A report outlined a new agenda for electronic government to deliver improved public services. Technology had the potential to transform public services, improving the organisation of government and the experience of citizens: but it was not enough just to put government services online - citizens had to want to use them, and they had to be part and parcel of organisational transformation.
Source: Noah Curthoys and James Crabtree, SmartGov Renewing electronic government for improved service delivery, Work Foundation (0870 165 6700)
Links: Report (pdf) | Work Foundation press release
Date: 2003-Dec
A think-tank report said that localism alone would not reform public services: the public sector also needed to be adaptable enough to meet individual needs of users, rather than simply offering a choice of service providers. An adaptive state would use the energy and innovation of local service providers, while retaining the ability of governments to allocate resources nationally and provide overall direction.
Source: Tom Bentley and James Wilsdon (eds.), The Adaptive State: Strategies for personalising the public realm, Demos with Hewlett-Packard, available from Central Books (020 8986 5488)
Links: Report (pdf) | Demos press release
Date: 2003-Dec
Government departments were told to devise ways to reduce the use of private consultants in commercial procurement deals.
Source: Making a Difference: Reducing Bureaucracy in Central Civil Government Procurement, Cabinet Office (020 7261 8527) and Office of Government Commerce
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf) | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Dec
The government published its response to a consultation on liberalisation of world trade in services (including services currently provided in the United Kingdom by the public sector).
Source: Liberalising Trade in Services: A new consultation on the WTO GATS negotiations - Summary of responses and government s reply, Department of Trade and Industry (020 7215 8420)
Links: Response (Word file) | Consultation document (pdf)
Date: 2003-Dec
A survey of views on public services in Northern Ireland found that the general public wanted greater accountability in the existing system (based on 24 focus groups attended by 282 people over a six-week period during September and October 2003). A second survey found that 45 per cent satisfied or very satisfied with public services in Northern Ireland; 20 per cent either not satisfied or not at all satisfied; and 34 per cent neither satisfied nor dissatisfied (based on a sample of some 1,200 people interviewed in September 2002, February 2003, and April 2003).
Source: Views on Public Services - Focus Group Project 2 (General Public): Final report, Northern Ireland Review of Public Administration (028 9027 7675) | Colin Knox and Paul Carmichael, Analysis of Review of Public Administration Omnibus Survey Attitudinal Research, Northern Ireland Review of Public Administration
Links: Focus group report (pdf) | Focus group report | Omnibus survey (pdf) | Omnibus survey | NIE press release (1) | NIE press release (2)
Date: 2003-Dec
A committee of MPs said that there was 'little available information' on how the operational performance of private finance initiative prisons compared with other prisons, or whether the use of the PFI had brought wider benefits to the prison service.
Source: The Operational Performance of PFI Prisons, Forty-ninth Report (Session 2002-03), HC 904, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2003-Dec
A think-tank pamphlet argued that a permanent social democratic transformation of society would be achieved only through a 'radical deepening of democracy' that engaged with the complex and dispersed nature of social power. Experiments in participatory budgeting had shown how the active involvement of voters in informed debate and deliberation could produce better decisions and socially progressive outcomes. The renewal of the public sector had to go forward on the basis of worker and user empowerment within a public service ethos, not the further extension of market mechanisms and business models of organisation.
Source: Angela Eagle MP, A Deeper Democracy: Challenging market fundamentalism, Catalyst, available from Central Books (020 8986 4854)
Links: Summary
Date: 2003-Dec
The government published a revised regulatory reform action plan. New measures included continuing to simplify the range of education funding streams, and the performance monitoring regimes and inspection arrangements for schools; streamlining data flows and information requests in the National Health Service; implementing (as appropriate) the Carter Review of correctional services and a programme of police reform; and examining the scope for further extending freedoms and flexibilities in local government.
Source: Regulatory Reform: The Government s Action Plan, Cabinet Office (020 7261 8527)
Links: Action plan (pdf)
Date: 2003-Dec
The government accepted all of the recommendations in a taskforce report which said that greater awareness should be promoted of alternatives to 'classic regulation' of public services.
