Catalogue description Department of Health and Social Security: Social Security Support Unit, Registered Files

Policy papers which relate to the support work provided to the head of the Social Security Policy Group, concerning issues of public service improvement, implementing Green Paper reforms and improving efficiency.

These are the registered files of a small support group working directly to the head of the Social Security Policy Group (File Office 358). Departmental records are wanting and there is no Distribution of Business which covers the early years of the board. There is no record of formal minutes and papers.

Department of Health and Social Security, Social Security Policy Group, 1974-1988

from 2009 Department for Work and Pensions

The Social Security Management Board was endorsed by the Secretary of State for the Department of Health and Social Security, Norman Fowler. The Board's work was to figure prominently in the managerial part of the Reform of Social Security Green Paper, filling the gap in the structure of management arrangements for the Department's five business areas. It was to consolidate management arrangements on the social security side and was a means of bringing in outside expertise to improve service to the public. The first Chairman of the Board was Second Permanent Secretary Sir Geoffrey Otton. The Board was to consist of senior official managers within the Department, with some external figures possessing relevant management experience running large businesses, particularly within the financial and personal services field. Its initial remit was the implementation of the Green Paper Reforms, efficiency and value for money excercises, improvement of the quality of service to the public, and a computerisation strategy for social security. There is no record of the board in the Civil Service Year Book.