Their work also provides the evidence ministers need to win over a sceptical public – and to persuade cynical public sector managers who fear that cooperation is a way for other agencies to steal their time and funding (which is why they prefer to work in silos).
“Public service offers a transactional relationship, such that when a customer shows up, the public service asks ‘How much public service should we offer?’” he says.
Toby Lowe, one of the Manchester Met professors who advises public sector organisations across the world, says we have arrived at a consensus that public management is not fit for purpose.
They would like to see improvements in all aspects of the public sector, not least because they use public services like anyone else.
But what if the government’s investment portfolio included funding for a holistic approach to helping the near-400,000 people in Britain struggling to cope with life – those with three or more identifiable and acute problems who live from one benefit cheque to the next?.
