A report by a committee of MPs said that during the credit crisis in 2009, when the taxpayer was providing unprecedented support to the banking system, the banks were increasing the cost of financing private finance initiative (PFI) projects by up to one-third, and transferring risks back to the public sector. The extra cost to the taxpayer for PFI projects financed during this period was some £1 billion.
Source: Financing PFI Projects in the Credit Crisis and the Treasury's Response, Ninth Report (Session 2010-11), HC 553, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | CBI press release | Public Finance report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Dec
An article examined the articulation of 'leaderism' with public service reform – an emerging set of beliefs that framed and justified certain innovatory changes in contemporary organizational and managerial practice.
Source: Dermot O'Reilly and Mike Reed, '"Leaderism": an evolution of managerialism in UK public service reform', Public Administration, Volume 88 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Dec
A study examined the experiences of public services that had made the transition to employee and/or community ownership.
Source: Shared Ownership in Practice: Findings from case studies of employee and community ownership of public services, Office of Public Management
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Dec
A report said that government plans to transform public services against the backdrop of deep spending cuts would fail unless policy-makers recognized the importance of supporting a step-change in people and human resource management capability.
Source: Boosting HR Performance in the Public Sector, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development/Public Sector People Managers' Association
Links: Report | CIPD press release | People Management report | Public Finance report
Date: 2010-Dec
The government began consultation on ways to create a 'level playing field' for charities, voluntary groups, and social enterprises that wanted to bid for public service contracts. It focused on opportunities to introduce 'payment by results' contracts under which funding was linked to the delivery of outcomes; setting proportions of specific services that should be delivered by non-statutory agencies; and ways to reduce the regulatory burden on third sector organizations delivering public services.
Source: Modernising Commissioning: Increasing the role of charities, social enterprises, mutuals and cooperatives in public service delivery, Cabinet Office
Links: Consultation document
Date: 2010-Dec
A think-tank report said that a market-based approach to public service delivery was the best long-term basis for public service effectiveness and efficiency. It set out a framework to help policymakers navigate the 'baffling array' of commissioning approaches in the delivery of public services.
Source: Ian Mulheirn and Barney Gough, More with Less: Rethinking public service delivery, Social Market Foundation
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Dec
A second reading was given to a private member's Bill designed to require central and local government to publish strategies for promoting social enterprise; and to require public sector contracts to include provisions relating to social outcomes and social value.
Source: Public Services (Social Enterprise and Social Value) Bill, Chris White MP/TSO | Debate 19 November 2010, columns 1170-1228, House of Commons Hansard/TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard | SEC press release
Date: 2010-Nov
The government invited submissions of evidence on public sector reform, in advance of the scheduled publication of a White Paper in early 2011.
Source: Call for Evidence on Public Service Reform, Cabinet Office/HM Treasury
Links: Call for evidence
Date: 2010-Nov
A report said that although personalization presented a huge opportunity for positive changes to be made in the way that public services were accessed and delivered, charities and local authorities needed to work together to put the necessary infrastructure in place to make it work effectively. It made recommendations designed to: encourage people to pool personal budgets and self-funded contributions; support a new 'bottom up' model of quality assurance; and encourage providers to band together. It also called for a new form of social investment relief to increase the sums invested in civil society.
Source: Commission on Personalisation, A People Power Revolution: Making it real, Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations
Links: Report | ACEVO press release | Charity Times report
Date: 2010-Nov
The Cabinet Office published a business plan for the period 2011-2015.
Source: Business Plan 2011-2015, Cabinet Office
Links: Plan
Date: 2010-Nov
A think-tank report examined how individuals and community groups could join together to purchase 'underperforming assets' that the government planned to sell off, and transform them into revitalized, community-owned enterprises.
Source: Steve Wyler and Phillip Blond, To Buy, To Bid, To Build: Community rights for an asset owning democracy, ResPublica
Links: Report | ResPublica press release | Guardian report | Charity Times report
Date: 2010-Nov
An article examined corporate and political strategy in relation to the private finance initiative (PFI), and the central role that it gave to businesses in policy-making and policy delivery.
Source: Sally Ruane, 'Corporate and political strategy in relation to the Private Finance Initiative in the UK', Critical Social Policy, Volume 30 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Nov
The government announced plans to roll out new 'rights to provide' across public services. Under the scheme, employers would be expected to accept suitable proposals from front-line staff who wanted to take over and run their services as mutual organizations.
