How can public services be improved and value for money ensured in these austere times?
The answer is to focus on the local, according to Chris Leslie and Robin Davies Whoever wins the next general election will face the combined prospect of ever rising expectations for public service quality with the curtailment of public spending levels. For those who thought that reform was difficult in the days of plenty, the future promises an even tougher challenge without financial room for manoeuvre. But reform is still possible even where resource pressures are tight and will arguably be prompted by this driver for change. The opportunity exists to prove that innovation and efficiency can go hand in hand. We believe that the challenges of the coming decade will prompt a focus on three key areas of policy: the need for early intervention; the importance of attention to outcomes; and the test of public satisfaction. Presently, too much public money is being wasted because policy approaches are too crisis focused and geared up to tackling the symptom and not the underlying causes. A
