Public value is a philosophy of public sector management. The Work Foundation has placed itself at the forefront of the debate about public service reform. We argue that the concept of public value should be used to reinvigorate engagement with the public and inspire public sector workers around the goals of their employers.
Phase One
In 2006 The Work Foundation started running a consortium research project on public value in the UK context (the founder of the idea was the American academic Mark Moore). We ran workshops, published papers and disseminated the idea of a public value approach to the management of public services.
The project’s objectives were to:
• provide a clear definition of public value
• provide public managers with a set of guiding principles that orient institutions to the creation of public value
• use sector and case studies to illustrate how organisations might understand where gaps occur in achieving public value
• clarify the components and processes of public value in order to facilitate its future capture and measurement.
In November 2006 the report Deliberative Democracy and the Role of Public Managers completed the first phase of the research project provided an in - depth exploration of the theory of public value and its implications for public sector managers.
Phase Two
The second phase of the research which began in January 2007 was completed in Autumn 2008. It was sponsored by the following organisations:
The second phase of the research which began in January 2007 was completed in Autumn 2008. It was sponsored by the following organisations:
• BBC
• Capita Group plc
• Department for Culture Media and Sport
• London Borough of Lewisham
• Metropolitan Police
• NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement
• Ofcom
• Quality Improvement Agency
• Royal Opera House
• The Scottish Government.
Phase Three
The final report World - Class Public Services: Engaging Citizens and Staff was published in autumn 2008. It looked at how public institutions understand public value as well as how they shape expectations and public demand. The report builds on the practical insights gained from the in-depth research, case studies and position papers that we completed for each sponsor organisation.