Source: Written Ministerial Statement 17 November 2010, columns 43-44WS, House of Commons Hansard/TSO
Links: Hansard | Co-operatives UK press release | IOG press release | SEC press release | Children & Young People Now report | Guardian report | Public Finance report | Civil Society report
Date: 2010-Nov
A report examined how citizens could act together to improve the way public services worked for them. This could involve individuals volunteering their time to help others: but it was also about empowering people to help themselves. There was an appetite on the part of people to get more involved in delivering local public services: but there were some strong barriers to participation.
Source: Capable Communities: Towards citizen-powered public services, Institute for Public Policy Research/PwC
Links: Report | IPPR press release
Date: 2010-Nov
A report said that an urgent policy review was needed of 'public private partnerships' (PPPs), in order to reassure private financiers that the risks involved in continuing with such projects were worth it in the face of an unstable financial climate.
Source: Istemi Demirag, Iqbal Khadaroo, Pamela Stapleton and Caral Stevenson, Public Private Partnership Financiers' Perceptions of Risks, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland
Date: 2010-Nov
A report by the government-appointed 'Digital Champion' called for radical improvements to government internet services in order to provide higher-quality and more convenient services to users. It said that public services should increasingly be provided digitally 'by default'. The government endorsed the report.
Source: Martha Lane Fox (UK Digital Champion), DirectGov 2010 and Beyond: Revolution not Evolution, Cabinet Office
Links: Report | Response | Cabinet Office press release | CIT press release | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Nov
The coalition government announced plans to reform a large number of arm's-length public bodies ('quangos'). 481 bodies in total would be affected. Of these, 192 would cease to be public bodies, and their functions would either be brought back into government, devolved to local government, moved out of government, or abolished altogether. Those losing their identity as separate public bodies included: Audit Commission; Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission; Commission for Integrated Transport; Commission for Rural Communities; Commission for the Compact; Community Development Foundation; Consumer Focus; Disability Employment Advisory Committee; Disabled Persons' Transport Advisory Committee; General Social Care Council; General Teaching Council for England; Health Protection Agency; HM Inspectorate of Court Administration; Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority; Human Genetics Commission; Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV; Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy; Legal Services Commission; Museums, Libraries and Archives Council; National Housing and Planning Advice Unit; National Tenant Voice; Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency; Regional Development Agencies; School Food Trust; Standards Board for England; Tenant Services Authority; Women's National Commission; and Youth Justice Board for England and Wales.
Source: Public Bodies Reform – Proposals for Change, Cabinet Office
Links: Report | Hansard | DBIS press release | DCLG press release | DCMS press release | DE press release | DH press release | DT press release | CDF press release | GEO press release | MOJ press release | CBI press release | CFC press release | CIH press release | Citizens Advice press release | Commission for Compact press release | Conservative Party press release | CWDC press release | Fawcett Society press release | HGC press release | LGA press release | NHF press release | NCVO press release | OFT press release | Scope press release | SEC press release | SFT press release | Sustrans press release | TUC press release | UKCES press release | WNC press release | YJB press release | IfG press release | Labour Party press release | Community Care report (1) | Community Care report (2) | Community Care report (3) | Children & Young People Now report (1) | Children & Young People Now report (2) | Civil Society report | BBC report | Telegraph report | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Guardian report (3) | Guardian report (4) | Guardian report (5) | Guardian report (6) | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Oct
A paper said that co-production based on time banks offered a tool for social policy that could help deliver welfare services at a time of austerity, and that also had the potential to help re-engage and empower users of the welfare state. (Time banking is a form of exchange based on time, whereby each hour of voluntary work someone contributes within their local community equals one time credit. These credits can then be used to access services from other volunteers.)
Source: Lee Gregory, Time in Service Design: Exploring the use of time credits to deliver social policies, Working Paper 132, School of Social Sciences/Cardiff University
Links: Working paper
Date: 2010-Oct
A report called for a system of local budgets for public spending. It said that a 'vast quantity of waste and unnecessary cost' was caused by the centralized way in which many local services were funded and run.
