The delivery of public services has become increasingly complex. To some extent, this complexity is driven by increasing inter-dependence: between national policy and local delivery of public services; between national public sector organisations themselves; between deliverers and the citizen; and between the public and the private or voluntary sectors, with public services increasingly being delivered by third parties e.g. through Public-Private Partnerships. Understanding these inter-dependencies in public service delivery is an issue of fundamental importance in translating national policy into delivery on the ground.
We've set out below some of our recent studies which we believe have relevance for national/central/federal governments.
The future of social care has long been a topic of policy debate in the UK. Current social care arrangements are widely considered to be financially unsustainable, incoherent and unfair. However, despite the strong consensus for the need for change, policy on social care has stagnated.
In advance of the UK Government Green Paper on social care, we commissioned this independent survey to explore public levels of awareness and understanding of social care provision. This research is part of our wider work with the Institute of Public Policy Research (ippr) about the future of social care.
Finance functions in government and the public sector face one common and pervasive challenge – balancing competing demands of finance efficiency, compliance and control, and insight. In any organisation, finance must juggle with running efficiently, demonstrating value for money while establishing and maintaining effective controls to manage risk, and delivering real insight to the business.Finance at the crossroads: The changing role of finance in government and the public sector is part of a wider global research project on the future of finance in the public sector and examines the trends, issues and changing environment faced by finance directors across the UK public sector. The findings demonstrate that finance in the sector is at a crossroads and faces significant challenges. The current economic climate means that now more than ever finance must speak up – and be listened to. However, a place at the top table will only be earned when finance is seen not simply as a scorekeeper but as a business partner, adding value across government and the public sector.
The third sector makes a significant
contribution to society, employing 650,000 people, and contributing nearly
£9 billion a year to the UK economy with social enterprises alone.
The sector has evolved at a rapid rate, assisted over the last decade by a
determined push from Whitehall to create a more mixed economy for public
service delivery.
We commissioned this independent survey as part of our work
on the smarter state in order to understand how to maximise the positive impact
of the third sector on public service delivery and to examine the views towards
partnerships between the sectors as one route to delivery of this
agenda.
The research findings demonstrate that both sectors broadly
support partnerships, even though the third sector is consistently more
ambivalent. Both sectors say there is a need to focus on how to make the
partnerships themselves work most effectively - that the key to collaborative
working is to invest time and energy in building mutual understanding,
developing shared goals and effective ways of working together. At the heart of
the debate is how social and private enterprise can best work together to
deliver better public sector social outcomes.
Much has been done in recent years to promote and support shared services initiatives in the UK. However, because of the sheer breadth of the public sector, progress to date has been achieved in spite of, rather than because of, an overarching vision. Much work remains to be done to yield the benefits that could be achieved if a more joined-up approach to shared services were adopted.
Freeing the front line: Where next for corporate shared services in the public sector challenges government on its vision and sets out a roadmap for shared services. We also explore recent developments in the public sector’s implementation of the shared services strategy in the UK and discuss potential lessons from the commercial sector.
Our new annual study, Redefining success: Government and the global CEO, compares and contrasts the viewpoints of CEOs and top-level government officials on the global financial crisis and the implications for improved business-to-government collaboration and smarter regulation. This report builds upon PricewaterhouseCoopers prestigious annual Global CEO survey, launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and includes views from an international sample of public sector leaders as well as those from business CEOs.
The last decade has seen a determined push by Whitehall to create a more mixed economy for public service delivery. The policy objective, has been to transform the UK's £79bn public service market by widening choice, lowering cost and radically improving service delivery. The third sector has been an important part in this reform process, and is portrayed by politicians from all parties as an important element in the mixed provision of services. However, the reality of growing the third sector has not always matched the rhetoric.
This publication examines the critical challenges being faced in accessing new market opportunities for social enterprises. Specifically, we explore how partnerships and alliances between the third and private sectors may be necessary to achieve the critical mass in capacity and capability in order to address larger and more complex service requirements.
