From Big Society to Social Productivity

From Big Society to Social Productivity Henry Kippin and Ben Lucas About the RSA The RSA has been a source of ideas, the challenge of engaging more effectively innovation and civic enterprise for over and creatively with citizens and communities. 250 years. In the light of new challenges Within this context, the 2020PSH seeks and opportunities for the human race our to apply a long-term, strategic perspective purpose is to encourage the development on these pressures, and develop socially of a principled, prosperous society by productive responses in collaboration with identifying and releasing human potential. its partners. This is reflected in the organisation’s recent commitment to the pursuit of what it calls About Citizen Power Peterborough 21st century enlightenment. Citizen Power Peterborough is a partnership between a pioneering, active think-tank Through lectures, events, pamphlets and (RSA), an ambitious local authority commissions, the RSA provides a flow of (Peterborough City Council) and an rich ideas and inspiration for what might be influential national arts body (Arts Council). realised in a more enlightened world; essential The programme represents a new approach to to progress but insufficient without action. place-shaping, exploring how the renewal of RSA Projects aim to bridge this gap between civic activism and community action might thinking and action. We put our ideas to improve attachment and networks between work for the common good. By researching, people, build local participation and cultivate designing and testing new ways of living, we public service innovation. hope to foster a more inventive, resourceful and fulfilled society. Through our Fellowship About the Authors of 27,000 people and through the partnerships Henry Kippin is a partner of the 2020 Public we forge, the RSA aims to be a source of Services Hub, and was Manager of the capacity, commitment and innovation in Commission on 2020 Public Services. communities from the global to the local. Fellows are actively encouraged to engage and Ben Lucas is principal partner of the 2020 to develop local and issue-based initiatives. Public Services Hub, and was director of the 2020 Public Services Trust. About The 2020 Public Services Hub The 2020PSH is a research and policy Acknowledgements development hub created from the legacy of The authors would like to thank colleagues the 2020 Public Services Trust – specialising at the 2020 Public Services Hub, the in developing practice-based research on social RSA Projects team, and Citizen Power: productivity in public services. Based at the Peterborough. Special thanks to Jeff Masters RSA, the Hub works collaboratively with local for helping to shape several of the ideas in public service organisations, national sector this paper. Thanks also to Dan Corry, Simon leaders and other national partners to develop Griffiths, Mike Kenny, Sam McLean, Thomas social value and social productivity thinking Neumark, Emma Norris, Greg Parston, into local and national practice. The pressures Matthew Taylor and Julian Thompson for on public services are many and varied – helpful comments on earlier versions of the spending cuts, future demands, and paper. All errors remain those of the authors.