Source: Local Budgets: Building the Big Society from the neighbourhood up, Local Government Association
Links: Report | Community Care report
Date: 2010-Oct
A new book provided a critique of choice in contemporary society and policy. It examined how choice worked in the areas of healthcare, education, and pensions. It also reviewed the impact of choice through the life-cycle, in areas such as careers, relationships, fertility, retirement, and death. It considered whether greater choice enhanced or burdened people's lives, and questioned the assumption that more choice was always for the better.
Source: Michael Clarke, Challenging Choices: Ideology, consumerism and policy, Policy Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Oct
A report reviewed steps taken by the coalition government to rebalance the public finances – in particular by promoting a significant 'de-layering' of the public sector, with many more decisions taken locally; and by maximizing economies through more effective collaboration between public bodies.
Source: Rebalancing the Public Finances: The end of the beginning..., Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers
Links: Report | SOLACE press release
Date: 2010-Oct
A think-tank report called on the government to undertake a radical new programme of privatization – including Channel 4, BBC Worldwide, Scottish Water, and Network Rail – with a view to raising revenues of up to £90 billion.
Source: Nigel Hawkins, Privatization Revisited, Adam Smith Institute
Links: Report | ASI press release
Date: 2010-Oct
A think-tank report said that modern welfare states and high levels of public debt 'undermined human flourishing'. In the field of welfare, the state was displacing networks of solidarity, reciprocity, and community – rather than supporting them.
Source: Philip Booth, The Free Economy, the Welfare State and Government Borrowing, Institute of Economic Affairs
Date: 2010-Oct
A report examined the future role of identity and belonging in society over the period to 2025, focusing on the implications for public services. Contributors considered whether familiar differentiators, such as race and faith, would become more important in determining people's sense of identity. They looked at whether communities would be better integrated, providing individuals with a greater sense of belonging – or whether the benefits would be unevenly distributed as some people became more isolated and marginalized.
Source: Mark Oaten, Julia Margo, Leon Murray, Pat Thane and Harris Beider, Public Service Futures 5: The Future of Identity and Belonging, Office of Public Management
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Sep
An article examined why attempts to restructure public services were not always successful, with particular reference to the English National Health Service.
Source: Robert McMurray, 'Tracing experiences of NHS change in England: a process philosophy perspective', Public Administration, Volume 88 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Sep
A report called for a complete reconfiguring of public services around the needs and capabilities of citizens, based on the principle of social productivity. It said that existing public services were increasingly unsustainable: a new deal was needed between citizens and the state, based on greater social responsibility and more intelligent collaboration between citizens and public services.
Source: Commission on 2020 Public Services, From Social Security to Social Productivity: A vision for 2020 public services, 2020 Public Services Trust
Links: Report | 2020 press release | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Sep
A report examined the implications of the personalization agenda in public services for third sector organizations, focusing on health and social care.
Source: Chris Dayson, Understanding Personalisation: Implications for third sector infrastructure and their work with organisations on the frontline, Centre for Regional, Economic and Social Research/Sheffield Hallam University
Date: 2010-Aug
A report examined which models of employee ownership were likely to be most appropriate in different circumstances, and identified the public services where greater employee control might add value.
Source: New Models of Public Service Ownership: A guide to commissioning, policy and practice, Office of Public Management
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Aug
A think-tank report said that co-production of local public services offered the best chance of making the new government's 'Big Society' a success. It called for a radical shake-up in the way services were delivered, so that users became equal partners. Only co-production could break through the 'doing to' culture of mainstream public services that sapped power and confidence from the people they were trying to help.
Source: David Boyle, Anna Coote, Chris Sherwood and Julia Slay, Right Here, Right Now: Taking co-production into the mainstream, New Economics Foundation/NESTA
Links: Report | NEF press release | NESTA press release | New Start report
Date: 2010-Jul
A paper examined research evidence and policy development on the third sector and public service delivery over the previous 5-10 years. The third sector s experience of the new service delivery landscape had been 'somewhat mixed and varied'.
Source: Rob Macmillan, The Third Sector Delivering Public Services: An evidence review, Working Paper 20, Third Sector Research Centre
Date: 2010-Jul
An audit report said that by setting up an infrastructure financing unit in 2009, the government had helped to reactivate the lending market for private finance projects, which had been putting government private finance initiative (PFI) programmes in doubt as a result of the credit crisis.
