Compass' latest publication Public Service Reform...But Not As We Know It! was launched last night at packed event held to discuss the future of public services in the UK. The book, written by Hilary Wainwright (with Mathew Little), explains how by strengthening democracy and involving workers and citizens we can transform public services.

The panel for the event consisted of Hilary Wainwright; the book's author and the editor of Red Pepper, Jon Cruddas MP, Heather Wakefield; UNISON National Secretary for Local Government, and Kenny Bell; UNISON.

Kenny Bell spoke first, spelling out the conditions under which the success of an in-house bid for a major IT contract at Newcastle City Council - the central story of Public Service Reform - had been possible. First and foremost, he argued, was the strength of the local UNISON branch as the driving force behind the process. He highlighted the fact that members were enthusiastic about modernisation, provided that modernisation was a process they controlled rather than a top-down process. They were, after all, the individuals with the experience and potential to build a system that worked.

It was this idea of releasing the, all too often bypassed, energy and enthusiasm in existing staff that was the key lesson in Public Service Reform. Mr Bell pointed out that four years on the contract has now reached its renewal date and they have successfully met all their targets - in many cases going further. This record, he stressed, should be used to engage and inform the debate on public services, as it proves - with some gusto - that private investment is not the route to modernisation.

Hilary Wainwright took up this point. She said that the discussion around public service reform at Westminster and in Whitehall was very poorly informed. She called on MPs to visit Newcastle, as she did while researching
Public Service Reform, and listen to the experiences of officers there. If they did they would find staff whose commitment to the City and the services it provides is staggering.

This evidence is counter-intuitive to the New Labour approach, she argued, which pits officials against citizens, presenting market competition as the only source of dynamism and change. The Newcastle experience had shown that by unlocking the latent dynamism of staff effective change could be achieved without outsourcing services. But how can this lesson be built upon nationally? The key, Ms Wainwright stressed, was democracy. Only through revitalised local democracy could we ensure that elected representatives fight for the appropriate solutions to local problems.

Heather Wakefield provided UNISON's perspective, spelling out the lessons they would take from the book. She said that for the last thirty years the impetus of public service reform had been going in the wrong direction - now was time for change.

UNISON, she stressed, would push for public services to be evaluated on more complex terms than what policymakers now call ‘efficiency'. The priority, she argued, is the quality of services. The results of a recent survey show that UNISON members are committed to this principle and, Ms Wakefield said, that they needed to work hard to build on this. Even though existing structures do not encourage the kind of change that is needed, she called on unions, management and councillors to look at Public Service Reform as an example of the bottom up modernisation to be emulated.

John Cruddas echoed these sentiments, pointing out that the building blocks that made the Newcastle experience possible are generic to Local Authorities across the country. The precedent, therefore, is already there to be built on.

He said the timely release of Public Service Reform should be yet another wound in the ailing orthodoxy of the right's economic consensus and he championed the book as a weapon against further privatisation of public services. The idea that there is a unique public realm, a raft of services that can only be delivered through public ownership, has been lost and desperately needs to be rediscovered, he said.

When the debate was opened up to the floor there was support for the idea that public services need to be measured by more than cost efficiency. It was noted that there is a difficulty measuring, quantifiably, aspects such as need and care. Heather Wakefield noted that community cohesion was a good case in point and that we should work towards a system that knows how to measure these intrinsic qualities.

The panel were asked whether a process of change led by unions and the public sector workforce posed a threat to elected representatives and how this conflict could be managed. Ms Wakefield took this up, emphasising that the union role in this was a positive one. Conflicts between staff, management and councillors are frustrating for all parties and a strong union provides a forum for resolving these issues.

Answering a question on whether the Newcastle experience offers a challenge to the model of privatisation John Cruddas said that it shows how invigorating localism can lead to real change. The important point was that local priorities should be configured by local forces, as opposed to being dictated by Whitehall.

Joe Smee, Compass