Arm’s-Length Bodies (ALBs) are distinct and unique in their contributions to public life. Accounting for nearly 1/3 of public expenditure, they play a vital role in supporting the delivery of government’s key strategic objectives.

This year at PCF Annual Conference, we were joined by senior representatives from Cabinet Office, National Audit Office (NAO), Institute for Government (IfG), and our membership to discuss the topic ‘Making Sense of Arm’s-Length Bodies.’ Guests from a range of organisations which hold connections with PCF, including departmental sponsorship teams, the Northern Ireland Chief Executives Forum, and our conference sponsors, Nous, were also invited to attend.

On the cusp of further reform, speakers addressed their perspectives on the future of public service and how we, as a community of Chairs, might work with central government to guide improvements across the ALB landscape.

5 takeaways from the PCF Annual Conference 2021:

1. ALBs make a significant contribution to public life, often performing niche, complex and specialist roles.
2. Ensuring Public Bodies continue to deliver value for money efficiently and effectively remains vital in this challenging fiscal period.
3. The role and purpose of ALBs’ contribution to public service is commonly misunderstood.
4. There is collective benefit in improving understanding of ALB value; as agile, expert and impartial organisations delivering public service.
5. The Cabinet Office ‘Public Bodies Programme’ provides an important opportunity to collaborate within government reform.

The challenge of the ‘messy and complicated’ ALB environment

During the pandemic, ALBs have been central to front-line support efforts, demonstrating the strength of their responsiveness, resilience, and drive to serve the public. Still, a sense remains within government that the pandemic has further exposed a need for change, reinforcing the need for Civil Service ‘Modernisation and Reform’.

Public Bodies have been subject to reform since the Thatcher administration; in the last decade alone, Cabinet Office have launched three separate reform programmes.

Over the past year, external attention on Public Bodies has re-ignited across a range of stakeholders. The NAO publishing a report on perceived ‘Central Oversight of ALBs,’ prompting a hearing with the Public Accounts Committee in July to characterise the ALB landscape as ‘messy and complicated,’. Most recently, the IfG giving renewed focus to ALBs, with new research publications expected early in 2022. 

A ‘challenging fiscal environment’, ‘poor data and legacy IT systems’, and lack of clarity over ‘levels of autonomy’, remain barriers to building mature, effective and trusting relationships between government and ALBs. Members attending PCF Annual Conference also emphasised the need to provide more mechanisms for leaders of ALBs to share best practice and support each other.

With Cabinet Office proposing to drive greater efficiencies across the landscape, engaging with Chairs in an open, honest and productive conversation is perceived to be vital for this next stage of reform.

“The pandemic has underlined the need for public service reform and created momentum for change.”

Reform to drive efficiency and coherence across the ALB landscape

Forming point 24 of the Government’s ‘Declaration of Reform,’ Cabinet Office have launched a new ‘Public Bodies Programme.’ The programme focuses on 5 main work strands:

• • Creating an overarching strategy for public bodies
  • Building good governance structures
  • Defining approvals gateways
  • Identifying methods to make major funding decisions
  • Improving data collection and analysis

A ‘one team approach,’ is central to Cabinet Offices’ objective to deliver an effective and efficient programme, in line with government’s priorities. They also showed a real willingness to engage in an open dialogue, encouraging co-production between Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, ALB leaders, and Departmental Sponsors, to deliver distinct, focused and meaningful change.

Maximising the value from the specialist contribution of ALBs

The role and purpose of ALBs is often misunderstood, both by government and the public. Commonly considered as a ‘last resort’ structure by government, a negative perception of inefficiency and unaccountability has seemingly followed for decades.

Purposefully created as distinctly distant Bodies from central government, the ALB structure is often preferred when an organisation provides a unique technical function, political impartiality, or an independent source of facts.

Placing greater emphasis on the inherent value of ALBs, as organisations which are specialist, nimble, impartial, and innovative, may help to improve perceptions in government and public.

The PCF Annual Conference 2021 shone light on the importance of the upcoming reform agenda and allowed opportunity for members and invited guests to share their personal perspectives. A diverse range of voices and experience will be essential to inform and drive improvement. We expect the future of public service and the contribution of public bodies to remain firmly on the agenda for PCF members in 2022.