New ideas to reform public services will be discussed at a major conference hosted by The Future Governance Forum (FGF) and UCL Policy Lab on 2 December. The one-day ‘Britain Renewed 2025: Public services for people and place’ (BR2025) conference will bring together leaders on the frontline of reforming public services. Speakers will include: ministers Josh Simons MP and Kirsty McNeill MP, senior civil servants past and present including Janet Hughes, Director General – Civil Service Reform and Efficiency; Jonathan Slater – former DfE Permanent Secretary; and Helen MacNamara – former Deputy Cabinet Secretary, as well as community leaders, frontline public servants and business figures.
Leading public service reform figures at the BR2025 conference will:
- Share examples of how local authorities, frontline public servants and pioneering central government teams are delivering change across the UK.
- Discuss the next steps for the government’s Test, Learn and Grow programme, and how it could be expanded to deliver greater impact. The programme has seen ‘innovation squads’ deployed across the UK to tackle policy and delivery challenges, including pilots in Sheffield and Manchester that tested new ways of bringing more families into local family hubs – resulting in increased attendance and greater access to support.
- Explore how the government’s three public service reform principles, announced in the Spending Review, can be put into practice. The three principles are: Integrating services, so they are organised around people’s lives; Improving long-term outcomes for people by focusing on prevention and relying less on crisis management; and Devolving power to local areas that understand the needs of their communities, with services designed with people in partnership with civil society.
The BR2025 conference forms part of UCL Policy Lab and FGF’s ongoing work on public service reform. Building on its research on devolution and mission-driven government, FGF is examining how more preventative, place-based public services can improve outcomes, encourage local innovation and rebuild trust.
Nathan Yeowell, Executive Director of The Future Governance Forum, said, “Britain Renewed 2025: Public services for people and place will explore what can be learnt from those on the frontline of reforming our public services – people who are improving their communities by taking the kinds of risks the state too often shies away from. We’ll explore how the national, regional and local government can find new solutions to persistent public service challenges, whether cutting NHS waiting lists, improving support for young people or transforming adult social care. And we’ll discuss how ministers could tell a better story about public service reform which connects with the public.”
Marc Stears, Director of the UCL Policy Lab, said, “We all know that the British people have demanded change. That’s what we saw in the election and what we continue to see when we speak to those working in communities or in our latest polling. Delivering on this change is both a policy and a political challenge. Ensuring people see everyday change in their lives and feel respected and valued by the state is vital for tackling the deep skepticism and public anger towards our politics.The Britain Renewed 2025 conference is a chance to understand how we drive this change, not just from the centre but from a genuine movement for national renewal rooted in every community across Britain.”
Britain Renewed 2025 took place at Coin Street Conference Centre, Waterloo and was delivered in partnership with AWS, Inner Circle Consulting, the Growth and Reform Network and the UKRI (ERC) Relational State Capacity Project.
