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In 2003, the Public Services Forum commissioned the Work Foundation to audit trade union and employee involvement in public service reform. The Work Foundation's audit, which considered 10 case studies from the NHS, local and central Government, found that employee engagement and involvement was key to successful public service improvement.
However, while the audit identified excellent examples where workforce involvement in change had made a real difference to delivery, in general, it found that commitment to engagement was very patchy, and evaluation of its impact almost non-existent. The Work Foundation's central recommendation - that a toolkit for employers and unions be developed to equip organisations to benchmark performance on engagement, identify areas for action and implement those actions - was endorsed by the Public Services Forum and has been taken forward by Cabinet Office and TUC in partnership.