Lessons for government as general election year looms

Louise Casey has been a trouble-shooter for different governments for over 25 years.

She started working for ministers tackling rough sleeping, having first worked at the homelessness charity, Shelter. In 2010, she became Victims' Commissioner and then head of the Troubled Families unit.

Most recently, following the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer, the peer produced a damning report on the culture of the Metropolitan Police.

Baroness Casey told the BBC's Political Thinking that she would work as a minister under Sir Keir Starmer if it was a job where she «could get something done», however she said she doubted the Labour leader would make her a minister.

With her long career in the charity sector and civil service, and with a place in the House of Lords, she's got ideas on how to improve the way the UK is run.

There are plenty of ways, she says, in which government, at all levels, doesn't work, and — ahead of the next General Election — outlines some of the challenges facing whoever takes power in 2024.

The first lesson she learned, on working with the civil service, was to get the prime minister behind you. «I used to have regular meetings with Tony Blair,» she says.

The former PM told her: «The reason we would have stock takes and have you there with the ministers was to send them a signal that you had my backing. I was saying 'this is something that matters to me and therefore it should matter to you'. Because the one thing you have as the leader of the government is you have authority because frankly, everyone knows you appoint the ministers.»

The second lesson: don't forget who you're making policy for.

«This may seem blindingly obvious, but too often well-intentioned politicians and officials