Social Market Foundation report
Today’s citizens are more assertive of their rights and less deferential to traditional forms of authority than ever before. Improved access to information, increasing prosperity and greater social freedoms have encouraged fundamental changes to the ways in which we engage with Government and this has implications for public policy and the role of public service professionals. In particular, rising expectations have created profound challenges for public services, principally in health and education. A Social Market Foundation report produced in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP examines how the rise in “assertive individualism” is affecting public policy in the UK and draws conclusions on how government can enable reform in a way which empowers users in their dealings with public services.
In the UK, there has been a lot of speculation about the direction of project finance lending for PPP transactions in light of the current banking turmoil. Many have concluded that long term loans are no longer feasible in light of the capital and liquidity constraints the banks face. But is this true?
PwC carried out a review of over 20 UK banks with one-on-one interviews at the beginning of 2009 to find out their lending appetite for PPP transactions and their structural preferences. The responses were striking not only in their diversity, but in the differences in underlying motivations that led banks to their respective positions.
Over the past months the impact of the credit crunch and the global economic slowdown on private companies and individuals has dominated the headlines. The UK economy now appears to have moved into recession, with falling output across most major sectors of the economy and rising unemployment. The budget deficit has risen sharply in the first half of 2008/9 and with inflation now expected to fall quickly next year, interest rates are being slashed to try to stimulate bank lending whilst fiscal policy is being considerably loosened.
A key question arising for both central and local government organisations is: what impact the downturn will have on the public sector and the delivery of public services?
This publication examines the critical challenges being faced by local government organisations, and explores how lessons from the private sector might be used to deliver change in the public sector. We also discuss the fundamental priorities that the public sector should focus on during the downturn and the efficiencies that the UK Government plans to achieve through the Operational Efficiency Programme.
With the implementation of IFRS, PFI is being compared more carefully to other procurement strategies. PFI’s rigorous risk identification and more certain outcomes mean it should still play a role. For unvarying, predictable projects, where risk can be taken by contractors, it will remain a key procurement approach.
For more challenging and complex procurements, there is now a range of alternative strategies. For projects not suitable for PFI, what happens now?
What is the credit crunch, how has it affected the infrastructure markets, and what is the outlook for the future? One year on from the beginning of the credit crunch, we explore some of the issues surrounding the infrastructure marketplace and consider the impact of the credit crunch on the market's future.
Housing associations play an increasingly important role in today’s UK housing market. They are leading suppliers of affordable homes, major partners in regeneration and estate renewal, and providers of a wide range of vital welfare services to the most vulnerable in our communities.
The drop in lending due to the credit squeeze and the sharp reduction in private new-build have increased the pressure on housing associations to maintain the flow of affordable homes in all areas of the country.
Against this backdrop of macroeconomic uncertainty and tighter constraints on public spending and private lending, we examine the funding considerations that follow from these policy changes and challenges. In particular, we look at and discuss the options for new and innovative ways to utilize housing association assets and financing capacity.
Does a low carbon economy require big sacrifices in economic growth? Are large cuts in emissions technologically feasible? This PricewaterhouseCoopers report, which updates an earlier analysis in 2006, addresses these and other burning issues and concludes that global carbon emissions could more than double by 2050 in a 'business as usual' scenario, but in fact need to be cut by around a half by that date in order to stabilise atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide at acceptable levels. The report comments on some of the key conditions needed to achieve this without undue economic costs, including the global pricing of emissions through an appropriate mix of carbon markets and carbon taxes and the role of governments in setting clear long-term targets for reducing global emissions. The report argues that action is needed now on a wide range of fronts such as increased energy efficiency, greater use of renewables and nuclear power, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and reversing deforestation.
What kind of care system does the UK want, why and for whom? This is the focus for a major new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) on the UK care system, supported by PwC. The report puts forward proposals for a new care system, looking across the range of services that support adults with care needs and their carers and families. The paper outlines how local services could be more personal and joined-up to enable all individuals, families and communities to flourish. The paper also suggests where the UK should go next on individual budgets, support for carers, and community engagement in services.
Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is experiencing unprecedented levels of activity in projects aimed at modernising public and social infrastructure, as the region works to meet its estimated €500bn total infrastructure investment need. This paper provides a brief background on current developments in the infrastructure sector in the CEE region, highlights several major upcoming opportunities, outlines the key practical challenges in bidding for these projects successfully and shares lessons learnt from our experience on how to deliver them. In addition to providing a backdrop on infrastructure activity in the CEE region overall, the paper focuses on five major territories where PPP opportunities are the most plentiful - Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and the Czech Republic.