Source: Government Response to Better Regulation Task Force 'Imaginative Thinking for Better Regulation' Report, Cabinet Office (020 7261 8527)
Links: Response (pdf) | Taskforce report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Dec
A think-tank report said the key objective for regulators should be the creation of public value - incorporating wider social benefits which were hard to value in monetary terms. The environmental benefits that would come from developing a low-carbon economy were a good example of public value in the energy industry.
Source: Paul Skidmore, Paul Miller and Jake Chapman, The Long Game: How regulators and companies can both win, Demos, available from Central Books (020 8986 5488)
Links: Report (pdf) | Demos press release
Date: 2003-Dec
A Labour Party discussion document confirmed the government's policy of public sector reform. It said that a 'one size fits all' approach would no longer work, and that in future public funds would be directed towards services that were 'tailormade' to meet the needs of the individual. People might also be asked to pay for services which they choose to use.
Source: A Future Fair for All: Big issues need a big conversation, Labour Party (08705 900200)
Links: Report (pdf) | Speech by Tony Blair MP | IPPR press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Nov
A think-tank report said that the government should pay the private and voluntary sector to deliver electronic public services alongside their core businesses. It argued that government payment for intermediary services should be the norm, and that this would 'incentivise' other sectors, revolutionise the relationship between citizens and public services, and increase access.
Source: Ian Kearns, Intermediaries and the Electronic Delivery of Public Services, Institute for Public Policy Research (020 7470 6100)
Links: Report (pdf) | IPPR press release
Date: 2003-Nov
A discussion paper said central government was increasingly recognising the role played by community organisations and the voluntary sector, and handing them powers and funding traditionally managed by democratically-elected councillors: but this 'new localism' agenda raised some serious concerns about representation and accountability.
Source: Alan Pike, The Disintegration of Local Government: Dangers of single-service elected bodies, Association of London Government (020 7934 9999)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Oct
A research paper by the House of Commons Library examined the private finance initiative. It said that the PFI had meant that more capital projects had been undertaken for a given level of public expenditure, and public service capital projects had been brought on stream earlier. As at 4 April 2003 there had been almost 570 PFI deals signed, with a total capital value of almost 36 billion. But the increased level of activity would have to be paid for by higher public expenditure in the future, as the stream of payments to the private sector grew: PFI projects signed to date had committed the government to a stream of revenue payments to private sector contractors between 2003-04 and 2028-29 of over 110 billion. The paper considered whether the PFI offered value for money, using examples of specific PFI projects: but it concluded that, due to the long length of some PFI contracts, it would be a number of years before a complete analysis was possible.
Source: Grahame Allen, The Private Finance Initiative (PFI), Research Paper 03/79, House of Commons Library (web publication only)
Links: HOC Library research paper (pdf)
Date: 2003-Oct
The Northern Ireland Executive launched a consultation document on the future of public administration, designed to promote debate on the most effective and efficient ways to deliver public services.
Source: The Review of Public Administration in Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Executive (028 9052 0500)
Links: Consultation document (pdf) | NIE press release
Date: 2003-Oct
A think-tank report argued that the government should extend to central government the agreement it had made for local government, which ensured that pay and conditions for new staff recruited by private contractors were overall no less favourable than those of staff transferred from the public sector. It said that without swift action to deliver fair pay and conditions for new staff, the government s public service strategy, low-paid workers, and support for public private partnerships would all suffer. An accompanying paper described the strengths and weaknesses of the existing local government code.
Source: Paul Maltby and Tim Gosling, Ending the 'Two-tier' Workforce, Institute for Public Policy Research, available from Central Books (0845 458 9911) | Malcolm Wing, Ending the Two-tier Workforce: A comprehensive solution?, Institute for Public Policy Research, available from Central Books
Links: Briefing (pdf) | Wing report (pdf) | IPPR press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Sep
A new book of essays explored the scope for the voluntary sector to act as a provider of public services. The contributors explored the justifications for, and practical implications of, an expanded role for the sector - together with the barriers that stood in its way. Voluntary organisation leaders said the book showed that the voluntary sector was a crucial partner in a mixed economy of service provision, and called for a 'harmonious marriage' of the state, the private and the voluntary sector providing public services.
