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Better public services are at the core of the Government's mission to deliver social justice and increase social mobility, using the power of collective action to benefit each family and individual. If we are to compete effectively as a country in today's globalised economy and match people's ever rising aspirations, our public services must be able to bear comparison with the best in the world.

Over the past decade our public services have improved across the board, in many cases dramatically so. This has been the product of sustained investment and radical reforms.

But there is much more to do. Our next challenge is to ensure that all of our public services are world class.

This paper provides a framework for enabling further improvement. Using evidence from the best performing public services around the world it sets out the Government's overall approach to public service reform over the coming years.¹

Ten years ago, despite the dedication of the millions of committed people who worked in them, our public services were struggling.² Years of under-investment had left many of our schools, hospitals and other public services in a poor state. Pockets of excellence coexisted with outright failure and the average quality of service was unacceptably low. So the Government set about rebuilding public services, through a combination of sustained investment and far-reaching reform.

The reform agenda has typically included two distinct stages. The first stage used the explicit introduction of clear national standards and targets to drive up performance while increasing investment. Standards rose in primary schools, hospital waiting lists and crime began to fall. The extra investment made a significant difference, with thousands more teachers, nurses, doctors and police officers working in refurbished or newly built facilities and receiving better pay. New services were created – for instance in early years provision. The condition of the country's public housing was steadily upgraded and employment and welfare offices were integrated, following the introduction of the New Deal, to support the drive towards full employment.

As services improved from their low state, there was a growing recognition of the need for more flexibility and innovation if progress was to be sustained. So from around 2001, the second stage of reform complemented these top-down targets and standards, with clearer incentives to improve, generated from within the public services themselves rather than imposed from Whitehall. The reforms encouraged diversity of providers, whether public, private or third sector. Funding for the voluntary sector doubled. The choice of services was widened and providers were incentivised through money following the patient, pupil or jobseeker.

Standards have continued to rise. Primary and secondary school results are now better than ever before, waiting times for A&E and surgery have been dramatically reduced and overall crime is at its lowest level in 25 years.³ There have also been big improvements in efficiency, releasing £23 billion of savings in the most ambitious efficiency programme ever undertaken in the public sector.⁴

Some parts of our public services and the professionals that deliver them rank among the best in the world. Consider hospitals such as the Royal Brompton, which has a world-wide reputation for the treatment of heart and lung disease, or Great Ormond Street, which is part of the largest centre for research into childhood illness outside the US. Or that the number of secondary schools where more than 70% of students gain five good GCSEs has risen from 83 schools in 1997 to 891 today.⁵ Or that Ofsted report the best-ever generation of teachers and teacher trainees.⁶ Many British universities rank among the best in the world and attract large numbers of international students.⁷

Successful front-line organisations are now supported by a set of internationally acclaimed institutions which help them improve. The work of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (the NHS organisation which assesses the cost effectiveness of health treatments) and the work of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is widely admired around the world; the National College for School Leadership has helped thousands of head teachers to improve their schools; and the work of Ofsted inspired the development of the School Quality Review in New York City.⁸

These successes should not mask the fact that many services, when taken as a whole, are not yet able to offer the world class service that the public increasingly expect. This matters because in a fair and prosperous society all citizens – regardless of background – should have access to the very best public services. In a global knowledge economy and a period of significant social and demographic change this is more important than ever before.⁹ For example, with the rise of India and China, our education system and the skills it provides become a key part of our competitive advantage.¹⁰

Britain needs a welfare system that identifies and addresses the barriers that hold people back and ensures that everyone who can work does so. Society needs a probation system that manages to get more ex-offenders back into useful and productive lives. As life expectancy increases the health service needs to be better equipped to prevent and treat long term conditions and more complex cases. As serious and organised crime evolves, Britain needs police and security services equipped with the skills and resources to stay one step ahead. As people live longer and families get smaller, the demand for all types of housing grows, including social housing.

