in so doing has missed not only questions related to for on an individual ‘value money’ contract but also those linked to government-wide impact. In the next section we put forward the results of our survey and finally we offer some conclusions. Survey Results Expertise of Policy Managers: The initial set of questions in the survey was designed to articulate the background of the policy managers themselves. The bulk of the managers that answered our survey have been in their position between 0 and 5 years (65%) [Chart 1]. Chart 1 Length of Employment in Current Position Source Q.2 This in itself is an interesting finding as the policy consultants themselves often have more than 20 years of experience in their fields (Howlett and Migone 2013 forthcoming). Only a little more than ¼ of the respondents have either undergraduate or Master level courses in public policy, although 68.4% received some kind of internal government training, but much of it being rudimentary such as participating in workshops and conferences. The Nature of Consulting Activities Managed As Chart 2 shows, In terms of the activity managers undertake, it is also interesting to notice that those managing policy consultants engage in the various phases of the policy cycle almost equally [Q.6]. This may support the analysis by Page (2010) that pointed at a general refocusing of governmental personnel towards process expertise. Chart 2 Aspects of Policy Making Contracted to Consultants
in so doing has missed not only questions related to ‘value for money’ on an individual contract but also those linked to government-wide impact. In the next section we put forward the results of our survey and finally we offer some conclusions. Survey Results Expertise of Policy Managers: The initial set of questions in the survey was designed to articulate the background of the policy managers themselves. The bulk of the managers that answered our survey have been in their position between 0 and 5 years (65%) [Chart 1]. Chart 1 Length of Employment in Current Position Source Q.2 This in itself is an interesting finding as the policy consultants themselves often have more than 20 years of experience in their fields (Howlett and Migone 2013 forthcoming). Only a little more than ¼ of the respondents have either undergraduate or Master level courses in public policy, although 68.4% received some kind of internal government training, but much of it being rudimentary such as participating in workshops and conferences. The Nature of Consulting Activities Managed As Chart 2 shows, In terms of the activity managers undertake, it is also interesting to notice that those managing policy consultants engage in the various phases of the policy cycle almost equally [Q.6]. This may support the analysis by Page (2010) that pointed at a general refocusing of governmental personnel towards process expertise. Chart 2 Aspects of Policy Making Contracted to Consultants
HowlettMigone2.docx