Psr An International Overview

Introduction

This Brief has been commissioned by the Efficiency Unit to report on recent
developments in public sector reform around the world. It is based on secondary
rather than original research and the objective has been to focus on international
examples, so that Hong Kong examples have been deliberately excluded.

The purpose of this publication is to present "at a glance" the key developments
around the world on the public sector reform front. It is meant to inform and inspire
our public managers who are required to innovate in their service delivery.

Each country or organisation devises its own public sector reform agenda to suit its
social, resources and political circumstances. The wholesale transplant of one
reform initiative from one country to another seldom works. Nonetheless, knowing
what other public managers in jurisdications elsewhere are thinking, and how they
tackle their policy and implementation challenges should present food for thought
for us in Hong Kong.

Head, Efficiency Unit
July 2007

Public Sector Reform: An International Overview

Executive Summary
Public
engagement
P ublic sector reform is not new. But over
the past decade or two, there has
been an increase of reform activity, right
the world, focusing on those that have
been widely adopted, those that seem to
have delivered significant improvement,
The challenge of public around the world. While priorities have and those that promise interesting new
engagement is to find shifted over time, and there have been directions in the reform agenda.
new ways of encour- different emphases from country to
aging citizens to be country, there have also been several It is a sampler, a catalogue of short case
meaningfully involved persistent themes: renewed attempts to studies that readers can investigate more
in public policy-making,
engage citizens in the process of closely on their own. This is the first in a
and in playing a role in
governance; a move to place customers series of papers, and it is meant to serve
the institutions
through which they and end-users at the heart of public as a general introduction to some of the
are governed in their services; a focus on delivery and imple- outstanding themes that will be
local communities. mentation as opposed to policy addressed in greater detail in future
formulation; managing for outcomes; an papers.
increased reliance on market instruments
to improve value-for-money; and efforts Public Engagement
to coordinate the complex variety of The challenge of public engagement is to
Customer- different programmes across find new ways of encouraging citizens to
centric government. be meaningfully involved in public policy-
government making, and in playing a role in the
Customer-focused It is difficult to find a precedent for such institutions through which they are
public services widespread and sustained interest in governed in their local communities.
consider the public’s public sector reform, even if we go back to
experiences as service the progressive reformers of North Right around the world, governments are
users. They seek to America around the turn of the 19th struggling with this challenge. Information
engage through short century, a movement that was also
feedback loops – from
technology can assist with the provision of
managerialist in tone. information to citizens and it can make
the service user direct
to the service provider consultation easier. But engagement
There are different views as to what requires much more than formal
– rather than long
loops – which flow underlies this transformation agenda, but interaction, and governments are also
from user to provider throughout the literature, one finds a experimenting with more personal
via policymakers. deep-seated belief that the business of consultation, creating innovative new
government is fundamentally changing. forums for deliberation.
Globalisation, technological innovation
and rising public expectations – and the
Customer-centric government
speed with which these changes are
Customer-focused public services con-
taking place – mean that the role of the
sider the public’ experiences as service
s
public services in society and the manner
users. They seek to engage through short
in which they are delivered must
feedback loops – from the service user
fundamentally change.
direct to the service provider – rather than
long loops – which flow from user to
This brief discusses some of the cutting-
provider via policymakers.
edge reforms to public services around


Executive Summary
In a number of governments, the pro- mance-related pay, performance con- Policy to delivery
ducer-led model of public services is tracting and performance budgeting. The traditional empha-
gradually giving way to a consumer- Some governments are now experi- sis on policy develop-
driven model. The range of options ex- menting with purchasing outcomes and ment in the senior ranks
tends from improving responsiveness to not just outputs. of government is being
end-users, through to the personalisation replaced with a focus on
of public services, and policies directed to Market Instruments management and
giving the consumers of public services In the regulation of private activity, in the service delivery.
some choice of provider. procurement of goods and in the delivery
of public services under contract, govern-
Policy to delivery ments are using market instruments to
The traditional emphasis on policy devel- deliver better outcomes.
opment in the senior ranks of government
Managing for
is being replaced with a focus on manage- A variety of different market instruments results
ment and service delivery. are now being employed by Performance manage-
governments to assist them in meeting ment is concerned with
the delivery of results
Many good ideas fail, not because the public purposes, including online
rather than just
idea was wrong, but because the auctions, trading of environmental compliance with rules.
execution was flawed. Governments are permits, competition and contracting,
paying much greater attention to and the creation of new markets for
strengthening the public sector’ s public services.
competence in delivery. Initiatives have Market
included increased flexibility in the Joined up government
recruitment of senior executives, greater Governments are searching for new
instruments
In the regulation of
openness in attracting expertise from the ways of overcoming the fragmentation
private activity, in the
private sector, and particularly commercial and duplication in the public sector.
procurement of goods
expertise, the establishment of delivery and in the delivery of
units with cross-cutting responsibilities, The lack of coordination in public public services under
and the deregulation of the public services, services remains a serious challenge in contract, governments
by giving greater autonomy to service the struggle to improve the quality of the are using market
managers. customer’ experience of government.
s instruments to deliver
Many of the traditional solutions, such as better outcomes.
Managing for results merging departments and agencies and
Performance management is concerned the use of case managers have limited
with the delivery of results rather than just value. Web-based technologies are
Joined up
compliance with rules. opening up new possibilities for
delivering joined up government, but government
There have been a wide variety of perfor- they are also raising entirely new Governments are
mance-based initiatives, from perfor- questions, such as the desirability of searching for new ways
of overcoming the
mance measurement and reporting, joining up related public and private
fragmentation and
performance accountability (based on a services. duplication in the public
cycle of management reforms), perfor- sector.