Moreover, Britain has not yet managed to reverse the reductions in social mobility of the last 30 or 40 years. Just as the opportunities of the late 1940s and 1950s for creating a fairer society could not have been met without society prioritising better education for all and greater protection from unemployment and ill health, similarly today there are strategic choices for Britain if social mobility is to rise again, such as whether we invest in child care and in improved training for those already in the workforce.

Today's challenge is for public services to move from above average in the global league of effectiveness to the top. The yardstick for success should not only be whether services have improved on last year's results but also whether they are among the best in the world. It should also not be simply how public services compare against each other, but how they compare against the best provision available to those who can afford it in the very best private sector organisations, or against the most trusted third sector providers. The aspiration should be for genuinely world class public services that contribute towards a fairer and more prosperous society while delivering value for money to the taxpayer.

Achieving world class services for all will require the continued deployment of those approaches already well established. Clear standards, zero tolerance of underperformance, more choice and greater contestability will all remain prominent mechanisms.

But the Government needs to apply the lessons we have learned through this period as well. We know that services need clear standards but that, following our first phase of reform, persisting with too many top-down targets can be counterproductive; we know services must value professionals if we are to foster innovation and excellence; we know that while central government must be a key player in driving better public services there are limits to what it can achieve and if it seeks to do too much it will stifle local initiative; and we know that vital though user choice is, it needs to be complemented with other approaches if we are really to empower citizens. So our established strategies now need to be accompanied by a new phase of reform:

Alongside these specific strands, the Government's reform agenda will be underpinned by an emphasis on the principles of excellence and fairness. The approach outlined in this paper emphasises that in order to be world class, public services must provide the excellent services required for all individuals and communities to thrive and through that support the creation of a fairer and more equitable society

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Notes

1. The scope of this paper does not include aspects of public service policy that are devolved in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
2. See, for example, Mayhew P, Criminal Victimisation in Eleven Industrialised Countries: Key findings from the 1996 International Crime Victims Survey [External website]. TIMSS Highlights of Results 1995 [External website], TIMSS International Study Center, 1997; Hospital and NHS Performance [External website], DH, 2006.
3. In primary schools the proportion of children achieving the expected standard in English at age 11 has risen from 49% in 1995 to 80% 2007 (DCSF). In secondary schools the proportion of students achieving five good GCSEs has risen from 35.2% in 1996 to 60.8% in 2007 (DCSF). The proportion of patients seen within four hours of admission to A&E has risen from below 80% in 2001/02 to 97.9% in 2007/08 (DH). The latest British Crime Survey [External website] shows the risk of being a victim of crime is at its lowest level (22%) since records began in 1981 (HO).
4. This programme has produced a reduction in civil service headcount by 77,000. Further innovation and efficiencies have been generated by new freedoms for organisations like NHS Foundation Trusts [External website].
5. £200 million for National Challenge to raise standards in schools [External website], DCSF press notice, 12 March 2008.
6. Ed Balls writing in The Guardian Tuesday October 23, 2007 Why Britain has the best teachers ever [External website].
7. QS World University Rankings 2007: Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and UCL are all among the top 10 universities in the world.
8. New York City schools are also inspected annually and receive a ‘Quality Review score’ as a result. Although the system is heavily influenced by England's Ofsted, the Quality Review concentrates solely on inputs, i.e. whether the organisation of the school improves pupil achievement, while the report card focuses on outputs. The combination of the Quality Review and the Progress Report trigger rewards and consequences. Cabinet Office field visit.
9. Those countries that dominate cross-country comparisons for highest quality of life such as the UN Human Development Index, tend to have relatively strong public services. Nordic countries and other countries with active states such as Canada and the Netherlands perform well in many of these indices. 2007/2008 Human Development Index rankings [External website], UN, 2008. See also Realising Britian's Potential: future strategic challenges for Britain, Cabinet Office, 2008.
10. Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators [External website], OECD, 2006, China alone produces 4.4 million tertiary graduates (from higher education), significantly more than the 2.5 million tertiary graduates produced by the EU. India produced nearly as many upper secondary graduates (further education) as the EU.