Nick Herbert gave a clarion call for public sector reform yesterday in a speech to Reform (pdf here). The following points seemed to me to lay down important markers:
> “Real reform is intrinsically modern and post-bureaucratic.” This suggests that public sector reform is integral to David Cameron’s Conservative Party.
> Successful reform has four principles: “supply side liberalisation and choice”; “meaningful information provided independently of government”; “clear lines of accountability”; “transfer public spending from subsidising failure to incentivising success”. This is the real deal for public sector reform.
> As demonstrated in Reform’s April paper Shifting the unequal state, “reform is needed to drive social mobility”.
The Party has so far made brave commitments to reform on education, welfare, policing and prisons (the last two led by Nick Herbert himself).
One big question remains over health. Nick Herbert rightly criticised the Government’s lack of progress on health reform. Yet three weeks ago David Cameron gave an ultra-cautious speech, in which he claimed amongst other things that the Government had been “blinded by the private sector”. In fact Nick Herbert’s principles of reform apply just as much to the NHS, and tackling the £100 NHS budget is essential if the Party wants to deliver “taxpayer value” and greater fairness. Andrew Lansley’s NHS Independence Bill – with its commitment to “public value” – could be used to drive forward a reform programme.
