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Party eventually found it necessary to widen the scope of its terms of
reference to encompass senior secondary and tertiary education, its
report becoming the basis of the 1977 Green Paper. This approach to the
production of a green paper was considered an advance on existing
procedure, reflecting the gradual development of a more sophisticated
decision-making process within the government. Somewhat more elaborate
arrangements are considered necessary when the policy field is more
complex and far-ranging. When a decision was taken on the need to
review primary education and pre-primary services, for example, two
inter-departmental working parties were set up, their membership reflecting
the different administrative responsibilities for the two areas of policy.
(Executive responsibility for all pre-primary services other than
kindergarten education lies with the Social Welfare Department.) The
two groups were co-ordinated by a steering committee chaired by the
Secretary for Social Services, who has overall policy responsibility for
these fields.
4.4
Working parties whose deliberations are likely to result in
green papers do not normally invite public representations (though they
take account of any received): they proceed rather by means of consultation
with appropriate official bodies or specialist advisers (the 1977 Working
Party, for instance, obtained specialist advice on the economics of
education from a consultant from the United Kingdom), by commissioning
studies from officials, and where necessary, by discreetly sounding out
the reaction of interested groups to proposals under consideration,
especially where sensitive issues are concerned. Such working parties
are basically groups of civil servants drawing upon one another's
knowledge and experience and with access to a wide range of government
services during the course of their deliberations. In the majority of
cases, however, working parties do not work towards the production of a
green paper and in order to ensure a fair representation of views in such
cases, membership is broadened to include non-officials serving in a