Pages: 40

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 14

As its name suggests, this chapter aims to set out, for the reader, what the book is about and how it is structured. Initially, it provides an introduction to the nature of, and approach to, public policy formulation and a description of the nature of public services in the UK. The chapter then goes on to summarise some of the numerous and major challenges facing public services in the years ahead which are further described, at some length, in Chapter 2. It then attempts to set out the overall rationale of the book this being that the existing governmental and policy-making approaches are failing and will, probably, lead to catastrophe if continued unchecked. Instead, new approaches are needed which do not involve “more of the same”, namely an enhanced approach to existing over-centralised London-centric policy making. Rather, it advocates a move to elected regional government with responsibility for most public policy and public services. At the end of the chapter, the structure and aims of the remainder of the book are outlined.

Pages: 24

This chapter outlines, at some length, the nature of the significant and varied challenges facing public policy and public services for decades to come. Some of these challenges are already well known about, others less so. In summary these challenges can be considered as follows: Traditional challenges (e.g. austerity, ageing population) More recent challenges (e.g. Covid legacy, climate change) Massive social and economic inequalities between regions in the UK Economic and public finance challenges Ongoing public policy failures Political alienation and voter apathy The chapter concludes that it is no exaggeration to say that these challenges are daunting and even frightening. In particular, there are huge uncertainties regarding the legacy of this pandemic (and possibly future pandemics), plus the challenges and implications of dealing with climate change. The chapter suggests that the country cannot address, successfully, challenges of this magnitude by “more of the same” in terms of existing government structures and public policy. In the next chapter, we start to consider what really needs to happen.

Pages: 58

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 12

This chapter starts by discussing the state of the union of the United Kingdom and concludes that, for various reasons, it is becoming more and more disunited and with a strong possibility of fragmentation in years to come. The United Kingdom is often said to be the most centralised state in the developed world. It is argued that part of the reason for the current state of the Union is the overbearing and over-centralised approach to government from London. While Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland (which constitute just 12% of the UK population) have devolved governments, there is no form of devolved government in England. At one time there were economic development agencies and Government Offices within each English region but even these were abolished in 2010. The chapter goes on to argue that this is unusual and in other developed countries (especially Europe) regional governments are common and seem to work well. The chapter then goes on to discuss, in broad terms, how elected regional government in England could be developed along the lines of Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland and with a federal UK government responsible for national issues such as defence, foreign relations, and monetary policy.

Pages: 20

Chapter 3 discussed the concept of elected regional government in a federalised UK government structure and contrasted the over-centralised UK to comparable countries elsewhere. This chapter looks at the main issues that would need to be addressed in order to implement elected regional government in the UK. The first issue concerns constitutional and structural changes. The UK has no written constitution and it is essential that such a constitution be developed to incorporate regional government. This is necessary to protect regional governments from interference by a predatory federal government. Linked to this would be a number of what we have termed structural changes involving the three branches of government – executive, legislature, and judiciary. As book is, primarily, concerned with the reform of economic and public policy, this chapter goes on to discuss and emphasise the importance of regional governments being created with strong economic development powers independent of national government. It then discusses the importance of ensuring that public policy making in regions needs to be far more systematic than the “muddle through” approach which currently seems to exist.

Pages: 24

Although individual public services will be financed in different ways, overall, public expenditure by governments has to be financed from some combination of tax revenues, user charges, and borrowing, but the mix between these will vary between countries and over time. Over the last decade or so, UK governments have financed a significant proportion of public spending through borrowing and this has added to national debt which now exceeds £2 trillion. In many countries, Covid has led to a huge spike in public expenditure and this too is being, largely, financed through yet more borrowing. Looking ahead, we also see a huge increase in public expenditure in order to cope with the implications of climate change. We fear many governments (including the UK) will finance this huge growth in public expenditure by further borrowing, thus adding to existing huge public debt. We, along with many monetary economists, fear that this approach could lead to a global debt crisis with catastrophic effects. Also, this level of debt will be left to future generations, thus increasing the level of inequity between generations. Instead we believe governments should look to their taxation systems to fund these high levels of public expenditure.

Pages: 128

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 19

The chapter starts by recapping on the huge economic imbalances across the UK that have existed for many decades and which have largely been ignored by governments of all parties in favour of maintaining a buoyant economy in London and the South East. In the light of such failures, the chapter argues that it is essential that economic development should become the remit of elected regional governments (but with much stronger powers than the former RDAs) which can focus on developing their own economies freed of outside interference. Hence, this chapter which concerns regional economic, development under an elected regional government model is, in many ways perhaps, the most important chapter in the book, since a robust and buoyant economy is essential for every region in order to generate prosperity for its residents and funds for its public services. Drawing on research undertaken by the author, the chapter then looks at international experiences of regional economic development in European countries (particularly the EU) where regional government involvement in their economies is substantial and effective. Subsequently, the chapter outlines how economic development in elected UK regional governments should function and the key policy areas to be addressed.

