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New professionalism

Achieving world class services relies on innovation, consistency, continuous self-improvement and responsiveness being driven from within the public services themselves. This requires skilled and informed staff able to respond directly to the needs of the public and compare their performance with their peers. Sometimes in the past, reform programmes have discouraged professionals from developing or sharing new ideas or innovations. Enabling the workforce to play a greater role is a key element of the next phase of our reform programme.

Some recent examples of this approach include:

• The NHS Next Stage Review [External website] published June 2008 by the Department of Health puts professionals at the heart of the policy-making process, drawing on the contribution of over 2,000 clinicians and other professionals.
• From the neighbourhood to the national: policing our communities together [External website] the policing Green Paper published July 2008 by the Home Office [External website] contains proposals for better learning from front line police officers in developing policy, ensuring that the workforce better understand the needs of communities and investing in the development of the workforce.
• Building Brighter Futures: next steps for the Children's Workforce [External PDF], published in April 2008, sets out how the Government plans to enhance the skills and capacity of all those who work with children.

Other examples can be found on the Excellence and Fairness links page.

• New professionalism section of policy toolkit

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