Stuart Hoddinott

Are we doing the "do ministers need to be MPs" debate again?

No, of course they don't - and many governments do bring in experts/big hitters by putting people in the Lords. But getting rid of the MP link across all of cabinet would be a huge change - and may not have the effects people want...

This is the content I'm here for. Very pretty bike as well

Reform-led Kent council calls for more overseas social care visas The government’s Social Care Worker Visa route for overseas recruitment is to end.

Here's the story about the leader of Kent County Council asking the government to reconsider ending the visa route for care workers

They're right about this by the way, but you wouldn't know it from the national party's rhetoric

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Nigel Farage’s DOGE firebrands are already at war Reform UK is mounting an Elon Musk-inspired bid to slash state “waste.” The fireworks have already begun.

Every story since the local elections is Reform learning that governing is harder than making populist soundbites. So far:
- "DOGE" has flatly failed to find wasteful spending
- admitted that immigration is needed for social care
- admitted they can't cut council tax

www.politico.eu/article/nige...

I wonder how many times right wing think tanks can write the same report about the NHS

Seems we haven't reached the limit yet

200 pages to make the most boring (and worse, useless) set of policy recommendations

The NHS – a Suitable Case for Treatment? - Policy Exchange Download Publication Online Reader ‘The NHS – a Suitable Case for Treatment?’ makes the case that the NHS is not fit for purpose and is in urgent need of reform.The report finds that NHS performance r...

Policy exchange, backed by Sajid Javid, think we need to switch the NHS funding model to social insurance, and introduce new charges for NHS services, like to see a GP

policyexchange.org.uk/publication/...

These are not new ideas, but they are bad ideas

A thread with some evidence

This is a good point. Free oreos: a more effective policy for improving satisfaction with public services than AI

Current UK government policy on AI is like:

"the CEO of oreos says they're as important as oxygen so we'll take billions of pounds worth of oreos and force them into every public service"

Particularly enjoyed this typology of what LLMs do

What in here is really going to transform services and save £bns as govt promises? Stuff like "2,000 extra GPs from using transcription products" in the NHS 10 year plan is just nonsense

Lack of critical thinking on AI in govt is staggering

This is great

Fascinating how this interacts with UK govt policy: politicians parrot tech and VCs' marketing spiel, rely on magical AI thinking when planning reforms, and then waste £bns forcing this stuff on services and citizens

If it blows up as Ed suggests, govt will have a lot to answer for

Lessons for the government’s 'revived' Pensions Commission | Institute for Government What can the new commission learn from its 2000s predecessor?

The original pensions commission is the single most effective independent inquiry of the last few decades. @jillongovt.bsky.social @gemmatetlow.bsky.social and I have written on what the new pensions commission announced this week can learn from the original

In its 10 Year Health Plan, the government recommitted to halving the gap in healthy life expectancy (HLE) between the poorest and richest regions. But how? Our new analysis with the ONS points to the underlying factors which any plan will need to take account of. 🧵

We at @instituteforgovernment.org.uk have coordinated a letter in @thetimes.com today in which numerous individuals and organisations call on the government to withdraw its mistaken rules which are having a serious chilling effect on civil servants speaking in public…

Sir Keir Starmer is facing growing demands to ditch a new government edict that bans senior health officials, military leaders and even the head of the civil service from speaking openly in public. In a letter in today's Times the leaders of more than a dozen think tanks, including the Royal Society and Nuffield Trust, warned the prime minister that the new rule was having a "chilling effect on public discussion" with some events already being cancelled. In private, several former cabinet secretaries are understood to have made their concerns clear to Downing Street. The new rules have even been condemned by Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former head of communications, who was himself not shy about controlling the messaging of No10.

In their letter the think tanks describe the new rules as a "mistake", saying that "effective government" relies on public servants hearing directly from businesses, charities and citizens to help them make better policy. They warned: "They should be able to explain government activity to those same groups. It the guidance] is causing confusion and a chilling effect on public discussion. The government should withdraw it."

Story tonight about our joint open letter to The Times

We’re calling for the guidance that is preventing civil servants from participating in public and stakeholder events to be withdrawn

www.thetimes.com/article/2e4f...

