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Abstract
This paper examines the role of regulators in the UK in integrating sustainable development into public services. In particular, how can we explain the different ways in which different regulators engage with sustainable development? Drawing on insights from rational choice and sociological institutionalism, this paper explains the responses of the three regulators operating in local government, schools and healthcare. It finds that, central government's failure both to send out clear signals about how to promote sustainable development and to create incentives to ensure it happens has left the integration of sustainable development mediated by regulators' organizational norms and professional identities.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper is based on the research funded by the SDC conducted by Dunlop. A previous version of this paper was presented at the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) annual conference in Bruges, 5–8 September 2010. The authors are grateful to the participants of the panel ‘Panel B208, Governance of Sustainability 1’ for their constructive comments and feedback. The authors also thank their anonymous referees for their thorough and insightful feedback. The usual disclaimer applies.
Notes
1With thanks and apologies to Elvis Costello!
2This regulator has recently been earmarked to be disbanded by the UK government as part of its austerity measures.
3These were: the AC, CQC, Her Majesty's Inspectorates of Constabulary, Prisons and Probation and Office for Standards in Education and Children's Services.
4Abolished in May 2010, the CAA is another institutional casualty of the austerity cuts in the UK public sector.
5See Maggetti (Citation2007) for more on the distinction between de facto and formal independence.
6The SDC was closed on 31 March 2011 following the UK government's decision to withdraw funding for the body. The SDC's ‘stakeholder engagement’ and ‘capability-building’ functions have been transferred into the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EAC, 2011b: 6).
7One of the authors participated in this and co-authored the background paper to the final report (Coote et al., Citation2009).
8This event took place on an off-the-record basis.
9This considers how well organizations use their resources to deliver value for money and better and sustainable outcomes.
10Best Value is government policy that affects the provision of public services in England and Wales. Introduced in 1989, it aims to improve the quality and cost of local services.
11Indeed, as Travers astutely argues, it is perhaps this effectiveness in translating Whitehall's wishes that has hastened the death knell of the AC. Its proposed abolition by the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition has been attributed to the barriers it has erected against the localism agenda (2010).
12That the SEF is separate to the inspection process has led to its dismissal as an unnecessary bureaucracy. Its abolition was announced by the Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove in September 2010.
13These are the Healthcare Commission, Commission for Social Care Inspection and Mental Health Act Commission.