British public services have reached a defining period. There has been remarkable growth in service provision through increasing varieties of state, private, voluntary and partnership arrangements. There has been an equally remarkable growth and variety of public expectations of services, reflected in a new language of ‘customers’, choice and ‘value for money’.
Managing these forces in the present economic climate raises issues about:
The balance of responsibility between the state and the individual, and
The boundaries between social justice and choice.
These issues are not simply about who pays, and when. They reflect how our obligations as citizens, reflected in individual behaviours and attitudes, might or should determine what the state makes available. They challenge what as consumers we might regard as core, and what discretionary, and how these views are mediated into policy.
The Transformation of Public Services
British public services have reached a defining period. There has been remarkable growth in service provision through increasing varieties of state, private, voluntary and partnership arrangements. There has been an equally remarkable growth and variety of public expectations of services, reflected in a new language of ‘customers’, choice and ‘value for money’.
Managing these forces in the present economic climate raises issues about:
These issues are not simply about who pays, and when. They reflect how our obligations as citizens, reflected in individual behaviours and attitudes, might or should determine what the state makes available. They challenge what as consumers we might regard as core, and what discretionary, and how these views are mediated into policy.