2 From Big Society to Social Productivity

1 Quotes from Ipsos MORI Summer 2010 ‘Its about kind of a collective coming together and slide pack ‘Big Society: what do we know?’ online at http://www.ipsos- looking after each other rather than expecting the mori.com/_emails/sri/latestthinking/ aug2010/content/1_big-society-what- government to do it all.’ do-we-know.pdf 2 Headline from an essay by David Cameron in The Observer, 12.02.11 ‘...it’s a pipe dream. Society has been torn down 3 (2010) Crawford, R., ‘Where did the axe 1 fall?’ Presentation on 21 October 2010, and it will take a long time to get back.’ Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), http:// www.ifs.org.uk/publications/5311 4 ‘Stealing the Big Society’ in 2 The Guardian, 08.02.11 online ‘Have no doubt, the Big Society is on its way’ at http://www.guardian.co.uk/ commentisfree/2011/feb/08/stealing- big-society-ed-miliband The future for public services is being shaped In government, the story has moved on. The 5 Cowley, P. & Kavanagh, D. (2010) The by a twin narrative: an immediate deficit Coalition has marshalled policy proposals British General Election of 2010 London: Palgrave Macmillan reduction plan squeezing the fiscal resources from a range of areas under the Big Society 6 See for example ‘Through a Glass available; and the Big Society – the grand banner. Increasingly, it has been fused with Darkly’ in The Economist 04.02.11 online at http://www.economist.com/ narrative underpinning the Coalition’s long- a localism agenda. As a notional solution node/15452867 term vision for the future. to the problems of ‘Broken Britain’6 and a 7 See for example ‘We’re living in Broken Britain, say most voters’ in The counterpart to the Post-Bureaucratic State, 7 Times, 09.02.10 online at http://www. The problem of the deficit has been the concept has an intellectual hinterland. timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/ article7020009.ece clearly presented, and the narrowness of But despite recent attempts by the Prime 8 Most obviously by Prime Minister David spending parameters for public services well Minister to shore up its role within the Cameron in The Observer, 12.02.11 documented. The government’s plan is to government’s programme 8, the concept retains online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/ commentisfree/2011/feb/12/david- eliminate the structural deficit by 2015, an essential looseness, a weightlessness, which cameron-big-society-good implying an overall fiscal tightening of £110b could undermine its potential to become a 9 See for example ‘David Cameron’s spending cuts are undermining the by that year, with 73% of this reduction governing philosophy. Big Society, charity chief claims’ (£80b) coming from cuts in public spending 3. in The Telegraph, 07.02.11 online at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ The coalition government and opposition This seeming asymmetry between the politics/8307867/David-Camerons- are united in the need to bring the deficit twin narratives of deficit reduction and Big spending-cuts-are-undermining-Big- Society-charity-chief-claims.html under control, even though they remain Society creates real risks. For many that 10 ‘Liverpool pulls out of Big Society pilot sharply divided on the timing, and on the depend on public services, the consequences scheme’ in The Times, 04.02.11 online proper balance between tax rises, spending of these risks could be long lasting and at http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/ politics/article2899044.ece cuts, and how to generate growth. No-one profound. Much government focus has been can predict the long-term impact of spending on the upside possibilities of a Big Society cuts, but despite differences on the scale of approach, and there has been comparatively these, a conviction in the need for greater little acknowledgement or discussion of its fiscal austerity is shared across the political downside risks and transitional difficulties. spectrum. Recently however, this has changed. Threatened by the impact of local authority In contrast, the Big Society narrative spending cuts, voluntary sector leaders have remains hazy. It is, as Jesse Norman MP has begun to speak out.9 And the city that agreed argued, a ‘big idea’, ‘not reducible to a single to become a Big Society champion – Liverpool soundbite’.4 In the run up to the general – has recently pulled out, with Council Leader election, Conservative Party activists reported Joe Anderson saying the city ‘could no longer that the concept was hard to sell on the support the Big Society initiative’.10 doorsteps.5 This may have been because the Big Society policy prescriptions in the Party’s manifesto seemed peripheral – a Big Society Bank, a Big Society Day, and a call for greater participation with “every adult in the country a member of an active neighbourhood group” – rather than a programme for governing.

From Big Society to Social Productivity 3 11 See ‘The Big Society: a cloak for Articulate advocates for the idea have There is an increasingly lively debate about the the small state’ in The Independent, 13.02.11 online at http://www. emphasized its long-term, transformative difference between the Good Society and the independent.co.uk/opinion/ potential, with Red Tory author Philip Blond Big Society, but both are rooted in the view commentators/ed-miliband-the- big-society-a-cloak-for-the-small- and Jesse Norman MP both locating the that we need a stronger civil society in which state-2213011.html Big Society between the poles of free-market co-operative social institutions are powerful 12 Halpern, D. (2009) ‘The Hidden Wealth fundamentalism and top-down statism. enough to serve as a counterweight to both of Nations’ London, Polity Press And despite decrying the concept as a ‘cloak the state and the private sector. However, the for cuts’, Labour leader Ed Miliband has key, hitherto insufficiently explored question similarly called for a model that rebalances is about the role of the state. In practice, the relationship between citizens, civil society we know that the state will continue to be and the state, increasingly seeing government responsible for funding, and regulating many as an enabler: not pulling back, but doing public services, as well as ensuring their things differently and focusing on building provision (if not directly providing them). And community capacity.11 Many within Labour we also know that such is the inequality of have chosen to promote the Good Society social capital and capacity across the UK that as an alternative to the Big Society. But the state will have to do more than stand back there is much in common between these if civil society is to flourish on an equitable essentially loose concepts. At their core both basis. But there is no new framework or are about seeking to establish a stronger, more consensus that helps provide policy makers, associational civil society which is social in its the public and civil society organizations with character and they both therefore reject neo- a guide to action about the proper balance liberal economics and state paternalism. between state and community.

