David Cameron to unveil blueprint for public services

David Cameron is to unveil his blueprint for UK public services aimed at "putting power in people's hands".

At a speech in London, the PM will vow to end the "take-what-you're given" culture, and deliver "more freedom, more choice and more local control".
He wants to allow companies, charities and community groups to bid to run everything from local health services to schools, libraries and parks.
Labour says the government is over-emphasising the role of the market.
"This is where David Cameron's big society idea becomes a concrete plan for change," says BBC political correspondent Gary O'Donoghue.
Unveiling his Open Public Services White Paper with a speech in east London on Monday afternoon, Mr Cameron will say public services are "the backbone of this country" and "have created a fairer, more equal country since the Second World War".
"But I know too that the way they have been run for decades - old-fashioned, top-down, take-what-you're-given - is just not working for a lot of people," he will say.
The prime minister will suggest that set-up has become "incredibly damaging", with many services "failing on fairness".
He will say, for example: "We've got a welfare state that doesn't deliver welfare, that doesn't get people back into work but traps them in poverty instead."
Profits He continues: "So let me tell you what our change looks like: It's about ending the old big-government, top-down way of running public services, releasing the grip of state control and putting power in people's hands.
"The old dogma that said Whitehall knows best - it's gone. There will be more freedom, more choice and more local control. Ours is a vision of open public services."
The proposals would allow service providers to make profits in some areas like getting people off benefits and into work, but not in others such as health care.
Only two areas are exempt - national security and the judiciary.
The Labour Party says the government has lost its way on public service reform and is over-emphasising the role of the market.

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