A couple of cabinet jobs ago, David Miliband spoke often of the need for 'double devolution' as the next stage in the development of public services. This is now recast as 'personalised' public services and is a theme in several new government initiatives.
An article in the current New Statesman (click to read) says:
"The new
Labour guru Charles Leadbeater talks about "Public Services 2.0",
echoing Web 2.0, where user-generated content - MySpace, Wikipedia, Second Life
and so on - is all the rage. "For the past decade," writes Leadbeater
(www.charlesleadbeater.net), "most of the debate about public service
reform has focused on . . . making the public sector value chain work more
efficiently to resemble private service delivery. But you cannot deliver
complex public goods the way that Fed Ex delivers a parcel."
So people should
no longer be treated as consumers or users, but as participants."
How does adult learning fit into this? On the face of it, 'demand led' provision should be thoroughly personalised. In reality it seems largely about contracting and procurement. However, leaving aside the metaphors of new technology, isn't this just what the WEA has tried to do for decades? A social network just waiting for the web?
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