A survey found that public sector leaders expected a significant increase in public-private sector collaboration over the next few years: but almost one-half did not believe that such collaboration would succeed, and expressed concerns over risks to public service delivery.
Source: Relationship Counselling: Positive partnerships across public and private organisations, Hay Group
Links: Report | Hay press release | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Dec
A new book examined co-production in the provision of public services in developed countries. It considered how co-production could contribute to service quality and service management in public services, and the effect of co-production on growing citizen involvement and the development of participative democracy.
Source: Victor Pestoff, Taco Brandsen, and Bram Verschuere (eds.), New Public Governance, the Third Sector, and Co-Production, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2011-Dec
A new book examined the systematic undermining of public services and the welfare state that had been brought about by personalization, marketization, and privatization – together with the 'localism' and the 'Big Society' agendas. It set out an alternative policy framework that would reconstruct the economy, invest in local economies, create jobs, and rebuild public infrastructure – charting a new role for the state and a radical new management strategy for public services.
Source: Dexter Whitfield, In Place of Austerity: Reconstruction of the economy, state and public services, Spokesman Books
Links: Summary | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Dec
A think-tank report said that the opposition Labour party should avoid the political trap of offering a simple defence of the public sector and public spending, in the face of cuts imposed by the coalition government. The party should instead highlight the coalition's preference for regressive charging mechanisms to fund public services; it should offer the alternative of more progressive funding mechanisms, and develop new welfare policies that reduced economic insecurity by pooling risk.
Source: Gregg McClymont MP and Ben Jackson, Cameron?s Trap: Lessons for Labour from the 1930s and 1980s, Policy Network
Links: Report | Summary | BBC report
Date: 2011-Dec
The coalition government announced a review of the private finance initiative. The review would seek to find a new model that was cheaper, provided access to a wider range of private sector financing sources, and struck a better balance of risk between the private and the public sectors.
Source: Press release 15 November 2011, HM Treasury
Links: Hansard | HMT press release | CBI press release | BBC report | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report
Date: 2011-Nov
A report examined experiences of the private finance initiative, in the light of plans for an official review. It said that competition could be promoted by lowering the cost of making bids; that greater flexibility and accountability should be built into contracts; and that the Treasury should minimize the possibility that accounting and statistical treatment favour any particular procurement method.
Source: Learning the Lessons of PFI: Securing lifecycle finance for public services, European Policy Forum
Links: Report
Date: 2011-Nov
A report examined progress made by the coalition government in tackling the long-term challenges facing public services (as identified in a 2010 commission report). It said that fundamental change had yet to take root: citizens were only sporadically engaged, and some felt increasingly excluded. Action and analysis had too often been out of step. Even where the analysis had been promising, for example in relation to early intervention, implementation had sometimes been disappointing.
Source: The Commission on 2020 Public Services: A Progress Report, 2020 Public Services Hub at the RSA
Links: Report | Summary | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Oct
A think-tank report examined how mutuals and co-operatives could serve as models of 'post-crisis reform' in both the private and public sectors.
Source: Michael McTernan (ed.), What Mutualism Means for Labour: Political economy and public services, Policy Network
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Oct
A report said that the coalition government's policy of promoting a more 'transactional' or impersonal relationship between the users and providers of public services would fail to build or sustain the social networks that were vital for people's physical and mental health.
Source: David Morris and Alison Gilchrist, Communities Connected: Inclusion, participation and common purpose, Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce
Links: Report | Summary | Charity Times report
Date: 2011-Oct
A new book examined the application of European Union law to welfare services such as healthcare, health insurance, and education. It said that 'protectionist' resistance to EU law was largely unjustified: the law was not damaging to welfare systems, and provided adequate balancing mechanisms to ensure that all interests were protected.
