6 Learning from mistakes and seizing
future opportunities
72. Throughout this inquiry we have heard from academics,
business representatives and civil servants about the great importance
of learning both from what is working well and from mistakes,
capitalising on corporate memory and adopting an outward and forward-looking
approach. However, from each of these groups, we have also heard
about numerous Government failings in these areas.
Learning from mistakes
73. In their written evidence the ACCA (the Association
of Chartered Certified Accountants) stated that "the continuous
churn of civil servants and increasing departures of senior civil
servants poses significant problems to the delivery of good governance
and corporate memory. It inhibits the ability to learn from mistakes
and stifles the dissemination of best practice."[122]
The Employment Related Services Association (ERSA) agree with
this, commenting on its experiences of the Department for Work
and Pensions' procurement process, an area focused on by the Capabilities
Plan, and telling us that this "capacity has been reduced
over an extended period by a high turnover of key civil service
personnel."[123]
74. Speaking at Civil Service Live in 2013, Treasury
permanent secretary Sir Nicholas Macpherson acknowledged the Civil
Service's weakness in this area, commenting that that poor institutional
memory within HMT, in particular, means that the "endless
reinventing of wheels is very likely".[124]
Despite such acknowledgement we have been told about the Civil
Service's diminishing ability to take steps to counteract this.
The Academy of Social Sciences highlighted to us the 2012 report
Where Have All the Files Gone? Lost in Action Points Every
One? by Michael Moss.[125]
According to the Academy, this report found "a marked deterioration
in record-keeping practices" in the Civil Service, meaning
that "when civil servants leave, their knowledge and relationships
are lost".[126]
They tell us that examples of this has been seen "in rail
planning and housing".[127]
Professor of History at Cambridge University, Simon Szreter, also
told us that very few Civil Service departments have the right
skills in place to ensure the maintenance of corporate memory.
He reported that there is a "real issue about historical
understanding and training."[128]
He added that "in a couple of Departments of State—the
Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence—they employ historians;
I think they are the only Departments that do so."[129]
Dominic Cummings agreed with this view, commenting that "there
has been an appalling destruction of libraries in Whitehall: the
DfE [Department for Education] library was destroyed, the Foreign
Office library was destroyed."[130]
He added that such behaviour is indicative of a system that "is
parochial not just about the outside world, but [also] about its
own past."[131]
Learning from one another
75. In addition to a lack of ability to retain and
learn from their own corporate memory, witnesses have told us
about the inability of Civil Service departments to learn from
the rest of the Civil Service, or the outside world. The British
Psychological Society warns in their evidence of the dangers of
groupthink, leading to situations where the "desire for agreement
overrides motivation to appraise alternatives".[132]
While Richard Anderson of the IRM spoke of the importance of skills,
such as risk management, which allow organisations to disrupt
"perfect-place arrogance".[133]
Reflecting on his time in the Department for Education, Dominic
Cummings told us how he had witnessed such behaviour within the
Civil Service:
In meeting after meeting if you say, "Who
has already solved this problem and how can we steal what they
have done?", which is a very standard question to ask in
the private sector, everyone looks at you as if you have asked
an extraordinary question.[134]
76. We have witnessed his apparent inability of departments
to look outwards and learn from best practice first-hand. Speaking
about the lessons learned at DfT, following the cancellation of
the West Coast mainline franchise competition, Clare Moriarty
told us they had distilled the results of the Laidlaw Report into
"something we called the Laidlaw prescription".[135]
The Department saw these lessons as so important that they were
printed on to cards so that staff could carry them with them at
all times.[136] However,
when asked how such positive lessons are being transferred to
the Cabinet Office, Bill Crothers stated:
The problem is that there are too many of them.
I do have a group who work for me who read any old PAC [Public
Accounts Committee], PASC [Public Administration Select Committee],
etc., reports that concern commercial, which they try to abstract,
distil and send around to people. That one I missed.[137]
77. In addition to these failings, we have also learned
about related functional gaps created by the closure of the NSG.
In addition to its core training function, the NSG also acted
as a learning bridge, across Government and with organisations
outside Government. For example, during a recent visit to the
Ministry of Defence's Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre
(DCDC), we heard about the role that the NSG had played in the
Strategic Trends Programme, a project that engaged departments
across Whitehall to consider the future challenges and opportunities
Governments may face in 20 to 35 years. This role is no longer
performed now that the NSG has closed.
78. Adam Steinhouse also highlighted the role that
the school played in learning from, and informing other EU member
states. He tells us how he had previously represented the NSG
at network meetings of the Directors of Institutes and Schools
of Public Administration. However, since the closure of the NSG
"the British have not been represented for the past three
years":
As a special favour I was invited a few weeks
ago to the Rome meeting. It is linked to each presidency. I was
put after Ukraine, but without a flag.[138]
Mr Steinhouse tells us, that while the UK Civil Service
is unable to recognise the value of such networks "the Swiss
have offered to take the place of the British in hosting the possible
2017 meeting."[139]
79. The inability of the Civil Service to learn from
success and failure is recognised by the Cabinet Office. Francis
Maude assessed the ability of the Civil Service as "not very
good", while Oliver Robbins, when asked if the Civil Service
has the right skills in place to facilitate such learning, stated
"not always, no".[140]
Despite this acknowledgement, it is not entirely clear what steps
are being taken to address this. Suggestions made by Oliver Robbins
that steps are being taken by the different professions networks
to learn from such events, are encouraging. However, it is not
clear how this work is initiated, or how it is coordinated to
ensure that certain lessons are not missed. When we put to him
the idea that Civil Service Learning could act as a store of what
has worked and not worked, as a coherent cross-Government resource,
Francis Maude described this as a "very interesting nascent
recommendation".[141]
The inclusion of the 'Innovation Award' in the 2014
Civil Service Awards, described by Francis Maude as the award
for "best failure", is an example of steps being taken
in the right direction. [142]
However, it is telling that Mr Maude himself states that he was
eventually "not quite brave enough"[143]
to use this title.
80. There is
currently an institutional gap in the Civil Service. Individual
Civil Service departments are achieving successes and making mistakes
and learning from both, but there is no institutional recognition
of this vital function. There is nobody responsible for gathering
and disseminating this learning and ensuring that other departments
benefit from it. At a time when Government needs to find better
and more effective answers for the problems it faces, the Civil
Service should demonstrate a much stronger institutional ability
to learn lessons from itself and the outside world.
81. We recommend that the Cabinet Office should
establish a new function dedicated to ensuring that the Civil
Service gathers and disseminates the lessons of both success and
failure. This function should be resourced to allow it to seek
out the most valuable lessons being learned across the Civil Service
and the private sector and to ensure that these are fed into the
training of civil servants.
122 ACCA [CSS23] Back
123
Employment Related Services Association [CSS31] Back
124
Civil Service World 'Macpherson: Whitehall must sharpen corporate memory',
12 July 2013 Back
125
Moss, Michael (2012) 'Where Have All the Files Gone? Lost in Action
Points Every One?', Journal of Contemporary History, Vol.
47 Back
126
Academy of Social Sciences [CSS6] Back
127
As above Back
128
Q 14 Back
129
As above Back
130
Q 187 Back
131
As above Back
132
British Psychological Society [CSS5] Back
133
Q 93 Back
134
Q 221 Back
135
As above Back
136
Q 161 Back
137
Q 165 Back
138
Dr Adam Steinhouse [CSS24] Back
139
As above Back
140
Q343 and Q297 Back
141
Q 348 Back
142
Civil Service Awards, Winners, November 2014, and Q 345 Back
143
As above Back
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