Our new annual study, 'Regulate & Collaborate: Government and the Global CEO', compares and contrasts the viewpoints of CEOs and top-level government officials on regulation and the extent of collaboration between the public and private sectors and comments on the extent of government-to-government collaboration, the global challenge of climate change and the future for public-private relationships. This report builds upon PricewaterhouseCoopers prestigious Annual Global CEO Survey, launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos, which for the first time this year includes views from an international sample of public sector leaders as well as those from business CEOs.
Efforts by business, governments and non-governmental organisations in the last decade have given the fight against corruption considerable momentum. But significant challenges lie ahead. Confronting corruption: The business case for an effective anti-corruption programme is a PricewaterhouseCoopers report that examines what companies are currently doing to manage the risk of corruption, what steps they should take to better protect themselves in the future and the vital roles both Government and business have to play: governments to implement and enforce anti-corruption measures, business to implement and vigorously enforce anti-corruption programmes.
This publication looks at the impact of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) in the light of the impending adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by the UK Government from 2008/2009 onwards. The new standards are likely to bring most PFI projects on balance sheet and so the accounting driver for public bodies to procure projects through PFI will disappear.
The paper asks whether this matters. Has PFI brought about the benefits hoped for? To the extent it has, what has been the contribution of private finance? How important is the 'F' in 'PFI'? And will the impending accounting changes actually open up the way towards structuring projects more effectively?
Public sector leaders around the world face a common set of challenges if their services are to meet the increased expectations of their customers – both citizens and businesses. This study identifies these challenges and shares lessons learnt, from examples around the world, to offer a structured approach in support of public sector leaders in their work to improve public services and deliver on the customer promise.
How should we define UK public services and what aims should we have for them? We have been supporting this ippr project which revisits the case for the reform of public services in the UK and charts a way ahead. It argues that public service reform should now focus on getting the relationships right between central and local government, services and their workforce, citizens and public service users. This requires not just a change of approach on the part of central government, but a new a new set of bargains and responsibilities on all sides, with information and accountability at the heart of a new system of public service improvement. The report is being published as a contribution to the debate in the run-up to the Comprehensive Spending Review.
What kind of welfare state does the UK want ten years from now? And how might we get there? These key areas of research are explored in this ippr report, supported by PwC. The report, a collection of essays, sets out what a new approach might look like and how it would operate. The essays make the case for a welfare system based on a fair contract between the state, citizens and civil society, leading the way to greater personalisation of services with more people supported off benefits and into work.
This report is a summary of the findings from a participative workshop which took place in the UK to explore the experiences of young people moving in and out of employment. Participants' views were sought on a new service that means that they only have to register their changes of circumstances once, rather than to multiple government agencies. Senior civil servants also participated in this workshop which provided them first hand experience of customer insight research.
The appetite for addressing climate change has never been greater and with the publication of the Climate Change Bill and the energy white paper, the direction of current UK Government policy is now clearer. While views are regularly expressed by consumers and individual businesses, there is a lack of hard and fast evidence on business opinion in this area. To understand the perceptions of business, PricewaterhouseCoopers commissioned a survey of companies across a wide spectrum of industries to understand business’ views of the UK Government’s use of tax and regulation to manage the environmental impact of business.
What are the best options for a single working-age benefit that actively supports welfare-to-work policy? PwC is supporting an ippr project investigating citizen-centric welfare. The report is being issued by chapter. Following on from the release of a chapter exploring what a fair welfare contract might look like and what it would take to achieve one, this chapter shows that how the current system presents barriers to people who want to move into work and proposes one flat rate benefit for people out of work in place the multiple benefits and allowances currently available in the UK.
This chapter forms part of a report It's all about you: citizen-centred welfare, edited by ippr’s Jim Bennett and Graeme Cooke, to be published in September 2007.
Are outsourcing contracts delivering benefits for the public sector? PricewaterhouseCoopers addresses the questions surrounding the delivery of UK public sector outsourcing programmes.
