Central targets for services will continue, says Hutton

15 Sep 05
John Hutton, the government minister for public service reform, last week vowed that central targets would continue, despite mounting criticism from local councils and think-tanks such as the Social Market Foundation.

16 September 2005

John Hutton, the government minister for public service reform, last week vowed that central targets would continue, despite mounting criticism from local councils and think-tanks such as the Social Market Foundation.

Speaking at the launch of an SMF report on targets, Hutton said that targets were an essential part of democracy, which gave citizens the 'means to judge whether services were improving or not and whether providers of these services were responding properly to the needs of their customers and consumers'.

Local Government Association chair Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart said at the launch that the imposition of central targets eroded local accountability.

Hutton dismissed Lockhart's criticism as 'absolute bunkum'. He said that those who call for central targets to be scrapped 'betray a total lack of confidence in public services and their ability to offer more responsive, personalised services'.

The minister said that those opposed to central targets were 'usually the same people who advocate the use of vouchers to encourage people to opt out of public services altogether'.

While he did concede that targets needed to be better focused and allow more local flexibility, much of his speech was devoted to promoting individual choice as the best alternative to targets.

'It is handing power to individual service users – increasing the levers they can pull to get the public services they want – which will be the most powerful dynamic for change in the future,' he said.

'If we can create the right incentives for providers to attract consumers, then we will create new drivers of change that can be both more effective than central targets and more responsive to what users want.'

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