Source: Financing PFI Projects in the Credit Crisis and the Treasury's Response, HC 287(Session 2010-11), National Audit Office/TSO
Links: Report | NAO press release
Date: 2010-Jul
A think-tank report said that public services should be designed and delivered in ways that encouraged citizens to take greater ownership of their services. This would improve productivity, by mobilizing social resources at a time when financial resources would be tightly stretched, and contribute to a switch in focus from service outputs to social outcomes.
Source: 2020 Vision: A far-sighted approach to transforming public services, 2020 Public Services Trust
Links: Report | 2020 press release
Date: 2010-Jun
A think-tank report examined accountability mechanisms for public services based on targets and rankings, and compared them with user-based mechanisms such as 'choice and voice'.
Source: Deborah Wilson, Targets, Choice and Voice: Accountability in public services, 2020 Public Services Trust
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jun
A think-tank report examined three main reform strategies for public services in conditions of fiscal stringency – 'resetting recent reforms' (reorienting recent reforms for an age of fiscal consolidation), 'system redesign' (more radical changes in the ways services were provided or basic incentive structures), and 'East of Suez moments' abandoning areas of public services in order to focus resources on existing or new ones.
Source: Christopher Hood, Reflections on Public Service Reform in a Cold Fiscal Climate, 2020 Public Services Trust
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jun
A new book examined the processes of personalizing, claiming, mediating, and belonging through which 'publics' come to be known in particular forms.
Source: Nick Mahony, Janet Newman and Clive Barnett (eds.), Rethinking the Public: Innovations in research, theory and politics, Policy Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Jun
A think-tank report said that innovation in public services required strategic leadership, and that a 'one size fits all' approach was not suitable. It set out a number of different models for innovation, suggesting where they were most appropriate, and offered guidance on how they could be supported.
Source: John Bessant, Tim Hughes and Sue Richards, Beyond Light Bulbs and Pipelines: Leading and nurturing innovation in the public sector, Sunningdale Institute/National School of Government
Links: Report | Sunningdale Institute press release
Date: 2010-Jun
A think-tank paper examined where accountability for the performance of public services should rest.
Source: Vernon Bogdanor, On Forms Of Accountability, Working Paper 3, 2020 Public Services Trust
Links: Working paper
Date: 2010-Jun
A think-tank report said that the use of public service 'entitlements' and 'guarantees' replicated many of the problems of traditional performance targets and restricted the ability of services to focus on the needs of their local communities. Better outcomes could be achieved more efficiently if public services were subject to less central instruction, as long as the necessary safeguards of transparency, scrutiny, and accountability to local citizens were in place.
Source: Luke Hildyard, Making Sense of Entitlement: Improving public services without performance guarantees, New Local Government Network
Links: Report | NLGN press release
Date: 2010-Jun
A report said that moves towards transferring the purchasing power of the public sector towards individual users of public services were 'radical and empowering': but a debate was urgently needed on the way these reforms were to be implemented.
Source: Catherine Needham, Commissioning for Personalization: From the fringes to the mainstream, Public Management and Policy Association/Centre for Public Service Partnerships
Links: Queen Mary College press release
Date: 2010-Jun
A think-tank report examined ways in which a diverse range of suppliers could promote innovation and quality in public services.
Source: Paul Grout and Pete Alcock, Supply Side Futures for Public Services, 2020 Public Services Trust
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jun
A report called for greater use of performance-related pay and bonuses in the public sector; urgent 'reform' of public sector pensions; and more regional flexibility in public sector pay.
Source: Transforming Public Sector Pay and Pensions, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
Links: Report | CIPD press release | Personnel Today report
Date: 2010-Jun
The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government announced (in the Queen's Speech) plans for a Public Bodies (Reform) Bill, designed to cut the number of public bodies, introduce a greater degree of transparency and accountability for public bodies, and give the government new powers to abolish, merge, or transfer functions.
Source: Queen's Speech, 25 May 2010
Links: Text of Speech | PCS press release | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Telegraph report
Date: 2010-May
A collection of essays offered an alternative vision for the public sector that exploited the potential for better, more efficient services through local solutions and better local integration. It said that the 'small state, big society' approach was not just a good idea – it was an approach that had been shown to work, and offered the only real solution to the many multi-dimensional challenges ahead.
