IPPR: public service overhaul needed to meet fiscal targets

11 Feb 14
A wholesale transformation of public services will be needed by whichever party wins the next election if public finance targets are to be met, the Institute for Public Policy Research has claimed

By Richard Johnstone | 12 February 2014

A wholesale transformation of public services will be needed by whichever party wins the next election if public finance targets are to be met, the Institute for Public Policy Research has claimed.

The think-tank called on the next government to focus on devolving power and budgets to improve value for money because a ‘business as usual’ approach to public spending would not be enough to meet spending rules. Chancellor George Osborne has pledged to run a total surplus on government spending by the end of the next Parliament, while his shadow Ed Balls has promised to balance current spending.

The only way to find significant savings from departmental budgets in the next parliament will be to transform the way services are delivered, the IPPR said.

Required reforms include the decentralisation of budgets to local authorities and city regions and breaking down existing Whitehall silos. 

This approach would also include a greater pooling of funding so services can take a ‘whole person’ or ‘whole area’ view – such as in the government’s Community Budgets programme. These approaches allow complex problems to be tackled more effectively. 

Local systems in what the IPPR called this ‘relational state’ would allow greater integration of professionals from different sectors into multi-disciplinary teams, and the expansion of collaborative service arrangements.

IPPR director Nick Pearce said public services were struggling to cope in an increasingly complex world and would have less funding in the future. 

‘The two predominant methods by which government has sought to run public services – bureaucracy and markets – assume a relatively simple world in which most problems have a small number of causes, and where standardised approaches will work in every case,’ he said.

‘To tackle problems such as how to collect the bins or reduce hospital waits, top down plans and simple market incentives can be very effective. But anti-social behaviour, chronic ill health and large numbers of young people not in education, employment or training have multiple and interconnected causes that feed off one another in unpredictable ways.’

Instead, the IPPR said the ‘relational state’, would also include a greater role for community and voluntary groups in providing public services through community networks.

Today’s Many to many: how the relational state will transform public services report highlighted examples that could be expanded. 

Neighbourhood justice panels in Swindon bring together offenders and victims of low-level offences to tackle the causes of offending behaviour and prevent minor cases escalating into the costly criminal justice system.

In addition, ‘Casserole Clubs’ in Barnet, Tower Hamlets and Reigate have replaced traditional ‘meals on wheels’ with a Facebook-style website where residents sign up to cook an extra portion of food and deliver it to an elderly neighbour who needs it. 

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