However, because the Big Society has so far So as we move into a period during which been predominantly presented as a vision, budget constraint and policy flux will create what it lacks is a strategy. Ends require means. real, on the ground change, is it possible to And it is not yet clear what these will be. In recognize insights into the limitations of particular, if the Big Society is to be a theory top-down service delivery and the ‘hidden of governance then we need to think through wealth’12 of citizens, whilst at the same time what its implications are for the economy and thinking more seriously about the role of the for the state. Some of the leading advocates of state? Can we carve a path between the need the Big Society have developed an argument for more sustainable public services over the for an economy more imbued with social long term, and the need for a route-map that purpose, which implies breaking up cartels is concerned with equality, and that builds the such as the banks, a tougher anti-trust style capacities of citizens? competition regime, greater localization of finance capital, and a move away from the emphasis on short term shareholder value. But there is very little sense that the Coalition Government has yet adopted anything like a Big Society approach to the economy.

From Big Society to Social Productivity 4 Public Services and Society – what do we know?

13 Male, 25-39. Oxford – quoted as part ‘…so they sort of enable society to exist – of the 2020 Public Services Trust’s 13 deliberative work conducted with Ipsos is what public services do…’ MORI. See Ipsos MORI (2010) ‘Citizen Engagement: testing policy ideas for Male, 25-39, Oxford, 2010 public service reform’ London, Ipsos MORI & 2020 Public Services Trust p.4 14 See for example Taylor-Gooby, P. (2004) The future role of public services is at stake. of the lives we lead, or to engage properly ‘New Risks, New Welfare’ Oxford; Oxford University Press They are the essential bridge institutions with us. Innovative work with families and 15 Norman, J. (2010) ‘The Big Society: between the state and citizens and their neighbourhoods by organizations such as the anatomy of the new politics’ Buckingham, University of Buckingham function and form should reflect the sort of Participle, Action for Children and Turning Press p.4 society we want to live in. The British post- Point show us that more energy and insight war welfare state built a new structure of social could be generated, given the right conditions. protection on top of the foundations of pre- existing voluntary provision. Where voluntary We know that many share the critique that provision was patchy and uneven, the power a centrally driven, top down approach to of the central state was invoked to extend public services has reached the limits of its fair access to all. In the words of William effectiveness. This was the strongly held Beveridge’s 1942 Report, “all citizens without shared view of the Commission on 2020 distinction of status or class [should be] offered Public Services; its conclusion was that our the best standards available in relation framework for public services is increasingly to a certain agreed range of social services”. out of step with our times and the lives of citizens today. This dominant state role in financing, providing and regulating welfare provision has New forces – global, technological, largely continued, but in more recent years the demographic, environmental, and social – are balance has shifted. From the 1980s onwards reshaping our lives. They are exposing us to there has been an ever increasing use of new types of risks and opportunities. They are market and quasi-market mechanisms in the democratising information, and offering new delivery of public services, and the growing ways for citizens to work together. As a result, acceptance of a plurality of providers across a our expectations of what the state should do range of previously public sector provision. At and how it should relate to us are changing. the same time, the range of welfare services We are more sceptical of the idea that the state guaranteed (if not always provided) by the can simply deliver progress to us, recognising state has broadened: a result of changing the role that we need to play in shaping our patterns of household organisation, increasing own lives and futures. female labour market participation and new care needs arising from an ageing population.14 These are powerful forces for change, often highly uneven in their implications for As we have discussed, the Big Society narrative different individuals and communities. And taps into an emerging body of thinking across they lead to a fundamental set of choices. the political spectrum that questions the Continuing to do things in the same way, but limits of our current model of government, with fewer resources must inevitably lead to and the long-term efficacy of delivery-focused worse social outcomes and would be a failure state action. Jesse Norman MP calls this ‘the of leadership. How governments – left and new centre ground of British politics’.15 And right – respond is one of the most important though many may disagree, there is increasing questions of our age. acceptance that much of the impulse behind Big Society thinking is sound, even if some of Attempts to reinvigorate state provision with the conclusions that have been drawn are not. civil society motivation are recurring themes For example, writers such as David Halpern over the last three decades, and the Big Society have shown us there is plenty of citizen sits within this tradition. What is significant energy that is left untouched by a system that and new is its prominence within the public finds it hard to understand the complexities service reform narrative.