Source: Replacing the State?: The case for third sector public service delivery, Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (0845 345 8481) | Press release 24 September 2003, Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (0845 345 8481)
Links: Summary | ACEVO press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Sep
A new book examined whether society could rely on the altruism of professionals or the public service ethos to deliver good quality health and education services, and whether patients, parents and pupils should behave as grateful recipients or active consumers. It evaluated recent government policies in health services, education, social security and taxation, and put forward a series of proposals for policy reform - including universal capital or 'demogrants'; matching grants for pensions and for long-term care; and hypothecated taxes.
Source: Julian Le Grand, Motivation, Agency and Public Policy: Of knights and knaves, pawns and queens, Oxford University Press (01536 741727)
Links: Summary | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Sep
Local authorities published five 'key tests of democratic localism', to be applied to new policies affecting local people. They included whether the policy let local people make decisions about their services and priorities through their locally elected representatives, and whether the policy directed money to meet locally agreed needs or helped councils raise resources locally.
Source: Five Key Tests of Democratic Localism, Local Government Association (020 7664 3000)
Links: Tests (pdf)
Date: 2003-Sep
An Audit Commission report said that, when used well, targets were effective tools to help public services improve. But it said that the time had come to review the existing regime of targets set from the centre, and to shift the balance to more locally set targets.
Source: Targets in the Public Sector, Audit Commission (0800 502030)
Links: Report | Audit Commission press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Sep
A paper provided a comprehensive review of definitional issues and sources of information relating to private finance initiative (PFI) and public-private partnership (PPP) projects.
Source: Steve Davies and Peter Fairbrother, Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Public Private Partnerships (PPP): Definitions and Sources, Working Paper 39, School of Social Sciences/Cardiff University (029 2087 5179)
Links: Paper (pdf)
Date: 2003-Aug
A paper reviewed the issues associated with the use of performance pay in the public sector, and summarised the evidence on its effects. It also investigated the reasons for the infrequent use of explicit incentives in the public sector.
Source: Simon Burgess and Marisa Ratto, The Role of Incentives in the Public Sector: Issues and evidence, Working Paper 03/071, Centre for Market and Public Organisation/University of Bristol (0117 954 6943)
Links: Paper (pdf)
Date: 2003-Aug
A paper examined whether devolution had created a 'laboratory of opposition' in Wales to the market orthodoxies of the Labour government, particularly in the field of public services reform.
Source: Steve Davies, Inside the Laboratory: The new politics of public services in Wales, Catalyst, available from Central Books (020 8986 4854)
Links: Paper | Catalyst press release
Date: 2003-Aug
A report said that the government should downgrade the principle of consumer choice in economic policy and in the reform of public services. Expanding the range of choices available for private consumption could often deprive individuals of other choices which might make them better off; and public goods often provided greater quality-of-life benefits, as well as being more environmentally sustainable.
Source: Roger Levett et al., A Better Choice of Choice: Quality of life, consumption and economic growth, Fabian Society (020 7227 4900)
Links: Fabian Society press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Aug
An official report said that inspection and external review had a key role to play in reforming public services - by providing public assurance, holding organisations to account for their performance, and helping to drive up standards. However, the effort put into inspection and external review (both by inspectorates and those inspected) had to be focused in a way that would have the maximum impact on service improvement and deliver real value for money.
Source: Inspecting for Improvement: Developing a customer focused approach, Office of Public Services Reform/Cabinet Office (020 7276 3600) | The Government s Policy on Inspection of Public Services, Office of Public Services Reform/Cabinet Office | House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 16.7.03, column 50WS, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report (pdf) | Policy statement (pdf) | Hansard
Date: 2003-Jul
A pamphlet called for a greater understanding of the role that choice might play in the delivery of local public services. It detailed three distinct mechanisms of choice at local level - individual choice of provider, collective choice, and choice of service options. It suggested possible ways in which each mechanism could be extended or introduced.
