Responsibility and Public Services

Responsibility and Public Services
Author: Richard Davis
Publisher: Triarchy Press
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2016-10-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1909470856

In this important book, Richard Davis looks at the issue of ‘responsibility’ in public services – on both the government’s part and that of the users. While government wrestles with how to cut the cost of services, Davis shows that government can provide responsible, sustainable and effective services significantly more cheaply by focusing on what is of ‘value’ to individuals and communities.

Trust and Confidence in Government and Public Services

Trust and Confidence in Government and Public Services
Author: Sue Llewellyn
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2013-10-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1135929726

Trust and confidence are topical issues. Pundits claim that citizens trust governments and public services increasingly less - identifying a powerful new erosion of confidence that, in the US, goes back at least to Watergate in the 1970s. Recently, media exposure in the UK about MP expenses has been extensive, and a court case ruled in favor of publishing expense claims and against exempting MPs from the scrutiny which all citizens are subject to under ‘freedom of information.’ As a result, revelations about everything from property speculation to bespoke duck pond houses have fueled public outcry, and survey evidence shows that citizens increasingly distrust the government with public resources. This book gathers together arguments and evidence to answers questions such as: What is trust? Can trust be boosted through regulation? What role does leadership play in rebuilding trust? How does trust and confidence affect public services? The chapters in this collection explore these questions across several countries and different sectors of public service provision: health, education, social services, the police, and the third sector. The contributions offer empirical evidence about how the issues of trust and confidence differ across countries and sectors, and develop ideas about how trust and confidence in government and public services may adjust in the information age.

Design for Services

Design for Services
Author: Anna Meroni
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2016-04-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317152387

In Design for Services, Anna Meroni and Daniela Sangiorgi articulate what Design is doing and can do for services, and how this connects to existing fields of knowledge and practice. Designers previously saw their task as the conceptualisation, development and production of tangible objects. In the twenty-first century, a designer rarely 'designs something' but rather 'designs for something': in the case of this publication, for change, better experiences and better services. The authors reflect on this recent transformation in the practice, role and skills of designers, by organising their book into three main sections. The first section links Design for Services to existing models and studies on services and service innovation. Section two presents multiple service design projects to illustrate and clarify the issues, practices and theories that characterise the discipline today; using these case studies the authors propose a conceptual framework that maps and describes the role of designers in the service economy. The final section projects the discipline into the emerging paradigms of a new economy to initiate a reflection on its future development.

The Case for Universal Basic Services

The Case for Universal Basic Services
Author: Anna Coote
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 84
Release: 2020-02-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1509539840

The idea that healthcare and education should be provided as universal public services to all who need them is widely accepted. But why leave it there? Why not expand it to more of life’s essentials? In their bold new book, Anna Coote and Andrew Percy argue that this transformational new policy – Universal Basic Services – is exactly what we need to save our societies and our planet. The old argument that free markets and individual choice are the best way to solve pressing problems of poverty, inequality and environmental degradation has led us to catastrophe, and must be abandoned. The authors show that expanding the principle of collective universal service provision to everyday essentials like transport, childcare and housing is not only the best way of tackling many of the biggest problems facing the contemporary world: it’s also efficient, practical and affordable. Anyone who cares about fighting for a fairer, greener and more democratic world should read this book.

Reasserting the Public in Public Services

Reasserting the Public in Public Services
Author: M. Ramesh
Publisher:
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2010
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0415547393

This landmark volume brings together leading social scientists including B Guy Peters, Anthony Cheung and Jon Pierre to systematically discuss emerging patterns of the reassertion of the state in the delivery of essential public services. Its coverage includes education, health care, transport and water in Asian and western countries.

The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century

The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 536
Release: 2003-02-01
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309133181

The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.

The Public Sector Fox

The Public Sector Fox
Author: Marcial Boo and Alexander Stevenson
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2015-12-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1785890581

To succeed, the modern public sector manager must be as a multi-skilled fox, able to face range of challenges in multiple environments. Theirs is a world of high expectations, demanding outcomes and little money. It is a world of partnerships with businesses and charities, of disruptive technology, and of real-time communication with the users of public services. It can also be the most exciting and rewarding world in which to work as a manager. The Public Sector Fox identifies and teaches the skills that managers need to thrive in this world. The advice is drawn from the authors' 30 years of combined experience working at dozens of central government departments and hundreds of local authorities, as well as with schools, colleges, universities, jobcentres, regulators, inspectorates, police forces, prisons, the military and with MI5. Marcial Boo and Alexander Stevenson have seen the public sector at work first hand, from presenting to the Prime Minister in Downing Street to managing training programmes for the unemployed in East London. From strategy, planning, finance, communication and people management to the skills of resilience, perspective and commitment, The Public Sector Fox provides valuable, hard-won tips and guidance to new and established public sector managers, and acts as a vivid reminder of what you can achieve by working for today's public services.