Opinion: A new integrated and place-based approach to delivering public services

We are at a critical point in time for our public services. The outgoing Conservative government left public services in a precarious state. Most services are performing worse than before the pandemic. The new Government’s Budget outlined a generous 4.4% upfront increase in spending for public services for 2024/25, of which more than 40% will go to our health services.

But how do we know this money is going to make a difference? How do we know we will invest it in a way that’s going to really bring a difference in people’s lives? How do we know it’s going to have a positive effect on our economy’s productivity?

There’s a lot of talk about preventive healthcare, and I agree with that. But that’s not enough. We need a new approach to delivering public services that it’s going to be value for money. Instead of worrying about how much we’re going to spend, we need to ask ourselves is this going to be value for money?

And to do this, we need to look at the tipping points where different public services intersect which will allow us to cascade benefits in other areas. We need interventions that will create benefits in other public services with the same amount of money.  

At the Institute for Global Prosperity we’ve been doing some experiments on this in Camden. We've been working with local communities, asking them what they think are these crucial tipping points in their lives. We found that a simple intervention such as providing free transport brings a whole lot of other benefits to people like being able to go the hospital or work. In Tower Hamlets, providing free broadband and a tablet meant pupils could take online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic and a series of other benefits for parents like being able to access the internet freely, and bringing families and schools closer together. 

This shows there are intersecting problems to which we need to offer cost-effective solutions that can have knock-on benefits in other areas.

From access to digital services, housing, and affordable childcare, to education and health outcomes, these cannot be effectively addressed in isolation nor without taking into consideration localised needs. The pandemic revealed and exacerbated inequalities, demonstrating how insecurity is the result of intricately and inextricably linked domains of insecurity.

In 2025, we will be conducting a wider programme of ‘Universal Basic Services’ (UBS) experiments across the UK. We hope this will bring strong evidence on how investing efficiently and providing a basket of underlying infrastructure of public services can enhance people’s capacities, capabilities and bring opportunities for greater economic and social participation.

Finally, we need to think about the consequences for our planet. The reasons for that are very clear. Our cities are flooding more often. They're burning more often. Climate change is creating huge health problems. We must focus on how we're going to deliver public services in a way that is planet responsive.

Is all this going to make a difference? We don’t have the answers to this yet, but let’s start using public services to shape markets, to drive the economy for the results we actually want to see.

Let’s start using a new approach focused on how we can deliver better in the places where it’s really needed, rather than worrying about whether putting money in now is going to give us an outcome, when we don't even know how the money relates to the outcome in the first place.

Professor Dame Henrietta L. Moore