Delivering joined–up government in the UK: dimensions, issues and problems

Abstract

In the UK, joined-up government (JUG) was a central part of the first Blair government's programme for public sector reform. It remains a pivotal, if more muted, feature of the second term. We will identify the range of disparate activities that have been branded as 'joined up'. We then look at the variety of official guidance coming from the centre of government to highlight the overlapping and competing strategies that underpinned the implementation of joined-up government. Various competing strategies have been advocated and implemented at any one time. Therefore the situation was more fluid and more contested than might be inferred from the use of the homogenizing term 'joined-up government'. We conclude by briefly considering what this implies for our understanding of intra-state relationships, of the relationships between public agencies and civil society, and the relationship between JUG and the politics of the Third Way.

A public value perspective for ICT enabled public sector reforms: A theoretical reflection

“…As a response to the increased fragmentation caused by reform programs which focused on intra-organizational rationalization, disaggregation, and structural devolution, the joined-up approach focuses on coordination and integration strategies (Mulgan, 2005). Even if this can be seen as a new approach to public sector management, attempts to coordinate government policy-making and service delivery across organizational boundaries are not new phenomena (Ling, 2002). The development of network relationships between public sector organizations either in terms of cooperative relationships among individual organizations (Levine & White, 1961;Warren, Rose, & Bergunder, 1974), or in terms of multiple interactions needed to deliver full cooperative service provision providers (Jennings & Ewalt, 1998), is a well known argument in organization and public policy research since the late 1960s (Provan & Milward, 2001).…”

Joining up or Pulling Apart? The Use of Appraisal to Coordinate Policy Making for Sustainable Development

“…Without sufficient administrative capacities, attempts to engineer institutional learningöa seemingly important dimension of policy coordination (Ling, 2002, page 638) ömay falter. In fact, our empirical data reveal little evidence of long-term learning.…”

Information Flow and Its Significance in Coherently Integrated Policymaking for Promoting Energy Efficiency

“…The idea of holistic government is similar to cross-cutting policy-making and joined-up government. These concepts are mentioned in various forms by scholars such as Ling (11), and international organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (12). In general, all these concepts stress the significance of coordinating activities across organizational boundaries (interdepartmental, central-local, or sectoral in nature) without removing the boundaries themselves.…”