Source: Laura Nistor, Public Services and the European Union: Healthcare, health insurance and education services, TMC Asser Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2011-Sep
A think-tank report presented evidence from case studies of successful public service reform in the United Kingdom and overseas. 'Reform' of the workforce was an essential means of improving public services as well as reducing their costs. Key measures included cutting staff numbers and levels of sickness absence. A cut of 400,000 public service jobs in the UK was easily achievable within 5 years using this approach.
Source: Dale Bassett, Thomas Cawston, Andrew Haldenby, Patrick Nolan, Nick Seddon, Will Tanner, and Kimberley Trewhitt, Reformers and Wreckers, Reform
Links: Report | Reform press release | UNISON press release | Unite press release | Public Finance report
Date: 2011-Sep
A report by a committee of MPs said that unless the government could rapidly develop and implement a comprehensive plan for cross-departmental reform in Whitehall, its wider ambitions for public service reform, the 'Big Society', localism, and decentralization would fail. It highlighted a lack of specialist expertise and other key skills, institutional inertia, and complacency within central government departments.
Source: Change in Government: The agenda for leadership, Thirteenth Report (Session 2010-12), HC 714, House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Additional written evidence | Institute for Government press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2011-Sep
A report by a committee of MPs said that the private finance initiative (PFI) was poor value for money. It was no more efficient than other forms of borrowing, and it was 'illusory' that it shielded the taxpayer from risk.
Source: Private Finance Initiative, Seventeenth Report (Session 2010-12), HC 1146, House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | CBI press release | CIPFA press release | NHS Confederation press release | UNISON press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2011-Aug
A report by a committee of MPs said that although the private finance initiative had delivered many new public buildings and services that might not otherwise have been built, it was far from clear that it had provided value for money.
Source: Lessons from PFI and Other Projects, Forty-fourth Report (Session 2010-12), HC 1201, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | CBI press release | UNISON press release | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2011-Aug
A briefing paper provided background to the establishment of the Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services in Scotland (the 'Christie Commission'), summarized its main conclusions and recommendations, and outlined some initial reaction to the report.
Source: Allan Campbell, The Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services, Briefing 11/52, Scottish Parliament
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-Aug
An employers' organization called for a package of measures to boost infrastructure investment through effective public-private partnerships.
Source: Building Strong Foundations: Financing UK infrastructure, Confederation of British Industry
Links: Report | CBI press release | Public Finance report
Date: 2011-Aug
A briefing paper examined debates over the value for money of the private finance initiative. Supporters of PFI argued that it had performed better than traditional public procurement. Critics argued that PFI could be inflexible, and that there was scope for making savings in PFI projects.
Source: Dominic Webb and Lucinda Maer, Recent PFI Developments, Standard Note SN/EP/06007, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2011-Aug
An article reviewed the changing responsibilities and roles of the voluntary and community sector in the delivery of welfare services.
Source: Eddy Hogg and Susan Baines, 'Changing responsibilities and roles of the voluntary and community sector in the welfare mix: a review', Social Policy and Society, Volume 10 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Jul
The government published a White Paper on public services, containing proposals designed to open up public services to new providers. Wherever possible choice would be increased, and power would be decentralized to the lowest appropriate level. Public services should be open to a range of providers: but fair access to public services would be protected, and services would be accountable to users and taxpayers. Open public services were the only way to deliver the improvements that people demanded.
Source: Open Public Services White Paper, Cm 8145, Cabinet Office, TSO
Links: White Paper | Hansard | Cabinet Office press release | PM speech | CBI press release | Co-operatives UK press release | Institute for Government briefing | JRF blog | Labour Party press release | NCVO briefing | NIACE press release | NLGN press release | NUT press release | SEC press release | SIB press release | TUC press release | BBC report | Community Care report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report
Date: 2011-Jul
A report examined the economic and societal potential and impact of an 'open service innovation' approach in Europe. Open innovation was a means to create the necessary interaction between public sector actors, users, and service providers that was critical in the transformation of existing businesses and public services.