The OBR identify crypto ownership as a "new fiscal risk", with ~1 in 8 people owning them in 2024

I hadn't thought about this, but because there is no stamp duty on purchase (as there is for shares) it means that there is a reduction in tax revenue when people substitute out of shares into crypto

Public sentiment is also different now. A majority of the public do not support resident doctors walking out, whereas they did for months into the last strike

This is really bad news for the govt. The last resident doctors' strike led to ~1.25 million cancelled elective appointments in hospitals and severely hurt elective performance

Trust finances are also stretched so far that a higher pay deal within the existing settlement will be very difficult

Crucially, success relies on actually turning a strategy and vision into reality

Previous plans have foundered on the point of implementation

And the abolition of NHS England and the shake up of integrated care boards could distract a lot of attention

10YP is just the beginning

Labour’s 10 Year Health Plan: familiar ideas could be frustrated by familiar problems | Institute for Government There is plenty of the what but less of the how in Wes Streeting’s new plan.

Good write up of the 10 year plan from Nick Timmins:

- A lot of existing policy. But that's good: things like integration are laudable aims
- Focus on tech is welcome, but dependent on limited capital budgets
- Social care still needs addressing

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/nhs-...

A preventative approach to public services | Institute for Government The next government must focus on prevention or risk worse public services and higher taxes.

Done well, these family hubs could mean a lot less pressure on acute services like children's residential care, SEND services and the NHS

Very similar to what we argued for in our report last year

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

One-stop family hubs to be opened in all English council areas Government announces £500m project to provide single-point of access for health, education and wellbeing services

So good to see this announcement, it could be a genuinely transformative programme

But also depressing that good policy now is just reversing the damage of the last 15 years

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

YouTube video by Peston PESTON LIVE - 02/07/2025

The Labour government’s most prominent commitment on health is to get waiting times back to 18 weeks by the end of the Parliament. Are they on track? We looked at this for last night’s Peston show youtu.be/yc-9Psk3gk8?... 🧵

Picture of Rayner's speech, which says: "And with more flexible funding, we’re giving you the opportunity to work more collaboratively including through new pilots so councils and mayors can pool budgets and do joined-up services, learning the lessons of projects like Total Place – the last Labour government’s pioneering reform programme."

I really like the sound of the Total Place-style pooled budget pilots that Angela Rayner announced today. Little detail provided so far but potentially huge. This is how @instituteforgovernment.org.uk think Total Place pilots should work:
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

So telling that all Reform can muster up as examples of waste in Kent are:
- Poor IT systems, which are a result of underinvestment, not waste
- A framework for spending with their own trading company
- £1,000 of spending on TV licences, which is like someone who makes £30k worrying about 2 pence

Former DOGE engineer says he was 'surprised' by 'how efficient' the government is NPR's Juana Summers talks with Sahil Lavingia, who worked for the Department of Government Efficiency as a software engineer assigned to the Department of Veterans Affairs, about his experience.

Fascinating to watch people in these "DOGE" units - including Reform's in Kent County Council - go into government and realise that the public sector is nowhere near as inefficient as they'd lazily believed

www.npr.org/2025/06/02/n...

Adult social care across England | Institute for Government Examining the care gap in England.

There's lots more in the report, so it's worth a more thorough read:

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

Third, reduced access places more burden on friends and family - predominantly women and poorer people - to pick up the slack

Unpaid carers often reduce their work to care, which is bad for the govt's ambition of increasing workforce participation

Second, access has fallen more quickly than demand. That means there is more unmet need than 20 years ago. That puts pressure on other services: higher demand for general practice, hospitals, etc.

These findings have a number of implications

First, it is unjust for people to be denied care because of where they live. If LAs don't have enough money, central govt needs to ensure that funding better matches need. Recent announcements are welcome

That pressure is unlikely to go away. The older adult population is due to grow much faster than other age groups over next 30 years. Even if disability rates continue to fall, there'll likely be more demand for care

Among working age adults, disability rates could continue to rise, adding pressure