1. Public Engagement

Public Engaging the citizenry is a challenge for National Highway Traffic Safety
governments right around the world. It Administration in the USA (www.nhtsa.
engagement continues to be a dilemma for a variety of gov/ncsl/) tracks legislation on a range of
The challenge of public reasons: the ongoing 'nationalisation' of road safety issues across all jurisdictions.
engagement is to find
government, with decision-making
new ways of encour-
aging citizens to be authority moving from the local to the But intermediating government
meaningfully involved national level; the growing significance of information is no longer the exclusive
in public policy-making, supra-national institutions, such as the domain of government. Concerned citizens
and in playing a role in European Union and the World Bank; the are using the internet to provide fellow-
the institutions technical complexity of modern citizens with a window into government. In
through which they government; and the lack of interest on the the US, legislation trackers are being
are governed in their part of citizens, evidenced through low offered by individuals - see, for example,
local communities. voter-turnouts and declining party GovTrack (www.govtrack.us). In the UK,
memberships. TheyWorkForYou(www.theyworkforyou.
com) enables citizens to track their local
Information member's speeches and voting patterns,
and to check details from their register of
At the most basic level, citizens need to interests and members' expenses.
understand what government is doing and
how it impacts on them. Traditionally, this Rules and regulations are more intrusive
has been difficult because of citizens' than legislation, requiring close
diverse interests, and the different ways in consultation with those affected. But rule-
which they interact with public services. making has also become more complex
due to requirements in some jurisdictions
However, information technology is for regulatory impact statements and cost-
making it easier to track the progress of benefit analysis. This makes it more difficult
legislation. Online bill tracking services are for governments to attract meaningful
provided by most state legislatures in the comment prior to the promulgation of new
USA - see, for example, that of the rules. The US federal government now
Michigan Legislature (www.legislature.mi. offers a web portal - Regulations.Gov
gov/(S(cwey1v555f1edr45fdw0nzfu))/ (www.regulations.gov) - dedicated to
mileg.aspx?page=home). And some offer consultation on rule-making so that it is
personalised bill tracking so that after easier for the public to track changes and
identifying legislation that is of particular file comments.
interest, subscribers can be updated
regularly by email - Nevada (www.leg. Governments are also able to provide their
state.nv.us/74th/subscriber) is one state citizens with detailed information about
that offers this service. particular aspects of public administration.
Best practice is to be found in the US
Individual departments, interest groups federal government website, FedSpending
and commercial organisations also offer (www.fedspending.org), which enables
services that focus on specific issues. The citizens to obtain detailed (and user-



friendly) information on federal and online discussion forums, as well as
government grants and contracts, by more traditional consultation
state, congressional district, contractor, mechanisms. Some governments are
service type or level of competition. tailoring discussion forums to particular
sub-groups in the community.
Some governments provide highly- HeadsUp (www.headsup.org.uk) is one
accessible ways of tracking new such service directed to young people.
infrastructure projects in the state or city.
See, for example, the New York City Web 2.0 - the latest generation in
Economic Development Corporation internet-based services - greatly
(www.nycedc.com/Web). On a smaller expands the kind of contributions that
scale, the city of Seattle provides can be made by citizens. These highly-
residents with detailed maps showing democratic systems have sometimes
road construction works (www.seattle. been described as 'peer-production'. A
gov/transportation/map/default.htm). leading-edge example of how this new
technology might be used in improving
Consultation the quality of public engagement is
Politicopia, a wiki established by a state
Citizens also want to be engaged in politician from Utah (USA). In this case,
government decision-making, being citizens are provided with neutral
consulted about forthcoming reforms and statements of major policy initiatives,
enabled to feed back their views on with supportive and critical
public services. Some government argumentation. The public are then able
agencies and local authorities seek public to make their own contributions online,
input on the quality of public services and and the politician operating the site has
spending priorities, using surveys mailed been able to take meaningful reforms to
out to local residents. the legislature based on these
comments.
Some conduct annual surveys of a
sample of randomly selected citizens. ComNET (www.fcny.org/cmgp/comnet.
The City of San Francisco, for example, htm) represents a more active form of
publishes an annual 'City Survey' public engagement. It was developed
summarising the government's by the Center on Municipal Government
performance across a range of measures, in New York, and uses hand-held
comparing results over time (http://www. computers (similar to PDAs), to enable
sfgov.org/site/controller_csa_index.asp? community organisations to capture
id=59064). information about local potholes or
streetlight maintenance (along with
In 2006, the Singapore Government photographs), and upload the data to
restructured its feedback unit into a new government. The system is now being
service entitled REACH (http://app.reach. used in a number of North American
gov.sg/reach/default.aspx) with e-polls municipalities.



One of the most closely-watched Deliberative forums are large group
consultation initiatives has been discussions involving a representative
'Participatory Budgeting' (http://www. sample of citizens who have been
participatorybudgeting.org/Whatis. provided in advance with briefing
htm), introduced by the city of Porto materials, and are given access to
Alegre in Brazil in 1990, and thereafter subject-matter experts before
adopted in some 250 municipalities participating in a deliberative process.
across South America and around the
world. Participatory Budgeting works at
the local level, where there are defined Case Study 1: Deliberative
geographic boundaries. It is based on
Polling in Wenling City
structured dialogue and debate about
spending priorities over the course of the
In 2005, Zeguo township in Wenling
year, among local people elected by
City, China, used 'Deliberative Polling'
their fellow citizens.
(http://cdd.stanford.edu/polls/china) to
engage with around 250 randomly-
Deliberation
selected citizens to consult on priorities
for local infrastructure projects. A
Deliberation implies that citizens have
scientific approach to the selection of
been given the opportunity to make a
participants was combined with
thoughtful contribution to an issue after
traditional methods of deliberation used
consideration of the evidence. It
in the local community. Among other
suggests that a representative cross-
benefits, deliberation encouraged
section of the public has been provided
participants to take into account the
with the information and allowed the
financial consequences of their choices.
time and the forum within which to
reach a considered judgement.
Citizens' Juries typically involve smaller
groups - 12 to 15 non-experts - to hear
In British Columbia, Canada, the
evidence from witnesses, deliberate and
government established a Citizen's
form a judgement on contentious policy
Assembly (www.citizensassembly.bc.
issues. They have been actively used by
ca/public) in 2004, to review the
governments and third party
province's electoral system. 160
organisations in the UK in recent years.
representatives drawn from all electoral
districts considered alternative reforms at
Citizen-led reform
a series of forums over a period of
eleven months. Submissions were
Some governments allow their citizens
received by the Assembly from the
to initiate reforms, if they are able to
general public. The recommendations
attract a sufficient level of community
were put to the public in a popular
support. In the UK, experiments are
referendum.
underway with a citizen-led initiative



known as 'community call to action'. additional assessment on property
Under the Police and Justice Act 2006, taxes. The funds are allocated to the
citizens can raise community safety BID, which provides supplementary
concerns with local councillors, who are services in retail and commercial
under a statutory obligation to address precincts. In New York City, BIDs
these matters and respond. Frontline financed additional security personnel
councillors in turn are able to insist on and street cleaners, and worked with
responsiveness from delivery agencies. local shopkeepers to improve the visual
appearance of the neighbourhood. BIDs
Citizen initiatives - which allow citizens have also been established more
to vote on a proposed statutory or recently in some UK municipalities.
constitutional amendment - have been
used in Switzerland for well over a Another area where citizens have been
century. They have been actively used able to become involved in community
in some of the western states of North governance is in the management of
America in recent decades. (www. natural resources. Local fishing
iandrinstitute.org). Votes or referenda communities are sometimes
are triggered by public petition, administered in this way. In Australia,
although issues are usually required to there are around 4,000 volunteer
have a high level of support before they community landcare groups,
can be submitted for consideration. coordinated by government, that play
an important role (for example) in
Governance helping to combat soil erosion (www.
The most advanced form of landcareonline.com).
engagement enables the public to be
involved in the actual governance of The UK government is also looking to
organisations with responsibility for the the directly-elected 'neighbourhood
delivery of community services. The councillors' who will have delegated
most successful of these have been at rights over spending on services within
the sub-local level, where local citizens the local neighbourhood. Local
have a greater capacity to make a councillors would have the option of
contribution to the management of raising additional funds by levying an
neighbourhood services. extra charge on the local tax for specific
neighbourhood services.
One of the most successful initiatives of
this sort have been Business
Improvement Districts (BIDs), pioneered
in Canada in the late 1960s, and
adopted widely in the United States in
the 1990s. BIDs are created on the
initiative of local merchants and
property owners, and financed by an


