Welcome to the Regional Co-ordination Unit Website

The Government Offices for the Regions (GOs), and their corporate centre, the Regional Co-ordination Unit (RCU), are playing an increasingly pivotal role at the heart of Government. Government Offices' responsibility for delivering policy in the regions, and their multi-Departmental constitution, makes them ideally placed to implement crosscutting initiatives, and to advise Departments on successful implementation strategies at regional and local level.

Since May 2002 the RCU and GOs have been part of the newly-formed department, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. The ODPM has taken on new responsibilities for housing, planning, regeneration and regional and local services from the DTLR which has been split up.

The RCU and GO Network provide the mechanism for a significant step forward in the delivery of Government services. It promotes the improved delivery of services that have crosscutting outcomes and which make a real difference on the ground to local people. It is a high profile organisation, located in the English Regions, which ensures that a wide range of government programmes are delivered coherently and can add value to the process, through expertise and local contact.The RCU publication 'Introducing the Government Offices' outlines the types of work done and programmes delivered, including case studies that show how the GOs have made a real difference.

The 9 Government Offices were set up in 1994.They now bring together the English regional services for:-

• The Home Office
• The Department for Culture, Media & Sport
• The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
• The Department for Education and Skills
• The Department of Trade and Industry
• The Department for Transport
  
• The Department for Work and Pensions
• The Department of Health
• Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

The RCU was established as the Headquarters function of the GO network in 2000, as a result of the Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) report 'Reaching Out - The Role of Central Government at Regional and Local Level'.

Together the RCU and GOs aim to cut through bureaucracy and add value to delivery through its shared experience and best practice; bring together key stakeholders and local partners; and provide a high quality service by combining skills in the GOs at the local level with the co-ordination role of the RCU in influencing policy design and implementation in Whitehall.

The Government published a White Paper on regional governance - Your Region, Your Choice: Revitalising the English Regions - on 9 May 2002. The White Paper sets out proposals for strengthening the existing regional institutions in England and takes forward the Government's Manifesto commitment on elected regional government. To view click here.