Managing public services in times of austerity

Location
Health Services Management Centre
Dates
Wednesday 8 November 2017 (16:00-18:00)
Contact

For more information on this event, please contact James Liddiard.

The University of Birmingham are delighted to present this event, part of the Economic and Social Research Council Festival of Social Science 2017.

As the growth in budgets of public service organisations will be limited for the foreseeable future, the apparent need to search for alternative sources of funding has increased. Cost improvement programmes and rationing are likely to become more extensive but other non-traditional sources of income are also becoming more significant. These developments illustrate a longer-term trend towards commercialisation and entrepreneurialism, especially if privatisation is neither politically nor technically feasible. However, commercialisation blurs the boundary between public and private organisations and creates new forms of governance. This has consequences for the nature of the public service organisations, the type of managerialism being enacted, and the relationship with users and citizens.

In this event, senior practitioners from the NHS, police, education and local authorities will give their assessment of the ways in which non-traditional strategies to manage public service finances are being deployed. The risks and lessons of current strategies will be compared and contrasted. Analysis and commentary will be offered from a social science perspective to explain such developments.

ESRC Festival 2017Participation from the audience will be encouraged throughout including questions posted in advance, discussion and debate during the event, and postings of additional material on website afterwards.

The event will be relevant for those working in public service organisation, researchers across the social sciences as well as members of the public. All are welcome.