News item | 09-02-2024 | 13:55
Minister Carola Schouten for Poverty Policy, Participation and Pensions has presented the House of Representatives with the 2023 progress report of the Work on Implementation (WaU) program.
Work on Implementation is a government-wide program to improve public services provided by the government. The objective is to make government services better suited to the needs and expectations of people and companies.
Better services
The progress report focuses on the steps that ministries, public service providers and local authorities have taken in the past year with the WaU program to improve public services.
- In order to provide better assistance, many organizations come up with solutions that allow for customized services and tailor-made solutions. The aim is to provide targeted help to people who cannot get by with the standard services or for whom the general rule is not appropriate.
- There are good examples in support for digital services. For example, more than 650 Digital Government information points have been set up in libraries to promote digital inclusion. People can go there with questions about digital government services. This includes questions about DigiD, for example.
- Dilemmas in implementation have been made clear to politicians. Implementing organizations and public service providers have issued issue letters or a Status of Implementation for this purpose. We see a varying follow-up to this.
- Important steps have been taken in policy development. The tools have been improved to better involve the needs of people, businesses and public service providers in policy development. These instruments are there, but attention remains necessary to ensure that the different perspectives are truly included in policy formation.
- In the official cooperation between policymakers, implementing agencies and fellow authorities, more discussions are taking place about the implementation of policy and the dilemmas. More attention is paid to connecting to the needs and wishes of people and companies in order to better support them with good services.
Steps still to be taken
Providing public services that meet the needs of people and companies is a major task that requires a lot of patience. The progress report shows that great steps have been taken that we jointly want and must continue in the coming years. Fundamental changes are necessary to sustainably improve public services. This requires breaking patterns and culture. This takes time. It also requires a joint approach from all parties – politics, policy and implementation.
The Work on Implementation program directorate, together with ministries, public service providers and local authorities, have reflected on what is needed for this. These findings and a new joint approach are included in the ‘Recalibration WaU’ that was presented to the House of Representatives simultaneously with the progress report.