Source: Gohar Sargsyan (ed.), Socio-Economic Impact of Open Service Innovation, European Commission
Links: Report | European Commission press release
Notes: Open service innovation involves the inclusion of users and citizens in the development of services, using networks based on new information technology.
Date: 2011-Jul
A report by a committee of MPs said that the government's over-reliance on large contractors for its information technology needs, combined with a lack of in-house skills, was a 'recipe for rip-offs'.
Source: Government and IT – 'A Recipe for Rip-Offs': Time for a new approach, Twelfth Report (Session 2010-12), HC 715, House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Evidence | Additional written evidence | IFG press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2011-Jul
An article examined the role and impact of 'tsars' (increasingly being used in government to co-ordinate policy, deal with complex problems, and implement government goals). Focusing on tsars in the Department of Health, it looked at the resources that tsars had to shape policy outcomes.
Source: Martin Smith, 'Tsars, leadership and innovation in the public sector', Policy & Politics, Volume 39 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Jul
An article examined the experiences of third sector organizations in public service delivery, particularly in large-scale programmes. The sector as whole, and particularly smaller providers, often found themselves 'squeezed out' at the bidding phase: but successful subcontractors were largely positive about their experiences of delivery and relationships with prime contractors, although there were concerns about excessive bureaucracy and inflexible contracts.
Source: Richard Crisp, Ellie Roberts, and Dave Simmonds, '"Do-gooders, pink or fluffy, social workers" need not apply? An exploration of the experiences of the third sector organisations in the European Social Fund and Work Programme', People, Place & Policy, Volume 5 Issue 2
Links: Article
Date: 2011-Jul
An employers' organization identified solutions to a series of challenges that the government needed to overcome in order to ensure that information technology played a 'transformative' role in public service delivery.
Source: System Reset: Transforming public services through IT, Confederation of British Industry
Links: Report
Date: 2011-Jul
A think-tank report said that although there was 'widespread support' for increased competition and choice in public services, the details of possible changes were both controversial and complex. The government should take an evolutionary approach to change, and recognize the vital role that regulation should play in the development of the market for services.
Source: Chris Nicholson, Your Choice: How to get better public services, CentreForum
Links: Report | Public Finance report
Date: 2011-Jul
A report by a committee of MPs welcomed the direction and principles of the coalition government's new strategy for information and communications technology: but it said that the strategy lacked quantitative targets, or a baseline of existing performance, which would make it difficult to measure success.
Source: Information and Communications Technology in Government, Fortieth Report (Session 2010-12), HC 1050, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Public Finance report
Date: 2011-Jul
A new book examined how personalization had evolved as a policy narrative in public services, and how it had mobilized wide-ranging political support.
Source: Catherine Needham, Personalising Public Services: Understanding the personalisation narrative, Policy Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2011-Jul
A trade union report said that there was little evidence that the coalition government's programme for encouraging mutuals to deliver public services was anything other than a cynical exercise in cuts: but that did not mean either that there was no role for mutuals, or that many of the characteristics associated with mutualism did not have an important part to play in public service provision.
Source: Mutual Benefit? Should mutuals, co-operatives and social enterprises deliver public services?, Unison
Links: Report
Date: 2011-Jun
A report by an all-party group of MPs said that employee-led mutuals could positively transform public services – as long as they were not driven by economic motives. Employee-led ownership needed stronger support and communication from central government if it were to build on its initial success.
Source: Sharing Ownership: The role of employee ownership in public service delivery, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Employee Ownership
Links: Report | EOA press release | Community Care report
Date: 2011-Jun
An article examined the role of face-to-face interaction between frontline service staff and service users in the delivery of social policy. It identified ways in which resistance to intended policy outcomes, and to the practices expected to deliver them, was formed and expressed.