Source: Natalie Arend, Dan Corry, Warren Hatter, Julian Le Grand and Adam Lent, Choice What role can it play in helping local public services evolve?, New Local Government Network (020 7357 0051)
Links: Pamphlet (pdf) | NLGN press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jul
The government announced that the terms of reference for a 'devolved decision making review' (commissioned in the 2003 Budget) would be 'to examine in the run up to the next spending review how best to achieve decentralised delivery and responsive local and regional services in a way that is consistent with equity and efficiency, against a clear framework of national standards.'
Source: Press release 7.7.03, HM Treasury (020 7270 4558)
Links: HMT press release
Date: 2003-Jul
A committee of MPs examined the 'measurement culture' in public services. It recommended greater local autonomy to construct more meaningful and relevant performance targets; widening consultation on the setting of targets; and moving towards measures of progress which enabled better comparisons. It said that these changes should be underpinned by common reporting standards on public service agreement targets; independent assessment by the National Audit Office of whether and how far targets had been met; annual reporting on performance by government, on the model of the Scottish Executive; and an action plan to enhance performance management skills, both locally and at the centre.
Source: On Target? Government by measurement, Fifth Report (Session 2002-03), HC 62-I, House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Select Committee press release | LGA press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jul
A collection of essays examined the prospects for public services reform. It reported initial research on priorities for action, and considered some of the features which the authors believed would prove essential to any strategy for nurturing innovation - a shift from the mantra of 'reform' and 'delivery' towards 'co-production'; a broader understanding of the kinds of leadership needed at all levels to help public services thrive; and a commitment by government agencies to make legitimate decisions even when the evidence to justify them was not available.
Source: James McCormick, John McTernan, Zo van Zwanenberg and Graham Leicester, Innovation In Public Services, Scottish Council Foundation (0131 225 4709)
Links: Summary
Date: 2003-Jul
A report was published on the rates of return bid by private sector participants in the private finance initiative (PFI) market. It analysed 64 projects in a number of different sectors between 1995 and 2001, and concluded that the cost of financing PFI deals had fallen steadily as the PFI market had developed.
Source: Rates of Return Bid on Private Finance Initiative Projects, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (020 7583 5000)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Jul
A committee of MPs said that the private finance initiative was delivering greater certainty on the timing, and the cost to government departments, of their construction projects: but there was a lack of transparency as to whether the total returns which construction companies derived from PFI projects were reasonable in relation to the risks the companies were actually bearing.
Source: PFI Construction Performance, Thirty-fifth Report (Session 2002-03), HC 567, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2003-Jul
A report said that the public sector needed to rethink its top-down approach to public service reform. It argued that the government should replace the existing framework for reform with one which reduced the number of centralised targets; increased consultation on the targets set; allowed greater managerial discretion at local level over pay setting; and put people management at the very heart of the reform process (by shifting from a command-and-control style of management to a 'high-performance model' based on autonomy and trust).
Source: Simon Caulkin, People and Public Services: Why central targets miss the mark, Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (020 8263 3355)
Links: Report (pdf) | CIPD press release (1) | CIPD press release (2)
Date: 2003-Jul
The government published a document setting out its approach to the private finance initiative. The document provided detailed analysis of the performance of the PFI programme to date, and outlined a number of proposals for reform, including reforms to improve the assessment of value for money appraisal by the public sector; measures to improve the efficiency of the procurement process; proposals to revise the scope of PFI and focus its use on where it worked best; and an investigation of the potential for new methods of financing projects.
Source: PFI: Meeting the Investment Challenge, HM Treasury (020 7270 4558) | House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 15.7.03, columns 20-21WS, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report (pdf) | Hansard | HMT press release
Date: 2003-Jul
A report said that the government should make encouraging more citizens to use online services (and so speeding up public sector reform) the top priority in its forthcoming review of e-Government. If necessary the target of putting all public services online by 2005 should be downgraded.
