A new public services: Voices from the frontline

Gill Coupland, co-founder of Angel Housekeeping, which provides domestic care support for older and disabled people in Leeds:

'Voluntary services are realising that things can't stay as they are and, if they're going to survive, they're going to have to be more enterprising. Once [people] really understand what it means, they will be more likely to purchase services, in the same way that people choose to buy Fairtrade' Photograph: Christopher Thomond

Peter Holbrook, chief executive of Sunlight Development trust in Gillingham:

'Sunlight is owned by the community and provides a range of services identified by the community to meet the needs of the community. It's a different relationship. Local people are partners in the services they get, not recipients' Photograph: Martin Godwin

Karen Goodman, head of services for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, Kent county council:

'We need to resolve that inherent tension between whether [our cases] are dealt with primarily under childcare legislation or immigrant legislation, so that their rights as children come first. Government needs to become joined up. The Department for Children, Schools and Families, not just the Home Office, needs to be engaged' Photograph: David Levene

Sir William Atkinson, headteacher at Phoenix high school, London:

'What's essential is a period of stability. All governments of all persuasions like to tinker. There's too much of a tendency to change things and to do so before things have had an opportunity to get embedded. It doesn't give us the stable environment we need to challenge young people and raise standards. We need greater certainty' Photograph: Martin Godwin

Dr Agnelo Fernandes, a GP in Croydon who runs innovative diagnostic services – ultrasound scans, echocardiograms – available at surgeries in the borough, ending long waits for hospital appointments:

'Redesigning services doesn’t mean cutting them. It means transferring them from high-cost environments in hospitals to less expensive places in primary care. For example, the majority of people needing urgent care, in A&E and walk-in centres, could be dealt with that way' Photograph: Martin Godwin

Safina Wahid works as a tutor for the Expert Patients Programme Community Interest Company, after the organisation helped her to cope with a husband with bipolar disorder – and her own reliance on anti-depressants:

'Self-care is one of the great ideas that the NHS has to grasp. At the moment they think too much that healthcare professionals should be looking after everyone all the time. GPs need to realise that these programmes exist and really encourage patients to use them, because they help you to take control of your life' Photograph: Mark Waugh

Stephen Hughes, chief executive of Birmingham city council:

'We calculated that £7.5bn was being spent each year by Birmingham’s public services on a population of around one million people. We want better outcomes for less money by working together to redesign services. What we need is one set of performance criteria per area, not agency. And instead of each agency having to account for every last penny it spends, this again could be done by place' Photograph: Lee Sanders/News Team International