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When was the last time you made a decision?

Governance | Robert Ashton | 4 Mar 2013

People not process should be in charge of making decisions, says Robert Ashton.

I've just been asked if I'd be interested in being an 'expert' in a Channel Four documentary series. Each programme will highlight an aspect of the welfare system and how it has changed over the past 45 years. It sounds to be a very exciting project.

The researcher told me that back in 1950, frontline benefits staff had the authority to make decisions themselves. In other words, they had a book of rules, but could interpret them in ways their experience and local knowledge told them made sense. It all sounded very sensible and reminded me of my late father.

My dad died 30 years ago and to be honest I rarely ever think about him. A lot has happened in my life since the day he unexpectedly keeled over. If he reappeared today we'd have little in common and nothing much to say. But the researcher's comment about local authorities took me back to my father's time as a bank manager in a small Suffolk market town.

In the late 1960s my father had a lot of discretion when it came to lending. As with a modern bank manager, his decision was in part based on the strength of the client's pitch. But unlike today's bank manager, he was free of those pesky computer scoring systems. Local knowledge and his connection with the local commercial scene meant he had a pretty good idea what would work and what would not. Instinct and intuition, rather than IT, guided him.

The whole concept of localism is surely one that recognises the value of local knowledge, local networks and above all else, local accountability. It's what makes micro-finance so successful in the so called 'developing world'. Yet here in the UK we seem stuck with top down, clunky, and often inappropriate decision-making processes. There are no exceptions, only rules.

A while ago I worked with a group of people trying to start a social enterprise to escape from benefits. They'd already demonstrated courage, determination and innovative thinking. One had recovered from childhood abuse and years locked away in mental institutions. He had control of his income, a partner, child and home of his own. But the bureaucrats would not flex the system to give them the break they deserved.

The benefits system, like banking, has been de-personalised and de-humanised. If we want to put life back into our communities, we have to put people not processes back in control. Have you fallen into the trap of putting process first? Ask yourself; when was the last time you really made a decision?

 

Who's Who: Robert Ashton