Scrap quangos like the Audit Commission
Author: Daily Telegraph - Sep 22, 2009
'Value-for-money’ quangos like the Audit Commission and the National Audit Office should be scrapped and replaced by a single body which just measures public service performance, a report says today.
The study from Demos, a think-tank, also urged the Government to make it more difficult to become a teacher or social worker to improve the skills’ levels among frontline staff, who in turn should be given fresh powers to manage their own time and budgets.
Front-line staff felt like “untrustworthy teenagers” because of recent reforms, which have done little to improve services and only half feeling proud of their professions, according to the report “Leading From The Front”.
The report said that “this vicious circle of falling status and low morale means the public sector fails to attract the top graduates it desperately needs”.
Rather than a complex formula to performance, public bodies should be judged by a few simple outcomes, such as - for the prisons system - the number of former inmates who might not have reoffended in a four year period after being released.
Improvements to the NHS, teaching and social services would be made if staff were given more autonomy, because they know their job better than anyone, said Demos.
The report recommended measures to cut bureaucracy and remove tiers of middle management.
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