Or, why it’s right to have markets in the public services. As Paul Krugman said, productivity isn’t everything but in the long run it’s pretty much everything. So these aren’t good numbers: The ONS calculates public service productivity by counting the number of procedures carried out in hospitals, pupils taught in schools and

Fancy stats, but the picture remains the same For many years now, the Office for National Statistics has been beavering away trying to develop measures of output and productivity in our public services. It hasn't been at all straightforward, as we can see by glancing at the dense array of statistical formulae they have been forced to deploy. So why is it important? Because we've shovelle...

Cabinet Office Minister Liam Byrne, yesterday announced a new Innovators Council made up of creative thinkers from public services, charities and businesses to help drive public service reform.

The Insolvency Service has formed a five year partnership with Northgate Public Services designed to transform services and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the redundancy payments service, as part of The Insolvency ServiceÂ’s Enabling the Future programme.

Ownership of a service still splits our country. A minority write into this site seeming to believe that public service is just the work of state employees in services offered free at the poiont of use. Others write in to say if we want higher standards and lower

The House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee today publishes a report calling for the introduction of ‘Public Service Guarantees’ to empower public service users.

Yesterday I had a little bleat about the need for public services to provide a service. I want to look at another aspect of that today and, again, it comes from simple Harriet's words: "tackling socio-economic disadvantage and narrowing gaps in outcomes for people from different backgrounds is a core function of public services". Underlying those words is the belief that "tackling socio-econo...

The contribution of outsourced public services to the UK economy has grown 130% since 1995 and now represents the most developed public service industry in the world, according to a report on the Review of the Public Services Industry published yesterday.

Here’s your starter for ten as we experiment with a new Saturday slot posing a view for debate: The enthusiasm across the political spectrum for using choice to raise standards in public services is misplaced because: For many public services, it’s vital to get the service right first time – for everyone. Children only get to go

Two Birmingham area public service bodies have invested in Siemens Enterprise Communications OpenScape technology to implement advanced enterprise-wide communications infrastructures, producing enhanced service capabilities and reducing cost of ownership.