Caroline Flint article on public service reform

March 2006

Change for the better

This week the Prime Minister made a major speech about reform of public services. The debate, which has come up again and again in parliament, is about changing the way the NHS, education, policing and local government is delivered.

In my experience, reform is a difficult idea to grasp, but when people see a different way of doing things and understand why, they welcome it.

In Doncaster, public services have got steadily better and the results are there for all to see. More children pass exams at every stage; more people are treated quickly by our local hospitals; the police can point to the steady fall in burglaries and car crime; council-led services, such as the FLAG scheme - removing graffiti and abandoned cars - and the doorstep recycling are services that did not exist a few years ago.

Two things have changed since I became an MP that have made these improvements possible: new investment, and new ways of delivering each service.

First, there has been huge investment. We spend twice as much per child in our schools, so every school I visit, I find extra teachers, with classroom assistants and the latest equipment. And in most cases, the teaching is to a higher standard. Breakfast and homework clubs are becoming the norm - and the children have fruit in school and healthier school meals. No wonder they are doing so much better.

And that pattern of additional investment is repeated across public services. Funding to councils like Doncaster is up by a third compared to 1997. And Labour will spend more on the NHS in the next five years alone than was spent in the entire 18 years of the Conservative Government. That's why cataract operations are done in weeks, people are in and out of A&E in a few hours and projects like the Denaby Main Sure Start Children's Centre, one of the first in the country, are being repeated in community after community.

But the second part of the improvement is that Government has been willing to change the way services were delivered for many years. It used to be that the Council did everything. That hospitals got bigger - and you could expect to wait an age. And schools did their best without enough money.

Today, your cataract may be done in a mobile surgery, by an independent provider working for the NHS. Walk in health centres are becoming more common. And you can see your doctor within two days or ring up the 24 hour NHS Direct. Different ways of doings things - but better for the patient.

Your local secondary school may have specialised in engineering, the arts or sport, with sponsorship from local businesses. Ridgewood's engineering block and The McAuley Theatre/Performance Venue are examples of this change. Specialist schools, partnerships and academies are all about raising standards - and giving young people more choices, including more vocational courses.

And now the Council is more often a partner with those who deliver the services. Community enterprises deliver the recycling, Sure Starts are locally managed by the community. Regeneration projects are run by neighbourhood partnerships. And more council services are devolved to a neighbourhood level. A change from the past, but better for the community.

My message to Doncaster is that those improvements - and more to come - like the changes in the Education & Inspections Bill so keenly debated in recent days - are all about improving the lives of the many, not the few. I became an MP to see change. Because I don't' want to live with poverty or unemployment in our Borough. Because I resent the fact that a working class man in Edlington will live nine years less than a middle class man in Surrey. Because I despair that 7 out of 10 children from the poorest families will not even get 5 good GCSEs - and as a result they will not get a fair crack at decent, secure jobs.

So when you hear Government Ministers talk about reform - in health, in schools, in tackling anti-social behaviour, it is to ensure that no one misses out on the opportunities of a decent life, and no child leaves school without qualifications.

That is what this debate about reform is all about. It is what drives Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and your Doncaster MPs.

I hope Star readers have seen the difference in Doncaster in recent years and in their community and my message is don't be afraid of change. There will be more to come. Change for the better.

Caroline Flint