Third sector will have 'crucial' role in public services, says Gordon Brown

The third sector has a crucial role to play in shaping and delivering a "third generation" of public services tailored to and informed by their users, according to Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The statement came in a major policy speech on "smarter government" ahead of the pre-Budget report last month.

Brown said performance data on public services would be made available online to help users and organisations make informed suggestions about how delivery could be improved. He said increased transparency would also allow services to become more personalised and give front-line workers and voluntary organisations "the freedom to innovate and respond to new demands in new ways".

He said civic society would have a crucial role to play in the new arrangements because "social enterprises and mutual not-for-profit providers so often ensure that public services meet people's needs, especially those of hard-to-reach communities". He reiterated the Government's intention to pilot social investment bonds, which would fund the third sector to provide services that saved the state money in the long term, such as programmes to reduce re-offending. He described the bonds as "money paid out now to deal at root with the causes, not the symptoms".

He also pledged to finalise plans for a social investment wholesale bank by the next Budget, but was unable to confirm how it would be funded. He said the intention was to use funds from the dormant assets scheme "subject to resources".

The Government's policy statement to accompany the speech is entitled 'Putting the frontline first: smarter Government'.