From Big Society to Social Productivity 5 Public Services and the ‘third sector’

16 Gordon Brown’s first Budget announced From Housing Associations in the 1980s to Overall, government funding of charities a charity tax review, leading to substantial changes in Tax Aid. In 1998 more recent interest in social enterprise and increased by a half between 2000/01 and the government introduced a ‘Compact’ mutuals, governments of all persuasions have 2007/08, from £8.4b to £12.8b, rising – a voluntary code to govern relations between the state and the voluntary looked to civil society: to provide a non-state, from 32% to 36% of sector funding, but sector – based on the recommendations but also non-market challenge to incumbent still accounting for only 2% of government of NCVO facilitated Deakin Commission. providers; to infuse public services with new expenditure. In 2007/08 23,000 charities Cross government co-ordination was encouraged through a series of Treasury sources of inspiration and motivation; and for relied on local government for more lead cross cutting reviews, culminating the offer of credible, quality and cost-effective than half their income, although 75% of in the establishment of the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) in 2007. alternative service provision alongside the charities had no direct financial relationship Positioned in the Cabinet Office, the moral security of a non-profit motive. with the state.17 OTS had its own Minister, uniting work to support volunteering, and voluntary and community groups with support Labour governments since 1997 were very Large and concerted investments in supply for social enterprises. Development of the sector was promoted as a national active in promoting the role of civil society in side development arguably strengthened and 16 government priority through the PSA public services, and a concerted attempt was grew the sector at a pace it could stand. But framework and local government made to develop the ‘third sector’, explicitly with a more critical eye, it could be argued performance indicators. 17 National Council for Voluntary bringing social enterprises into the same civil that the Labour government never really Organisations (NCVO) Commission on society camp as voluntary and community understood – or wasn’t prepared to allow – Funding, Paper 4, August 2010, www. ncvo-vol.org.uk organisations. Efforts to bolster the capacity the disruptive potential of civil society to 18 This is in large part due to heightened of third sector organisations to deliver public change public services. It never got beyond concerns about equality. See for example Kippin, H. (2010) ‘How can services were part of a broader policy agenda the top down or entitlements-based entitlements improve quality in public to increase the plurality of public service approach.18 It wasn’t willing to take off the services and give citizens greater control over them?’ in Progress (2010) providers. Labour invested in this significantly. shackles or properly let go. Whilst it talked Building Britain’s Future: Progress The Capacitybuilders programme developed about ‘transformation’, this was often just a Downing Street seminars Autumn 2009’ a network of infrastructure organisations ‘transfer’ of essentially the same services from online at http://clients.squareeye.com/ uploads/prog/documents/Building%20 provided wide ranging advice and the public sector to the third sector. Britain%27s%20Future_2.pdf technical support to the sector. From 2003, Futurebuilders provided grants, loans and The challenge for the Coalition government’s technical support to third sector organisations Big Society is the reverse. The prominence so that they would be capable of winning given to civil society within the coalition’s and delivering tendered public services. In policy agenda is a recognition of its its twilight years, Labour also developed an transformative potential. It ‘gets’ the idea of increasing interest in co-operative and mutual letting go. But by contrast, it appears both models of public service delivery, promoting overly hopeful about the capacity of civil spin-outs from the public sector, particularly society to take immediate advantage of this in health. liberty, and insufficiently clear about how existing public services institutions can better stimulate civil society, particularly where engagement is most lacking.

From Big Society to Social Productivity 6 Missing the Point?

