16 May 2007 - Hutton: Public sector reform must be driven by a partnership of state and individual
Public sector reform must be driven by a partnership between the state and the individual not rest solely at the centre said Secretary of State for Work and Pensions John Hutton today.
Addressing the CBI Public Services Forum John Hutton said those who hoped to use the change of Prime Minister to lessen the pace of public service reform would be disappointed.
Speaking at the event John Hutton said:
“Our challenge is to create a shared sense of ownership amongst both staff and customers for the future of public service reform which will only be achieved through sharing the responsibility and accountability for change.
“For as long as the dynamic of reform is reflected through a dialogue between national media and politicians, we will continue to detach local institutions and the people who work within them from owning change.
“If we want to move to a system based on a shared sense of ownership then we will need to empower not only the customer but also the staff to bring about the changes they feel are necessary to respond to customer needs.
“At the Department for Work and Pensions our City Strategy seeks to capture these principles – offering local consortia of providers new funding and flexibilities in return for outcome-based payments.
“And David Freud’s report on our welfare system earlier this year, argued for a more effective market in welfare provision, rewarding providers proportionate to the value to the taxpayer of getting an individual into work and helping them to stay there.
“With such an approach must come a re-balancing of welfare expenditure towards those who are most in need. A payment by results system – as we have tested out in the Employment Zones – could create incentives to develop programmes to avoid cherry-picking of the easiest clients to help by paying more to help those furthest from the labour market. But critically, this will mean the centre stepping back from micro-managing the design programmes that will support our national goals.
“I have always believed that strong public services are the best provider of opportunity that any society can have. But ultimately values can only be maintained in the decades ahead if we are prepared to embrace radical reform.”
Notes to editors
- John Hutton’s speech was made to the CBI Public Services Forum – the future of Public Sector Reform. A full transcript of the speech is available on the DWP website at: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/aboutus/2007/16-05-07.asp
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