This week, we publish a green paper entitled From Public Sector To Public Service: Putting Citizens In Control, by the Progress Public Services Reform Group, we want to hear the ideas of Progress members on the future of public services.
The group, chaired by Rt Hon Alan Milburn MP, proposes a 10-year programme for improving public services. It argues for ‘an irreversible shift of power to the users of services’, saying that too many citizens still feel as though they are ‘treated like numbers not individuals’.
Ten ideas are put forward for discussion:
1. The best local councils could take over health commissioning responsibility from unelected primary care trusts.
2. Local senior police officers could be elected.
3. Local services such as GPs, colleges and job centres could be subjected to 10-year renewable franchises with poor performance acting as a trigger for automatic refranchising.
4. National pay awards could be kept in line with cost of living increases except in exceptional circumstances.
5. Staff in local services delivering good performance and outcomes could earn additional rewards.
6. Payment of providers could in part depend on how users themselves assess how local services are performing.
7. Patients could be given the choice of their treatment and individual budgets could be extended much more widely so that citizens can formulate their own menu of services, rather than having to choose from a preordained menu.
8. Parents could be given a credit to spend on childcare as they wanted, with the credit made up of the childcare element of the working tax credit, the nursery education grant and the Sure Start general rant to local authorities, weighted to give more to low-income families or people in training for employment.
9. Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds that are struggling or falling behind could choose a new ‘Education Credit’ which could be spent on providing extra one-to-one support either in school or with an approved educational tutor after agreement between the parent, pupil and school.
10. School supply could be opened up to new providers in areas where the overall performance of schools in an area is poor and where a high proportion of parents don’t currently get their first preference of school.
I agree with the thrust of the Milburn document. The problem Labour has however is in convincing people of the basic reality that public services is the only way in which their needs / aspirations will be met. This is compounded by the perception that failure to deliver improvements will in practice be rewarded so any solution will have to include severe punishment for failure by senior managers and culpable others.