Source: Noah Curthoys and James Crabtree, SmartGov: Renewing electronic government for improved service delivery, Work Foundation (0870 165 6700)
Links: Report (pdf) | Work Foundation press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jul
Local authorities called for steps to devolve power to local communities and develop a genuinely 'localist' approach to improving public services. These steps should include: a new generation of more ambitious agreements between individual councils and government; the development of more robust and effective partnership arrangements at a local level, harnessing all the relevant players behind a single community strategy; pathfinder projects exploring new ways of delivering the shared priorities and work of councils identified as excellent , providing a laboratory for testing genuinely radical approaches; and a concerted effort to strengthen civil society and revitalise local politics.
Source: Special Delivery: Politics, partnership and pluralism, Local Government Association (020 7664 3000)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Jun
A committee of MPs said that government departments were too willing to bail out private finance initiative (PFI) contractors who got into trouble fulfilling their contractual commitments.
Source: Delivering Better Value for Money from the Private Finance Initiative, Twenty-Eighth Report (Session 2002-03), HC 764, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2003-Jun
A committee of MPs welcomed a negotiated agreement under which 30 per cent of refinancing gains on past private finance initiative (PFI) deals would revert to the public sector, saving an estimated 175-200 million.
Source: PFI Refinancing Update, Twenty-Second Report (Session 2002-03), HC 203, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2003-Jun
A pamphlet by a junior government minister called for community control over key sections of the public services. It called for new forms of community interest companies, an extension of stakeholder ownership in the health service, and a new 'Citizen Participation Agency' to create a new generation of community activists and leaders.
Source: Hazel Blears MP, Communities in Control: Public services and local socialism, Fabian Society (020 7227 4900)
Links: Summary
Date: 2003-Jun
An audit report said that the private finance initiative (PFI) had improved prison services overall.
Source: The Operational Performance of PFI Prisons, HC 700 (Session 2002-03), National Audit Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf) | NAO press release | Prison Reform Trust press release | CBI press release
Date: 2003-Jun
A report (edited with others by a senior economic adviser to the Treasury) called for central government to allow local authorities greater freedom in the delivery of key public services and the regeneration of cities and regions.
Source: Ed Balls, John Healey MP and Cathy Koester (eds.), Growing the Economy: The Local Dimension, Smith Institute (020 7592 3618)
Links: Report (pdf)|Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jun
A think-tank report argued that the role being given to private business in public services actively undermined their role in providing entitlements or rights through an equitable allocation of resources on a universal basis. Using education as an example, the report analysed private sector involvement and showed how this threatened the citizenship basis of education.
Source: Colin Crouch, Commercialisation or Citizenship: Education policy and the future of public services, Fabian Society (020 7227 4900)
Links: Press release
Date: 2003-May
A new book on the financial aspects of welfare reviewed the economic case for public social services, and examined the economic and political limits to taxation; analysed the limits to markets as a way of meeting basic human needs; explored practical ways in which hospitals, schools and other social agencies were funded; and examined the theory and practice of rationing scarce resources and the public expenditure process.
Source: Howard Glennerster, Understanding the Finance of Welfare: What welfare costs and how to pay for it, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2003-May
The Opposition Conservative Party announced a series of proposals for public services reform, including: giving patients public funds to enable them to pay for treatment at a hospital (public or private) of their choice; giving 'state scholarship' vouchers to parents in deprived areas to enable them send their children of a school of their choosing; and abolishing both university tuition fees and targets for expanding university places.
Source: Speech by Iain Duncan Smith MP (Leader of Conservative Party), 13.5.03 | The Guardian, 14.5.03
Links: Text of speech | Conservative Party press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-May
A paper discussed how decentralised service provision could raise productivity by matching motivated workers to their 'preferred missions'. It argued that ownership issues were given far too much weight in existing debates about public service reform, and that what mattered for effective delivery of public goods and services was to have accountability structures and incentives.