Source: David Prior and Marian Barnes, 'Subverting social policy on the front line: agencies of resistance in the delivery of services', Social Policy and Administration, Volume 45 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Jun
The report of an independent commission (chaired by Campbell Christie) called for a shift in public service provision in Scotland to a more preventative, collaborative, and outcome-based approach. It estimated that up to 40 per cent of Scottish public spending went on remedying problems that early intervention could have prevented, and said that a 'radical, new, collaborative culture' was needed to prevent unsustainable pressure on public services funding.
Source: Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services, Scottish Government
Links: Report | Scottish Government press release | STUC press release | Guardian report | Public Finance report | Scotsman report
Date: 2011-Jun
A briefing paper examined the coalition government's plans for public services reform.
Source: Lorna Horton and Oonagh Gay, Public Service Reform, Standard Note SN/PC/06011, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2011-Jun
The Cabinet Office published a revised business plan, covering the period 2011-2015.
Source: Business Plan 2011-2015, Cabinet Office
Date: 2011-May
An audit report said that lessons from using the private finance initiative (PFI) could be applied to improve other forms of procurement and help the government achieve its aim of securing annual infrastructure delivery cost savings of £2-3 billion. The government should do more to act as an 'intelligent customer' in the procurement and management of projects.
Source: Lessons from PFI and Other Projects, HC 920 (Session 2010-11), National Audit Office, TSO
Links: Report | NAO press release | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2011-Apr
A report said that people should increasingly be expected to make use of cheaper 'digital channels' to access public services, including tax payments and benefit claims.
Source: Choosing Fewer Channels: Public service channel options in an age of austerity, Deloitte & Touche LLP
Links: Report | Deloitte and Touche press release
Date: 2011-Apr
A report by a committee of MPs said that there was a need for action to reconcile the government's policy objective of public services reform, and its localism agenda, with the demands of accountability to Parliament.
Source: Accountability for Public Money, Twenty-eighth Report (Session 2010-11), HC 740, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Apr
An article examined whether the agenda of the coalition government was best understood as a new approach to deep-seated economic shortcomings or simply as the normal politics of gaining and retaining power. It analyzed the government's programme of public spending cuts and restructuring, identified common features across a range of policies, and discussed how they were likely to develop as they encountered set-backs.
Source: Peter Taylor-Gooby and Gerry Stoker, 'The coalition programme: a new vision for Britain or politics as usual?', Political Quarterly, Volume 82 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Mar
A report said that the government's drive to outsource social care and other public services risked damaging service quality, weakening accountability, and harming working conditions.
Source: Howard Reed, The Shrinking State: Why the rush to outsource threatens our public services, Unite
Links: Report | Unite press release | Community Care report
Date: 2011-Mar
A briefing paper examined the role of the scrutiny function in the delivery of public services under the 'Big Society'.
Source: Ed Hammond, The Big Society, Centre for Public Scrutiny
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-Mar
An article identified key themes in the 'personalization' of public services. It highlighted the ambiguity of personalization as a guide to action; the tensions between user empowerment and user responsibility; and the extent to which personalization was used to legitimize other reforms, in particular budget cuts.
Source: Catherine Needham, 'Personalization: from story-line to practice', Social Policy and Administration, Volume 45 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Feb
A think-tank report examined the state of public services at the end of the Labour governments (1997-2010), and the prospects for reform under the new coalition government. Despite Labour's rhetoric on reform, neither the Health nor the Education Departments had dismantled central regulation and made services accountable to their users. But the coalition government was also failing the test of practical reform: its policies were inconsistent between departments and sometimes within them, often failing to observe the government's own principles of reform. The report identified four key priorities: make the National Health Service accountable to patients rather than to family doctor consortia, local government, and the National Commissioning Board; extend the means-testing of 'middle-class welfare'; allow free choice of school, whether for-profit, state, or charitable; and replace the doctrine of ministerial responsibility with clear lines of personal accountability and performance-related incentives for civil servants.
