Central Control of Local Authorities
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1948.tb02644.x |
| Date | 01 June 1948 |
| Published date | 01 June 1948 |
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
Let
it
be
remembered that just
as
the
higher
administrator is the agency
of
the political power,
so
the
SraBF
is
the agency
of
the
higher
administration.
Between Ministers and administrators there must
be
complete comprehension,
if
not agreement, and between administrators and
staf€
the same requirement
of
successful working
exists.
Right
relations at the lower level are
as
important
as at the higher,
and
not merely in matters
of
self-interest to the
staff
but
also
in
those matters affecting the welfare, efficiency and good repute
of
the govern-
mental machine in which the
stafl
and the administrator
are
working partners.
Give the
sd,
by participation
in
the day-today business of administration, the
consciousness
of
this partnership, and they
will
develop an ever-livelier
sense
that administration
is
not in the keeping of their superiors alone but in their
own
as
yell. Oflicials, even the lowliest, are all prpne
to
associate themselves
with Government-to
think
of themselves
as
Government-when there is power
to be exercised.
This
is
the great charge against bureaucracy. Apply, then, a
corrective by encouraging the
staff,
through
a system
of
joint
consultatim
on
management problems,
to
associate themselves
with
Government when
the
exer-
cise
of
responsibility
and
not
of
power is
in
question.
And
finally, let every dniinistrator remember that the joint discussion
of
conditions
of
service and the joint discussion of other aspects
of
administration
are complementary
one
to the other,
and
that
it is
in
his
interest
and
the interest
of the Government he serves
to
facilitate both to the maximum degree possible.
For in seeking
the
contentment
of
his
staff
he
will
be stimulating dciency, and
in stimulating dciency he
will
be
promoting contentment.
Central
Control
of
Local
Authorities
EVERY
day hundreds
of
letters
pess
between Whitehall
abd
the various local
authorities; every day numerous delegations
of
coullcillors
and
local officials travel
to Whitehall; and every day files are passing up
and
down
inside the Minismes
of
Health, Education,
Town
and
Country Plannhg
and
the Home
Mce
each
containing the facts about what some local
council
wishes
to do. All
this
is
part
of
the administrative process known as central control
of
local government.
The
process
is
so
important
and,
strangely enough,
so
little
known
that we make
no apology for publishing the
bare
facts
of
what
was
involved in
two
recent
typical
cases.
They refer to a local authority with above average reputation
for efficiency.
ERECTION
OF
HUTTED
DAY
NURSERY
1946
12th January.-Letter from
Town
Clerk to Senior Regional Offiur, Ministry
of
Health, requesting, as a matter
of
urgency,
that approval be
given
to a
scheme
for the provision
of
bungalow-type nursery
of
temporary con-
struction.
31st January.-Further letter to
Mbk~
requesting reply to letter
of
12th
8th February.--LRtter from Senior Regional Officer,
Ministry
of Health, request-
ing
submission
of
formal
proposal for erection
of
hut for purposes of day
nursery.
February-March.4rrespondence
between
Town
Clerk, the Architect and
Medical Officer
of
Health.
118
January.
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