Civil Service World will soon be interviewing Labour minister Jim Knight about the move of public services online, as set out in the Smarter Government paper. What questions would you like to put to him? Leave me a comment on this post, or email me if you want to remain anonymous. NB: You need to be a member of Civil Service Live Network to comment on posts and email me. If you are not a member, you can register here.

The size of the budget deficit and prospect of public service cuts have, naturally, been major topics of conversation at the conference.The government says the deficit must be paid for through a combination of economic growth, sale of the nationalised banks and careful public service cuts, Brighton has heard a few dissenting voices in Brighton.Loudest has been union leader Mark Serwotka. General secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, he believes the political establishment have... Read full post

The prime minister announced targets for police response times when he spoke to the party conference yesterday.But is this wise? Haven't targets proved to be an imperfect way of ensuring public service delivery in the past?Gordon Brown told delegates: "It is time for a better service for the citizen. So if it's an emergency you must get action in minutes; where it's a neighbourhood priority, within the hour; and where it's a general but not urgent enquiry, no-one will have to wait more than 48... Read full post

'Baby concentration camps!' exclaimed the man standing next to me as we listened to Gordon Brown announce that, from now on, all 16 and 17 year old parents who are on benefits will be placed in "a network of supervised homes".Indeed. In Labour's attempt to take the Conservative's "broken society" claims on, the prime minister was announcing a radical policy to deal with "the children having children", as he described them."It cannot be right, for a girl of sixteen, to get pregnant, be given the... Read full post

If the opinions of some recent Civil Service World interviewees are anything to go by, then yes. Patricia Greer of the National School of Government told the newspaper that government was better off learning from itself rather than buying in management expertise from outside. She pointed out that consultancies were in it for the money: they would sell the same idea to several departments, when departments could be passing the information on themselves. Last year, I heard a senior Home... Read full post

Design. It's not a word you'd instantly connect with public services. It brings to mind uber-trendy Soho types who have designed a beautiful, expensive table made of see-thru plastic. It doesn't make me think of West Midlands teenagers being provided with a custom-designed shelter to hang out in, and causing less grief to their neighbours as a result.
 
But that is design, it turns out. My newfound knowledge has come from the Design Council, where I met policy adviser Emily Thomas... Read full post

The secret shame of fast streamers was revealed yesterday during an extremely insightful Q & A session entitled: 'Does class matter in the modern civil service?' (Verdict: It does, but not as much as it used to).
 
One fast streamer in the audience (I think she said she was from the Home Office) made the shocking revelation that she had kept her fast stream status hidden from her team because she was so ashamed - and the head of the Department for Children, Schools and Families... Read full post

I just came out of a workshop session and was almost mown down by a Royal train consisting of Prince Charles, the cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell and a lot of very wide eyed civil servants.
 
It's good to see someone so high profile coming to see what the civil service is up to. And it looked as though a lot of the civil servants were just as impressed as me - there were a surprising number of digital cameras coming out of pockets. [Does everyone carry them as standard these days?]... Read full post