Tag Archives: McKinsey

David Boyle writes… The missing explanation of public service failure

By David Boyle | Thu 10th November 2011 - 10:15 am

The doyen of Liberator magazine, Simon Titley, just sent me through a cutting from the Leicester Mercury which gives us just a glimpse at the reasons why public services became so expensive under New Labour.

The report tells us of the unused regional fire control centre for the East Midlands, standing empty in Castle Donington, but still costing £5,000 a day to run, with burgeoning interest accruing in the PFI contract. It wasn’t just the dream of regional government, or the manifest problems of PFI, that caused the problem here. It was another example of a huge …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged audit commission, liberator, public services and simon titley | 12 Comments

Improving schools systems: the international lessons

By Mark Pack | Tue 14th December 2010 - 8:55 am

How does a poor school system become good or a good school system become excellent? Those are the questions asked in a recently published McKinsey review of twenty school systems around the world, including both developed and developing countries.

In school systems where there have been significant improvements in performance, McKinsey found that these were often achieved in six years or less from the start of the changes. In other words it is possible for a government to bring about improvements in time for the public to see the benefits before the next election. However, continuity amongst key educational officials (including politicians) is frequently beneficial, with improving systems usually having their educational leaders in place for long periods of time.

Many of those improvements were, according to the McKinsey analysis, brought about without significant changes in the structure of education systems or in the resources put in.

Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged education, michael gove and schools | 7 Comments

Opinion: Cleggmania in reverse, or the right side of the revolt

By David Boyle | Thu 2nd December 2010 - 9:43 am

You only had to open last week’s Observer to realise what a lot the party leader has on his plate at the moment. As well as dealing with the ‘Petition of 104’, the constant repetition in the paper of the ‘liar’ tag was pretty unpleasant.

Nick Clegg has managed to survive the battering with great dignity so far. But it is hardly surprising that the commentariat are currently writing off his party.

I think they are wrong. But the health of the Lib Dems depends on staying on the correct side of the revolt.

Just set aside …

Posted in News | Also tagged people power | 54 Comments