Cassia Rowland

It’s started! The moment you’ve all been waiting for, the IfG’s Public Services Performance Tracker is here — part one on local gov dropped today from the fab @stuarthoddinott.bsky.social and @amberdellar.bsky.social with more to come over the next few weeks. Check it out!

It’s started! The moment you’ve all been waiting for, the IfG’s Public Services Performance Tracker is here — part one on local gov dropped today from the fab @stuarthoddinott.bsky.social and @amberdellar.bsky.social with more to come over the next few weeks. Check it out!

The more I think about this the more I agree. I will defend four weddings but only as a film, definitely not as a romance!

Not the main point, but: this is also why About Time is deeply creepy, not romantic. Engage with people you’re dating as real people, not trying to ‘optimise’ every interaction! You’re not sticking coins in a slot machine!

Yes — your only crime and justice lever as an MP is ‘lobby the government’! And maybe a little ‘lobby the PCC’

Yes that’s what I was thinking! One of the benefits of combined authorities imo is it makes it easier for people to know who to get in touch with and things can be passed around behind the scenes

Interesting to see crime and justice listed as one of the top 3 issues — I suspect it’s more crime than justice but would love to know if that’s true!

Name A 28-Year-Old | Defector Here is the challenge before you: Name a famous person who is 28 years old. Go ahead. No cheating, no looking it up. Off the dome. Pure, uncut 28-year-old naming. I bet you can’t do it.  Zendaya? 29. ...

This is hilarious and a little brutal and totally pointless, you should read it defector.com/name-a-28-ye...

I'm increasingly convinced this is a huge driver of dissatisfaction with govt

Council tax is one of the most visible taxes that people pay, it goes directly out of their bank account and they get a letter about it going up every year

Yet bin collection frequency falls and libraries close

In case (like me!) you missed this in the frenzy of Labour conference, great thread here from Stuart on the gov’s ‘pride in place’ plans

To everyone in Britain's Jewish Community: you are not alone. We will not let hate or those who spread it win. We stand with you.

On Yom Kippur many Jewish people in Britain have their phones off to mark the holy day.

As it ends at 723pm, some will hear the tragic Manchester news for the first time.

At that time, please join many of us to send a message of solidarity to British Jews.Thanks Together coalition for proposing.

Terrible news that two people were killed in Manchester attending their place of worship at the synagogue in Manchester, with others seriously injured.

Community Security Trust @cstuk.bsky.social who do so much to keep Jewish people safe at faith and community spaces have issued this advice.

I've had a look at the prison education statistics for last year and there's some good news in there, albeit very modest and from a low starting point.

Hard to see how that will be sustained, though, with upcoming budget cuts about to hit provision that was already chronically underfunded.

Interesting, I didn’t know that! That makes this even more a Big Complicated Task. Seems like it may also be the final death of ‘your legal name is what you call yourself‘, one of my favourite things about this country.

There are some real potential benefits to digital ID: streamlining access to services, improving transparency & accessibility, reducing admin burden. But none of these are guaranteed and they're often tricky to pull off! Gov should start small with basic functionality and build from there.

Great thread from Rachel. I'm surprised how many people are gamely declaring this won't be that complicated to deliver bc tech/infrastructure already exists & it's 'just linking databases'. a) *some* of the infrastructure already exists & b) linking databases can, actually, be extremely complicated!

Really looking forward to this event at Labour party conference next week. Come along!

On the day gov stats show delays increasing in the mags' courts our team are going through findings of our volunteers who observed mags' courts in London this year. Their reflections show why justice is slow & why the process is often not very just.

Graphic from the Smart Thinking Awards, reading 'We have nominated Cassia Rowland for Researcher of the year'. Supported by Lloyds banking group with the Lloyds logo is in the top right corner and the Institute for Government logo is in the bottom right corner

Delighted to be the @instituteforgovernment.org.uk nominee for Researcher of the Year at the @smartthinking.bsky.social think tank awards! Looking forward to entertaining all my fellow nominees with tales of public service performance at the award ceremony in November.

The role of procurement in delivering mission-led government | Institute for Government How can the government remove the barriers to its missions?

Government spends >£400bn each year (!!!) buying stuff from the private and voluntary sectors. With a tricky budget coming up and Starmer's focus on delivery, our new report sets out the role procurement can play in delivering mission-led government
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

The 2025 budget and beyond: How Rachel Reeves can approach tax reform to help drive growth | Institute for Government A big autumn approaches for the chancellor.

New @instituteforgovernment.org.uk report by me, @gemmatetlow.bsky.social and @jillongovt.bsky.social on how Reeves should approach tax this Autumn

With tax rises inevitable, Reeves should reject path of least resistance and embrace tax reform 1/3

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

We will be in Bournemouth for the Lib Dem Conference from Sunday 21 September until Monday 22 September.

Our first event will be an in conversation with Sir Nick Clegg on his new book on big tech, AI and political conflict - join us at 19:45 at Tregonwell Hall

I‘m heading to Labour Party conference! Thrilled to be speaking on this panel alongside prisons minister Lord Timpson and @fionarutherford.bsky.social from JUSTICE. Please come along, and drop me a DM if you want to grab a coffee and chat public services/criminal justice/digital reform.

The government is taking the right approach to sentencing reform | Institute for Government There is a lot to welcome in the Sentencing Bill.

The government is taking the right approach to sentencing reform

It must resist pressure to water down its proposals, says @cassiarowland.bsky.social www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/gove...

This is v.good by @cassiarowland.bsky.social on the Sentencing Bill, including the potential benefits of earned progression if it can be implemented properly if/when current pressures on the prison system subside.

It's about a £700m increase (by 28/29, compared to 25/26). So not pocket change!

MoJ have set recruitment goals for trainees: 1,000 in 24/25 (which they hit) and another 1,300 in 25/26. But that's still leaves them far short of est. total needed. And of course training & supervising new recruits puts a lot of pressure on experienced staff, as we've seen in policing!

Gov has promised big increase in probation funding over this spending review period (~45%). Not clear how much of that is to support massive expansion of tagging vs more staff, which is the current bottleneck. They are training up new probation officers but impossible to replace lost experience.

The government is likely to face a lot of pressure to water down its proposals - e.g. excluding those convicted of domestic abuse or sexual offences. These will be hard to resist. But it should hold firm: these reforms are sensible and urgently needed.

Tying early release to 'purposeful activity' in prison like this won't be possible in the short-term, given the state of things, but as conditions improve it should be possible if the gov wants to explore that.