By: Eric Woodcock

I bought a book called 'How to Run A Government: So That Citizens Benefit and Taxpayers Don't Go Crazy' by Sir Michael Barber recently. I have only scanned it so far but it may be a very helpful addition to your resources if you haven't already got it. It has a lot to say about the practicalities of getting policies that are workable and which are logically implemented.
My own limited experience helping local government was that the Government would pitch a policy into the public sector and expect each authority to puzzle out how they would implement it. There was little emphasis at the authorities on pooling ideas and benchmarking, and the idea of talking to neighbouring authorities to seek best practice or achieve economies of scale was absolutely anathema to most politicians and many administrators I came across. Your work needs to understand and address this.