Public services reform: Taking part in the debate - by Morven Masterton

It has been an eventful summer, and it’s not over yet, although you could be forgiven for thinking that autumn has already crept upon us! Over the past months we’ve been busy responding to government consultations and speaking with our investees about their thoughts on the current climate in the sector.  

Early in the summer we responded to the Department for Communities and Local Government Best Value consultation, an important part of the Government’s Localism and Big Society agendas.  Fundamentally, we argued that in order to achieve effective local solutions, value for money should be assessed on the basis of mid to long term costs and benefits, including indirect ones. Considerations must include both economic and social value. It is therefore essential that civil society organisations (CSOs) are not disproportionately affected by cuts, and that commissioning bodies better understand the ways in which these organisations operate in order to work with them successfully.  

Shortly ahead of Parliamentary recess the Government published its long awaited public services reform ambitions. The Open Public Services White Paper sets out how the Government seeks to improve public services and in it, outlines a major role for CSOs in delivering them.  The reforms, designed to “tackle unfairness and inefficiencies”, include increasing choice, decentralising power, diversifying providers, making access fairer, and finally, making them more responsive and accountable to citizens. The Government is looking for responses to the plans laid out in the Paper and is particularly keen to hear ideas from the voluntary sector about how to stimulate more openness and innovation in public services through new types of provision; how to ensure a more level playing field for providers in different sectors; and on the role of external investors in helping improve public services – areas we’ve been interested in and advocating for some time.  You can share your views with the Cabinet Office by visiting http://www.openpublicservices.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ between now and September. 

For those of you who’ll be attending this autumn’s political party conferences we’ll be hosting a number of fringe events that we’d love to see you at. After the success of last year’s collaboration, we’re once again partnering with the RSA and Ipsos MORI to host events in Birmingham (Liberal Democrats), Liverpool (Labour) and Manchester (Conservative).  In light of the changes in public services, we will be discussing how society can evolve to cope with emerging challenges in a climate of public spending cuts. We’re delighted to have the Secretary of State for Health, Rt Hon Andrew Lansley MP, on our Conservative conference panel where we’ll be exploring how best to engage the public in reforms to the NHS. At out Labour and Liberal Democrat events we have Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP (Shadow Home Secretary) and Simon Hughes MP (Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats), as well as journalists, Jennie Russell and Peter Oborne, and our very own Sir Stephen Bubb, Chair of The Social Investment Business.  There will of course be time for points from the audience, so if you can make it to Manchester come armed with a question for the Minister! 

Alongside the larger fringe events, we are pleased to be hosting some expert roundtable meetings with the large health and care social enterprise Turning Point. The focus of these meetings is to examine the importance of social investment and the viability of Payment by Results (PbR), a new method of paying for service delivery. We will be exploring the practicalities of financing civil society delivery of public services and, for example, how we can overcome the joint barriers to civil society provision:  capacity and finance.  

If you are planning to attend any of the conferences or are also hosting events this year then do let us know. However, whether you are at conference or not, you can still keep in touch with what’s happening by following us on Twitter through @TheSocialInvest . Hashtags will also be available for the events nearer the time. More details of our fringe events, including dates and speakers, are available on our events page.  

We’re always looking to work with more of our investees and partners and we’re keen to find out your thoughts on the increased importance of social investment and capacity building in enabling organisations to deliver the Government’s vision of a Big Society. 

We’ll be back with more party conference news next month. In the meantime, keep in touch!

Morven Masterton is Policy and Research Officer at The Social Investment Business.