05 September 2008
Public sector managers must abandon the 'outmoded' style of the twentieth-century civil service if public services are to face up to new challenges, a local government think-tank has said.
In a pamphlet published on September 4, Chris Leslie, director of the New Local Government Network, said rising public expectations and increasingly complex services were placing a strain on existing structures.
'The civil service has rested on withered laurels for too long. Defending closed procedures for those employed in senior positions and artificially insisting on outdated lines of vertical accountability are practices that have had their day,' he said.
In the paper, Managing delivery: new public service architecture for the twenty-first century, Leslie argued that there were four core pillars of modern public services.
The first was that factors driving improvement differed depending on the type of service, with citizen and political power and new technology becoming as important as choice and contestability.
'Government must analyse each line of public service activity and recognise that sometimes greater consumer choice will be needed, but in other cases tapping into professional goodwill might be a better means of achieving improvement,' he said.
The three other pillars were: a recognition of the skills required to build alliances, networks and partnerships; a fresh approach from the top on risk management; and taking 'proper advantage' of commissioning.
Leslie said: 'There are clear constitutional implications for the governance of Britain, and especially for the way Whitehall is organised.' The 'inexorable conclusion' of the paper, he added, was that service provision by local agencies closest to citizens was the most likely way to bring success.
In a foreword to the report, Tony Travers, director of the Greater London Group at the London School of Economics, said that reforms had improved services. 'But there is no doubt that unless public provision remains flexible and responsive it will be criticised and, in time, lose the electorate's confidence.'
PFsep2008
