Things are changing: Public Service Reform
Author: Alex Thomson, in the Independent |
According to Einstein, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So why are we surprised when aspects of government activity, that for decades have failed to change the trajectories of peoples’ lives, still don’t work?
If you were working out how to design quality public services from ground zero, you would never arrive at where we are now. In Essex alone, there are over 200 partners working to deliver services like health and social care, training and employment support, reducing re-offending and supporting troubled families, frequently to the same group of residents. Each of these organisations has its own culture, processes, and objectives determined by their parent departments in Whitehall, none of whom speak to one another.
The result is that we are wasting vast quantities of public money due to a fundamental lack of coordination between different arms of the state…