Poll: Public sector jargon

Ever had a wash-up session after a thought shower? Or have you taken a deep dive into a goldfish bowl facilitated conversation? Me neither.

According to a new list published by the Local Government Association, these terms are among 250 that should not used when providing information to the public. You can view the complete list here. Chair of the LGA, Dame Margaret Eaton, said: “The public sector must not hide behind impenetrable jargon and phrases. Why do we have to have a ‘webinar trialogue for the wellderly’ when the public sector could just ‘talk about caring for the elderly’ instead?"

Words that will be familiar to regeneration practitioners crop up regularly in the LGA's list. Local area agreements, multi-area agreements, pump priming, pathfinders, mainstreaming and funding streams are all terms that the LGA believes should not be used by the public sector when communicating with the public.

Vote in our poll (top right) to nominate your least favourite piece of jargon from our pick of the ten most ridiculous from the LGA's list. Or comment below if you have a piece of jargon you'd like to highlight.

Get real

Centre for Cities top-dog Dermot Finch has been sounding off about government jargon recently, as have we.

Today I can reveal that government language tells us that the Powers That Be no longer produce results or help us. That would be far too easy.

Departments are now only concerned with delivering "real results", giving"real help" or making "real change".

This real phenomenon came to a head on Tuesday when, almost simultaneously, the Prime Minister promised a package of "real help and protection for consumers", his employment minister Tony McNulty pledged to provide the unemployed with "real help" and, as if to prove real cross-party consensus on this most real issue, London mayor Boris Johnson told us his new youth adviser - who may or may not be real, it remained unconfirmed - could "deliver real change."

All of this hyperbole begs the very real question: What on earth were they up to previously?

Providing bogus help based on fake results that never really changed anything?

Answers below please.

Cannes do attitude - R&R's Mipim diary #6

The team behind the nascent economic development company for Leicester and Leicestershire has just concluded its Mipim launch. The company’s new chair Nick Carter gave a speech and introduced a particularly slick marketing video.

Nick’s appointment is interesting because he comes straight from editing the local newspaper, rather than from a straight regeneration background. He assures me that this means that Leicester and Leicestershire Economic Development Company’s will do its best to avoid regeneration jargon.

The company will have its formal launch in Leicester next month, with an event in Westminster to follow. I fully expect the launches to be done in the spirit of partnership working, with public and private sectors achieving maximum buy-in, a black-box approach to achieving regional goals, targets and outcomes, and to avoid a one-size-fits-all rationalization of forthcoming corporate strategies.

Click here for more regeneration jargon-blogging

Regeneration jargon

Writing about regeneration on a daily basis you find yourself developing a frightening understanding of public sector jargon. But it was answers on a postcard time when we stumbled across this incomprehensible line in the recent work and pensions select committee report on the Flexible New Deal scheme:

"We endorse the 'black box' approach, which represents a move from 'one size fits all'"

Apparently the "black box" approach is when a welfare provider is asked to deliver a certain outcome, but is able to decide itself how best to achieve that outcome.

And readers will be all too familiar with the phrase "one size fits all", which is used frequently by ministers and seems to have no particular "one size fits all" meaning.

We would love to see a jargon-free regeneration sector. So over the coming weeks we will be using this blog to highlight the worst examples of regeneration jargon. If you have any examples you'd like to contribute, please comment below.