Public sector departments are not concentrating enough on learning, according to a report by the National Audit Office.
The 'Helping Government Learn' report said that at present, most learning exercises only occur after large projects, initiatives or crises have taken place, and argued for a more structured approach to training and development.
The report advised: “To achieve value for money in public services, departments need to learn from success and failure. The Comptroller and Auditor General and the Committee of Public Accounts have examined many instances where major programmes and projects have been either frustrated, or severely hampered, by failure to take on board lessons from their own past experiences or those of others”.
Ineffective tools for capturing and sharing knowledge and the high turnover of the workforce were named as the main barriers to learning, along with a lack of time devoted to capturing lessons from experience.
Tim Burr, head of the National Audit Office said: "We know from our audit work that projects and programmes are more likely to succeed and keep to time and budget where lessons have been learned and experience shared. Departments need to take learning more seriously, and encourage their staff to give it a higher priority through better recognition in reward and appraisal structures. Getting better at learning from the past will help government secure better value for money in the future."