Source: Timothy Besley and Maitreesh Ghatak, Incentives, Choice and Accountability in the Provision of Public Services, WP03/08, Institute for Fiscal Studies (020 7291 4800)
Links: Paper (pdf)
Date: 2003-May
A case study in Lothian (Scotland) found that the private finance initiative had not reached its targets for inpatient admissions and performance. Instead the effect had been a cut in services and downsizing of hospital and community facilities compared with other National Health Service hospitals in Scotland. Health officials reportedly criticised the study's conclusions as 'spurious' and 'total nonsense'.
Source: Matthew Dunnigan and Allyson Pollock, 'Downsizing of acute inpatient beds associated with private finance: Scotland's case study', British Medical Journal 26.4.03 | The Guardian, 26.4.03 | The Independent, 25.4.03
Links: BMJ article | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Apr
A think-tank report analysed the potential role that public interest companies could play in a range of public services. It suggested that they might help safeguard the public interest when contracting for public services, and might involve local communities more effectively in the delivery of services. However, difficult issues remained regarding finance, risk, accountability and governance - and that public interest companies should only be used with caution. (Public interest companies would be independent of the state, but would not have shareholders.)
Source: Paul Maltby, In the Public Interest? Assessing the potential of public interest companies, Institute for Public Policy Research, available from Central Books (0845 458 9911)
Links: Press release | Summary | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Apr
A think-tank pamphlet said the relationship between government and citizens was increasingly being modelled along consumerist lines - as shown by New Labour's communications techniques, consultation methods, and approach to public sector reform. It argued that this was both a philosophical and strategic error that would ultimately benefit neither voters, service users nor government itself.
Source: Catherine Needham, Citizen-consumers: New Labour's marketplace democracy, Catalyst, available from Central Books (020 8986 4854)
Links: Summary | Observer article
Date: 2003-Apr
The Secretary of State for Health argued that it was necessary 'to move on from the one-size-fits-all, take-it-or-leave-it, top down health service of the 1940s towards an NHS which embraces devolution, diversity and choice'.
Source: Speech by Alan Milburn MP (Secretary of State for Health), 30.4.03, Department of Health (020 7210 4850)
Links: Text of speech | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Apr
The government began consultation on detailed proposals for new 'community interest companies' - designed for social enterprises who want to use their profits and assets for the public good.
Source: Enterprise for Communities: Proposals for a community interest company, Department of Trade and Industry (0870 150 2500), HM Treasury and Home Office
Links: Consultation document (pdf) | Press release
Date: 2003-Mar
The Prime Minister reportedly said that he wanted to explore new forms of 'co-payment' for public services, and that the Labour Party should be 'far more radical' about the role of the state as a regulator rather than a provider of services.
Source: Tony Blair MP (Prime Minister), 'Where the Third Way Goes from Here', Progressive Politics, Policy Network (020 7981 0300)
Links: Article | Independent article
Date: 2003-Mar
The Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer argued for a 'pragmatic' approach to reforming public services, and for choosing solutions that work as opposed to those dictated by ideology.
Source: Michael Howard MP, Reform of the Public Services: The boundary between the private and public sectors, Centre for Policy Studies (020 7222 4488)
Links: Paper (pdf)
Date: 2003-Mar
The Chancellor of the Exchequer argued that, after ending the 'postcode lottery' in public services, a 'new localism' must be the government's next priority. He said: 'The next step in service delivery is empowering local communities with the freedom to agree for their own public services their own local performance standards - choosing their own performance indicators on top of national targets and the local community expecting their local managers to continuously monitor and learn from their performance'.
Source: Speech by Gordon Brown MP (Chancellor of the Exchequer) 7.2.03
Links: Text of speech
Date: 2003-Feb
In a rare joint press conference, the Secretaries of State for Health and Education defended plans to extend choice within public services. The Health Secretary described as 'patronising nonsense' the view (reportedly held by the Chancellor of the Exchequer) that the public lacks the knowledge needed to make the choices involved.
