It's been a year since the coalition government set out its reform ambitions in the Open Public Services white paper. Improving accountability in a more diverse pubic sector landscape remains the major challenge
A year ago this week, the Open Public Services white paper arrived with a whimper rather than a bang. Such high expectations, yet such disappointment with concessions between the coalition partners leading to many principles being diluted. Conservative hopes for further outsourcing, targets on public sector mutuals and more public-private joint ventures were pitted against Liberal Democrat fears about the wholesale privatisation of the state. We were left with no clear winner and a set of reforms failing to meet expectations.
Yet a 'progress report' published in March by Oliver Letwin and Danny Alexander ran to 96 pages of achievements – almost twice in size as the original strategy document. The March update captures many examples of how the drivers of choice, decentralisation and diversity are being delivered at a local level across a host of services, and points to some concrete examples in health, social care, schools, and higher education. However, community right-to-bid, greater procurement of SMEs, and 1 in 5 public sector workers in mutuals stubbornly remain as concepts rather than reality.
The first anniversary of the white paper's publication offers an opportunity to review progress further. The government obviously recognises that of the five drivers, accountability is perhaps the weakest, and is thus proposing to consult on how to ensure greater accountability as public services are opened up.
There are some immediate challenges and opportunities. If the vision is for public services to be responsive to the people they serve, then wouldn’t this accountability be enhanced if the Freedom of Information Act applied to all organisations in receipt of public funds? This specific proposal has been gaining currency as the realisation that significant revenue has been received by voluntary and commercial organisations from programmes such as the Work Programme, prisoner rehabilitation and now the Troubled Families Initiative. As a tool, FOI is vital in enabling scrutiny and transparency by campaigning groups, and many are eagerly anticipating the government’s proposals to ensure performance data and information transparency is extended in an appropriate fashion to include private companies and voluntary sector organisations that provide public services.
Related to this subject, it hasn’t needed an open data white paper to shed light on extensive public data – the leadership from the top has already culminated in access to invaluable datasets. This is already resulting in better-informed commissioners. Take the NHS Atlas of Variation – voluntary sector organisations are able to pinpoint geographies of greatest need, highlight variations in access to services, and how these are translated into inequalities in outcomes. So on that basis accountability is increasing. But the challenge for the government is to ensure that data isn’t just pushed out, but that it is aggregated to make it meaningful and valuable for commissioners and providers.
In an era of austerity, the public have to have confidence in strong local accountability of commissioners and providers to ensure there is effective and efficient use of limited funding. At a time when established audit and inspection bodies are being rolled back locally, there has to be a role in mobilising professionals, 'arm-chair auditors' and others to ensure value for money is being delivered. It won’t be easy, but after a year it is widely accepted as the greatest challenge.
John Lehal is managing director at Insight Public Affairs. He tweets at @JohnLehal
