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21st Century Public Services – Putting People First

A major international conference looking at the future of public service reform is to be held in London on Tuesday 6th June 2006. Organised by the National School of Government, the event is expected to include addresses from the Prime Minister, the Chancellor, senior Cabinet Ministers and the Cabinet Secretary – as well as other leading thinkers and practitioners in public service reform from across the world.

The conference – ‘21st Century Public Services – Putting People First’ – will set out the broad challenges the reform agenda aims to address, how it can advance wider government objectives – such as promoting social justice, increasing equity, supporting diversity and choice along with meeting rising expectations of members of the public. This event also seeks to place the Government's approach to public service reform in a broader international context and identify the specific elements which have supported the evolution of a “British” model of reform.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Hilary Armstrong, said: ‘This conference will demonstrate how far advanced the UK is on the international stage in its delivery of better public services. It will showcase how the Government's model for reform can provide better public services for everyone whilst promoting equity for all, and helping deliver social justice.’

The conference will be focusing on the following themes:

• The social, economic and political challenges that public services reformers face
• The evolution of public service reform over the past decade and the UK government reform model
• The benefits, risks and barriers associated with key reform components: targets and inspection, commissioning and contestability, and giving citizens more choice and a greater say in their public services

The next steps for the reform agenda – using these reform components together to create a dynamic self-improving system, and extending reform to broader service areas

Delegates invited include UK and international public service reform experts/practitioners, business leaders, academics, local government, the voluntary sector and senior civil servants.

Speakers at the conference are expected to include:

• Tony Blair – Prime Minister
• Gordon Brown – the Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Patricia Hewitt – Secretary of State for Health
• John Hutton – Secretary of State for DWP
• David Miliband – Secretary of State for Defra
• Sir Gus O'Donnell – Cabinet Secretary
• Geoff Mulgan – Director of the Institute of Community Studies and the Young Foundation
• Elaine Kamarck – Fellow of Sunningdale Institute and lecturer in Public Policy at the John F Kennedy School of Government
• Michael Barber – McKinsey – Global Public Sector Practice, former Chief Advisor on Delivery to PM
• John Oldham – Head of the Improvement Foundation
• Robert Fonberg – Senior Associate Secretary to the Treasury Board of Canada

Notes to editors

• For further information contact the Cabinet Office press office.
• Attendance will be by invitation.
• More details about the conference can be found on http://www.nationalschool.gov.uk/psrc2006/. [External website]
• The Sunningdale Institute is the National School of Government's virtual academy of world-leading academics and industry figures, offering fresh high-level thinking and advice on issues facing modern public service.

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