#2 Is there a pill for reform stress? - with Nina Smith

Six major reforms are about to hit Denmark in the coming months. And if one or more of these areas do not affect you, then you are not a citizen of this society:

Public schools, the elderly, employment, healthcare, social services and not least the green triangle, which has its very own ministry for the occasion, are under fire.

Host Sigge Winther wants the best for the reforms, but also worries - because experience shows that the nicely packaged proposals and politicians' triumphant press conferences end up being defeated and disappear into the darkness in silence.

In this week's KOMPAS, we talk to Professor of Economics and former Chair of the Reform Commission, Nina Smith, about the right way forward when several reforms need to be rolled out at the same time and the state and municipalities need to avoid getting in each other's way.

"This is bigger than the municipal reform"

One of those who has to make the reform puzzle fit together is Nina Brünnich Kragesteen, Head of Policy and Organization in Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality. She says:  

"Overall, these reforms are as comprehensive and pervasive as a full municipal reform - it's just not coordinated."

And according to Nina Smith, the reality is actually even worse.  

Municipalities have to navigate a puzzle with no idea what the final picture will look like. 

Reforms don't happen in the spreadsheet 

On paper, the numbers look great - but reforms don't come from a ride in a spreadsheet. They become reality in the daycare, the job center and the classroom. 

Nina Smith believes that many reforms fail because they are formulated in ministerial bubbles with no contact with everyday life in the municipalities.

"If you don't take the hassle in the ministries, you just transfer it to the municipalities. And that's exactly what has happened."

Christiansborg lacks the will to understand what's really going on out there, where welfare lives - where educators, caseworkers and school leaders try to translate political ideas into reality every day. 

"This is bigger. It's more complex. And it requires leadership at a level we've never experienced before."

Political and practical reality do not speak the same language. Can this reform storm even succeed?  

Listen to Nina Smith in KOMPAS and get insights into how we navigate the reform storm.