13 September 2002
Anthony Page said that his borough wanted to help reform public services but found the process hampered by confusing signals from central government.
'It's hard when our social services get a special rating from the Department of Health that doesn't look like anything else and our Ofsted scores look different from our Corporate Performance Assessment scores and our CPA score looks different from our Best Value inspection ratings,' he said.
Asking a question at a seminar organised by the New Local Government Network and pollsters Mori, Page said it was vital that Whitehall departments 'work together to allow us to receive one voice from central government'.
But Wendy Thomson, head of the Office of Public Services Reform and one of the speakers at the seminar, said that progress had been made in this area. 'I don't think we would even have dreamed of thinking we might have a joined-up inspection regime two years ago,' she said. 'And now there is a very real possibility that we will.'
At the seminar, Mori announced the findings from its latest survey on attitudes to public services. This showed a strong optimism that the government will improve the state of education and the NHS over the next few years.
But respondents were pessimistic about the prospects of improving public transport.
PFsep2002
