The state needs to become “more like a start-up”, a senior minister will say as the government seeks to change how public services are delivered. Pat McFadden, who oversees the Cabinet Office, wants the civil service to adopt the “test and learn” culture used by many tech companies. If we keep governing as usual, we are not going to achieve what we want to achieve. McFadden’s comments follow Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s criticism of the civil service last week, when he said too many people “are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline.”. In a speech at University College London’s Stratford campus in east London, McFadden is expected to say the civil service needs to adopt a new mindset and “make the state a little bit more like a start-up.” McFadden will launch a £100m “innovation fund” to underpin his plans, which will be used to deploy “test and learn teams” around the country. Public services will be set a challenge and be allowed to experiment and try new things to meet it, in an approach more commonly used in the business world. The government is also attempting to encourage workers from tech companies to join the civil service for six to 12 month secondments to help achieve the prime minister’s goals.
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