Public service reforms to end ‘get what you’re given’ culture
By Alex Stevenson Follow @alex__stevenson
David Cameron has finally unveiled the coalition's much-delayed white paper on public service reform.
The prime minister outlined his vision for reform and modernisation of public services in a speech in London this afternoon, as Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin laid out the details in a statement to MPs in the Commons.
Mr Cameron pledged to make changes to improve choice by dismantling the "old-fashioned, top-down" and centralised culture.
Unions are pointing to the failure of Southern Cross, which today saw landlords owning all of its 752 care homes requesting to leave the group, as evidence of the weaknesses of Mr Cameron's approach, however.
"We should be open and honest about how our public services have created a fairer, more equal country since the Second World War," Mr Cameron said.
"But at the same time, we've got to acknowledge where public services are failing on fairness."
Mr Letwin said every adult receiving social care will have an individual personal budget by 2013.
Funding will "follow the pupil" in schools and the patient in the NHS. "They'll be able to choose where the money is spent," he said.
Fair access is also being ensured, helping students from poor backgrounds and people in the least healthy parts of the country.
Mr Letwin said open access to data, like crime maps, health outcomes and standardised satisfaction data for all public services, were a key part of the changes.
Communities will benefit with extra choice as well as individuals, the minister added. He said communities would be given the right to build houses, groups or parish groups would be given the right to challenge and take over neighbourhood services.
The prime minister pointed out that in the poorest neighbourhoods of England today people will die seven years earlier than those living in the richest.
He claimed New Labour's record of investment, which saw total public spending increase by 57% in real terms between 1997 and 2010, has not delivered value for money.
In its place ministers plan to shift power away from Whitehall by offering more freedom, choice and local control as part of a "vision of open public services".
The white paper published today was originally due to be published last autumn, but has been repeatedly delayed. This is the last full week in which parliament is sitting before the long summer recess begins.
"I know there are those who thought we might be pulling back or losing heart for the task ahead," Mr Cameron added.
"So let me assure you of this: we are as committed to modernising our public services as we have ever been.
"I'm not going to make the mistakes of my predecessors… this is a job that urgently needs to be done, and we are determined to see it through."
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said the white paper was "nothing less than a manifesto to break up our public services", however.
Public service union Unite criticised the proposals by linking them to the phone-hacking scandal.
"The thought that parish councils are suddenly going to become business moguls, like Rupert Murdoch, running health services and libraries smacks of something out of a Carry On film," Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said.
"At a time when this country is seriously concerned about what happens when one important aspect of our lives is put in the hands of the unelected – that is, the abuse of power by the media – it is utterly wrong-headed of the prime minister to now ask us to pass vast parts of the public realm into uncertain hands."
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell said Labour had a proud record of public service reform – and contrasted it with the coalition's mixed start.
Less than a month has passed since Mr Cameron and health secretary Andrew Lansley were forced to abandon much of the NHS reforms.
"The Tory-led government has lost its way on public services," Ms Jowell said.
"Its reforms have, so far, failed to put power in the hands of service users and sought to strip services of their democratic character by elevating markets beyond their appropriate role."
