Opening up, by Gill Hunter

10 Dec 09
GILL HUNTER | It’s been a busy week for fans of public service reform. The combination of Wednesday’s Pre-Budget Report (PBR) and Monday’s paper Putting the frontline first is the closest we are likely to get to a full-blown spending review this side of the election.

It’s been a busy week for fans of public service reform. The combination of Wednesday’s Pre-Budget Report (PBR) and Monday’s paper Putting the frontline first is the closest we are likely to get to a full-blown spending review this side of the election. Of particular interest is the insight these announcements give into how the government believes public services can adapt to the tighter budgets that the PBR announced.

Much of the model underpinning this thinking has been explored before, especially the recognition that successful public services depend on collaboration between central government, public service professionals and the public. There are also some new themes, such as greater budget flexibility for local authorities and increased support for third sector provision.

Potentially the most powerful component of this week’s thinking, however, is the drive to improve access to information about public services and extend the thinking contained in the Making public data public initiative. This will not just empower citizens and businesses:  clear operational and performance data, framed in a way that enables comparison within and across sectors, has the potential to act as a powerful stimulus to innovation, improving services and driving down costs.
It could help frontline professionals observe new approaches elsewhere in the public sector, for example, and give academics access to the kind of data that can stimulate research into the impact that different delivery models have on outcomes.

The free flow of information is essential to the model of open innovation that is being put into practice by some innovative organisations in the private sector, and examples of complementary facilities such as GovLoop in the US (which uses social media technology to help public service professionals share information) show how this thinking could start to improve public services here in the UK.

The challenge now for government is to ensure that the public sector, and particularly its cadre of frontline professionals, is ready to use the information that will be made available. Building the right capabilities – everything from flexible approaches in people management to effective processes for incubating new ideas – has now to be the top priority.  Initiatives like the new Capability Review model and the innovation 'support package' being implemented by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will help with this, but it is essential that the focus on building new capability and fostering collaborative learning remains a top priority through the turbulent times ahead.

Gill Hunter is Director of Innovation, Strategy and Change at Avail (part of the Tribal Group)

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