Public services agenda: agreeing to agree.

The themes of personalism and localism have run through all of ippr's public services debates at party conferences, and today's event is no different. All parties have emphasised the importance of personalisation and empowering local communities, but as Labour MP Tony McNulty pointed out last week, there are still massive challenges ahead for public service delivery.

When differentiating the Conservatives' public service policy from the other parties, former Health Secretary Stephen Dorrell MP acknowledged that there is currently a consensus in policy but questioned the depth of Labour's commitment to the policies of pluralism and localism.

Dorrell also spoke of the 'hard edge' of localism, being that we will have to be comfortable with the fact that localism means 'local variety'. In other words, the edge will be a lot harder for some than for others.

Both Susan Anderson of CBI and Sarah McKee of A4e stressed that public expectations are ultra high for service delivery, and that public opinion is low. The pace of reform can not keep up with rising expectations.

Stephen Dorrell points out the size of ippr's hotel rooms.

Next door the ippr panel debated how to achieve a global deal on climate change:

Nick Hurd MP, also in on the joke. Eliot Whittington, clearly concerned.

Localism: Liberator or fraud?

A fair question perhaps, but not one expected from Tony McNulty MP, whose Ministerial portfolio has previously included housing, planning and transport (he is currently Home Office Minister of State for Security, Counter-terrorism, Crime and Policing).

McNulty: Devolution my ass, Major.*

McNulty wasn't shy in stirring the pot at ippr's first event in Manchester, strongly challenging the effectiveness of public service devolution in practice and citing example upon example of the shortcomings of localism in public services over the past decade.

Firm in the belief that public service localism doesn't actually matter the majority of people in increasingly autonomous communities, he also added that devolution of public services often benefits public service professionals far more than the public service users.

Anna Coote, Commissioner for Health, Sustainable Development Commission, suggested that with the economy dipping into possible depression, the Government needs to find other resources within local communities to boost public service outcomes. She said the Government must re-engineer public services and draw more heavily from the 'core services' in local communities: skills, knowledge and time from the individuals in the community.

She said the state must invest in mechanisms to allow new partnerships and co-productions with community groups to improve public services.

Susan Anderson of CBI spoke of the need for improved access to public services and a stronger emphasis on customer satisfaction. She also addressed the need to build new and better relationships between private service suppliers and government.


*Gratuitous reference to The Wire because I can't be at The Wire Weekend at the Curzon Cinema in Soho. One McNulty in exchange for another.

More pictures

Here's some happy snaps from our 'care crunch' and 'innovation' events.

Wearing a black tie with a white shirt is only going to get you confused with the catering staff.

Hi everyone. No I don't know where the Dorchester Suite is.

The last night of ippr's Liberal Democrat events saw us joined by Lembit Opik, Spokesperson for Housing and Segway enthusiast.

Lembit highlighted that we are in a time when more people are living alone, we have more households, and we have a growing population, all of which are contributing to the housing problems in the UK.

He spoke of developing partnerships within local communities between government, developers, and the community in order to give the communities the housings they need. However, according to panelist David Tuffin, local engagement often fails due to the lack of professionalism in planning departments, with poor wages and overworked employees delivering poor results in housing.

Tuffin brought a technical point of view to the panel, and said there is no point building cheap houses for high profits, as people will end up paying more in the long run while developers continue to make profits.

The debate went back to Lembit, who proposed that central government give money to local authorities for social housing in order to stimulate the affordable housing market and create positive equity for local authorities.

Addressing the social element of the housing issue was Heather Petch from the Housing Associations Charitable Trust. She highlighted the urgency in the need for a boost in housing supply, and added that we cannot possibly address other pressing social problems without adequate housing.

She also added that there is a problem with the isolation of housing from other services. This 'silo approach', particularly the separation of housing from education and health, is limiting outcomes in this area.

We weren't at all expecting a karate demo.

So the sun sets on a successful sojourn to Bournemouth, many thanks to all speakers, sponsors and delegates for making it all possible. See you in Manchester...

If the Lib Dems are all about fairness, why is everyone pushing in front of me at the bar? (also: debate on children's issues and education)

Another standing-room-only event tonight, this time with debate centred around children and education.

The UK's first Children's Commissioner Al Aynsley-Green opened the event, combating David Cameron's 'broken society' rhetoric. He says the 'traditional family is ancient history' and that quality of parenting is far more important than family structure in outcomes for children. He added that some communities are locked into the cycle of low aspirations, low skills, low wages.

A major theme running throughout tonight's debate is the lack of aspiration in young people from deprived backgrounds. This often is fueled by a knock-on effect that families themselves have no aspirations for their children.

David Collins from the Association of Schools said the national curriculum is a complete disaster, as it does not take account to the fact that children learn best when the subjects are relevant to them. He said that students are not seeing relevance in what they are studying, and that curriculum should relate to the world around them.

