Publications

To cope with the fiscal challenges the UK faces and still deliver world class public services, government will need to re-think the ways it delivers services at the central and local levels. Government will need to encourage and reward innovation and create powerful incentives to focus providers on the results citizens want from public action. Better Outcomes describes a radically new approach to realising public outcomes. Outcome commissioning involves specifying outcomes to public, private and voluntary sector providers and paying them when results are achieved. Better Outcomes analyses the challenges to implementing this approach, such as extraneous variables and time lags, concluding that there are various ways to resolve these issues, including implementing yardstick competition or using surrogate measures. Outcome commissioning is applicable in many areas, from foster care to waste management to IT systems. We urge politicians, policy makers and service managers to engage with these ideas and issues to improve outcomes for the public.

This project is part of the third and final strand of our Scoping the Challenges series. Having identified the case for reform, we now consider how we might finance public services in light of the demand pressures in 2020. The current fiscal situation and impending public spending cuts makes this work even more urgent and important. How, for example, will we meet the costs of an ageing population when there is already a great hole in the social care budget? What of the cost implications of increased longevity on the health service and pensions? In considering what the state should provide and how it can be funded in the future, it is vital that we understand the current pattern of tax and spending in the UK. Only then can we have an informed discussion on what can be cut, and who will feel the pain. ‘The Fiscal Landscape: Understanding the contributions and benefits’ is a first step in our attempt to shed greater light on ‘who gains, who pays, and how much?’ from UK public spending.

A Brief History of Public Service Reform is the first publication in the Scoping the Challenges for 2020 Public Services series. This series of three publications seek to survey the landscape of issues and questions we need to pose to hold a coherent and comprehensive debate on the future of public services. A Brief History of Public Service Reform is an analysis of UK welfare and public services from before 1945 to the present day. It explores the evolution of the system and when, why and how change took place. This report seeks to answer how we have got here and identify the prospects for radical reform – aiding the national conversation on the future of public services.

The Commission encourages readers to join the debate, by clicking below on ‘Add a Comment’ to have your say.

Drivers for Change: Citizen Demand in 2020 is the second publication in the Scoping the Challenges for 2020 Public Services series. This series of three publications seek to survey the landscape of issues and questions we need to pose to hold a coherent and comprehensive debate on the future of public services. Drivers for Change: Citizen Demand in 2020 examines over 30 social, cultural and technology trends that will have a bearing on the demand for public services, and explores three scenarios which illustrate life as it might be in 2020. Everyone has an interest in the debate on the future of public services; as citizens, as users of public services, and as taxpayers. In creating alternative scenarios and describing their implications for fictional characters, the aim of the report is not to predict the future. Rather, it is to dramatise the debate about the future choices our society will face and provoke new thinking about how policy makers might respond. In doing so, we hope to encourage a variety of voices to join this conversation.

The Commission encourages readers to join the debate, by clicking below on ‘Add a Comment’ to have your say.