2. Customer-centric Government

Customer- 'Putting customers first' through voice better understanding what matters to
and choice was a central element of Al service users. At a more sophisticated
centric
Gore's 'National Performance Review' in level, it involves rethinking public services
government the US federal government in the mid- in terms of the customer experience -
Customer-focused 1990s, and subsequently by the Bush seeking to understand government
public services administration. More recently, the UK programmes as a narrative told from the
consider the public’s
government has actively sought to focus user's perspective.
experiences as service
users. They seek to
public service providers on the needs of
engage through short end-users. In Singapore, ministers have The soft issues - whether consumers
feedback loops – from exhorted public servants to 'Start with are treated with respect - matter as
the service user direct the User in Mind', and other govern- much to consumers as the hard issues -
to the service provider ments around the world have adopted the effectiveness of the service they
– rather than long a similar approach, particularly in finally receive. It is now commonplace
loops – which flow relation to online services. for government agencies to use 'mys-
from user to provider tery shoppers', a technique often used
via policymakers.
Service quality by private sector managers to test the
quality of front-line service delivery.
The quality movement has served as a
companion to customer-centric Once again, information technology has
government. 'Citizen's Charters' intro- made it easier for governments to
duced by the UK government in the late survey and to respond to the concerns of
1980s pioneered this approach, estab- service-users. CivicRADAR (www.
lishing explicit performance standards civicradar.com) - being piloted in
for customer service. This was followed Connecticut - enables citizens to com-
by Quality Charters in Portugal, Client municate information to the city
Charters in Malaysia, Service Users' government, make service requests and
Charters in Australia and Customer register complaints 24 hours a day.
Service Standards in the US federal More importantly, the system allows
government. them to track the response of the various
departments and agencies online and
Responsiveness when the requests are resolved, com-
plete a satisfaction survey.
The Organisation for Economic Coop-
eration and Development (OECD) In the private sector, price comparison
reports widespread interest in improving websites now enable consumers to
the responsiveness of government, search for the best prices for standard
although different governments pursue goods and services such as airline flights.
the concept in different ways. At a Websites have been launched enabling
simple level, this involves surveying the public to compare the prices
customer satisfaction, with a view to charged by competing public utilities


2. Customer-centric Government
(such as electricity and gas). But many of personalisation, some North Ameri-
government services are heavily can governments now allow drivers to
subsidised or provided free of charge, so order customised number plates online.
that price comparison may be of little The state of Virginia allows customers to
assistance. draw on any one of 180 different
designs, some of which are sponsored
On the other hand, a growing number of by community organisations and social
websites enable citizens to compare the causes (www.dmv.virginia.gov/webdoc/
quality of services. The US Department citizen/vehicles/plate_search.asp).
of Health and Human Services (www.
hospitalcompare.hhs.gov) allows Business Link (www.businesslink.gov.
patients to compare the performance of uk), an online information service for
hospitals across the United States small business in Britain, is an example
according to a range of performance of this new generation of customised
measures. In the UK, an independent services. For example, an individual
guide to the performance of hospitals wishing to start a new business can
and medical consultants is provided by input details on the kind of business
a public-private partnership known as Dr they are proposing to establish, and the
Foster (www.drfoster.co.uk). In the online service will provide them with a
education sector, the UK government start-up organiser, with all of the re-
allows parents to compare the stan- quired links, and (say) prompted assis-
dards of neighbourhood schools (http:// tance and precedents for preparing a
schoolsfinder.direct.gov.uk) and non- business plan.
government organisations offer similar
services in the US (www.greatschools. Increasingly, individuals are looking for
net). private services to be incorporated into
these personalised online facilities. This
Personalisation is leading to a debate about whether
governments' electronic services should
Personalisation suggests that the public be opened up to third party intermedi-
are provided with a customer-friendly aries who would act more as the agent
interface with government services. of the citizen than as the agents of
Developments in information technol- government. Australian immigration
ogy have opened up new ways of visas are managed through an interna-
personalising public services, with tional network of travel agents. In the
facilities available 24/7 and the ability to UK, banks have explored the possibility
make appointments online. It is of enabling customers to lodge their
summed up in the 'MyGov' concept - returns and pay their taxes through the
tailoring government websites to banks' websites, and insurance compa-
individual need. As an extreme example nies have suggested that motor vehicle


2. Customer-centric Government Government
2. Customer-centric

registration might be undertaken by pioneered choice in education through
them on their policyholders' behalf. voucher arrangements. In Australia, this
has been accomplished simply by
However, since many public services allowing government funding to be
involve personal care, case manage- allocated across the public and inde-
ment remains an important means of pendent sectors according to student
personalising public services to the numbers.
individual. It is resource-intensive and
must be prioritised on those in greatest Where public services are provided free
need, but governments continue to at the point of delivery, it is still possible
explore new models. For example, the for customers (or their agents) to choose
UK government is introducing a na- between alternative providers. Under
tional scheme for case-managing Australia's Job Network , job seekers can
offenders through the criminal justice register for assistance with any of a
system. range of approved service providers in
their area, drawn from the private and
In the health sector, pilot schemes are voluntary sectors.
being introduced for managing the
long-term health needs of the chroni- Concerns have been expressed that
cally ill, with the objective of improving choice is not equally accessible for some
quality of life and reducing disadvantaged groups. This can be
hospitalisation rates. Health Mainte- addressed partly through differential
nance Organisations in the USA pio- vouchers, which offer proportionately
neered these models, with private greater benefits to the disadvantaged.
health insurers and state social insur- In the UK, the government is appointing
ance providers elsewhere in the world 'choice advisers' to assist families in
adapting them to local need. South making meaningful decisions about
Africa introduced managed care in the schools. Every local authority is to
late 1990s, and Australia started con- appoint a network of choice advisers
ducting trials with 'coordinated care' from 2008.
shortly thereafter. The UK is also
experimenting with integrated care
models for the management of chronic
disease.

