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 Commission on 2020 Public Services- focus on innovation and social valueFSquared welcomes the interim report of the Commission on 2020 Public Services. The commission’s full report is due in the summer, but Beyond Beveridge: Principles for 2020 Public Services outlines principles that will support innovation and increased focus on social value in delivery of public services. Beyond Beveridge paints a challenging future for public services in which the alternative to systematic innovation is one in which they “are retrenched but not reformed... and become increasingly poor services for a marginalised minority.” To avoid this bleak scenario, the report proposes mutually supporting structural shifts in: • Culture: from social security, to social productivity. • Power: from the centre to citizens. • Finance: reconnecting financing with the purposes of public services. In this sense, the challenges identified by the commission are also an opportunity to create more locally accountable public services that support individual and collective capabilities and enable citizens to work together to solve problems. In other words, although “the need for change is pressing [and] the spectre of narrow, short-term budget balancing alternatives [is] looming large”, there is an opportunity to re-focus public service delivery on achieving social value. There are many potential pitfalls along the route described by the Commission on 2020 Public Services, and development of new public service models will need to be constantly reviewed, for example, to avoid negative impacts on existing inequalities. FSquared looks forward to working alongside forward-looking organisations – in the public, private and third sectors – to help ensure that the principles identified by the commission are implemented in a way that empowers citizens and takes account of the needs of those who need public services most. www.2020publicservicestrust.org/page.asp?p=3131 |