Stephen Byers today entered the debate on the reform of public services. Speaking at a conference of local councils representing urban areas he said that major issues like Iraq should not detract from the need for public service reform; that Government can be a race against time with a high political price to be paid for failure to deliver, and warned that those who say that excellence in public services amounts to elitism are revealing the attitude that condemned Labour to the long wilderness years of opposition.

Stephen Byers said:

“Some argue that as the government faces its most testing time since being elected in 1997 – with the developing situation in Iraq, a slowing economy and a decision on the economic tests for joining the euro to be taken by June – then the reform of public services should be put on the back burner.

At times like this consolidation looks attractive when compared to the hard and sometimes painful choices involved in driving forward the reform agenda.

But this is not the time to slow down the pace of change. Government can be a race against time and this government will pay a high political price if improvements in public services are not delivered by the next election.

The objective must be to make public services the first choice and not the last resort.

To achieve this we need to couple investment with reform. There must be diversity of provision with a real choice for those who use the service like parents and patients. In addition real power needs to be devolved to front line staff.

The accusation that this approach will create a two-tier system of provision and as a result many will have an inferior service is a serious one that needs to be answered.

Those who say that excellence in public services amounts to elitism are revealing the same attitude that condemned Labour to the long wilderness years of opposition. We must not get ourselves into the situation where we hold back the best – the high achievers and the successful – out of some misguided notion of fairness to all.

At present we have schools, hospitals and local councils who are delivering high quality public services and raising standards of provision. There are others who are not and are failing those who depend upon their services.

The challenge has to be to provide freedom to those that have the ability and capacity to take advantage of it whilst ensuring that the poor performer learns from the best.

If we make the mistake of treating everyone the same then we end up failing them all.

Our reforms must allow the best to improve even further and by providing a national framework of minimum standards backed up by early intervention to stop failure, ensure that all have the benefit of a decent level of service.”