This book is about change in the management of public services – how much of it and what consequences. For over two decades the goal of restructuring welfare provision has been at the heart of UK government policy. Under the Conservatives the focus was on controlling expenditure and re-organising services to make professionals more accountable for resource decisions. In health, education and social care, the objective was to install a system of managed provision heavily influenced by the practices of private firms. After 1997, New Labour accelerated this process under a different banner of modernisation. Today perhaps even more so than a decade ago the dominant image projected by.