19 Alcock, P. (2010) ‘What are our future Both the previous Labour government and the development of the Big Society on the sources of welfare? A new role for the third sector’ London, 2020 the current Coalition have missed a part other. This means that what we have so Public Services Trust online at http:// of the picture. Despite creating legislative, far is partial and inadequate as a governing clients.squareeye.net/uploads/2020/ documents/esrc_supplyside.pdf financial and cultural incentives to stimulate philosophy. And this weakness has meant 20 Thaler, R.H. & Sunstein, C.R. (2008) civic innovation or build the capacity of civil that – to date – it has not proved sufficiently ‘Nudge: improving decisions about society organisations, both have – in different relevant to decision makers as a guide to health, wealth and happiness’ New Haven, Yale University Press ways – begun from the wrong starting point. action on some of the biggest issues for For Labour, the starting presumption has been the Coalition. There was little evidence of to view the development and expansion of its influence framing the choices made by civil society through the lens of government certain key departments, in the Spending structures. To stimulate civil society, their Review, or in the Budget, for example. approach mandated that the state must be the quickening force – as funder, shaper The economy & the social role of and regulator, and even promoting a new business – At the heart of Big Society institutional identity for the ‘third sector’. 19 thinking is a rejection of neo-liberal economics. The Big Society builds on The coalition thinks rather differently, developments in neuro-science, psychology believing that the existing state and civil and behavioural economics to expose the society are largely at odds. An over-large state fallacy of what Richard Thaler and Cass removes the need and impulse for civil renewal Sunstein call ‘economic man’ 20 and places and civic innovation. Public services are much greater emphasis on the role of social themselves partly an expression of dependency networks in influencing our behaviour culture, and a suppression of the ability of and shaping our society. This has led Big citizens to act collectively and bring bottom- Society advocates to argue for a more social up solutions to bear on public problems. economy, emphasizing the social trust on which markets depends, with businesses Both approaches encounter problems. An exhibiting a much clearer social purpose. overbearing institutional focus can narrow or All of which is a significant challenge to stifle the potential for innovation. But blanket the shareholder value maximization model state withdrawal is a recipe for damaging of anglo-saxon capitalism of the past three inequalities and a return to the unemployment decades. Again in practice, we can see and civic unrest of the 1980s. The Coalition’s signs of a new approach towards banks formulation of the Big Society appears to have and industrial policy, and an interesting several major weaknesses: campaign being led by Jesse Norman MP to get infrastructure companies to give Role of the central state – The Big back some excess profits made from PFI Society’s dominant focus on the role of contracts. But there are significant gaps in society has left the role of the central state the picture when it comes to local finance undercooked. What should be the role and local economic development. Moreover, of the state in ensuring equality, setting none of these strands have yet been woven entitlements or regulating performance? together with the Big Society in a way In practice, the Coalition is pursuing a which gives much practical guidance to policy of simplification of tax and benefits policymakers. which could underpin an approach based on the state guaranteeing national Role of the local state/local government citizen entitlements, but being much less – As former Speaker of the US House of prescriptive about how these are delivered. Representatives Tip O’Neill famously said But this is far from a developed framework. “all politics is local”. Superficially it would For instance, we have heard little so far appear that the Coalition has taken this about the relationship between the single observation to heart, with ‘localism’ one universal benefit and the merging of of the most distinctive themes for the new income tax and NI on the one hand, with government. But on closer examination it

From Big Society to Social Productivity 7 21 See for example ‘Osborne talks tough becomes apparent that what is primarily mirrors national debate over welfare on cutting benefits’ in the Financial Times, 09.09.10 online at http:// being promoted is localism without the benefits, into which one key coalition www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c3d92842- politics. The Commission on 2020 Public member has cast the problem of dependency bc41-11df-8c02-00144feab49a. 21 html#axzz1Ds5CCkWE Services characterized this type of localism on the state as a ‘lifestyle choice’. Yet even 22 Centre for Cities (2010) ‘Cities Outlook as ‘radical liberalisation’. In this model, if we accept this thesis, rebalancing the role 2010’ London, Centre for Cities p.7 diverse suppliers, for example Free Schools, of state and society is a job that must be 23 Lee, N. (2010) ‘No City Left Behind?: the geography of recovery and the or GP Commissioning Units, are centrally undertaken with proper awareness of the implications for the coalition’ London, funded and locally autonomous and insofar reasons for public sector dominance, and the Work Foundation 24 This is the basis of much recent criticism as co-ordination or integration between particular challenges of transition. As the of the programme – see for example services takes place, this is driven by the Centre for Cities warned in 2010, the recent ‘My Challenge to Cameron: try running a charity and face the reality’ in The logic of market forces. The risks in this financial crisis and recession has actually Times, 24.01.11 online at http://www. are significant. It could lead to a further ‘reinforced disparities between places’, so thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/ article2885720.ece strengthening of service silos, with the that ‘many of the cities that have been localism it seeks to promote potentially hit hardest are places still suffering from undermined by the fact that the key the legacy of industrial restructuring and funding decisions will still lie with central previous recessions’.22 In these communities, government. There is an alternative model cities and regions, public spending has based on strengthening the legitimacy and acted as a social and economic ‘shield’.23 civic role of local democracy, with local Any paring back of this shield without government acting as the co-ordinating properly considering the role of the state in force across public services and helping to building social capacity in its place could facilitate city and sub-regional economic have serious consequences, both socially and growth. This would require finance to be economically. aligned with local powers and functions. There is the slightest of nods towards this More practically, there appears a mismatch direction in in the new community budget between the optimism of Big Society pilots, in the establishment of sub-regional advocates for voluntary alternatives, and the Local Economic Partnerships and in the existing capacity of civil society to take up prospect of a review of local government the strain.24 Whilst the Big Society seeks to finances. But this is currently a pale shadow define an entirely new approach, its roots lie of the silo localism which is being pursued in a much longer tradition of attempts by both in health and education. Labour and Conservative governments to mobilise civil society for public purposes. For Managing transition in an unequal instance, many of the Coalition’s Big Society country – At the very heart of the Big policies share striking similarities to late era Society thesis is the notion that, although New Labour – such as mutual employee necessary to correct distributional ownership of public services, on-line services imbalances within the UK economy, state and the provision of capital to voluntary spending has crowded out civic and private organisations. But the conditions under which sector activity, rendering local economies – this ‘evolution’ is expected to continue are and indeed local people – dependent on an today very different. over-active state. In this sense the argument

