The shape of services to come?

The shape of public services to come is a feature of the Conservative and Labour manifestos, both published this week, and will also be the focus for an event later today, as the New Economics Foundation (NEF) and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) host a discussion on co-production of public services. Delivering public services in a different way, with a different relationship between those who design and deliver public services and those who use them, is a big theme in the Conservative party manifesto. David Cameron, the Conservative party leader, said his party would hand people "direct control" over how they are governed nationally and locally. The manifesto, said Cameron, is a "blueprint for reform that is rich in policy but rooted in a core idea of replacing state control with social responsibility" and the Conservative plans would, he added, "change Westminster and Whitehall for ever". The Labour party, too, has stressed new rights for users of public services in its manifesto, including new rights for parents who want to change the running of their local schools, and new rights for patients seeking treatment on the NHS, including a guarantee of cancer test results within a week and a maximum wait of 18 weeks for specialist treatment, as well as giving the public a say in community sentences. In their (appropriately joint) report , the second of three on co-production, NEF and Nesta outline six elements that they believe are the foundation stones of co-production. These are: • build on people's existing capabilities, in a way that traditional public services don't allow • Reciprocity: offer people a range of incentives to work in reciprocal relationships with professionals and with other people • peer support networks • reconfiguring the way services are developed and delivered, in a way that blurs the distinctions between professionals and service users • making public organisations facilitators of services, rather than providers or even commissioners • making people who use services into real assets for the system as a whole, with an equal role in designing and delivering services. The report cites many examples where users and professionals are already working together to design and deliver services, as well as identifying some of the barriers that at the moment prevent further development of co-produced services. The authors say the challenge amounts to "one clear problem" in that this joint approach to public services does not fit a way in which existing services are delivered, neither within the public sector nor the voluntary sector. The authors say that a decision has yet to be made about whether existing structures can be modified to enable co-production, or if new frameworks are needed. Funding is a particular problem, but so is generating evidence of the value of such an approach for those who scrutinise and audit public services. The report also says that the public sector needs to develop new professional skills if co-production of services is to become mainstream. "But the fundamental and provocative issue underlying all these barriers is that co-production is sometimes blocked because it takes seriously the current political rhetoric about 'devolving power' and 'empowering communities'" says the report.