Frontline workers invited to serve stints in Whitehall to make state like a ‘begin up’

Frontline workers will be asked to serve stints in Government under a push to make the state work like a “start up”.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden will warn that the Government will fail to deliver if it carries on with business as usual. In a speech in London, he will set out plans for a £100million fund to trial Silicon Valley-style approach to challenges in the public sector.

Crack teams will deployed to look at how to drive down use of temporary accommodation in Liverpool and Essex, and improving family support services in Manchester and Sheffield from January. While Mr McFadden will acknowledge “each of these projects is small”, he will say “they could rewire the state one test at a time”.

Tech firm workers will be invited to do a six to twelve-month “tour of duty” in Government to use their skills to help influence reforms. Public service staff like prison governors and social work chiefs will also be invited to take secondments in Whitehall to help ministers deliver Keir Starmer‘s plans to change Britain.

Mr McFadden will say: “Prison governors, social work heads, directors of children’s services – they are the ones on the ground who can see how things are working, where the obstacles are, and where a policy won’t survive contact with reality.

“They have stared the issues and the people that depend on us in the eye, seen how the system has been broken – they have taken the frustrations home with them each week. Now we want them to be part of the solution.”

It comes after the Prime Minister unveiled six milestones on how voters can hold him to account on key issues like the NHS, crime and education.

Mr McFadden will also order departments to simplify “mind bogglingly bureaucratic and off-putting” applications for civil service jobs after the PM accused Whitehall of being too comfortable with failure.

He will warn: “If we keep governing as usual, we are not going to achieve what we want to achieve.”

Deputy PM Angela Rayner accepted on Sunday that the public want to see the Government deliver. She said: “I know people are impatient for change, but I also know that people will give us that opportunity and will judge us, and that’s why Keir set out the clear guidelines on what people should expect we will deliver.”