The Main Drivers Involved in the Reform of the Public Service Sector in the UK since the 1970s - Case Study Example

THE MAIN DRIVERS INVOLVED IN THE REFORM OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE SECTOR IN THE UK SINCE THE 1970’S Name of the Class Professor Name of the School City and state where it is located Date The Main Drivers involved in the Reform of the Public Service Sector in the UK Since the 1970’s. The United Kingdom public service sector has undergone a lot of changes since the 1970’s that have seen the country experience better service in terms of public service and the emergence of new trends owing to a number of influences and changes that were inevitable with time. This paper discusses the main drivers involved in the reform of the public service sector since the 1970’s. One of the main drivers that caused a lot of change was the privatization of public companies. There was the sale of government owned companies to the private sector where over fifty percent of the public sector along with their employees shifted to the private sector. Examples of companies that were privatized included British Airways, gas companies and electricity companies. There was a change in attitude towards public intervention and the government had to change their bureaucratic and interventionist way of governing and let the people decide on what they wanted to do with their lives. Privatization meant that the companies had to cut their costs since their interests would now be in making profits and hence their efficiency improved and services offered were exemplary and easy to acquire in such companies. There was the lack of political interference which was good as it allowed the private companies to make better economic and managerial decisions. Governments were thought of as poor economic managers since they employed too many people leading to the rise in inefficiency in the public service sector (Wilson 2004, P.7). The move led to investments of long term nature unlike those that were done by the government which were in short term basis as they were only concerned with the outcome of the elections and their influences in the voting. Shareholders present in private companies pushed for better performance so as to avoid takeovers of such companies. When they were publicly owned there was no pressure from shareholders which led to the lack of efficiency and good performance. Advancement in technology in the 1970’s to the 1990’s allowed for the routine use of new computers which were mainly used internally and concentrated on the running of back office systems such as finance and housing repairs. Use of technology for the purposes of customer service came later on as most of the population did not have access to such kind of sophisticated technology (Rhodes 1994, p.138). As time went by and the technology became easier to acquire there was improved efficiency in customer service as orders could be carried out in a much quicker manner, documents were easier to locate and a lot of paperwork was reduced. It also led to the reduction of the many workers that were hired in public service offices as some of the tasks could be carried out on the computers and did not need to be done manually. The late 1990’s saw the rise of the internet, personal computing and even advances in the communication sectors with the emergence of call centre technology and use of better telephones. Local governments took an early interest in the use of these gadgets to improve customer service in the public sector. There was noted improvement in the generation of reports on local government websites due to the use of new technology. More developments in technology in the early 2000’s were welcomed by local government where they advocated for the use of the internet in making online transactions and making use of smart cards instead of carrying cash all the time (Ömürgönülşen 1997, p.52). There was the introduction of the Local Government online Program that ran between the years 2000 to 2005 which allowed the central government to make more investments that exploited technology and led to better experiences for staff and clients alike and allowed them to make savings during the process. Alternative service delivery systems contributed to the reform of the public service sector as it gave the government a chance to take more avenues that allowed for easier delivery of services. Some of the alternative delivery systems included contracting out where private firms were contracted to bring their services and help the governments align its departments. It allowed for huge savings amounting to five hundred thousand Euros a year and also saving on time which they could have taken to employ thousands of people to handle the tasks (O’reilly et al 2010, p.960). Later on in the 1980’s the government made contracting out a compulsory measure under the Local Government Act (1988) which led to the reduction in the number of staff as most of the jobs were contracted. The overall cost of running business reduced immensely. The move at some point was seen as challenging the conventional attributes of local government which was established on self sufficiency as it took on an enabling role where it would deliver services by means of other private and public organizations. Later on in 1992 under John Major’s government there was the use of CCT compulsory competitive tendering for the outsourcing of services which was