The Future of Services to the Public

SAMI has been involved in a project to examine the future services to the public. This project is sponsored by CIPFA, The National Housing Federation, ICAEW, LGA, LSC, NHS Confederation, and TUC, and the sponsors have taken a major role in formulating the focus of the project and ensuring wide consultation.

The first half of the project involved a series of workshop hosted by each of the sponsors of the project. These workshops highlighted the following common issues that will affect services to the public in 2025 and beyond:

• The effect of demographics and migration in and out of the UK

• The changing attitudes and expectations of citizen consumers

• Sources of funding for services to the public: will the post war welfare consensus break?

• Can technology provide a get out of jail free card?

• Conflicts between regulators and between tiers of government: what is best done locally / regionally / nationally / Europe-wide?

• Governance and the role of government; particularly the role of government versus private and third sectors.

These issues were then explored in a conference in London on May 14th, chaired by Polly Toynbee of the Guardian, and attended by 95 senior participants from a range of NGO, pubic sector and private sector organisations. The report from the project was published on 19 July. PDFs of the two parts are available, Volume 1, the main report and appendices 1 to 3, and Volume 2, the appendices 4 to 8.