Source: Tom Shakespeare (ed.), Small State, Big Society: Essays on reforming the state to create a stronger economy and bigger society, Localis
Links: Report | Localis press release
Date: 2010-May
A think-tank report examined the philosophy of 'compassionate conservatism' under the leadership of David Cameron. It said that the Conservative Party's reaction to the global economic crisis had revealed it to be unyieldingly wedded to neoliberal principles, criticizing government intervention at every turn. The party's public services strategy – based on 'decentralization, transparency and accountability' – had turned out to mean contracting out state-based public services and welfare provision to a range of private institutions, local community groups, charities, and businesses.
Source: Joe Cox, Blue Dawn Fades: Why the Conservatives missed their progressive moment, Compass
Links: Report | Compass press release
Date: 2010-Apr
The opposition Conservative Party published its manifesto for the 2010 general election. It said that parents, charities, and private organizations would be allowed to set up state-funded schools. Police authorities would be overseen by a directly elected official setting policing priorities, budgets, and strategies. Married couples, and people in civil partnerships, would be given a tax cut of £150 per year. The inheritance tax threshold would be increased to £1 million. Council tax would be frozen for two years. There would be a voluntary 'national citizen's service' for 16-year-olds. The national identity card scheme would be scrapped. There would be an annual cap on non-European Union migrants who were allowed to live and work in the United Kingdom.
Source: Invitation to Join the Government of Britain, Conservative Party
Links: Manifesto | Conservative Party press release | Speech | IFS press release | NUT press release | NASUWT press release | BMA press release | RCN press release | SEC press release | Friends of the Earth press release | Greenpeace press release | Stonewall press release | Runnymede Trust press release | Fawcett Society press release | Transform press release | CBI press release | ERS press release | Labour Party press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Telegraph report | Professional Pensions report | Personnel Today report | BBC report | Children & Young People Now report | Community Care report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report | Charity Times report | New Start report | Ekklesia report | Nursing Times report
Date: 2010-Apr
The Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 was given Royal assent. The Act was designed to remove overlap and duplication in public services in Scotland, and to provide greater clarity for service users and improved service delivery.
Source: Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, Scottish Government/TSO
Links: Text of Act | Scottish Government press release
Date: 2010-Apr
The opposition Liberal Democrat Party published its manifesto for the 2010 general election. It said that the first £10,000 of annual earnings would be made tax-free, taking about 3.4 million of the lowest-paid people out of tax altogether and giving an average tax cut of £700 per year: the cost would be met partly by closing tax loopholes and partly by tax rises in other areas – including ending higher-rate tax relief on pension contributions, and introducing an annual 1 per cent tax on domestic properties valued above £2 million. There would be cuts of £15 billion in public spending. The national identity card scheme would be scrapped.
Source: Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2010, Liberal Democrats
Links: Manifesto | LD press release | Speech | IFS press release (1) | IFS press release (2) | NUT press release | NASUWT press release | BMA press release | RCN press release | PAS press release | Friends of the Earth press release | Greenpeace press release | Runnymede Trust press release | Fawcett Society press release | Transform press release | Stonewall press release | SEC press release | CBI press release | IOD press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Telegraph report | Professional Pensions report | People Management report | Personnel Today report | New Start report | Guardian report | Community Care report | Children & Young People Now report | BBC report | Nursing Times report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Apr
A study examined the delivery of public services by voluntary and community organizations in Northern Ireland, and the balance of risk and reward involved for them.
Source: Leeann Kelly and Andrea Thornbury, Managing to Deliver: Public service delivery in Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action
Links: Report | NICVA press release | SEN press release
Date: 2010-Apr
The Labour Party published its manifesto for the 2010 general election. It said that National Health Service patients would get legally binding guarantees on the treatment they received. All hospitals would become foundation trusts, with greater freedom to manage their budgets and decide their priorities; poorly performing hospitals would be taken over by successful trusts. 1,000 secondary schools – roughly one-third – would become part of chains of schools run by an executive headteacher. A 'toddler tax credit' would be introduced, worth an extra £200 per year for families earning less than £50,000 with children under three years old. Paid paternity leave would be doubled to one month. The link between increases in earnings and in the basic state pension would be restored from 2012. There would be a pilot scheme giving primary-school children free school meals.
