Total government expenditure on procurement reached £284bn in 2017/18. Traditionally, the primary focus of procurement has been to deliver services more efficiently whilst reducing costs. The implementation of the Public Service (Social Value) Act 2012 was intended to increase the wider benefits that could be gained through public procurement – for instance through delivering social […]
Despite the respite of a £20bn funding boost, the National Health Service (NHS) must confront and overcome manifold challenges set against a well-rehearsed narrative of inexorable demand and cost pressures over the next Spending Review period. Long-term sustainability over the NHS’ long-term plan will require reforms of health delivery, a reappraisal of the role of […]
In recent times attempts have been made to recast central/local relations, seeking a concordat between Whitehall and town hall or a rewiring of central government. The goal of ensuring fiscal freedoms, widely seen as necessary to full local autonomy, has long floundered on the shoals of a diffident approach to business rates retention and a […]
The rhetoric of digitisation pervades the contemporary political conversation. Smart devices, connected in smart homes, connected in smart cities give policymakers ever better information on which to base decisions. At the same time, the UK’s Road to Zero and its equivalents abroad present a future of carbon-neutral countries producing zero emissions. Smart Cities: Fair investment […]
The state of the public service market is much more precarious now than in the past, with a number of major government contracts being either cancelled or bailed out at taxpayer expense. With concerns over profitability mounting and contracting bodies seeking to meet stringent savings’ targets, margins for failure have become perilously narrow. As profitability […]
The increased pressure placed on local authorities under the period of austerity since 2010 has been well rehearsed, but how well have local authorities as a whole managed under the strain? This short report examines some of the evidence available on one crucial line of service: social care. The analysis shows most users of adult […]
The question of how adult social care funding is put on a sustainable footing helped to define the 2017 General Election. Along with the NHS, it has become an issue totemic of wider choices around public spending and their impact on local services. Yet the long shadow of social care funding in the public and […]
Neo-localism isn’t a neologism. It has been in use for some time in human geography circles. A quick google search tells you it was coined by Wes Flack and refers to the idea of promoting and preserving community identities and cultures. Wanting to place it into a UK political context, we have what you might […]
To some health and social care integration offers the ‘holy grail’ of financial sustainability. To others it is a way of moving the locus of care away from the acute sector and towards the community. A minority even suggest it is an attempt by one service to take over the other. Amongst the many rationales […]
The current mental health system is failing children and young people. Whilst in almost all areas of health and care reform the dominant trend is to encourage people to be more independent and resilient, in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), something has gone badly wrong. This report argues for reform of the mental […]