From Big Society to Social Productivity 8 Big Society… Good Society… Social Productivity?

These conceptual and practical issues point The concept of social productivity also begins to the need for a clearer and more systematic with the citizen, and questions the top-down, approach to the changing relationships service delivery-focused model. Yet rather between state, market, citizens and society. than viewing public services as things – to In different circumstances, the appropriate be improved, delivered, consumed – social mix of state, citizen and civil society activity productivity represents an activity: active will be different. In some cases, this is a engagement with citizens to understand their product of path dependency – a legacy of trust needs and generate improved social outcomes between citizens and their government; or together, through a variety of means. It is an acceptance that citizen collaboration can facilitative rather than prescriptive. Rather be done through – not in spite of – public or than viewing the state, market and society in collective organisations. In other cases, the opposition to each other, the approach seeks to role of the state and public services has been strengthen the contribution each can make to built on civic association – leaving room for achieving public goals. collaborative solutions to emerge within a more liberal political system. Each model ‘Social productivity is focused has different implications for, and effects on, equality, societal cohesion and economic less on ideological questions growth. And what is important is not how about where the boundaries big the state is or how many community of the state should be drawn, organisations exist, but how far the interaction and more on how – at those between these and other actors is producing the kind of society we want to see. boundaries – the state is interacting with others, both Comparative and historical lessons can to create value together and help in understanding the role of different to stimulate new resources.’ stakeholders in society; the story of these relationships is one of continuity, as well as change. For the Big Society to endure, In contrast with the big society – where its advocates and critics must focus less inconsistent attention appears to have on ideological questions about where the been given to identifying and managing boundaries of the state should be drawn, and the downside risks – a social productivity more on how – at those boundaries – the approach takes as given that its impact is state is interacting with others, both to create likely to be uneven. This awareness means value together and to stimulate new resources. that greater attention is given to how this A big or good society needs great public unevenness – and the obvious implications services – but in order for this to be the case, of this for citizens and communities – can be a new approach is needed. We argue that this anticipated, measured and addressed, and how approach should start with what the 2020 the playing field can be levelled. Commission has called ‘social productivity’, which focuses on the social value which is created through the interaction between public services and civil society.