Choice

It was long assumed that the concept of
customer choice had only limited
application to public services, but the
United States and Australia have


2. Customer-centric GovernmentGovernment
2. Customer-centric

Case Study 2: Choice-based
Letting in Public Housing
In 2000, Harborough District Council (a
UK local authority) launched a choice-
based letting system for the allocation of
public housing. It was based on the so-
called Delft Model that had been widely
adopted in the Netherlands.

Instead of allocating housing to appli-
cants with no alternatives and little
explanation as to decisions, choice-based
letting gave tenants the opportunity to
register for and respond to advertise-
ments for available properties. They were
provided with information about the
properties and neighbourhoods, and local
market conditions. And simpler and more
transparent selection criteria were
introduced. Applicants who turned down
offers were no longer automatically
penalised. Choice-based lettings have
since been adopted by many local
authorities in the UK.


3. From Policy to Delivery

From Policy to Most public servants are involved in adopt this approach more often, al-
delivering services to citizens, and yet, in though Sweden, Switzerland and
Delivery most governments around the Hungary have also been leaders.
The traditional empha-
industrialised world, the senior ranks of
sis on policy develop-
ment in the senior
the public service have been dominated In many countries, chief executives and
ranks of government is by policy generalists with only a few senior civil servants are now hired on
being replaced with a having a commercial or financial term contracts, with performance-
focus on management background. Governments have tended related pay. Organisational structures
and service delivery. to be driven by policy models rather are determined and public servants are
than delivery models. recruited, employed and promoted by
the chief executive of the individual
Politicians and public servants are now department or agency, rather than a
paying much greater attention to central public service board. And in an
questions of implementation, and the attempt to avoid a fragmentation of the
structures, processes and capabilities public service and encourage leadership
necessary to strengthen the public development, a number of govern-
sector's competence in delivery. There ments have established a 'senior
has been a growing recognition that executive service'.
many good ideas fail, not because the
idea itself was wrong, but because the The US federal government was the first
execution was flawed. to introduce such a service, followed in
the late 1990s and early 1990s by
Transforming the senior civil service Australia and New Zealand, and later
by the Netherlands and the UK. South
Traditionally, the core public service was Korea has a strong career-based
career-based, with civil servants re- tradition, but in 1999 the government
cruited on the basis of examinations or introduced the Open Competitive
academic credentials, and thereafter Position System, with the objective of
enjoying lifelong tenure. They were facilitating the transfer of skills from
transferred between positions as outside government. Ministries were to
needed, which required them to be designate 20% of senior positions for
generalists. open competition.

In recent years, a number of countries Even with a senior executive service,
have shifted to position-based systems, these countries have experienced
where the focus is on finding the best difficulty in attracting significant num-
candidate for the job in question, often bers of external applicants for senior
by competitive recruitment amongst positions, and governments have
internal and external candidates. Anglo- sought to involve the private sector in
American governments have tended to other ways.



Private sector expertise government appointed an executive
from the private sector as the new
In 2004, the Japanese Prime Minister Commercial Director in the Department
appointed senior business leaders and of Health. He was given a strong
academics to a Council for the Promo- mandate for reform and he, in turn,
tion of Regulatory Reform (www.cao. relied heavily on secondments from the
go.jp/en/reform/previous_reform.html). private sector to support the initiative.
This expert committee was used to The programme is regarded as having
develop an important new initiative for been a success, although the
market-testing public services that has sustainability of this model is uncertain
since been implemented by the as many of the staff have since returned
government. to the private sector (www.dh.gov.uk/
en/Policyandguidance/
North American governments have long Organisationpolicy/Secondarycare/
appointed senior business executives to Treatmentcentres/DH_074351).
high-level 'commissions' to design and
then to oversee the implementation of Driving delivery
financial and operational reforms. The
Governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue Another way in which governments
recently appointed a 'Commission for a have emphasised the primacy of
New Georgia' (www.new-georgia.org), delivery is through the creation of
led by CEOs and senior executives from specialist units at the centre of govern-
the private sector, to harness innovation ment to ensure that key targets are
and technology to improve cost effi- met. The New South Wales state
ciency and customer responsiveness. government in Sydney, Australia,
established a Premier's Delivery Unit in
In Virginia, Governor Mark Warner 2006, to drive improvement in the
created a 'Council on Virginia's Future' delivery of public services. A similar unit
(www.future.virginia.gov) involving was established by the UK government
senior politicians, public officials and in 2001, to oversee the government's
private sector executives. The brief performance management system.
included providing a long-term focus on
high priority issues, improving govern- In 2006, the British government estab-
ment performance, and engaging lished a Delivery Council (www.
citizens in a dialogue about Virginia's cabinetoffice.gov.uk/
future. public_service_reform/delivery_council),
made up of leaders in operational
When it set about to create a new delivery from across government 'to
market for elective surgery in the Na- share best practice (e.g. on commis-
tional Health Service (NHS), the British sioning models) and to provide expert



practitioner input to the design and Consistent with these developments,
management of delivery models'. Key when the new US Department of
delivery departments in the UK have Homeland Security was created in
also been appointing 'Commercial 2002, it was exempted from provisions
Directorates', staffed with personnel with of the civil service law relating to hiring,
a strong commercial background. compensation and promotion.

Deregulating public services
Case Study 3: Iowa's Charter
One of the most important reforms Agencies
identified for improving public service
delivery has lain in the reduction of the In 2003, Iowa launched its Charter
bureaucratic red tape imposed on public Agencies programme (http://charter.
service managers. In order for managers iowa.gov/default.htm). Agencies are
to be given greater autonomy, it has able to volunteer for charter status,
also been necessary to make them which ensures them greater financial
more accountable - 'making the man- and managerial freedom, in return for
agers manage' as well as 'letting the commitments to deliver measurable
managers manage'. One of the four service improvements and savings. Six
pillars of Singapore's public sector agencies stepped forward in 2004, and
productivity reforms has been 'Maximise together they represent more than half
Discretion'. of all state employees.

Devolution of financial responsibility has Charter Agencies are exempt from
been central to these reforms. Typically, across-the-board budget cuts for three
governments have moved to three-year years; they are able to retain half of
forward estimates, output budgeting, unspent appropriations and 80 percent
accrual accounting and charging gen- of all new revenue generated; they can
eral government agencies for capital actively market goods and services to
assets. At the same time, chief execu- the public; they are exempt from
tives have been made responsible for restrictions on staffing numbers and
the financial performance of their may award employee bonuses.
agencies, with associated performance However, they are subject to the state's
pay. collective bargaining arrangements.

In human resource management, there It has proven somewhat easier to give
has been a trend towards assigning the greater management autonomy to
responsibility for recruitment and service delivery agencies. Where
promotion to the chief executive rather governments felt that it was inappropri-
than a central government board or ate to privatise state trading enterprises,
commission.



they corporatised or commercialised
them, expanding their freedom to engage
in business activities, whilst also increasing
their financial and regulatory
accountability.

