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This episode is with Charlotte Pickles, the Director of the think tank Reform – and it is an absolute cracker.
I want to spend more time talking to leaders of think tanks as they play such a huge role in our policy development process. The ideas that end up in political party manifestos don’t just materialise out of thin air. It’s important that public servants understand how think tanks influence - and also how they can be influenced.
Charlie and I discuss radical devolution of funding and accountability in health and care and the fact that it should be ok for different areas to do different things based on what they need. We also talk about the machinery of central government and how to encourage a higher tolerance of risk and more long-term thinking (although short term thinking is usually driven by politicians!).
There is a very interesting bit of the conversation where we talk about local government and Combined Authorities being the ideal place to test new ideas.
I also ask Charlie to help public servants understand what this government is trying to achieve and how they should interpret it.
I loved this conversation and I hope you do too.
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