From Big Society to Social Productivity 9 25 Porter, M. E. & Kramer, M.R. (2011) At root, the concept of social productivity Social productivity is founded on the ‘The Big Idea: Creating Shared Value’ Harvard Business Review online at is based on insights into value creation in principle of social citizenship. So it marks a http://hbr.org/2011/01/the-big-idea- public services that informed the 2020 departure from New Public Management creating-shared-value/ar/1 26 Bason, C. (2010) ‘Leading Public Commission’s work: how public value can be thinking with its emphasis on marketising Sector Innovation: co-creating for a created through effective governance; how public services in order to make them more better society’ London, Policy Press social value might be measured or captured; responsive to consumers. Instead it builds on 27 Commission on 2020 Public Services (2010) ‘From Social Security...’ how economic and productive value can be the capability ideas of Amartya Sen, combined realized through reconfiguring service funding with the social capital analysis of Puttnam or provision. A rich seam of thinking from and Sennett and the communitarian ideas of political science, public administration, design Etzioni. Social citizenship is about agency, and marketing cuts across these ideas, typified responsibility and reciprocity with social in work by Mark Moore, John Benington, value in public services being jointly created Greg Parston, Gerry Stoker, Stephen Vargo by citizens, public servants, governments and and Robert Lusch; through organizations other partners and stakeholders. The world’s like MindLab, NESTA, NEF, the Innovation best hospitals and schools cannot on their own Unit and the Young Foundation and, recently, produce the best social health and education in Michael Porter and Richard Kramer’s outcomes; patients, students and parents must exploration of ‘shared value’.25 Much of this play their part too – in innovative processes advances a common insight: that value in of co-creation of public value. Public services public services cannot simply be delivered, but should be judged by the extent to which they is ‘co-created’ 26 – between the service and the help citizens, families and communities to person(s) using it. As the Commission wrote: meet basic needs (e.g for housing, health, education and employment), grapple with ‘By viewing public services the problems they face, live the lives they choose, and achieve the social outcomes they as entitlements that are desire. Socially productive public services presented to citizens, (we) should: help create social value for citizens underplay the importance and communities; enhance citizen autonomy, of the citizen’s response in capability and resilience; unlock citizen resource; support existing social networks and getting the most from these build collective capacity. services.’27

From Big Society to Social Productivity 10 28 Commission on 2020 Public Services (2010) ‘From Social Security...’ Three shifts for 2020 Public Services

We believe that three profound shifts are needed in public services to enable a new focus on social productivity to succeed.28

1. A shift in culture Public services must engage and enrol citizens, families, communities, enterprises and wider society in creating better outcomes as partners. The state, market or society alone cannot achieve this. So our goal must be a new culture of democratic participation and social responsibility. • Rather than allow cash strapped public realm services such as libraries, parks and leisure centres to close, wherever possible these should be run as mutuals by local people. • Parents and local communities should be free to agree educational outcomes and codevelop curriculums with local schools; ‘free schools’ should not be the only new way in which parents can be involved in local education. • New lifecycle social accounts should track tax, benefits and service use, and allow social contributions to be recorded and valued.

2. A shift in power Our Whitehall model cannot deliver the integrated and personalised public services that citizens need. We need to invert the power structure, so that services start with citizens. • Citizens should control more of the money spent on services such as long-term care, health and skills, backed up by choice advisers or mentors. • Neighbourhoods should be able to commission their own integrated services. • Welfare services should be locally controlled; with city regions and large counties setting their own living wage. • A new deal should be brokered for cities and counties, in which they take over primary responsibility for strategic commissioning of most public services.

3. A shift in finance Public services must be more open, transparent and understandable to citizens. Contributions and benefits across the life cycle must be clearer, allowing citizens to use public services responsibly. The way we finance public services must reflect the purposes they are intended to achieve. • Citizens should receive annual online statement from their social account of contributions made and benefits received. • Co-payment and partnership funding models should be used where services generate personal as well as public benefits, such as higher education, and long-term care. • Payment by results should become the norm in as many areas of service delivery as possible. • Social impact bonds should be extended, to enable local investment in prevention and early intervention.

From Big Society to Social Productivity 11 Developing a framework and practice of social productivity

