WIREDGOV

Public services are dying a slow death, but what comes next? Lord Adebowale and Henry Kippin set out a vision for a move towards “services to the public” — a vision that requires us to re-think the needs of citizens, the reality of a mixed economy, as well as the relationship between citizens and the state.

Public services as we know it are dying. Squeezed by austerity, overwhelmed by demand and subsumed by Brexit, there is little-to-no chance that we will reach 2030 with a set of services that are analogous with those we experience today. Top-level data tells the story. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that one in ten councils have already cut adult social care spending by a quarter. Figures from NHS Providers suggest that an extra 5.2% of cost pressures will need to be absorbed during 2017/19 on a 1.3% increase in funding over the same period.

But this is not just about austerity. Over the longer term, demographic change, increasingly complex needs, and a recalibration of the relationship between growth, public spending, and societal wellbeing will change the picture even more. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, for example, estimatesthat over half of families classed as living in poverty have a family member in work. Theresa May’s notion of people ‘just about managing’ barely covers it.

We are entering the slow death throes of William Beveridge’s vision of public services as things to invest in and celebrate. His famous report, published in 1942 as a blueprint for the post-war welfare state, responded to what he characterised as the ‘five giants’ of ignorance, want, disease, idleness, and squalor. His ‘comprehensive survey of social insurance’ developed in response set the basis for the post-war welfare settlement. And whilst the very notion of a fixed national settlement might today be misplaced, the lack of a high-level discussion about our rights, responsibilities, and relationships with each other as citizens is lamentable. We should be angry about this. But then we need get on with defining and building what happens next.

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