Pages: 23

The chapter starts by distinguishing between health and healthcare, the former being concerned with the health status of a population and the latter being the delivery of care to improve health. It is noted that health status has multiple determinants and can be enhanced by other approaches such as better housing and improved environment as well as healthcare delivery. Unlike social care which is very much a local service, healthcare has local, regional, national and international perspectives which need to be considered. Like other public services, evidence is put forward that many of the main problems with healthcare derive largely from over-centralised policy and resource decision-making from the national UK government based in London. This has been clearly seen during the pandemic. The chapter goes on to describe how health services could be planned and managed by elected regional governments (as is already the case in Wales and Scotland) resulting in improvements and greater relevance in health policy at the regional level.

Pages: 23

The problems of delivering social care consequent on ever-increasing demand from an ageing population coupled with limited financial resources and staff shortages seem almost intractable with problems being reported in the media almost daily. Added to this are the difficulties of better integrating health and social care. Social care is in crisis mode and all governments, over decades, have avoided the difficult issues of reform. Social care is essentially a local service with, by and large, local services being delivered by local staff, to local care recipients in local premises. In the light of this, this chapter argues that social care is best planned and managed at the regional level by elected regional governments working closely with local authorities. This will result in social care policies more attuned to the needs of the regional and localities.

Pages: 22

This chapter is only concerned with school and post-16 further education. The issue of higher education is covered briefly in Chapter 11. The chapter starts with a consideration of the purposes of education and, in particular, the role it might play in economic development. There are many challenges facing schools and colleges and many concerns about the effectiveness of existing arrangements and policies. The chapter addresses the key question of ‘what is wrong with education in the UK’ and comes to a conclusion that the whole system is vastly over-centralised, bureaucratic and lacks a proper ‘school’ focus. In doing this, it looks at case studies of successful and unsuccessful education policies. In line with the thrust of the book, the chapter goes on to consider educational policy making and provision under an elected regional government arrangement. It goes on to discuss, at some length, the key education issues that elected regional governments would need to address early on in their existence.

Pages: 26

In the UK, as the fifth largest economy in the world, we see a large part of the population cannot get adequate housing. Around 18% of the UK population identify housing as one of, if not the, most important issue facing Britain today. Furthermore, it is well known that inadequate housing leads to negative outcomes in relation to health, well-being, education, etc. Despite this, UK housing policy seems shambolic with large numbers of homelessness, failure to meet house building targets, lack of affordable housing, etc. Governments, of all parties, have changed housing policies in many ways over many decades but failed to realise the simple fact that there is no single UK housing crisis, rather a series of different housing crises and how crises are experienced, and by whom, varies hugely. Once again, the problem here is one of over-centralisation by UK government Allowing elected regional governments to develop their own housing policies (as is the case in Wales and Scotland) should lead to a situation where policies are more relevant to local (regional) circumstances. The rest of the chapter considers to issue of regional housing policy under elected regional governments.

Pages: 13

The previous five chapters have discussed individual public services in the context of elected regional government. Space, in this book, does not permit a full discussion of the potential for regionalisation of every relevant public service but nevertheless it is important to provide some degree of comprehensiveness on this issue. Hence, this chapter provides a short discussion of the issues surrounding the following four public services: Policing Fire and rescue services Higher education Social benefits For each of the above services, the chapter provides a short discussion about some of the issues and challenges facing the service and the appropriateness of some of these services falling under the remit of elected regional government. It then considers how regional governments might approach the formulation of policy and the delivery of services for each of these services as well as the possible roles of federal UK government.

Pages: 55

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 12

Public service organisations require a variety of resources such as staffing, equipment and consumables to deliver public services. It must be emphasised that this is not just about financial planning but the totality of resources needed to deliver public services. The chapter argues that much of resource planning is better done at the regional level than at the national level. In the context of regional government, the chapter is focused on the types of resources needed to deliver public services, the future trends in the use of these resources and the need for effective regional planning to ensure that the resources needed, within a region, are available when required. The weaknesses of existing national approaches to resource planning are clearly seen given the large number of vacant posts in public services and the difficulty in obtaining certain other resources.

Pages: 20

One of the topics which seemingly have been discussed for time immemorial is that of collaboration in public services. Every new government seems to have new initiatives to improve collaboration which often fail. The chapter discusses the huge importance of collaboration in public services and the factors that influence its degree of success. Great emphasis is placed on the fact that collaboration is unlikely to be effective through structural changes prescribed by national governments. Instead, the focus should be on cultural issues particularly those of mutual understanding, mutual gain and mutual trust. Furthermore, the chapter argues that such changes are more likely to be effective when driven by regional governments which are “closer to the action” than national governments which often seem out of touch and too bureaucratic to be effective. The chapter also considers two examples of collaborative working being applied in the specific cases of health and social care, and in education.

Pages: 21

The chapter discusses the role and concepts of community development which is of increasing importance in the delivery of public services. The dire public finance situation described in Chapter 5 coupled with limited economic growth might mean that the post-war model of delivering public services through, mainly, public service professionals is no longer be sustainable. It is essential that third sector organisations with a strong community development focus step in to fill the gaps. A community development approach may also provide other benefits such as an ability to access “hard to reach” groups. The chapter also considers the related topics of well-being, social capital, equity and the role they can play in community. Also discussed are the roles of various organisations involved. The national government is just too remote to have any meaningful role and leadership should come from regional governments. However, the key relationship is that between local authorities and third sector organisations.