Source: The Independent, 12.2.03
Links: Article
Date: 2003-Feb
The Secretary of State for Health argued for a 'real localism' in health and other public services. He said that the 'top-down' approach of Labour's first term had delivered important results, but that a 'better balance' was needed between central direction and local autonomy. He suggested that local councils might be allowed to raise money to improve local health services, with voters consulted in local referenda.
Source: Speech by Alan Milburn MP (Secretary of State for Health) 5 February 2003
Links: Text of speech | BBC news report
Date: 2003-Feb
An article argued that a Competition Commission judgement (in August 2002) could make all contracting out and commissioning of healthcare by the National Health Service and local authority social services departments subject to European Union competition law, rather than being a matter for national public health policy. They warned that this may leave the NHS vulnerable to legal challenge from international healthcare corporations. (The BetterCare Group - a private company selling nursing and residential care in Northern Ireland - used UK competition law to argue that the contract price for private nursing home beds was set too low, because the trust was abusing its dominant market position in violation of competition rules.)
Source: Allyson Pollock and David Price, 'The BetterCare judgment - a challenge to health care ', British Medical Journal 1.2.03
Links: Article
Date: 2003-Feb
The Chancellor of the Exchequer argued for a 'middle way' approach to the use of markets in delivering public services. He said 'markets are part of advancing the public interest and the left are wrong to say they are not; but.. markets are not always in the public interest and the right is wrong to automatically equate the imposition of markets with the public interest'.
Source: Speech by Gordon Brown MP (Chancellor of the Exchequer) 3.2.03
Links: Text of speech
Date: 2003-Feb
A think-tank paper argued that the state has been found to be a poor provider of public services. It suggested that, as an alternative, all adult citizens should be provided with a cash allowance (a 'public service allowance') out of which they would buy public services.
Source: Tom Miers, The Magic of Choice: Reaping the full benefits of competition in public services, Institute of Economic Affairs (020 7799 8900)
Links: Paper (pdf)
Date: 2003-Feb
A private finance scheme to computerise magistrates' courts in England and Wales, costing 319 million, was described as a 'shocking' waste of money by the National Audit Office.
Source: New IT systems for Magistrates' Courts: The Libra project, HC 327 (Session 2002-03), National Audit Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf) | Press release
Date: 2003-Jan
A report warned that an overall lack of management skills will prove to be a brake on both the effectiveness of public sector reform and attempts to improve private sector productivity.
Source: Ewart Keep and Andy Westwood, Can the UK Learn to Manage?, Work Foundation (0870 165 6700)
Links: Report (pdf) | Press release
Date: 2003-Jan
The Prime Minister defended the government's modernisation strategy for public services, arguing that it is the only way of providing true equality of access and treatment for the poor. He said that 'public services are the best expression of social solidarity', and that failure to adopt a reform strategy would promote the 'real two-tierism' of private provision alongside poor-quality public services.
Source: Speech by Tony Blair MP, Prime Minister, 23.1.03
Links: Text of speech | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jan
An audit report said that traditional funding methods delivered, on average, better school buildings than the early private finance initiative (PFI) schools. It was found that costs both for construction and the running of schools - have varied widely, with no clear difference between the two types of funding. Moreover, PFI schools were not delivered any more quickly on average.
Source: PFI in Schools, Audit Commission (0800 502030)
Links: Links to report removed by Audit Commission | Audit Commission press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jan
The government said that, in view of continuing deadlock in negotiations over fire service pay and working practices, it would introduce legislation to take central powers over the fire service. These would allow it to specify pay and conditions of service and give directions on the fire service's objectives and the use of its facilities. The Deputy Prime Minister said that this move 'will hopefully bring a sense of reality into future negotiations'.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Debate 28.1.03, columns 719-736, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jan
The head of the Audit Commission told a committee of MPs that, while it is essential to set targets for public service improvement, a proliferation of them is 'a very dangerous thing'. He said that statutory audit bodies should have a role in setting, monitoring and evaluating targets.
Source: Oral Evidence 9.1.03 by James Strachan, Session 2002-03, HC62-vi, House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Evidence
Date: 2003-Jan