Demos launches Future Public Services Taskforce; PA Consulting joins the Advisory Board
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PA Consulting, the company that’s bringing ingenuity to life, announces that it has joined the Future Public Services Taskforce, newly launched by Demos, a leading UK cross-party think tank. The Future Public Services Taskforce is a major cross-party initiative to produce a new public service reform strategy for central government, with its launch paper “Recovery Through Reform” released this week. Amanda Kelly, a PA public sector expert, will sit on the Advisory Board.
As described in the Taskforce’s launch paper, there are multiple challenges facing public services, and additional funding alone will not deliver recovery: we must also see reform. These reforms will require a coherent vision from the centre of government to galvanise the system, allocate resources, and push through resistance to change.
Responding to this, the Taskforce will produce a new cross-cutting public service reform strategy for central government, and will deliver its final recommendations in summer 2024. It will include a clear plan for a new government to reform public services, focusing on the first 100 days, first 1-2 years and 3-5 years of any new government.
The Taskforce is advised by a number of former Westminster and Whitehall heavyweights including:
- Patricia Hewitt, Chair of NHS Norfolk and Waveney and Deputy Chair of the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Partnership and former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care;
- Simone Finn, former Deputy Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister;
- Jonathan Slater, former Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education;
- Lord Victor Adebowale, Chair of the NHS Confederation; and
- Chris Naylor, former Chief Executive of Barking and Dagenham Council.
Public services are at a tipping point. A combination of unprecedented challenges and the rapid acceleration of innovative solutions such as AI presents an exciting opportunity to think big and think differently when it comes to imagining public services fit for the 21st century. That is why PA is delighted to be a member of the Future of Public Services Taskforce, which aims to deliver a new cross-cutting public service reform strategy for central government.”
The need to refine and reorient our public services is clear. This requires having a coherent vision of how to reshape the system, breaking down silos between agencies and institutions, leveraging new digital technology solutions, and effectively engaging communities, among other measures. PA looks forward to supporting Demos’ Future of Public Services Taskforce in its plans to produce an innovative new reform strategy to respond to the current challenges.”
Public service reform is back on the lips of politicians across the political spectrum. Yet serious plans for reform are lacking, despite the revolution that has happened in councils and charities working locally in the last decade. We are delighted to have brought together an advisory group of key players from across the political spectrum when it comes to public service reform.”
PA Consulting is joined by three other organisations – Big Society Capital, Bridges Outcomes Partnerships, and CIPFA – in funding and sitting on the Advisory Board for the Future Public Services Taskforce, which is led and delivered by Demos. The views expressed throughout the work of the Taskforce are Demos’ only and are not necessarily reflective of the views of the Advisory Board members or the organisations who fund the Taskforce.
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