Making co-production work - lessons from local government

A report by APSE on behalf of the TUC

Foreword by Frances O'Grady, TUC General Secretary

Public services have become a key battle ground under the coalition. Spending cuts, top-down reform and privatisation have had a devastating impact on the people who depend on our public services and the dedicated workers who deliver them.

Nowhere is this more the case than in local government. Subject to years of cuts, restructuring and outsourcing, local authorities have long been used as a laboratory for public service reform. Yet the speed and scale of government restructuring and funding cuts are raising real fears over the future sustainability of our local services.

The government’s reform agenda is clearly linked to its austerity drive. Outsourcing and competition are seen as ways to drive down costs, often at the expense of the living standards of those working to provide them. But at
the same time, government policy is driven by an ideological belief in the primacy and efficiency of markets and it regards the public sector as inherently monolithic, inflexible and unresponsive. At the core of this belief is the public service user as an individual consumer, public services as commodities and choice between providers as the ultimate expression of citizen power. These are fundamentally flawed assumptions.

This approach fails to understand the collective nature of our public services – from health to criminal justice to education – which serve the wider needs of the community and not simply the individual service user. Nor does it consider the fragmentation, dislocation and lack of accountability that arises when you hive off public services to a market dominated by a small number of corporate providers.

Above all, government policy fails to understand the value that integrated, publicly owned and accountable services add. Local government provides plenty of evidence that the public sector can be a driver of innovation, value for money and improving quality.

With the stakes so high, it’s crucial that debates on the future of service delivery are informed by real evidence from the ground. Policymaking should be shaped by what happens in the real world – not by blinkered ideology.

This timely report looks at the ways in which local authorities are currently working with local communities and service users to design and deliver services that meet community need, while ensuring that services remain universal, accessible and accountable. Through the use of surveys and case studies, we can get a clearer picture of both the possibilities and limitations of what we might call ‘co-production’ within a local authority model. In plain English, how workers and managers can work with local communities to deliver good local services.

The findings suggest that local authorities are very well placed to deliver genuine innovation. This won’t happen by accident. It requires the right leadership and investment to be in place. It demands genuine integration
between services. And it needs public service workers and local communities to have a real say in the design and operation of services.

This report helps us develop a positive vision for the future that challenges the lazy market orthodoxy that dominates too much of current government thinking. With the right policies in place, local authorities can really engage citizens, deliver value for taxpayers and provide even better public services.

Download the full report