The HOPE VI programme in the USA has pioneered a unique public-private approach to mixed communities that has resulted in housing developments that are viable, attractive to the market and third party investors, and sustainable over the long term.
PwC’s second annual international development conference was held on 22 November 2006. The conference was attended by over 180 delegates from public, private and voluntary sectors who work in international development agencies to reform the public sectors in developing and transitioning countries.
The objective of the conference was to discuss ways to bridge the gap between the strategic intent and design of development programmes and to seek innovative approaches to implementation and delivery on the ground.
Pressure for the US federal government to protect the personal data and privacy of the American public is stronger than ever. The likelihood of privacy breaches occurring has increased with the enhanced portability of data on laptops, flash drives, cell phones, and other mobile devices. Mistakes in information security now have severe ramifications, including damage to public trust and the high cost of an often lengthy recovery period. As a result, senior executives at federal agencies are now wrestling with how to design and effectively implement comprehensive, strategic privacy programs. PricewaterhouseCoopers Washington Federal Practice, along with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), recently examined the federal government’s progress in implementing privacy programs.
A new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers on Building trust in emissions reporting highlights the key characteristics of the world's main emission trading schemes, presents a new vision for compliance in emissions trading and calls for global action to develop this.
IPPR report
A combination of rising levels of car ownership and increasing travel by car has led to two major problems associated with road transport for the UK: growing levels of congestion and increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which already form a significant proportion of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. Road pricing – the variable charging of road space by time and location – could be useful in successfully combating these problems. But, despite a broad ‘elite’-level consensus on the principle of road pricing in the UK, public attitude arguably remains the key barrier to its introduction.
Pay in the UK public sector should be better aligned with the needs of public services in order to increase efficiency and provide a motivated workforce. The design of pay progression and performance pay should be based on the jobs people are doing and those jobs should be based on the service delivery models within which they are working. We believe the over-centralised decision making prevents this from happening. It also means that inadequate account is taken of market rates of pay, including the different levels of pay which should be applied in different parts of the UK.
Without strong leaders, there are no strong nations. Although this has been true since time immemorial, never in recent history has the need for outstanding government leaders been more acute than it is today. In the midst of global political uncertainty and threats to national security, the US government urgently needs leaders who think creatively, develop effective strategy and respond with speed and competence to high-pressure situations.
Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) and Executive Agencies in the UK are vital to the development, regulation and delivery of UK public services. This survey contains the views of nearly 100 Chief Executives of NDPBs and agencies on the challenges they face and what is being done to meet them.
Hansard Society report
On 4 July 2006, the Hansard Society published The fiscal maze: Parliament, government and public money, which looks at how the UK Parliament holds government to account for the money it raises and it spends on our behalf. The report argues that Parliament’s scrutiny of taxation, expenditure and public services is fundamental to our political system but that Parliament could and should do more to make an impact and secure full accountability from government.
In this issue of Insight*, we explore a variety of topics, among them ‘Enhancing value from public expenditure’, ‘The Sarbanes-Oxley Act – lessons for the public sector’, ‘Achieving the millennium development goals in Africa’ ‘Laying the foundation for development in Southern Sudan’, and ‘Africa and corruption – how a little something is dangerous for your wealth’.
PricewaterhouseCoopers reveals the results of its survey of PPP activity and makes recommendations for further streamlining of the procurement process.
With better public services at the heart of government agendas, the need for private sector involvement in the delivery and management of these services has intensified. According to this paper, greater efficiencies and effectiveness can be delivered directly to the heart of public services through the emulation and development of private sector partnering practices.
Hansard Society report
UK Parliament is responsible for authorising and scrutinising over £500 billion of public expenditure. This interim paper, part of a major study by the Hansard Society, considers how effectively this work is carried out. Inside the Counting House highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the current system ahead of a larger final report, published in spring 2006, which identifies options for reform.
Social Market Foundation report
This report is a thorough examination of the UK Government’s use of targets in four public services: education, health, housing and the criminal justice system. The report sets out the design flaws in the current targets regime but concludes, however, that these flaws are the result of specific design problems. This report presents a range of practical proposals to improve the way in which targets are designed in the future. These are illustrated with a definition of a "good target", encapsulating the principles of how, and when, targets should be set.
