Many argue that our system of Government is too centralised. Whether that is true or not, the response to Covid reflects my own experience that too few policymakers in central Government are well versed in the intricacies of local government.
This became apparent to me whilst working on the 2017 Industrial Strategy in BEIS, with lots of initiatives involving local government, but little voice from local government themselves, and few (if any) of the policymakers involved having worked in it.
And, as a non-expert, this disconnect appears to have been highlighted by the difficulty we have had in the UK in effectively corralling the best of central and local government resource around this public health emergency. This was especially evident around testing capacity, and track and trace policy.
1186-1
You must log in to post a comment.