Public Value creation in the public service stemmed out of public sector re-engineering an reform. What would the future of public service delivery look like when the element of public value in incorporated?
In the UK we now have the concept of 'social value' from the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012. This Act states that commissioners, i.e. people who spend public money on services for the public, are supposed to ensure maximum 'social, economic, and environmental' benefit from their work - which may mean not always choosing the cheapest option. So far, this isn't working too well in practice, because there are many other edicts for commissioners to consider, and the concept of 'social value' is not well embedded in their training or in other relevant legislation; also there are no penalties for failing to secure maximum social value. Lord Young completed a review of the Act earlier this year and made some recommendations which you should be able to find online if you want to know more. I realise this is only a very partial answer to your question, but I hope it will provide you with a little useful information, and that others will add more information for you in time.
In health which I am very much involved, the health extension program in Ethiopia is based on the idea of putting people and their public values at the center of any innovation boosts development in health. The public has expectations and values that it expects public servants to respect and address. The more pubic servants see their activities from the perspective of public interests the more governance and service delivery get grounded in public values . This helps to work with the foundations of change in that people become part of the dynamics of change; not mere recipients of changes related to improved services, for example.
Public service broadcasting in Europe is under increasing pressure to demonstrate how it remains distinct and relevant enough to justify certain privileges, most notably public funding and preferential treatment in access to the airwaves and digital platforms. PSB's position gets more difficult as its audiences drop, an inevitable consequence of increasing choice. Delivering public value is a response to that -- eg the BBC's Building Public Value (2004) is a seminal example of that response from the UK. Soon after that, demonstrable public value became a precondition for a new BBC service to be given the green light. The so-called Public Value Test (PVT) is coupled with another test, the Market Impact Assessment (operated by the communications regulator, Ofcom). This is designed to measure the potentially adverse impact a proposed service might have on competitors.
To sum up, the BBC (and other public service broadcasters in Europe and elsewhere) are allowed to grow only into areas where there is evidence of market failure as long as public intervention is considered significant. This is consistent with a particular strand of market economics.
The result is that the BBC is potentially forced into the kind of provision that may not be popular enough to attract market investment, which in turn further diminishes its audience ratings, raising more questions about its relevance. There is also evidence of the process introducing red tape and critical delays in the process of the BBC launching new services.
i foresee the public services more of public-private model which will further add the cost in lieu of these public services. The Public-Private model is quite controversial as in some cases the same is regarded as an efficient delivery system i.e at the governance level while other regarded as another typical corporate model..
The Mark Moore book 1995 is a good place to start. The public value concept is not a re-engineering concept, but a way to conceptualize a public sector concept for outcomes to public sector strategy. There are some recent journal articles, including a special issue on this topic, edited by John Bryson, a leading expert on public value and public sector strategy- well worth your review.
The notion of "public value" is a re-conceptualization of the age-old mission of the public sector - to serve and advance the public good in ways that the market will not, or cannot. So to ask the question, "what are the prospects creating public value in public service delivery" is like asking what is the purpose of the public sector. The answer might vary widely depending on the specific service or good in question - health, education, transportation, communication and energy infrastructure, security, and so on. However, in each and all of these sectors, the state must demonstrate its capacity to meet the needs of intended beneficiaries/service users in ways consistent with foundational principles of efficiency and effectiveness and core values of transparency and accountability.
Helen is right. For us in the UK, the dividing line between public value and social value is slim. In answer to the question, Abdulrazaq, it would be wonderful, wouldn't it, if public service delivery could actually incorporate public value, and in many instances, it still does. I'm a former practitioner and have witnessed the delivery of high quality public services for many years, with a large dose of public value added. However, looking at what is happening in now the UK, and in other countries, we have a public service delivery crisis. For those paying taxes in the full expectation of receiving services, the future looks very different. These services may not be available to us for much longer without additional financial outlay, either in the form of taxation or through private companies. We are all living longer, and therefore requiring more complex health and leisure services; there are more of us, therefore needing houses and the services that go with them; our health services cannot continue to expand at their current rate without massive funds. The concept of public, or social value set against the absolute crisis in funding for public services is a big ask as the public sector shrinks in the UK.
Public value in the twenty-first century is a function of the capacity of the state to design platforms of co-production and co-delivery that leverage the expertise, resources and experience of non-state actors. Fundamentally, public value creation is an exercise in organizational boundary spanning by public managers bridging the divides across sectors, leveraging the insights of a range of partners, including ordinary citizens (potential end-users or beneficiaries) to solve complex problems of society