What does it mean to be a 21st Century public servant? What are the skills, attributes and values which effective public servants will display in the future? How can people working in public services be supported to get those skills? These are some of the issues that we are addressing in this research.
Public services are going through major changes in response to a range of issues such as cuts to budgets, increased localisation, greater demands for service user voice and control, increased public expectations and a mixed economy of welfare provision. This 21st Century Public Servant project builds on the findings of the 2011 University of Birmingham Policy Commission into the 'Future of Local Public Services' which identified the need to pay attention to the changing roles undertaken by public servants and the associated support and development needs.
Through a review of the literature and interviews with 40 people involved in supporting and delivering public services, the research has considered how the public service workforce is changing, and what further changes are needed to develop the effectiveness of public servants. Here we present the findings and outline next.