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‘We must be bold on reform, opening up public services to a greater diversity of supply, consumer choice and flexibility of working, ending the ‘one size fits all’ idea of the past’
(Prime Minister, New Year message 2003)
‘Reform is not the enemy of social justice and educational advance, but the route to it’
(Prime Minister, November 2002)
For many years, people designing and delivering public services have been motivated by the desire to serve. The task now is to channel that in new directions to meet the needs of diverse groups and individuals.
Ending ‘one size fits all’
is an enormous challenge which involves fundamental changes in the way public services are delivered. Historically, we have designed them based largely on the providers’ understanding of best practice. We need to change that and base our understanding of the work we do much more on what our customers want and expect.
Unless we know what our customers’ want, we have no alternative than to make assumptions and design services based on a combination of expert knowledge and experience. This is not sufficient. We need principles to guide the way we collect data.