Public services shape people’s everyday experiences of the state, from healthcare and education to welfare and policing. Successive governments have promised reform across these sectors, yet delivering sustained improvement has often proved difficult. 

This insight paper outlines how ministers can be effective leaders of public service reform and drive change across the system. Drawing on studies of successful public service reform, it explores what effective leadership looks like in public service reform, and the lessons this holds for current and future ministers.

For ministers today, charged with leading ambitious reform agendas, the task can feel daunting. Ministers have a crucial role to play, and this role extends long beyond announcing a new policy. Even in a fragmented delivery landscape, there are specific things that only ministers can do and choices only they can make.

The paper sets out four lessons, supported by the insights from the case studies, for how ministers can make the most of their position to approach public service reform:

1. a clear and consistent vision for reform guides action throughout the system
2. strong relationships inside and outside government help ministers achieve their goals
3. using the right tools helps to embed change
4. continuously championing reforms builds support among MPs, the public and the wider sector.