Public service reform in the United Kingdom (UK) stands at a crossroads. There is growing alignment around a new ‘liberated’ model of public services: preventative, empowered, joined-up and innovative services, centred around people. Yet there is also evidence that the government’s reform ambitions are narrowing, buffered by the pressure to deliver tangible change, and under extreme fiscal pressure.

This paper focusses on culture: why promising reforms struggle to get through the central government (Whitehall) system in the first place, and even more so to embed themselves for any length of time. Drawing on the experiences of reformers themselves – from Permanent Secretaries to LA Chief Executives – it identifies five major barriers to a more reforming culture in central government.

Culture is a much underexplored aspect in debates around Whitehall reform, despite advanced academic and practical models for change existing beyond its walls. Harnessing insights from organisational psychology and management science, the paper points to the seeds of possible solutions – early signs of how cultural change could realistically be achieved in Whitehall.

Key barriers

1. Politics and the public sector are steeped in risk.
2. In Whitehall, getting ahead often means being a ‘policy hero’.
3. Scale and separation drive people into tribes.
4. A tendency to favour standardisation and simplicity.
5. Politics is impatient for quick, legible results.