The 2020 Public Services Hub at the RSA In some cases this may depend less on the – in partnership with RSA Projects and need for professional librarian services Citizen Power: Peterborough – is exploring and more on the need for new forms of the potential of a social productivity approach community ownership and support. to provide a framework for re-thinking the The 2020 Hub is exploring these issues in design, delivery and accountability both of collaboration with Social Enterprise London. national service sectors and of local public services. We are asking how insights into What information and resource gaps value creation and citizen engagement can would need to be filled at a local level give public managers the tools to think about in order to develop greater community how to create more cost-effective services that resilience? meet new patterns of social need. Through Local authorities have access to a research into social networks and community tremendous range of demographic, social connections, the RSA is already trialling and economic data sets, yet these are not practical initiatives that address problems mined as comprehensively as they could be of substance abuse, social exclusion and to form a more detailed picture of their local powerlessness. And the establishment of the communities. And even this data cannot tell 2020 Hub provides an opportunity to develop us about how social networks operate within new, collaborative approaches. Through local communities and what the relationships bringing together insights into good practice, are between these and local social institutions local innovation and comparative thinking, and public services. Yet understanding this the Hub will help to create a space in which and being able to map these against the social productivity can be turned from theory range of social resources within local areas into practice will be critical to building more resilient communities. The potential of this approach By working with national and local partners is being developed in the RSA’s Connected we will seek to develop a body of social Communities and Recovery Capital projects. productivity practice which can help to answer some of the fundamental questions facing How can social value and productivity public services: be best measured? Following the recent Sarkozy Commission How can a social productivity approach and extensive work on the potential of help create sustainable alternatives to ‘wellbeing’ and ‘happiness’ measures, the ONS service closures and what are the new is now developing a UK happiness index as forms of social value that transformed part of its integrated household survey. Its public services ought to generate? development raises broader questions. What Take libraries: They face an unprecedented kind of social and economic outcomes do funding crisis with some estimates suggesting we want from public services? How should that hundreds could close. But the defence these be determined and measured? And what often fails to take into account how much they should be the relationship between national would need to change as a service if they are entitlements and locally determined values? to remain sustainable. They have sometimes When fiscal resource is tight, public services seemed to be in but not of communities. The must get better at articulating their social challenge for community libraries is whether value and do more to create socially productive they can become social institutions which communities and localities. The RSA’s Citizen help generate wider social value, through Power: Peterborough initiative is exploring for example becoming homework clubs, new approaches to these issues as part of its community service hubs, and social centres. Civic Health project.

From Big Society to Social Productivity 12 What would a social business model What should be the co-ordinating and look like and what are the implications catalyzing role of local civic leadership of social productivity approach for in building community resilience and the relationship between state and developing new sources of economic market? growth? Social productivity is about creating new, The role of local civic leadership in building more productive partnerships between state, long-term resilience and social and economic market and society – the ‘shared value’ capacity is the missing piece of Big Society articulated by Porter and Kramer. To some reforms, and a critical element of the social extent, this is about a blurring of boundaries: productivity framework. Drawing on insights public services reconfigured as community from Citizen Power: Peterborough and co-operatives or social enterprises; businesses relationships between the 2020 Hub and which have a stronger ethos of social purpose other local authorities, we are investigating and which behave with greater social the potential for local government to become responsibility (for example by implementing a more effective catalyst for social innovation the living wage and helping with carbon and economic growth. As local public services reduction and self-regulation) thereby are re-shaped via changes to schools, health removing some of the ‘market failure’ pressure and housing policy for example, what is the which has previously forced government to new potential for local civic leadership to drive have to regulate or mitigate markets; public integration and citizen-centric services? institutions (such as F.E. colleges or libraries) that are hubs for entrepreneurship and more What are the implications of a social diverse revenue streams; funding mechanisms productivity approach for existing that are clear about the social and economic service sectors, how can these be ends, but less prescriptive about the means of better integrated across local services delivering them. This type of interaction can and engage citizens in social value catalyse innovation and local growth – the creation? 2020 Hub is exploring the potential in the FE Major changes are happening across the sector and with local government partners. spectrum of public services. But will these changes create more social value and better How can the risks of civil society outcomes for citizens.? This will depend initiatives be managed and mitigated? in part on the extent to which new service A social productivity approach is about models in schools, colleges and hospitals recognizing unequal starting points, and can engage with citizens and across silos and the risks of transition towards a more open, sectors. For example, GP commissioning bottom up model of public services. To date, groups will need a different set of skills and there has been little research into the risks competencies to place the needs of individuals of cutting back on regulation and inspection, within the context of local need and socio- or opening up new areas to diverse service economic context. New relationships will providers. A new joint-project between the need to be created between commissioning RSA and the 2020 Public Services Hub is groups, local government and new oversight exploring these issues, developing practical bodies. We believe that a social productivity approaches to understanding and managing approach can provide a framework and a set of risk in more bottom-up, less bureaucratic ways. principles upon which these relationships can be built. The 2020 Hub is applying these ideas in collaborative projects across the FE, health and social care sectors.

From Big Society to Social Productivity 13 The 2020 Public Services Hub at the RSA is beginning to develop answers to these questions through a range of projects and practical, collaborative initiatives. Building on the legacy of the Commission on 2020 Public Services and the applied approach of Citizen Power: Peterborough and RSA Projects, we hope to become a hub for debate and analysis on how public services can help drive social productivity. Find out more about our work and join the debate at www.2020publicserviceshub.org