Source: Dale Bassett et al., 2011 Reform Scorecard, Reform
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Feb
A report examined the concept of 'deep value' in relation to public services provision – the value created when relationships in public services were effective, including both improved service outcomes, and wider benefits for service users. Effective relationships were not an added extra but were core to the delivery of effective services. Policy-makers therefore needed to assess proposals to reform public services against their ability to preserve or improve these relationships: policies that broke the link between professionals and clients might undermine the potential for policies to achieve their desired aims.
Source: Kate Bell and Matthew Smerdon, Deep Value: A literature review of the role of effective relationships in public services, Community Links
Links: Report | Community Links press release
Date: 2011-Feb
A report examined key aspects of commissioning and payment by results within public services. It looked at market creation, skills and transparency, and accountability.
Source: Ian Moss, The State of Commissioning: Preparing Whitehall for outcomes-based commissioning, Institute for Government
Links: Report
Date: 2011-Feb
A report outlined the findings from the first year of a three-year longitudinal study examining the opportunities and challenges facing third sector organizations in Scotland in the delivery of public services.
Source: Stephen Osborne, Elric Honore, Sue Bond, and Matthew Dutton, The Opportunities and Challenges of the Changing Public Services Landscape for the Third Sector in Scotland: A longitudinal study year one report – Baseline findings, Scottish Government
Date: 2011-Feb
An article examined two contrasting approaches to reforming public services in order to meet the needs of people living in poverty. The first approach was 'top-down', involved categorizing individuals (as 'hard to help', 'at risk') and invoked scientific backing for justification. The second approach was 'bottom-up', related to people as individuals, and treated people who had experience of poverty and social exclusion as experts. The authors highlighted the prevalence of top-down approaches, despite increasing support for bottom-up approaches in other policy areas.
Source: Anneliese Dodds and Dan Paskins, 'Top-down or bottom-up: the real choice for public services?', Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, Volume 19 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Feb
A report examined the intellectual roots and political context for the new government's 'Big Society' agenda, and how the idea would affect key areas such as housing, poverty, inequality, rural communities, and the environment. It challenged the lack of detail in plans to empower communities, and for public sector reform; and it suggested ways to implement the vision of Big Society successfully.
Source: Marina Stott (ed.), The Big Society Challenge, Keystone Development Trust
Links: Report
Date: 2011-Jan
An article examined the impact on the voluntary and community sector of delivering 'low-level' public services (in rural England) that promoted independent living and well-being in old age. Those charged with service delivery faced particular challenges, such as uncertain funding regimes and reliance on volunteer labour.
Source: Irene Hardill and Peter Dwyer, 'Delivering public services in the mixed economy of welfare: perspectives from the voluntary and community sector in rural England', Journal of Social Policy, Volume 40 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Jan
A report by a committee of MPs said that private finance initiative (PFI) projects had delivered many new hospitals and homes that might otherwise not have been delivered. But there was 'no clear evidence' as to whether PFI offered any better or worse value for money than other procurement routes.
Source: PFI in Housing and Hospitals, Fourteenth Report (Session 2010-11), HC 631, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | CBI press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2011-Jan
A report by a committee of MSPs said that public services needed to focus more on preventing social problems arising rather than reacting to problems once they had occurred.
Source: Report on Preventative Spending, 1st Report 2011, SP Paper 555, Scottish Parliament Finance Committee
Links: Report | CCPS press release
Date: 2011-Jan
A report said that there was a growing gap between the new government's original aims for the 'Big Society' and the way it was being applied in practice. Rather than empowering communities and nurturing personal responsibility, the government had focused on encouraging social enterprises and third sector groups to run public services. This made such organizations more dependent on the state, and failed to recognize that the role of most community groups was to hold public services to account – not to deliver them.
Source: Gabriel Chanan and Colin Miller, The Big Society and Public Services: Complementarity or erosion?, PACES
Links: Report | Summary | New Start report
Date: 2011-Jan