A great deal of work remains to be done in
ensuring that these reforms flow down to
the managers involved in the delivery of
front-line services - school principals,
hospital administrators, prison governors
and police commanders.

In the UK, there has been an attempt to
increase managerial autonomy at this
level. The most striking examples lie in the
creation of semi-autonomous 'trusts' out
of high-performing service units. The
earliest of these were foundation trust
hospitals (www.dh.gov.uk/en/
Policyandguidance/Organisationpolicy/
Secondarycare/NHSfoundationtrust/
index.htm), followed more recently by city
academies (www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/
academies/what_are_academies/?
version=1) and trust schools (http://
findoutmore.dfes.gov.uk/2006/09/
trust_schools.html), which enjoy greater
commercial freedom than traditional
public institutions.


4.4. Managing For Results
Managing For Results

Managing for Over recent decades, many governments number of high-level goals and detailed
around the world have adopted some targets for improving the state's
results form of performance management. A performance, under the title Tasmania
Performance man- Together (www.tasmaniatogether.tas.
recent survey among OECD nations found
agement is con-
that three-quarters included non-financial gov.au). Performance assessment and
cerned with the
delivery of results performance data in their budget public reporting is overseen by a statutory
rather than just documentation, although half neglected Progress Board that is appointed on a
compliance with rules. to link expenditure to targets or apply bipartisan basis.
rewards or sanctions.
The government of Virginia (USA) is
The trend is for governments to move required by legislation to publish an
from simple and indirect forms of perfor- annual scorecard reporting progress
mance management towards more against long-term objectives, current
demanding models where budgets are service performance and productivity
directly linked to targets and governments improvement. Performance against the
buy outcomes rather than just paying for government's key targets is tracked
outputs. online at 'Virginia Performs' (www.
vaperforms.virginia.gov), and the public
Performance measurement are able to study the state's performance
over time and against other states.
This is the most basic kind of performance Citizens are able to search detailed results
management. It consists of monitoring by agency and by locality.
and reporting accomplishments, usually
in comparison with some benchmark - Performance accountability
past performance, some ideal notion of
best practice or external benchmarks This implies the existence of a manage-
drawn from the public or private sectors. ment cycle, in which performance objec-
tives are agreed, achievements are
In one of the most comprehensive measured and reported against those
national projects, the Australian Productiv- objectives, reforms are made with a view
ity Commission publishes an annual to accomplishing the targets, and there is
'Report on Government Services' (www. a system of escalating interventions
pc.gov.au/gsp/reports/rogs/2006/index. where agencies fail to respond
html), comparing the performance of a adequately.
wide range of public services across the
various states. North America have been in the forefront
of this movement, with state govern-
Following an extensive programme of ments setting targets for local school
community consultation in 2000, the districts and intervening in cases of
Australian state of Tasmania laid down a persistent failure. Two of the early movers


4. Managing for results
Page 17

4. Managing For Results

were North Carolina and Texas, where agencies. The best-known example is
significant gains in student performance Compstat, a system introduced by the
were observed by the mid-1990s. In New York Commissioner of Police, Bill
2000, the Bush administration introduced Bratton, in 1994. It was designed to
the 'No Child Left Behind' Act (www. direct police resources into crime hot
whitehouse.gov/news/reports/no-child- spots and reliable and timely statistics
left-behind.html), obliging states to about policing outcomes lay at its heart,
introduce annual report cards, with an with front-line commanders meeting
obligation to take corrective action where regularly with senior management to
progress is lacking. account for their performance. Compstat
was seen as having made a major
Case Study 4: Intervention in contribution to the dramatic fall in New
York's crime rates in the 1990s and
Failing Schools within five years, more than a quarter of
police departments across America
The UK established an independent
were imitating the initiative.
inspections agency for schools in 1992,
and published the first scorecards, based
Following Compstat's success, Baltimore
on public examination results, the same
introduced CitiStat (www.ci.baltimore.
year. For some years, parents have been
md.us/news/citistat/reports.html) in
able to check the performance of local
2000, using a performance account-
schools based on inspections by the Office
ability model based on Compstat, to
of Standards in Education (www.ofsted.
manage severe problems with em-
gov.uk/reports) or the examination
ployee absences, sick leave, workers'
scorecards (www.dfes.gov.uk/
compensation and overtime. The
performancetables) that are based on
scheme was later broadened to include
student performance.
other performance criteria and it is now
being rolled out across the entire state
Starting in 2000, the government built on
of Maryland.
these foundations, developing a compre-
hensive performance management
Pay-for-Performance
regime, with around 1,400 failing schools
being placed in 'special measures', and a
Since the 1980s, more than two-thirds
further 200 closed for failure to reform.
of OECD countries have introduced
The evidence suggests that this
performance related pay for at least
programme was successful across the
some of their public service, including
targeted measures.
the United Kingdom, the United States
and Canada, Australia and New
Performance accountability can also be
Zealand, and a range of European
used as an intensive management tool for
countries including Germany, Italy, the
turning around underperforming



Netherlands and Sweden. Korea has also through a legally-binding or a quasi-
adopted performance pay in recent years. contractual relationship. Competitive
tendering and public private partner-
In New Zealand, which was one of the ships (PPPs) are dealt with later in this
early adopters, the Public Service Com- report, but performance contracting
missioner determines the performance deserves to be considered separately.
incentive, limited to 15 percent of the
remuneration package. The performance Some countries have engaged in
of the organisation and the public service extensive competition of public services,
as a whole is taken into account. In and in the process, they have devel-
Canada, a committee of departmental oped sophisticated models of perfor-
secretaries assesses performance, with mance contracting. Several UK govern-
the Prime Minister making the final ment agencies, and local governments,
determination. In the Australian federal are now using contracting to procure
government, ministers are consulted, but better social outcomes (such as diversity
the Prime Minister and the head of his and sustainability outcomes), rather
department play a central role. than focusing just on value-for-money.