Source: A Future Fair for All: The Labour Party Manifesto 2010, Labour Party
Links: Manifesto | Labour Party press release | IFS press release | TUC press release | CBI press release | RCN press release | BMA press release | NUT press release | NASUWT press release | NCVO press release | Runnymede Trust press release | SEC press release | Friends of the Earth press release | Transform press release | Fawcett Society press release | Liberal Democrats press release | People Management report | BBC report | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Personnel Today report | Professional Pensions report | Inside Housing report | Nursing Times report | Telegraph report | Children & Young People Now report | Inside Housing report | New Start report
Date: 2010-Apr
The government set out plans for a fundamental shift in the way public services were delivered at local level in England. For the first time all local spending from across all local agencies was being looked at as a whole, in order to focus on designing services around the needs of the customer and cutting out waste and duplication. Government funding would be distributed through a 'single pot' to the best-performing areas, and areas would be allowed to retain money from the savings they made.
Source: Total Place: A whole area approach to public services, HM Treasury/Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Report | DCLG press release | Total Place press release | LGA press release | IOG press release | NAVCA press release | Guardian report | Charity Times report | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-Mar
A think-tank report said that anecdotal and empirical evidence suggested that outcomes were improved when public services and civil society worked in partnership. However, the evidence base was thin, largely because most initiatives were small and localized and operated 'under the radar' of formal evaluations. There was much stronger evidence to suggest that the overall approach improved citizen satisfaction with services and the degree to which residents felt that they could influence decisions.
Source: Vicki Savage, Corinne Cordes, Liz Keenaghan-Clark and Carmel O'Sullivan (with others), Public Services and Civil Society Working Together: Promising ideas for effective local partnerships between state and citizen, Young Foundation
Links: Report | Young Foundation press release
Date: 2010-Mar
A report presented quantitative and qualitative data on the public's priorities and anxieties in relation to public services. It said that there might be some appetite for citizens playing a more active role in deciding or reviewing the actions of public services, although the limits of this appetite and the conditions for translating it into action needed to be clearly understood.
Source: Ipsos MORI, What Do People Want, Need and Expect from Public Services?, 2020 Public Services Trust
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Mar
A think-tank report called for the 'dramatic reform' of the public sector labour market so that it more closely mirrored practices in the private sector. National pay bargaining should be phased out; pay and promotion should be tied to performance, and should be at the discretion of local managers; 'complex hiring and firing processes' should be scrapped in order to make it easier and cheaper to dismiss public servants; and public sector pensions should be 'reformed' by cutting them to private sector levels.
Source: Neil O'Brien and Ross Clark, The Renewal of Government: A manifesto for whoever wins the election, Policy Exchange
Links: Report | Policy Exchange press release
Date: 2010-Mar
A paper said that continuing to fund the existing range of public services, reducing child poverty, and helping the poorest elderly people pay for the costs of climate change would together absorb an additional 4-6 per cent of national income over the next 20 years – and increase the share of national income spent by government to over 45 per cent by 2020 and nearer 47-48 per cent by 2030. In addition there were other known costs, such as those related to the transport infrastructure and low-carbon technologies. The government needed to think strategically about these challenges, and to identify which demographic, social, and income groups were likely to face the greatest needs in the next two decades and which were in a position to make the greatest additional contributions. New ways should be found to share the burden through a new partnership approach to funding.
Source: Howard Glennerster, Financing the United Kingdom's Welfare States, 2020 Public Services Trust
Links: Paper | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Mar
A report examined systems thinking in the public sector in Wales. It highlighted examples of the unintended consequences of managing by targets, which led to a poorer service to local residents and unnecessary extra work for local authorities.
Source: Keivan Zokaei et al., Lean and Systems Thinking in the Public Sector in Wales, Wales Audit Office
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Mar
The fair trading watchdog published a new guide for policy-makers considering using choice and competition in the delivery of public services. It drew on evidence from a range of different public services including health, schools, further education, social care, and employment services. In order for choice and competition to work effectively policy-makers needed to be particularly aware of three key lessons: consumer behaviour needed to be understood; implementing good exit mechanisms was vital; and both user choice and competition between providers needed to function effectively in order to secure overall benefits for users.
Source: Frontier Economics, Choice and Competition in Public Services: A guide for policy makers, Office of Fair Trading
Links: Guidance | OFT press release
Date: 2010-Mar
An interim report by an all-party commission on the future of public services set out broad directions for reform, based on three mutually reinforcing, systemic shifts. It called for a 'shift in culture' (from social security to social productivity); a 'shift in power' (from the centre to citizens); and a 'shift in finance' (reconnecting financing with the purposes of public services).
