high profile, popular, credible, thoughtful, polite and relentless. This is going to keep happening in the run up to every school holiday until the govt folds...

@MarcusRashford

Marcus Rashford

@MarcusRashford

4 years

A quick message...

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

3 months

Spot on. Tax & spending should be central to election debate but we're doing it in the most stupid way possible. @instituteforgov and others have endlessly pointed out the fantasy of gov spending plans but mainstream coverage (with honourable exceptions) focuses on tax bombshells

@SophyRidgeSky

Sophy Ridge

3 months

Can I be honest with you? I didn’t want to start the programme talking about the Conservative claim that a Labour Government would cost you £2,000 in extra taxes. It’s obviously been disputed. Not just because it’s cumulative rather than annual – but because it’s based on an

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

2 years

Patients are waiting half a day in A&E and a year or more for elective treatments. Social care providers are going out of business. Few crimes result in charges, criminal courts are gummed up, and pupils have lost months of learning, with little prospect of catching up

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@NJ_Davies

Nick Davies

4 years

Governing in a crisis is hard but I'm surprised we're still waiting for a comprehensive package of measures for charities. Deploy retired/ex NHS staff is great but thousands of charity staff providing critical care services will be furloughed without immediate action

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Nick Davies

4 years

My @instituteforgov comment on why we should disregard headlines about the govt meet its testing target. The target has distorted govt behaviour and meeting it has been about politics rather than the role of tests in a workable exit strategy

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Nick Davies

2 years

Public services very fragile Existing spending review settlement is not enough to meet additional demand/clear backlogs Making cuts on top would mean accepting that performance will get worse, when for most services it’s already much worse than pre-pandemic, never mind 2010

@SamCoatesSky

Sam Coates Sky

2 years

Exc: Whitehall to be told to find efficiency savings as well as refusing to reopen spending review Chris Philp to write to Secretaries of State within hours "What efficiency savings are there given levels of inflation??! Amazing bulls***" said a Whitehall source

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Nick Davies

2 years

Longstanding staff shortages across many public services have been exacerbated by covid-related absences, which are still v. high The situation is getting worse with below inflation pay offers leading to strikes And that's before the new chancellor announces further cuts...

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Nick Davies

2 years

On Monday @instituteforgov and @CIPFA will publish Performance Tracker 2022, our analysis of 9 key public services If you can read that and identify easy ‘efficiencies’ then you’re a more creative person than me

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Nick Davies

8 years

Outside parliament they appear to be making some edits to the Brexit bus

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Nick Davies

3 months

The ‘analysis’ uses an IFG report to make the assumption that insourcing will increase costs by 7.5%. As far as I can tell, this is the paragraph they’ve taken that from Note the qualifier: “where there is…evidence”. Very often there isn’t evidence!

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Nick Davies

4 years

Cummings getting the boot now is yet another example of the government bowing to the inevitable long (in this case VERY long) after the point when it would have received any credit for doing so. Something a new chief of staff needs to get on top of ASAP

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Nick Davies

2 years

This is the 7th edition of Performance Tracker and unfortunately our findings have never been so grim

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Nick Davies

10 months

Here we go again. Covering shortfalls in day-to-day spending by raiding capital budgets. Govt has been doing this for years with same result: NHS staff unable to do their jobs properly because they work in crumbling buildings, on outdated IT, & without access to latest equipment

@LawrenceDunhill

Lawrence Dunhill

@LawrenceDunhill

10 months

Treasury has refused to budge on NHS Eng's plea for ££ bailout to mitigate strike impact. Means £600m will have to be 'reprioritised' from other health budgets - inc (we're told) capital, tech, & even recently announced workforce plan from @HMAnderson39

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Nick Davies

1 year

Speaking off the record, a close friend of Nick Davies said that an early September reshuffle would be a great way to annoy everyone trying to plan fringe events at Labour’s conference

@PippaCrerar

Pippa Crerar

1 year

🌹On Labour reshuffle stuff, understand that pre-summer *or* early September are both still in play.

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Nick Davies

2 years

The Chancellor said he would announce a 'fully costed' plan on 31 October. Hopefully that just means setting out broad spending plans, because there's just no way that you can responsibly plan detailed cuts to public services in two weeks

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Nick Davies

1 year

It's now Monday, 4 days after the new NHS pay offers were announced, and I genuinely can't believe there's still no clarity over where the funding will come from Either the govt knows, but won't say. Or it agreed a multi-£bn deal without knowing how to pay for it. Neither good!

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Nick Davies

2 months

UK has underspent on capital for decades but 2010s saw particularly deep cuts. This is a major cause of productivity problems. Staff can't do their jobs if they're working in crumbling buildings, on computers that take 20 mins to turn on and without access to the latest equipment

@tompope0

Thomas Pope

2 months

NEW @instituteforgov report, with @GrantThorntonUK looks at capital spending in public services and how it can be done better TL;DR To improve public services, next govt will need to invest more than the past. But it will need to spend better too 1/14

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Nick Davies

3 months

To take the middle point of a guesstimate summary of the limited evidence that is available, and multiply that by 50% of the value of all contracts ending each year, is a very dubious way of costing Labour’s insourcing pledge

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Nick Davies

6 months

Jeremy Hunt today: £800m to boost public service productivity The govt quietly last week: NHS capital budgets have been cut by £900m to cover shortfalls in day-to-day spending

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Nick Davies

11 months

There’s a lot to like in this Hunt interview. He’s right about problems: frontline staff are wasted on admin, govts have raided IT budgets to cover funding shortfalls and public services are not as productive as they could be. Buts he’s only half right on solutions… 🧵

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Nick Davies

9 years

Fascinating article by @mrianleslie on the growing rearguard action by advertising traditionalists against digital

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Nick Davies

6 years

It’s not every day that a charity can rightfully claim to have had a £1.67bn impact. Well done @CPAGUK

@CPAGUK

Child Poverty Action Group

6 years

. @BBCNews piece on disability benefit payments following our legal victory- our CEO @alisongcpag quoted: “It should not have taken legal action to get vulnerable people the money they were entitled to from the outset to avoid hardship."

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Nick Davies

4 years

The amount of absolute nonsense written about this target is incredible. It has been heavily gamed and tells us nothing about how well the govt is managing the crisis or when they'll be able to lift the lockdown. Mission accomplished on the politics but what about the virus?!

@GuidoFawkes

Guido Fawkes

4 years

Government Smashes 100,000 Testing Target with 122,347 Tests Over Thursday

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Nick Davies

6 years

My neighbour’s dog Daisy was stolen outside Dvine wine bar in Clapham. If you see this woman and dog please call 07775676142

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Nick Davies

2 years

Public service backlogs can’t generally be solved with one-off funding injections. In most cases, there simply aren’t enough staff Additional judges, doctors, nurses and social workers can’t be magicked out of nowhere

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Nick Davies

4 years

What?! This thread is astonishing and gets worse the further down you read

@Gabriel_Pogrund

Gabriel Pogrund

@Gabriel_Pogrund

4 years

EXC: The chair of the UK's vaccine task force showed “official sensitive” government documents to a $200-a-head event for elite US venture capitalists last week Kate Bingham, a Boris Johnson appointee, showed guests a list of products which the government is set to invest in 1/

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Nick Davies

5 years

This is my best "try to look intelligent while talking to the world leading academic" look

@instituteforgov

Institute for Government

@instituteforgov

5 years

What are the challenges facing government outsourcing in the UK – and what lessons can the UK learn from other countries? Watch as Professor Gary Sturgess, former New South Wales Cabinet Secretary, shares his insight on government outsourcing in Australia

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