Experts disagree as to whether perfor- Governments have also employed
mance bonuses are effective and appro- quasi-contracts (or 'service level
priate in motivating individual employees agreements') between policy agencies
in the public sector, and some have and delivery units, in an attempt to
cautioned at the danger of politicisation. adapt the lessons of performance
Some extend these reservations to the contracting to public sector agencies. For
use of financial penalties in the example, Denmark employs perfor-
incentivisation of underperforming mance contracts between ministries
organisations. While financial incentives and line agencies, and between minis-
may be of limited value where govern- tries and chief executives, with associ-
ment agencies are budget-funded, the ated performance-related pay.
success of performance sanctions in
managing contracts for the delivery of Performance budgeting
public services by the private sector
suggests that they can be used At its simplest, performance budgeting
successfully. may mean nothing more than present-
ing performance data as part of budget
Performance contracting documentation. A stricter version at-
tempts to link funding to outputs and
Performance contacting involves purchas- outcomes specified in the budget
ing outcomes or outputs from a public, papers. The promoters of performance
private or voluntary sector supplier, budgeting hope to use these measures



to drive budgetary and management In the United States, health insurance
decisions. funds and Health Maintenance
Organisations have introduced pay-for-
The US federal government introduced performance (P4P) programmes for
the Government Performance and physicians and hospitals. At elsewhere,
Results Act (GPRA) in 1993, requiring there has been a movement in the past
agencies to develop strategic plans, three or four years towards paying for
annual performance plans and perfor- outcomes, although efforts are still
mance reports. GPRA was regarded as being made to improve the quality of
somewhat groundbreaking in giving the measures. The federal government's
Congress a role in the process. In 2004, Medicare and Medicaid programs are
the GPRA was taken a step further, also experimenting with outcome-
moving to align performance informa- based funding methods.
tion with budgetary decisions, with the
Office of Management and Budget From inputs to outcomes
(OMB) asking agencies to submit
performance budgets. Since the mid- There has been a distinct move from
1990s, more than 30 US states have the specification of inputs to the funding
introduced performance measurement of outputs, and while the shift to pur-
legislation, but Texas and Maryland are chasing outcomes has proven more
in the forefront of moving to true perfor- difficult, governments continue to
mance budgeting. experiment. Several local authorities in
the UK are now contracting for out-
Some of the more rigorous forms of comes in the cleanliness of their streets.
performance budgeting are to be found Part of the contractor's profit is at risk
in the higher education sector (for based on local citizens' perceptions of
example in the Scandinavian countries), cleanliness (as measured by indepen-
where a proportion of the funding is dent research).
based on academic performance. In the
UK, this approach is also used for Australia's Job Network and the French
research funding. Case-mix funding (or equivalent partly reward welfare-to-
'payment by results') in the health work providers based on the success of
system is yet another form of perfor- their clients in retaining their jobs over
mance budgeting. The United States, the medium-term. And experiments
Denmark, Norway, Chile and some of are underway in Australia and the UK,
the Australian states have been using testing whether the risk of hospital
case-mix funding for hospitals, and the admission rates for the chronically-ill
UK is part way through the introduction can be shifted to private and voluntary
of such a scheme. providers.


4. Managing4. Managing For Results
For Results

In the UK, the Highways Agency has
adopted an 'Active Management
Payment Mechanism' (www.highways.
gov.uk/roads/2998.aspx) in new
tollroads delivered under PPPs. This
includes financial bonuses and penalties
for road congestion caused by
breakdowns, road works and special
events, as well as adjustments based on
the number of accidents (benchmarked
against comparable roads).


5. Market Instruments

Governments have always looked to the Governments are also auctioning Market
market to purchase some of their goods restricted public services online. The
Instruments
and services. But over recent decades, Singapore Land Transport Authority
In the regulation of
they have increasingly adopted market- conducts online bidding for 'certificates of private activity, in the
type arrangements to assist them in entitlement' for vehicle ownership (the procurement of goods
meeting public ends. Unlike the numbers of which are capped) (www.lta. and in the delivery of
privatisation initiatives of the 1980s, gov.sg/ocoe). Oklahoma allows real- public services under
market-oriented government seeks to time electronic bidding on state bonds contract, governments
use the economic incentives created (www.ok.gov/ostbid/index.php). are using market
through these instruments to deliver instruments to deliver
public purposes. Environmental markets better outcomes.

e-Auctions Carbon trading, popularised through the
debate over global warming, is a kind of
A simple example of a market instru- environmental market designed to assist
ment now widely used by governments in the management of CO2 emissions.
to deliver value-for-money are elec- Also known as 'cap and trade', this form
tronic auctions. e-Auctions assist in of regulatory system relies on a statutory
creating a more competitive ceiling on emissions within a defined
environment, as well as saving on geographic area, with companies
procurement costs. Housing, medical, assigned individual limits, which can be
computing and other office supplies are bought and sold. The benefit of such a
just a few of the services being bought system is that those companies capable
through reverse e-Auctions, which of reducing their emissions at the lowest
intensify the competitive pressure for cost are incentivised to do so through
sellers. buying entitlements.

Online auctions are particularly valuable The trading of environmental credits was
for local governments that may not pioneered by the US government with
otherwise be able to attract significant sulphur dioxide (SO2) trading introduced
market interest. In the UK, consortia of in 1990, and a variety of schemes have
local authorities have formed regional since been implemented around the
purchasing organisations to increase world (http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/
their commercial leverage. In the United trading/index.html). The Australian state
States, the federal government has government of New South Wales
created a single site, FedBid (www. introduced salinity trading in the Hunter
fedbid.com) to handle federal, state and River in 1992, as a way of balancing the
local government online procurement interests of coal mines and vineyards,
services. both of which use the river. Trading is
now undertaken online, with the public



able to monitor trends (http://hrs1.epa. sions and accounts), human resources
nsw.gov.au). administration, procurement and supply
chain management and help desks and
Governments have also used tradable customer information.
rights for the management of water
extraction from rivers and groundwater A number of Asian countries, but most
systems, and for regulating the exploita- notably India, have developed a new
tion of fishing resources. Australia is one industry in supplying these services to
of the world leaders in the use of water overseas companies, and particularly in
markets, with online trading (www. the English-speaking world. Some
waterfind.com.au). And the Great Barrier governments struggle with the politics of
Reef Marine Park Authority uses a trading outsourcing public services to overseas
scheme to control the number of tourist countries, because of the perceived
operators on the reef (www.gbrmpa.gov. impact on local jobs.
au/corp_site/permits/emc).
PPPs: Australian governments pioneered
Competition and contracting the asset procurement model that has
come to be known as PPP or the private
Contracting of public services has be- finance initiative (PFI), in the late 1980s.
come increasingly commonplace over Until recently, they continued to be world
recent decades, partly as a by-product of leaders in PPP toll roads, although the US
the information revolution, and partly has recently overtaken them. The market
because of the popularity of PPPs in the leader in the PPP markets is the UK
provision of infrastructure and the associ- which has signed more than 800 PPPs
ated services. since the policy was first actively pursued
in 1996.
IT-enabled change: Governments turned
to the private sector for IT services largely But the PPP model has now been
because there was no in-house capabil- adopted right around the world, with
ity in this field and, given the pace of some countries such as Spain and Japan
change, there was little point in develop- developing more sophisticated procure-
ing it. What has changed in recent years ment models than the UK. In many of
is the expansion of the associated these countries, the service element in
support services which private sector these contracts is largely confined to
firms are capable of managing on behalf facilities management, but there are
of clients. The term most commonly some important exceptions - prisons
used is 'business process outsourcing', (UK, USA, Japan), hospitals (Japan), and
and the range of services variously tollroads carrying market risk (Australia,
includes asset management, financial Canada, USA).
management (including payroll, pen-


