The problem with a special shop for poor people

I remember hearing the visionary co-production pioneer Edgar Cahn talk about the defence of his National Legal Services Programme, the service that helped organisations to sue the government to enforce their rights.  He had urged the programme over the years to ask...

The peculiar mismatch in our public services

I get my gas from British Gas.  It isn’t a perfect solution, and I will be getting £53 of their vast price increase back, I gather.  Whoopee.  I can’t quite get my head around why this tweak works, but it has made me think about the way our services are...

What if money grew on trees?

I listened to the Localis lecture by Penrith MP Rory Stewart this afternoon. He was talking about the importance of local action -if we are going to fulfil our promise to our children that they can grow up and re-make the world. He told the story of a small village in...

Co-production and the language of empowerment

‘Co-production’ is one of those buzzwords that echo down the corridors of Whitehall without necessarily touching the walls. It is an important critique of public services and a set of linked proposals to finding the untapped resources that can save public...

The trouble with evidence-based policy

I’ve had a go at a critique of ‘evidence-based policy’ in another place (as they say), and have not necessarily won the argument.  What I’m trying to say is that criticising the specific ideology called ‘evidence-based policy’ does...