At the Select Committee meeting on 16 February, I agreed to provide a note on how the Government Offices (GOs) had contributed to the development of "joined up Government" within the parent Departments.[13]

  As the Committee is of course aware, the GOs were created by amalgamating the regional offices of the four (at that time) parent departments. Bringing together staff of the four parent departments, many of whom are now in jobs which transcend departmental policy boundaries, means that they are able to see the links between different strands of departmental policies.

  One example of how they have helped secure good co-ordination between departmental policies is on delivering integrated support to major inward investors to cover training as well as other support. DTI's natural focus is on delivery of services to individual businesses, while DfEE's activity is based on increasing the skills level, both of the economy as a whole and of individuals. GOs have helped us secure a co-ordinated approach—both in particular cases and more generally. Twice a year my DfEE opposite number and I hold joint meetings with the Skills and Enterprise Functional directors in GOs and with their Competitiveness and Industry counterparts to discuss issues of mutual concern. At one of these meetings we discussed the co-ordination of the two parent's work on support for major inward investment projects. During this discussion we recceived a useful presentation from the GOs on work to secure the production of the Jaguar 400 at Halewood, which highlighted the need for DTI and DfEE staff involved in such projects to work together and to ensure that they had common objectives. Hearing about the practical experience of GOs in this area highlighted ways of securing a joined up approach to this type of work.

  I think that we also learn from the GOs in observing how they can make the links between different Department's policies, and find practical ways—which might have escaped us at the centre—to deliver Government objectives. A few examples from Government Office for East Midlands usefully illustrate this point.

—  Sustainable Development. In Autumn 1998 the GO established a Regional Round Table on Sustainable Development as part of the implementation of the revised National Sustainable Development Strategy. As part of the follow up work, the regions' TECs and BLs were actively encouraged by the GO Business Managers to work more proactively on environmental issues and to participate in the work being undertaken by the EMAGE (East Midlands Action Group on the Environment) Local Action Groups.

—  Competitiveness. A cross office group has been set up to take forward the regional promotion of the Competitiveness White Paper and the development of an action plan. This has identified ways in which DTI, DfEE and DETR programmes, plus the RDAs, can feed into the delivery of the Competitiveness White Paper commitments.

—  Making the links with other Department's initiatives. GOEM has been working with the National Health Service Executive Trent Regional Office to jointly tackle issues of common interest. The Government Office objectives of improving the competitiveness, prosperity and quality of life of the East Midlands overlap considerably with NHS objectives of overcoming health inequalities, breaking down barriers between services and maximising value for money. The two organisations are in the process of agreeing a series of joint working objectives covering such matters as:

—  co-operation on regeneration and health initiatives, e.g., Health Action Zones, New Deal for Communities;

—  building formal partnerships where appropriate, e.g., NHA and GOEM representation on Sure Start Steering Group;

—  NHS and GOEM Management Board meetings annually to review achievements and set new joint targets for activities of mutual interest, e.g., housing, regeneration, transport, sustainable development.

David R C Durie

March 1999