Promoting Accountability Works!

Last updated:13 July 2010

As part of our mission to promote Accountability Works! we are seeking opportunities to influence others’ agendas through articles and speaking slots. As part of this, Jessica Crowe, Executive Director, attended the CIPFA Annual Conference in Harrogate in early June as a plenary speaker on rebuilding public confidence in government, alongside Matthew Elliott of the Taxpayers Alliance!

Somewhat alarmingly we were agreed on the need for transparency to apply across the board, from the public sector itself but also from private contractors delivering public services. If you want to see Jessica’s presentation, which talks about our key Accountability Works! themes and the role scrutiny can play in increasing public trust and tackling the financial problems faced by the public sector, it’s here.

Also speaking at CIPFA were Goran Persson, former Prime Minister of Sweden, who gave an excellent speech, virtually without notes, about how he had got Sweden out of a similar budget deficit to Britain’s in the mid 1990s. His messages were: do it all at once, spread the pain widely ie don’t protect any areas, don’t waste time, and communicate all the time what you’re doing and why.

Jessica has also written articles for the SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives) focus magazine (Good Governance), the Government Gazette (Accountability. What is it and why is it important?).  Other articles are to come out later in the year, including an article for Public Money and Management.  Jessica will be speaking at the ACSeS (Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors) Summit in July.

Our own Accountability Summit at the end of June went very well.  Chaired and hosted by our President Baroness Sally Hamwee, a high powered and high quality audience discussed themes around Accountability Works! Rob Whiteman, managing director of the IDeA (now renamed Local Government Improvement & development) gave the practitioner perspective and argued for stronger local accountability to elected councillors, with increased civic capacity so that democratic institutions are more shaped by the involvement of citizens. He emphasised that whereas the last decade had been primarily managerialist, the next decade was likely to be more political.

We had contributions from academics, senior regulators such as Denise Platt and an interesting perspective from the Scottish Government, highlighting the different approach being followed in Scotland but agreeing with the idea of the “web of accountability” that we promote in Accountability Works! In Scotland there has been a rationalisation of scrutiny bodies and transparency was a potential way to make the “web” operational and more interconnected.