Source: Beyond Beveridge: Principles for 2020 public services, 2020 Public Services Trust
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Mar
An article examined the range of reforms and structural changes in Northern Ireland since the restoration of devolution in 1999, together with the principles put forward in accompanying rationales. Comparisons were made with England, Scotland, and Wales to explain the factors driving Northern Ireland's pattern of public sector reform. There had been a tendency to focus on the practical, and controversial issues had been avoided. Elements of the streamlining model that Northern Ireland had adopted could now have a wider appeal as a response to cuts in public spending through reducing and simplifying the number of public bodies.
Source: Derek Birrell, 'Public sector reform in Northern Ireland: policy copying or a distinctive model of public sector modernization?', Public Money and Management, Volume 30 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Mar
The government set out its plans for increasing the opportunities for 'mutuals' (organizations based on mutual or co-operative principles) to develop and flourish across key areas of public services in England. It highlighted the potential for mutuals to stimulate and secure greater citizen participation and engagement in public services.
Source: Mutual Benefit: Giving people control of public services, Cabinet Office
Links: Report | BSA press release | Guardian report | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-Mar
The Scottish Parliament approved a Bill designed to remove overlap and duplication in public services in Scotland, and to provide greater clarity for service users and improved service delivery.
Source: Public Services Reform (Scotland) Bill, Scottish Government/TSO | Scottish Parliament Debate 25 March 2010, columns 25002-25083, Official Report/TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Briefing | Official Report | Scottish Government press release
Date: 2010-Mar
The government published a plan of action designed to introduce stricter requirements governing the foundation, activities, transparency, and management of arm's length bodies used to deliver public services.
Source: Reforming Arm's Length Bodies, HM Treasury
Links: Plan
Date: 2010-Mar
A report called for a wide debate about the future shape of public service delivery in Scotland, and for a rolling programme of public sector reform.
Source: The Future of Public Services Reform in Scotland, SOLACE (Scotland)
Links: Report | SOLACE press release
Date: 2010-Feb
A think-tank report examined the role that citizens and communities could play in directly producing public services.
Source: Capable Communities, Institute for Public Policy Research
Links: Report | IPPR press release | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Feb
A report examined the relationships between two aspects of public sector reform – greater decentralization towards a system focusing on place or locality, and the need for more innovation. Government department officials needed to be more involved in the regions as active partners in horizontal partnerships – rather than as 'gatekeepers', auditors, or performance managers.
Source: Su Maddock and Ben Robinson, Place Based Innovation, Sunningdale Institute/National School of Government
Links: Report | Sunningdale Institute press release
Date: 2010-Feb
The opposition Conservative Party published plans for public sector worker co-operatives, designed to enable staff to decide how the services they provided were run. It said that this would allow public sector workers to take control of their own working environment, and to escape from the 'top-down bureaucracies' that had 'made life a misery for so many people in the public sector'.
Source: Power To Public Sector Workers, Conservative Party
Links: Plan | Conservative Party press release | ResPublica press release | NASUWT press release | ATL press release | Nursing Times report | People Management report | Personnel Today report | Guardian report | BBC report | Telegraph report | Children & Young People Now report | Community Care report
Date: 2010-Feb
A think-tank report said that national pay deals in the public sector should be scrapped in favour of individual contracts for employees. It said that national pay systems ignored local differences, handicapped struggling regional economies, and made it impossible for public sector managers and institutions to cope sensibly with economic difficulties.
Source: Alison Wolf, More Than We Bargained For: The social and economic costs of national wage bargaining, CentreForum
Links: Report | Summary | Personnel Today report
Date: 2010-Feb
A report examined the management of shared services partnerships by public bodies.
Source: Paul Jackson, Sharing the Gain: Collaborating for cost-effectiveness, Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy
Links: CIPFA press release
Date: 2010-Jan
A government strategy document said that savings to the public purse of £3.2 billion annually from 2013-14 were to be made through transformations in public sector information technology.
Source: Government ICT Strategy: Smarter, cheaper, greener, Cabinet Office
Links: Strategy | Cabinet Office press release
Date: 2010-Jan