Seventy-five years since William Beveridge published his blueprint for the modern welfare state, Britain’s public services stand at a crossroads. One way lies more austerity, stretching deep into the next decade, until the government deficit is finally cleared; the other way offers a halt to the cuts that have been prescribed relentlessly since 2010 and, perhaps, a return to net investment in the public realm.
Which of these is to be the direction of travel should become clear in the coming days as the fallout from last week’s general election settles and Theresa May’s chastened, and modestly reshuffled, administration sets its course to try to regain credibility.
Either way, however, our public services must rise to the challenge. Fresh thinking, innovation and deeper engagement with people who use services, and with their communities, will be vital – especially if the political turmoil persists and Westminster proves itself unable to give a sustained lead pending yet another election. Even then, Brexit will understandably be politicians’ primary focus.
Any doubt that services are capable of responding creatively to whatever is thrown at them – whether cuts or cash – should be dispelled by the record of winners of the annual Guardian Public Service Awards, launched again today. Since 2004, the awards have showcased best practice in the planning, commissioning and delivery of services across the UK. That timespan means that almost exactly half of past winners have excelled in times of (relative) plenty, half in years of austerity.
Compare and contrast the first and the most recent overall winners: in 2004, Blackburn with Darwen council scooped the top honour for its pioneering development of a network of children’s centres bringing together the services of 12 separate agencies to support young families; in 2016, Sevenoaks council in Kent picked up the accolade for having become the first local authority to make itself self-sufficient in anticipation of the planned end of funding by central government in 2020.
Does that imply a direct about-turn from planned investment and service expansion to contraction and outsourcing? Not at all. Sevenoaks, a Conservative-run authority, has achieved financial autonomy through developing a money-making property portfolio while pursuing a deliberate policy of keeping services like bin collection in-house.
Beveridge might struggle with the idea of a local council such as Sevenoaks owning a supermarket or a petrol station. But he would be only too familiar with the challenges facing 21st century public services: the five “giant evils” he famously identified – want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness – remain as relevant today as when that welfare state blueprint was unveiled in 1942.
So deep-rooted in our thinking is the notion of “five giants” that it was even adopted and adapted by the authors of the much-criticised Tory manifesto at last week’s election. Britain, it said, “faces five giant challenges, each of which requires strong leadership, concerted effort and intelligent policy to address”.The Tories’ five lacked the brevity of Beveridge’s: the need for a strong economy, Brexit and a changing world, enduring social divisions, an ageing society and fast-changing technology. Judging by the election outcome, they lacked also the popularity that made Beveridge’s blueprint a bestseller with people queuing overnight to buy it. Or at least the proposed solutions to the challenges failed to capture public imagination in quite the same way.
Just how many of those solutions will be taken up by May’s weakened government remains to be seen, but the reputed principal authors of the manifesto have already gone: former Cabinet Office minister Ben Gummer, who lost his seat, and May’s chiefs of staff Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, who have both quit.
Amid political mayhem, public services keep calm and carry on. The Guardian awards provide a timely reminder of that and an opportunity to highlight best practice by teams and, in the case of our public servant of the year, individuals who have made a striking personal contribution. A new award category this year will recognise excellence in leadership. This may reflect outstanding performance by a team or agency, the fostering of great leadership by others and/or the overcoming of barriers in doing so. At a time when supposedly strong and stable leadership at national level has been found wanting, lessons could be usefully learned.
