Reinventing public services as ‘fit for purpose’

Tune into a conversation on a bus or high street in Newcastle and, odds are, you will hear people referring to an anonymous, all-powerful group – ‘they’. “They wouldn’t let us do it” or “isn’t it awful what they did” are the kind of phrases you might hear that reveal a mindset about the power of “those in authority” versus ordinary people. And the uncomfortable truth is that many of our public services, the way they are currently configured, give credibility to this view about the powerlessness of the citizen. Well-meaning professionals, often doing an excellent job and acting in the best of intentions, can inadvertently and unconsciously strip away peoples’ personal responsibilities through the warm embrace of care.

In April 2013 local authorities became responsible for delivering public health, with services and budgets transferring from the NHS. We conducted a line by line review of current provision in the city, and were astonished to find that more than one quarter of the people in drug and alcohol treatment services had been in “treatment” for more than 4 years. Many were being maintained on methadone – in effect, what the NHS had done was swap peoples’ addiction from one substance to another. There was no consideration given to how such people could be supported back into employment, or play a more positive role in their community.

This traditional model of public service – that the state defines needs and then allocates resources to meet them – is financially and morally bankrupt. Deep cuts across local government are accelerating the sense of crisis about the future of current services, with many councils predicting that they will be unable to meet even statutory requirements within a few years. And the private sector has understood more quickly the need to respond to our increased sense of personal agency – that we like to be in control. Companies have invested heavily in systems built around providing customers with choice – these days we are more likely to book holidays by browsing the internet and tailoring our own package deal rather than visiting an estate agent, and we shop and bank online in a way which is rapidly transforming the shape of our high streets.

But the Conservative approach to these challenges – increased efficiency and choice through privatisation – ignores a crucial element of the ‘public’ part of public services. Building strong, resilient, self-reliant communities, where people look out for each other, is a much more positive vision of ‘people power’ than individual consumerism. And it requires a new, facilitative role for public services.

In some areas of Newcastle, the council has spent hundreds of thousands over the years in a relentless battle to keep streets and back lanes clean. Yet often, as soon as one mess is cleaned up, something else was dumped there. Working with a handful of local community activists, we challenged this notion that the council would always clean up regardless. People took responsibility for the planters in the street, then hanging baskets, and then nearby patches of land. They gradually reclaimed the public space as theirs – and thus changed the collective mindset from “it’s their responsibility to clean this mess up” to “it’s our responsibility to look after our street”. The community decided what they needed to make their neighbourhood decent, and we helped with support and advice – at a much lower cost than a daily cleaning regime.

This is just one example of the co-operative revolution that is required if we are to reform public services in a way that promotes active citizenship and guarantees their long term financial viability. It requires long term commitment, energy and enthusiasm. But it offers a far more vibrant and certain vision for the future of public services than the promise of ‘death by a thousand cuts’ offered by the Government’s current austerity programme.

Nick Forbes is the leader of Newcastle City Council