Stuart Hoddinott
Associate Director in the public services team
@InstituteforGov. Interested in the NHS, adult social care, and local government. All views my own. He/him
- Reposted by Stuart HoddinottOn 14 January Wes Streeting said that waiting lists had fallen three times faster in 20 areas of the country where crack teams had been deployed. We’ve looked at this claim and have questions. 🧵 www.gov.uk/government/n...
- *shocked face* The quotes are brilliant: Yusuf pinpointed Kent, saying that government officials’ “snouts have been in the trough for too long” But, Chamberlain said there “just weren’t big cuts to make, because services had been hacked away for years and years” www.ft.com/content/fc3c...
- Happy new year (is it too late to say that?) from the Week in Public Services team! This week: the government’s addiction to pilots; the failure of ed tech; and Reform UK’s row about pensions medium.com/week-in-publ...
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- This Economist article seems relevant for this announcment www.economist.com/united-state...
- We want to make sure tutoring isn't the preserve of a lucky few, but accessible to every child who needs it. AI can help us do that. Safe, personalised, one-to-one learning support to help every child achieve and thrive. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01...
- Reposted by Stuart HoddinottTOMORROW | How can the government make a success of the abolition of NHS England? Join our webinar on Thursday 29 January, 12:30, with Mark Dayan and Sarah Reed @nuffieldtrust.org.uk, @stuarthoddinott.bsky.social and @njdavies.bsky.social www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/govern...
- Reading an interview with Streeting in the HSJ on 31 Jan 2025 When asked if he would abolish NHS England his response was: "I could spend a lot of time and money changing job titles and email addresses and not make a difference to the patient interest" 2026 Streeting would strongly disagree
- Reposted by Stuart HoddinottI have a report out today on the near-perennial question of why UK governments struggle to stick at growth policy in anything like a strategic way. Some hurried points:- 0/ www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
- This is now the third major public service that is going through a structural reorganisation after the NHS and local govt All are supposedly about cost saving, but I think it's also at least partly because it's an easy and visible "lever" for ministers to pull
- Reposted by Stuart HoddinottShort comment from me about SEND reform: Legal rights are a much-relied-upon safeguard in the SEND system, but they can complicate efforts to make education more inclusive. Govt must acknowledge and carefully navigate that tension, with parents and other stakeholders
- "Cutting waste" is the same line that Reform used in the local elections last year Since those elections, Reform has flatly failed to find any substantive waste in their councils, let alone cut it It's fair to assume that their claim about waste in central government is equally meaningless
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- Reposted by Stuart HoddinottAfter Darren Jones joined IfG this week, @hannahkeenan.bsky.social and I had some thoughts about how he can make good on his plans for reforming the state: - show that his plan is different to those that have come before - ensure he's not spreading himself too thinly - set a clear vision
- After a good start, Darren Jones needs to set out his plan for radical state reform New plans must be bold enough to meaningfully shift the dial on an intransigent state www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/darr...
- DHSC published its impact statement for the 10 Year Health Plan this week (yes, that is 6 months after it published the plan) It's more measured and clear-eyed than the original document and quite a contrast to some of the effusive optimism in the plan Some of the things that caught my eye 👇
- On shifting care into the community, the impact statement (IS, left image) argues that evidence for savings is patchy and that the scale of the proposed shift is unprecedented, making it difficult to assess The 10YHP (right image) is more bullish, promising to lower waiting times "for good"
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- This is a crucial point and a rebuttal to Streeting who claims that time consuming NHS reorganisation is going to free up lots of resource for the "frontline" - even if DHSC meets its savings targets, it will only be a tiny proportion of spending on the NHS
- Louise Casey on why successive govt's have failed to reform adult social care: "Possibly quite simple. I'm not sure who's taken policy responsibility for social care in last decades. It falls between two depts [MHCLG and DHSC]. Streeting wants to lean into social care, but it falls in the cracks"
- Louise Casey on patient/citizen choice in public services: "I disagree with performative legislation that has no strategy, no money, no ability to get that done which turns it a advocacy, legislative, lawyering up job, which we have with SEND and potentially the Care Act, and with homelessness"
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- A few thoughts on Streeting's speech: 1) Streeting majored on decentralising power in NHS. But he's overseeing huge concentration of power into his and DHSC's hands while merging ICBs into larger, less local bodies 2) No mention of social care reform. Continues to be the govt's greatest failure...
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