5. Market Instruments Instruments
5. Market

Public service contracting: In addition to included: the call centre, accounting,
these developments, there has been purchasing, human resources, informa-
continuous expansion in the range of tion technology and support for fire,
public services delivered under contract, police, water and sewerage, and gar-
as governments have developed new bage services, street design and
models and private firms have devel- maintenance, planning and zoning,
oped new service capabilities. The inspections and permits. Some town
following are some of the leading-edge councils in Singapore contract out the
examples: administration of all their common areas
to managing agents.
One of the most successful areas of
public service contracting has been the Contestability
custodial sector, with private firms in
some countries managing entire prisons, 'Contestability' is not another word for
undertaking prisoner transportation and 'competition'. It refers to the reform of
handling home detention with electronic public services by using the threat of
tagging. Both the US and the UK have competition. It is not necessary that the
worked with the private and voluntary service in question actually be market-
sectors in the provision of probation tested: only that there is a pool of
services. alternative providers, and a mechanism
for the injection of competition should
In 1996, Mozambique contracted the the incumbent fail to improve.
management of its customs service to a
private company originally established The US federal government has been
by the UK Customs Service, with a view operating a contestability regime
to reconstructing its systems and pro- through its 'Most Efficient Operation'
cesses and retraining its staff. More (MEO) policy in procurements. Agencies
recently, this firm has advised Bulgaria are able to defer competition by dem-
and other countries on the onstrating that they meet an acceptable
modernisation of their customs level of performance.
programmes (http://www.crownagents.
com). In the UK, the government has used this
approach in reforming elective surgery in
In the USA, the state of Georgia has public hospitals, and the management
recently contracted out the manage- of Local Education Authorities and
ment of entire local authorities. Sandy prisons, and there is a commitment to
Springs (www.sandyspringsga.org) was use it in reforming probation services. For
the first of these, in December 2005, example, the Prison Service undertakes
appointing a private contractor to deliver 'performance tests' of underperforming
all of its services. Contracted services prisons, with the threat of market-testing



if an acceptable standard is not reached. Japan has recently adopted a some-
Some Australian state governments what different approach to introducing
have also used this approach with their public service markets. In May 2006,
prisons, improving human resource the Japanese Diet passed the 'Act
management. Regarding the Reform of Public Services
Through the Introduction of
Public service markets Competition', or the 'Market Testing
Law' as it is popularly known. This was
More recently, governments have part of Prime Minister Koizumi's reform
looked to the design and management policy entitled, 'Leave to the private
of entire public service markets. One of sector what it can do'. In piloting the
the most widely-studied examples is programme, the government selected
Australia's welfare-to-work market. eight model projects in three fields.
These were drawn from 119 proposals
Case Study 5: Australia's Job made by the private sector in late 2004,
when the government invited external
Network suggestions as to possible areas of
reform.
Under Australia's welfare-to-work
market, assistance with job placement The UK government has a formal policy
for the unemployed - historically a of developing a 'mixed economy'
public sector monopoly - was changed composed of public, private and volun-
to a case management model and then tary sector providers across a wide
to performance-based contracts. Job range of public services. Examples of
Network is a managed market that has markets under development include:
reduced costs and significantly managed health care for the chroni-
strengthened performance cally-ill, elective surgery, secure mental
accountability. health, offender management, the
transition from welfare-to-work, foster
Similar markets for job placement are care and residential care for children,
being created in France, Germany, the parental support and local government.
UK and Japan. In the UK, the govern-
ment is investigating a market model The creation of a mixed economy
where the private and voluntary sector involves much more than merely
providers would finance the initial skills- contracting out public services to private
development and placement effort, and companies. The government has
payments would only be made to the created new forms of public entities
service provider once the beneficiary capable of operating in these markets,
had remained off unemployment and significant work is underway in
benefits for a defined period of time government in identifying and over-
(www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/dwp/ coming the barriers to voluntary sector
2007/welfarereview.pdf).


5. Market Instruments Instruments
5. Market

participation.

One of the results has been the emer-
gence in the UK of hybrid organisations
consisting of joint ventures between
public, private and/or voluntary providers.
For example, Working Links (www.
workinglinks.co.uk) is a joint venture
involved in the UK job placement market,
involving the government-owned
Jobcentre Plus, two commercial
organisations, and an Australian voluntary
sector provider.


6. Joined Up Government

Overlap, duplication, fragmentation, Case Study 6: Australia's
Joined up balkanisation, 'turf protection',
Centrelink
Government 'stovepipes', the 'silo mentality' - a wide
Governments are variety of terms have been used to
Centrelink (www.centrelink.gov.au) was
searching for new describe the challenge of trying to ensure
ways of overcoming established by the Australian federal
that government departments and
the fragmentation and government in 1997 as a one-stop shop
agencies work together. The solutions
duplication in the public for a variety of welfare services. It pro-
have variously been described as
sector. vides services for two major policy
coordination, collaboration, service
departments that purchase front-desk
integration, 'seamless government',
services from Centrelink, so that welfare
'joined up government', 'holistic govern-
beneficiaries only have to tell their story
ment' and the management of cross-
to government once. Reorganising
cutting issues. Whatever the name, the
social welfare transactions in this way
challenge of making public services
enabled Centrelink to present
coherent for the customers and citizens
government's services according to 'life
who interact with them remains one of
events' such as 'looking for work' or
the most difficult areas of public
'planning your retirement', rather than
administration.
the categories that made sense to
individual departments.
Structural Change
It was established as an arms-length
One of the most common solutions to
agency with its own board, and with
service integration lies in merging agen-
quasi-contractual relationships with its
cies and creating super-departments,
client departments. Centrelink was able
although this can shift the coordination
to rationalise the number of service
problems elsewhere. New Zealand
outlets, and create a single website and
developed a system with two different
a central call centre. Over time, it has also
kinds of ministers - 'vote' ministers who
been able to negotiate arrangements
negotiated outputs and secured budget
with other departments to serve as their
allocations, and 'responsible' ministers
'front desk'.
who represented government agencies
from a supply perspective. The distinction
Centrelink is widely regarded as having
was sometimes made between the
delivered its objectives, although it has
government's 'ownership' interest and its
not been without its challenges. Aligning
'purchase' interest (the latter being
file structures across departments and
concerned with the delivery of outputs).
creating a centralised database raised
privacy concerns. In some cases, gov-
ernment wished to give new policy
initiatives a distinctive brand, and in-
sisted that Centrelink should not function



as the one-stop shop. And the separation Case Management
of policy and delivery into separate
agencies proved to be difficult to maintain. Case management - coordinating the
delivery of multiple services to target
populations - is another long-estab-
Cross-cutting Reviews lished method of joining up services,
particularly welfare-related services.
In some policy areas, such as crime Typically it is expensive, and so tends to
reduction and children at risk, where a be reserved for high priority services, or
number of different departments and where the costs of a lack of coordination
agencies have a stake, the answers lie in are high.
cross-departmental reviews. Joint
programmes can be established to target This same approach of relying on a
such issues on a collaborative basis, with 'service champion' can be adopted in
integrated teams and 'joint budgets' giving stakeholders a voice in
financed out of a common fund. The UK government. The UK government has
has adopted this approach in recent years recently announced that it will appoint
in dealing with priority issues such as drug 'Customer Group Directors' to represent
abuse and mental health. sectors of the community within
government, such as small businesses
Place Management and the aged.

