Reforms in Europe’s public sector have been going on since the 1980ies responding to budget cuts, a push to more efficient service delivery and calls for better overall performance.
Many of those reforms are based on the concepts known as “new public management” (NPM). Key elements are:
- Bringing in private sector experiences and approaches
- Staff cuts
- Privatisation of services
- Establishment of autonomous services
Have those measures improved cost efficiency though? Are services more transparent and has quality improved? Do citizens trust in their governments and civil service?
There is clearly an imperative to innovate in the public sector, says Nesta researcher in her report.
‘Public sector innovation matters for a number of key reasons (Potts and Kastelle 2010):
- Size of public sector – the public sector makes for a large percentage of GDP in manycountries. Public sector innovation can affect overall productivity growth by reducing thecost of inputs, increasing the value of outputs and through better organisation.
- Need for evolving policy to match evolving economies.
- The public sector sets the rules of the game for private sector innovation
