{"id":54478,"date":"2026-08-22T17:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T15:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turner.nl\/uncategorized\/work-in-progress-has-really-taken-off\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T17:28:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T15:28:18","slug":"work-in-progress-has-really-taken-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turner.nl\/en\/public-sector\/work-in-progress-has-really-taken-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Work in progress has really taken off"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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WORK IN PROGRESS<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Fifth Virtual Roundtable<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Turner, in collaboration with Flevum, is organizing a series of\nroundtable discussions on Strategy Execution in\nin the Public sector. And the much-discussed\nrelationships between politics, policy, and\nimplementation. Each session features a different case study or\nperspective. Practical, digital, concise, and accessible.\nThe sessions have received positive reviews and\nhigh praise from public sector\nleaders: \u201cIn these roundtable discussions, we engage in strategic thinking\nabout implementation.\u201d <\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Work in progress has taken off<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Through the government-wide \u201cWerk aan Uitvoering\u201d program, the government aims to improve public services. Carsten Herstel, Director General of Social Security and Integration at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, is enthusiastic about the program. He was the speaker at the fifth Virtual Round Table organized by Turner and Flevum. <\/p>

As a result of various problems in the implementation of laws and regulations\u2014culminating in the child care subsidy scandal\u2014the government has launched a new program: \u201cWork on Implementation.\u201d The goal of this program is to better align policy implementation with the expectations and needs of citizens and business owners\u2014or, as it is commonly referred to, to bring the \u201chuman touch\u201d back to public services. <\/p>

Carsten Herstel, who has been working for the government for over thirty years\u2014the last three and a half of which were spent at the Ministry of Social Affairs\u2014remembers well how this issue came to the forefront. In the summer of 2019, news broke that the UWV was facing yet another problem: benefits were being wrongfully paid to inmates due to a poorly designed data link. It immediately became a political issue as well, even though, in percentage terms, it involved a very small portion of the total budget. Wouter Koolmees, then Minister of Social Affairs, decided to organize a workshop to discuss this case in a broader context. Of course, the UWV is not the only implementing agency that encounters these kinds of problems: the Tax and Customs Administration, the NVWA, the CBR, DUO, the SVB, and all other agencies also sometimes run into issues related to the practical implementation of policy. The causes are varied: IT issues, budget cuts, a backlog of tasks, and technical debt. But above all, it\u2019s a lack of attention to implementation, according to Herstel. All too often, something goes wrong in the transition from policy to implementation\u2014in other words, Strategy Execution. And all too often, the consequences are harsh for citizens. <\/p>

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