David Laws MP also says we don't have a "broken society", just a broken part of society (the bottom 25%, who are 'fragmented and dysfunctional'). He also discussed the importance raising aspiration among young people.

ippr: 20 years of panel lols

Then it was over to the Marriott bar to wrestle our way towards getting served a few pints. Always a joy at conference, especially considering everyone in front of you orders about 30 pints at once, so by the time you actually get back to your colleagues you find everyone flying around with jet packs, and that humans have in fact evolved into two distinct species.

fried breakfast #1, and debate on public services policy

Equally quintessential to cheap conference wine and canapes is the process of rolling out of bed 5 minutes before they stop serving breakfast at the hotel. So after the first of what I'm sure will be many, many fried breakfasts on the conference trail, it was over to the Marroitt for the first panel of the day... on Public Services.

Excuse me, what time do they stop serving breakfast?

Our panel today agreed that future of public services will be based around decentralisation of funding and decision making.

Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb commended ippr's work on public services, very nice of him, and went on to discuss the benefits of devolving power to local communities and service users.

Julian Astle from the Centre Forum thinktank agreed that the Liberal Democrats are in the right place with this policy, but notes that they are lagging on the issue of further devolution from the local communities to the individual.

Astle said that policy based on diversity, provision, and choice is putting the Liberal Democrats in the the right place, but the Conservatives are also using this sort of language. According to Astle, it's essential for the Lib Dems to bring fairness to the forefront of this debate in order to differentiate their policy.

House white and impending doom

Conference season never really begins until that first drop of house white hits the senses, so it's on that note that we grab the nearest glass and unwind to the theme of impending doom that usually surrounds climate change debate. And remember folks, regardless of what year we're in, impending doom is just around the corner.

Three months out from the next round of international climate change negotiations in Poland, and looking forward to late next year when a new international deal on climate change will be signed in Copenhagen, our expert panel discussed his issues at hand and mused on what the UK should be bringing to the table.

Climate change talks are always heavy on the statistics, but Christian Aid's Eliot Whittington manages to cut through the numeracy as he opens the event. Christian Aid is observing real life climate problems on a local level in many developing nations: things like salinity of water and disappearing coastlines.

Eliot also describes the lack of drive for low carbon economies among the countries that have the biggest footprints. So not only should the UK, Europe and the US be reducing their own carbon emissions, but they should also be supporting reductions in the carbon emitting giants, India and China.

Then it's over to WWF's Kit Vaughan, whose apocalyptic predictions include the being able to sail over the arctic by 2020. If this is the 'science' of the issue, no wonder the UK is in 'individual and national denial' of the problem.

Blending science with analogy is no new trick in environmental discourse (Brazilian rainforest and football fields anyone?), but the reality is that the political and social rhetoric simply is not matching the scientific evidence. ippr's warm words report tackles the issue of climate change rhetoric, and is a must read for those seeking to change public behaviour on climate change.

Kit Vaughan rightly states that society is waiting for bold leadership on climate change from the Government, and that time is running out (impending doom still very much around the corner).

Liberal Democrat environment shadow Steve Webb spoke of running the green thread through all areas of policy, and bringing transport, environment, energy policy together government. On the issue of engagement, he points out that 'enlightened self-interest' (ie scare tactics) don't work, so the government must work towards changing the norms in society to reflect the behaviour change needed to combat climate change. Again, it's the call out for 'bold leadership'.

Thanks to all our speakers for our first day of conferences. Now it's time for the dying minutes of Match of the Day, and in honour of tonight's debate I'll be watching it with the lights out.

So... which one of you guys HASN'T calculated their carbon footprint?

meet your host

Lembit Opik on a segway

One event down, 36 to go. Day 1 of our conference programme was kicked off with a standing-room-only event on the future of progressive politics, led by journalist Martin Kettle, with contributions from Danny Alexander MP, Lord Tom McNally, Jasper Garard, and Bobby Duffy from Mori.

ippr: standing room only since 1988

Bobby Duffy said that Nick Clegg has the right message, but the real challenge is communicating that message to the public.

The topic of decentralisation of government and elected mayors was briefly touched on; ippr has recently advocated elected mayors in the UK as a means of empowering local communities. You can read about our work in this area on the ippr website.

Then we saw Lembit Opik on a segway.

Not pictured: Segway.

Lastly, the ippr team are owed a round of drinks from our esteemed colleague Luke Hildyard, who 'overslept' and missed the 8am train from Waterloo.

Less than two weeks to go

2008 Conference season is almost upon us, and ippr's fringe events schedule continues to grow.

The programmes have been updated with the latest speakers, incuding:

Bob Neill MP, Shadow Local Government Minister for Regeneration
Tony McNulty MP, Home Office Minister of State for Security, Counter-terrorism, Crime and Policing
Catherine Rawsthorne, UK Youth Parliament
Al Aynsley-Green, England’s first Children’s Commissioner, and his deputy Rob Williams
Eliot Whittington, Climate Change Policy Advisor, Christian Aid

New events include "In conversation with... Oliver Letwin, Chairman of the Conservative Policy Review/Research Department", where he will be interviewed by Journalist David Aaronovitch.

Many prominent authors and commentators are joining the ippr programme this year, including Jonathan Guthrie, Polly Toynbee, Martin Kettle, Jasper Gerard, and Jenni Russell.

Watch this space for daily updates during conference season 2008!