Abstract
With a blend of experience as a top-level academic researcher and a hands-on policy advisor, Julian Le Grand is ideally placed to provide insight and perspective on the different ways that government-funded social services are organised and delivered. He will examine how these different ways perform against desired goals of quality services, efficiently and equitably delivered, responsive to users and accountable to taxpayers.
His visit to Wellington is timely, given the current Productivity Commission’s inquiry into "More effective social services" and the broader backdrop of Government initiatives to promote "Better Public Services".
Biography
Julian Le Grand has been the Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics since 1993. From 2003 to 2005 he was seconded to No 10 Downing St as Senior Policy Adviser to the UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair. He has acted as an adviser to the European Commission, the World Bank, the World Health Organisation, the OECD, HM Treasury, the UK Departments of Health, Education, and Work and Pensions.
He is the author, co-author or editor of eighteen books, and has written more than one hundred refereed journal articles and book chapters on economics, philosophy and public policy. He has been listed as one of the Guardian's top British public intellectuals. Several of his specific innovative proposals have become the basis of recent UK social-service reforms.