Place management solutions are based Shared Services
on devolving authority and spending
responsibility to neighbourhoods and Another form of joined up government
communities. They focus on ends rather where there is currently a great deal of
than means, addressing the outcomes interest is in 'shared services', particu-
desired for a particular locality. In the more larly in corporate support. In the UK, the
radical proposals, budgets may be united NHS has formed NHS Shared Business
under a local 'place manager'. Services (www.sbs.nhs.uk), a joint
venture with a private company, to
In the United States, place management provide finance, accounting and payroll
was often known as 'comprehensive services to public healthcare
community initiatives'. In Australia, 'single organisations. The scheme is voluntary,
area budgets' were developed as a way but participating organisations are
of integrating federal, state and local guaranteed a 20% initial cost reduction
government programmes that impacted and ongoing savings of 2% a year, with
on a single community. timely and high quality reports.



The concept can equally extend to However, web-based technologies
customer service centres and other have created renewed interest in one-
front-desk facilities. Australia's Centrelink stop shops. The Singapore government
is a shared service centre for customer- broke new ground in 1999 in creating a
facing transactions. single gateway to government informa-
tion and service, known as the eCitizen
In 2006, the American states of Iowa, Portal. It was quickly copied by other
Maine and Vermont formed a drug- governments around the world: Singov
purchasing pool to negotiate collectively (www.gov.sg) in Singapore, DirectGov
for discounts in drug costs under the (www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm) in
Medicare and Medicaid. School districts the UK, and USA.gov (www.usa.gov) in
in the United States are creating shared the US are the descendants of these
service arrangements to take advantage early initiatives.
of scale economies whilst remaining
grounded in the local community. Over the past decade, many American
cities have developed 311 call systems -
Police forces in Norfolk, Suffolk and a single phone number to provide quick
Cambridgeshire (in England) have been access to non-emergency services -
collaborating with a view to increasing with callers directed to the appropriate
effectiveness and reducing costs. A Joint part of government within seconds.
Governance Board was created, with the Across America they have been tagged
chair rotating between Chief Constables. with the slogan, 'One call to city hall'.
The original services targeted for study
were call-handling, firearms-licensing, No Wrong Door
major investigations and scientific
services. This was later extended to Instead of joining up the front office or
include custody, property, fleet and the back office, government can join up
procurement. the intermediate systems so that
different departments function as a front
One-stop shops door to each other's services. This
approach recognises that the public
One-stop shops were long discredited may call upon government's services in
as a solution, since without major a variety of different ways, and seeks to
restructuring, they place another layer ensure that regardless of the way in
between the public and the officials who which the approach was first made,
will eventually resolve their concerns. services are provided in a coherent and
These arrangements can to be known coordinated manner.
as 'first-stop shops' and, in France,
'foyers'. The idea appears to have been pio-
neered in the social welfare sector in



Arizona in 1998, when it was recognised Australia continues to enforce a strict
that the need for welfare assistance system of visas, but since 1996, visitors
might manifest itself as an education from many countries have been able to
problem, a health problem, a housing obtain electronic travel authorities (ETAs)
problem or a law and order problem, through a network of around 300,000
and that the need for coordinated travel agents worldwide. The govern-
services remained the same no matter ment has maintained its visa system,
what the point of entry. The concept was but it is invisible to the individual tourist.
quickly adopted in other states, although
it has proved difficult to implement. In the United States, a voluntary
organisation, Earth911, has brought
In the United States, 'No Wrong Door' together information on the state of the
has been applied most often in social environment from more than 10,000
welfare services, but the London Devel- communities across America, particu-
opment Agency has recently adopted a larly through its Beach Water Quality
similar approach in serving small service (www.earth911.org/
business. Success depends heavily on waterquality/index.asp?cluster=0).
the development of common supporting Earth911 has been able to convince
informational, technological and policy federal, state, local and voluntary
architecture. organisations to share information,
where government organisations like
Alternative channels the Environmental Protection Agency
had believed it was impossible.
In many situations, citizens engage with
public and private sector organisations in
the same transaction. In renewing a
motor vehicle registration, a driver will
also need to renew his insurance. In
submitting a return and paying her
taxes, a taxpayer will need to interact
with banks and accountants as well as
government.

Some citizens have asked why related
public and private services cannot be
joined up in a single, integrated service,
and some private providers have chal-
lenged the assumption that government
needs to remain the sole channel for
delivering such services.


Further Reading

Public engagement OECD Journal of Budgeting, (2005) 5:1,
pp.127-151.
'Power to the People', Joseph Rowntree
Reform Trust Ltd, March 2006 (http:// Market instruments
www.jrrt.org.uk/PowertothePeople_001.
pdf) Stephen Goldsmith and William D.
Eggers, Governing by Network: The New
Gerry Stoker, Why Politics Matter, London: Shape of the Public Sector, Washington,
Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. DC: The Brookings Institution, 2004.

Customer-centric government 'The UK Government's Approach to Public
Service Reform', London: The Prime
Charles Leadbeater, 'Personalisation Minister's Strategy Unit, 2006, Chapter 6,
through participation', London: Demos,
2004. Joined up government

OECD, 'Responsive Government: Service 'Modernising Government', Cm 4310,
Quality Initiatives', OECD Publishing, London: The Stationery Office Limited,
February 2006. 1999; Performance and Innovation Unit,
'Wiring It Up: Whitehall's Management of
On choice, see The Centre for Market and Cross-Cutting Policies and Services',
Public Organisation at http://www.bris.ac. London: Cabinet Office, 2000
uk/Depts/CMPO/research/choice/
choiceindex.htm Christopher Pollitt, 'Joined-Up
Government: A Survey', Political Studies
From policy to delivery Review, 2003, Vol.1, pp.34-49.

'The UK Government's Approach to Public
Service Reform', London: The Prime
Minister's Strategy Unit, 2006, Chapter 5.

Managing for results

Dall Forsythe (ed.), Quicker, Better,
Cheaper? Managing Performance in
American Government, Albany, New York:
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Psr An International Overview

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