The Role And Role Of The Public Sector In The UK

Publicness or public quality of public service, the recent transition toward a market driven mode

In order to understand the reasons behind privatisation of public services, it is essential to study the socio-political environment of the UK in the 1970’s. During this period of time, the UK was hit by the post-war crisis, which led the Tories British political party, also known as the Conservative Party, to lose dominance in the parliament. During this time, in the Ridley Report, the Thatcher shadow cabinet started suggesting about the need to break up the public sector and to disjoint unions. Initially, privatisation was subordinate to other policy themes. Nonetheless, during Margaret Thatcher’s governance starting in 1979, a certain degree of privatisation was put in place, notably regarding British Aerospace and Cable & Wireless (1). Nonetheless, during this period of time, the government’s aim was to privatise profitable entities, in order to increase revenues and therefore minimize borrowing from the public-sector.

Bureaucrat is a dirty word to some people in modern society, so how can a bureaucracy be a good thing? Many Public Administration theorist, argue that bureaucracy is essential to the growth and expansion of the United States. Most of the criticism of the bureaucracy within the government is based on myth versus reality. Federal agencies play a critical and a valuable role within society and are indispensable to the operations of the federal government. Bureaucracy can be simply defined as the system in which decision are made by Public Administrators rather than elected officials (legislator) within the government. However, when the average citizen of just says the single word bureaucracy thoughts and images of evoked over how negative

In the UK fragmentation and centralization coexist as the means to deliver public services into a wide range of bodies and partnerships. With the Labour Party in power, ministers have celebrated the potential of networks, partnerships, and market-type relationships as mechanisms of coordination as opposed to the Old Labour mechanisms of big bureaucracy and centralized rules (Laffin, 2009, p.6). The intergovernmental relations within England are focused on creating a competitive model by allowing public services to compete with each other for users; in contrast, the Welsh model has been centered on the importance of collaboration between service providers because it will force public bodies to work jointly and improve the public sector as a whole (National Assembly for Wales, 2013).

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible for welfare, pensions and child maintenance policy. As the UK’s biggest public service department it administers the State Pension and a range of working age, disability and ill health benefits to over 22 million claimants and customers.

That they will cut bureaucracy, while subjecting spending plans to stringent management oversight and thus provide better services for cheaper. Unfortunately the ' 'reduction in public provision of long term care, NHS dentistry, optical services and elective surgery shows the trajectory for the NHS under the PFI. ' '10 We only have to look to Austria to find a

One thing that the government spends money on is Public Services, Central and local Government Agencies. Public services are types of services

In the late 1970s, the old government model faced a series of crisis, which lead the Western governments to a new approach usually known as the New Public Management(NPM). As Pollitt, Thiel, and Homburg stated, the New Public Management is apparently focusing on efficiency, results, and customer oriented(2007). It is a new approach to reach a more efficient way to deliver public service(Lane, 2000, P8). In the UK government public management reform, it is worth to underline its idea of evidence-based policy. Evidence-based policy in the UK was first introduced by the white paper on Modernising government:

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As part of public sector reform, or new public management, a number of key factors have led to a greater emphasis on establishing, building and sustaining relationships between, within and outside government. The purpose of managing out is to ensure that the public sector develops strong relationships with the external world. This may include groups, organisations or individuals who are users of government services; collectively they are referred to as citizens.

The UK public sector has been transformed over the past few decades. In an increasingly global economy, the main lever by which central governments can influence the success of the domestic economy is by ensuring its public sector operates efficiently. The central governments of the developed economies have adopted similar change agendas to transform their public sectors. These change agendas entail the introduction of new structures, new kinds of organizations and a ‘reinvention’ of many parts of the public sector. The intention of successive governments has been the creation of a ‘New Public Sector’, which is more strategic and corporate in its thinking. This ‘New Public Sector’ is intended to replace a public sector characterized by

The liberal democratic state has been in retreat due to its fragmentation and diminished accountability caused by the internal reform: new public management (NPM). NPM is an attempt to reform the public sector through the application of management techniques used in the private sector. In reality, NPM is a loose concept, consisting of different economic reforms. (Osborne 2009) While the adoption of NPM has had many advantages, there have been substantial unintended consequences from this implementation. This internal reform has resulted in a fragmentation of the state that has led to blurred and diminished accountability. Rhodes explains that within the UK civil service “the role of officials is increasingly constrained by new management systems and political controls. The obvious outcomes of these changes are fragmentation and diminished accountability.” (1994: 151) This

Public Sector Companies are predominately focused on providing the best service that budget allows to the communities or taxpayers. For example if the government-run bus service in a remote area is not getting enough customers, the government may still continue this service as its main objective is to provide and not to maximise profits. On the other hand, if this service was run by a private sectors business, they may end it if they do not find it profitable, as their main priority is predominately to increase revenue.

Majority of countries are seeking to develop a culture in the public sector that is more performance oriented , one that gives much focus to efficiency, effectiveness, quality Customer care, an increased focus on results as well as more decentralised management (Petrie,2002). In the last two decades performance management in the public sector has shifted its focus to putting in place systems for measuring outputs and rewarding results (Heinrich, 2003).

Discuss how the tendency of New Public Management has impacted on decision making in UK public policy. New Public Management is generally used to describe a management culture that emphasises upon the citizen or customer as being central, as well as having accountability for results. It also suggests organizational structures and promotes decentralized control, many different types of service delivery mechanisms, including quasi-markets with public and private service providers competing for resources.