then replaced by an approach that was based on best value. It ensured that while retaining the competitive approach, more considerations were made other than the price per unit. Even in the regime of the coalition government outsourcing has continued expanding focusing more on public services on a wide scale and mitigating any possible barriers to delivery by the private sector providers (Holiday 2000, p.167). Changes have been made where commissioning is done on the basis of outcomes and payments are done by way of results. These developments have allowed the use of black box commissioning which has enabled external providers to form and plan their strategies in regards to delivering public services. In black box commissioning the commissioners specify the cost and the outcomes wanted but they do not decide on the modes of delivery which is left to the service provider. New public management is seen as the substitution of the traditional methods of public administration by managerial techniques that are regular in the private sector. The emergence of NPM shows that the political agenda in the United Kingdom has changed. NPM works on seven principles which include clear standards and measures of performance, more importance is placed on output controls, more competition in the public sector, disaggregation of the units in the public sector, emphasis is placed on the private sector management styles, more discipline while using resources and a hands-on professional management approach (Taylor et al 2006, p. 629). Since the mid 1970’s the government has been named as the problem in the wake of serious financial crisis. In a bid to curb the problem it has started to embrace more business like practices, values and techniques. Management has now become more important than policy making and administration where higher priority is given to the management of people, programs and resources instead of procedures regulations and administration of activities. NPM’s origin can be thought of as the intermarriage of two different lines of ideas that come from the fields of management and economics (Hood 1991, p.3). Public management evolved from public administration where there is the application of managerial techniques to increase the effectiveness of public services. In the past public management reforms were confined to national boundaries and later emerged as western models and good ideals that could be adopted by the developing world. The first waves took place in the USA and the UK. In the UK the new public management reforms were meant to bring new capabilities and strengths in the government. To make more logical and integrated decision making processes and lastly to redefine the relationships between markets, citizens and governments. Market economies stipulate that the government on its own cannot reach its objectives by way of their administrative processes only (Ezzamel et al 1993, p. 6). The introduction of other frameworks such as the NPM helps the government in reaching their objectives by way of the market and the community. According to the OECD some of the factors that led to reform in the public service sector included the changes in the role of the government where stakeholders and citizens raised issues regarding the size of the government (Walker et al 2006, p. 371). There was an increased level of expectations from the citizens and also internal pressures to do well on their part due to the increase of effective programs. Rising public debts and even an intrusive government led to the rise of NPM. This type of management came at a crucial time and served to help the UK government serve its people better while also improving the status of the country through better managerial skills used in steering the public service sector in the right direction. Adoption of private sector management techniques proved to be good at handling the problems found in the public sector of the UK government. It then led to an improvement in their performance while keeping the citizens happy. References. Rhodes, R.A., 1994. The hollowing out of the state: The changing nature of the public service in Britain. The Political Quarterly, 65(2), pp.138-151. Ömürgönülşen, U., 1997. The emergence of a new approach to the public sector: the new public management. Ankara Üniversitesi SBF Dergisi, 52(01). Wilson, J., 2004. New management of public services: the United Kingdom experience. Viesoji politika ir administravimas, (7). O'REILLY, D.E.R.M.O.T. and Reed, M., 2010. ‘Leaderism’: an evolution of managerialism in UK public service reform. Public administration, 88(4), pp.960-978. Holliday, I., 2000. Is the British state hollowing out?. The Political Quarterly, 71(2), pp.167-176. Taylor, I. and Kelly, J., 2006. Professionals, discretion and public sector reform in the UK: re-visiting Lipsky. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 19(7), pp.629-642. Walker, R.M. and Boyne, G.A., 2006. Public management reform and organizational performance: An empirical assessment of the UK Labour government's public service improvement strategy. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 25(2), pp.371-393. Hood, C., 1991. A public management for all seasons?. Public administration, 69(1), pp.3-19. Ezzamel, M. and Willmott, H., 1993. Corporate governance and financial accountability: recent reforms in the UK public sector. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 6(3), pp.0-0. Read More