The Institute for Government (IfG) is a British independent think tank which aims to improve government effectiveness through research and analysis. Based at 2 Carlton Gardens in central London and founded as a charity in 2008, it works with MPs, senior civil servants and others to make government work better, and has become the leading authority on how Whitehall and Westminster function.
An independent centre for better government
The Institute for Government describes itself as here to act as a catalyst for better government. It carries out research into the big governance challenges of the day and finds ways to help government improve, rethink and sometimes see things differently. It offers unique insights and advice from experienced people who know what it is like to be inside government, both in the UK and overseas, and provides learning and development for very senior policymakers through seminars, workshops, talks and connections. It is a place where senior members of all parties and the Civil Service can discuss the challenges of making government work, and exchange practical insights with leading thinkers, practitioners, public servants, academics and opinion-formers. Its official website is instituteforgovernment.org.uk.
Founded in 2008 with Gatsby backing
The Institute was founded as a charity in 2008, initially funded with approximately 15 million pounds by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, at the instigation of Lord Sainsbury. David Sainsbury, the former Labour minister and supermarket heir, has described how his own experience of government convinced him of the need for reform: after encountering the limits of the Cabinet Secretary's authority over departments, he set up the Institute to improve the machinery and working of government. The Gatsby Charitable Foundation, one of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts, remains the Institute's main funder. The Institute is a registered charity in England and Wales (No. 1123926) and a company limited by guarantee registered in England (No. 6480524), with cross-party governance.
The four founding research areas
From the start, the Institute chose four initial areas of focus: the successes and failures of Whitehall policy making; the relationship between the centre of government, meaning No. 10, the Cabinet Office and the Treasury, and individual departments; how departments supervise the public bodies they manage; and how to keep accountability clear and strong. In each area it has analysed the evidence and recommended change to ministers and civil servants. In these original areas, and also in outsourcing and devolution, the Institute has become a trusted and powerful voice articulating the need for change in Whitehall and Westminster. It has also drawn on evidence from other countries to bring together answers to problems facing many governments.
Directors through the years
Sir Michael Bichard was the Institute's first director, serving until 2010. He was followed by Lord Adonis and then by Peter Riddell, the former journalist and Times columnist, who led the Institute through a period of major constitutional upheaval including the Brexit referendum. Bronwen Maddox, the former Financial Times and Times journalist, succeeded Riddell as director. In October 2022, Hannah White replaced Maddox as director. White had been deputy director of the Institute for the previous six years, and was appointed OBE in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to the constitution. Before joining the Institute she had spent ten years at the House of Commons as a parliamentary clerk, followed by a spell running the Committee on Standards in Public Life in the Cabinet Office. Her appointment continued the Institute's pattern of being led by people with deep experience of the institutions it studies.
Ministers Reflect: an archive of political memory
One of the Institute's most distinctive projects is Ministers Reflect, an archive of interviews with former ministers about their time in office. The archive includes transcripts of conversations with figures such as George Young, interviewed in July 2015, and Iain Duncan Smith, recording their candid assessments of what worked and what did not in government. Journalists are free to quote from the archive provided they credit the Institute as the source. The project embodies the IfG's approach: capturing the lived experience of governing and turning it into evidence that can improve how future governments operate.
Research and policy influence
The Institute provides rigorous research and analysis, topical commentary and public events to explore the key challenges facing government. Its programme directors lead work on policy making and the civil service, and its publications have covered subjects including government reform, the future of the civil service, devolution, accountability and the machinery of government. Its 2021 'Declaration on Government Reform' set out a prospectus for how Whitehall should change. The Institute has catalysed real changes in the way government works in the UK by leading thinking and facilitating conversations on the biggest challenges facing government, equipping those who work in government with the knowledge, skills and insight to do their jobs better, and helping those outside government to understand it better and work more thoughtfully with it.
Learning and development for senior officials
Alongside its research, the Institute offers inspirational learning and development for very senior policymakers. Through seminars, workshops, talks and carefully curated connections, it aims to invigorate officials and provide fresh ideas. This convening role, bringing together ministers, permanent secretaries, special advisers and outside experts in a non-partisan setting, is central to how the Institute exercises influence: rather than lobbying for specific policies, it creates the space in which better government can be imagined and planned.
2 Carlton Gardens
The Institute is based at 2 Carlton Gardens, London SW1Y 5AA, in the United Kingdom, a stone's throw from Whitehall and St James's Park. It can be contacted on +44 (0) 20 7747 0400 or at enquiries@instituteforgovernment.org.uk, and is active on social media as @instituteforgov. The building hosts its research staff, its events programme and the interviews and seminars through which much of its work is conducted.
Cross-party governance and charitable mission
As a registered charity with cross-party governance, the Institute is formally independent of any political party, and its trustees and advisers span the political spectrum. Its mission, as set out by its chair David Sainsbury, has remained constant since its founding: to increase the effectiveness of UK government. While the challenges facing government have changed dramatically since 2008, from austerity to Brexit to the pandemic and beyond, the Institute's role as an independent, evidence-driven critic and counsellor of the British state has only grown in importance.
A trusted voice on how government works
In less than two decades, the Institute for Government has established itself as the indispensable guide to the inner workings of the British state. Ministers, civil servants, journalists and academics turn to its research to understand everything from how legislation is made to how departments are run. By combining scholarly rigour with the practical wisdom of people who have worked inside government, it has filled a gap that its founder identified in 2008: the absence of an independent institution devoted not to what government should do, but to how well it does it.
Looking ahead
The Institute's mission, as its chair has put it, will remain the same even as the challenges facing government change. Questions of state capacity, devolution, digital transformation and public trust are likely to dominate its agenda in the years ahead, just as austerity, Brexit and the pandemic did in its first decade and a half. With its research programme, its Ministers Reflect archive and its convening power at 2 Carlton Gardens, the IfG is well placed to keep asking the question its founder posed at the outset: how can the machinery of British government be made to work better for the people it serves.
