Brown sets out the next stage of public service transformation.
Key characteristics of world-class public services:
- Empowering citizens who use public services by: extending choice and complementing it with more direct forms of individual control, such as personal budgets; giving people opportunities to do more themselves; stronger local accountability; and making sure there is greater transparency on service performance.
- Fostering a new professionalism in the public service workforce that combines: services responding more directly to users’ needs; consistent quality in day-to-day practices; higher levels of autonomy from central government wherever front line professionals show the ambition and capacity to excel; and greater investment in workforce skills.
- Strong strategic leadership from central government to ensure that direct intervention is more sharply concentrated on underperforming organisations, while creating conditions for the majority of services to thrive more autonomously.