Analysis of Public Services in Contemporary Society Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of public services in contemporary society, with a particular focus on the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom. The report begins by defining public services and outlining their historical development, emphasizing the importance of these services in the modern world, especially considering factors like population growth and technological advancements. It then delves into the development of the NHS, detailing its evolution from its inception to its current state, highlighting key developments such as patient-focused services, primary care integration, community services expansion, cost-effectiveness measures, and budget improvements. The report further examines the operational structure of the NHS and the broader public sector, exploring funding sources and allocation, as well as the impact of funding on service delivery. It also assesses the impact of proposed changes on society. The report concludes by emphasizing the role of digital technology in the development of public services and its influence on organizations such as the NHS. The report is a valuable resource for understanding the complexities of public service delivery and its evolution in a changing world.

Public Services in
Contemporary Society

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Describing the development of public services......................................................................1
P2 Outlining the development of a selected public service organisation....................................2
M1 Analysing the ways in which contemporary practice sits within a tradition of historical
practice.........................................................................................................................................4
D1 Evaluating contemporary issues within the development of public services........................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P3 Analysing the operational structure of a given public services organisation.........................5
P4 Explaining how the public sector is held accountable for its actions and direction both
operationally and strategically.....................................................................................................7
M2 Assessing the structure of a public sector organisation with reference to responsibilities...8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P5 Explaining the types of sources of funding available to the public sector.............................9
P6 Identifying how funding is allocated to different public sector organisations.....................10
M3 Assessing the impact of funding from different sources and its allocation within the public
sector..........................................................................................................................................12
D2 Analysing the allocation of funding within the public sector and the impact of funding,
structure and strategy on the sector...........................................................................................12
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................13
P7 Defining the strategy, structure and role of public sector organisations..............................13
M4 Assessing the impact of proposed changes upon the society in which public sector
organisations serve.....................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Public service refers to the services provided by government to general population of an
area. These services are related with the basic human rights of an individual and must be
provided to every individual without any bias. The most important public services are considered
as fire rescue services and ambulance services (Bason, 2018). In terms of contemporary world,
public services are not limited to just fire dept. and ambulance, there are ample of services which
are provided by a government to their civilians. These services include electricity, education,
environmental protection, social services and many more. In this report, a particular public
service is selected which is given by a public service organisation that is NHS, UK. National
Health Service which is often called as NHS is a public organisation which provides healthcare
services to the citizens of jurisdiction of United Kingdom. Services which are provided by NHS
includes hospital, NHS App, Urgent and emergency care. The main aim of this report is to
analyse the influence of digital technology on the development of public services.
This report includes development of both public services and NHS along with operational
structure of NHS. This report also involves the understanding that how NHS and public sector is
held accountable for its actions along with types of funding sources available to public
organisations. At last, this report will define the strategy, role and structure of public sector
organisations.
TASK 1
P1 Describing the development of public services
Public services are the facilities which are provided by government of a nation to its
citizens. These services are provided by the government of UK to their citizens for no or low
prices. It is majorly important for a government to develop public services in order to ensure
welfare of their population. In this contemporary world, it is even more important for a nation to
develop their public services due to various reasons; first being the rapidly increasing population.
With increasing population, it is important for a nation to provide effective public services.
Another reason is contemporary lifestyle; in current world, lifestyle of people is toxic as they
have to suffer from pollution, harmful chemicals all day and in order to make sure their health
and well being, public services must be developed (Biehl and et.al., 2015).
.
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In United Kingdom, public services are developing day by day in which they face various
problems. These problems involve managing population growth and securing personal data. In
order to better understand the development in public services, few examples of development are
considered mentioned below:
Reshaping economic growth model: Development of public services refers to the
developed infrastructure and approach of these services so that maximum people can get benefit
from these services. The government of UK redefined their economic growth model in which
they stated that economic growth of UK will not only rely upon industrialisation and on earning
profits but will also rely upon the development of [public services. This model makes sure that if
public services are developing then only it can be said that overall development of country is
done.
Collaborative service ecosystem: In this system, government of UK has decided to work
with collaborative systems that is to involve both public and private parties in public services. It
is usually considered that public services are not that effective as they are for free or for lesser
prices. In order to rectify this issue and develop public services, UK government decided to
involve private parties in public services as well (Box, 2015).
Insight driven services: Digital technology is the most promising development in public
services in contemporary world of UK. Government of United Kingdom has enabled their digital
economy so that they manage the big data. In this development, they have proposed various
developments in public services.
Development in public services describes to development of services provided by the
government so that these services can reach to the people who are needy. Digital technology is
most promising factor behind the development of public services in United Kingdom. From the
above examples, it is clear that public service sector of UK is developing continually and
providing effective services to general public.
P2 Outlining the development of a selected public service organisation
National Health Services is the most effective and efficient organisation which provides
health care services of public. This organisation works for welfare of patients. This organisation
was developed in accordance to National health service act 1946. From its establishment, this
organisation has developed continuously. These developments are made by the government of
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United Kingdom in order to be sure that every citizen of their country must have medical
services so that they can have a healthy life (Carmona, 2015).
Development of NHS includes development in infrastructure of this organisation,
enhanced equipment and medical tools, efficient staff such as doctors, nurses etc. These
developments are mentioned below for better understanding:
Patient focussed service: NHS has adopted patient focused approach in which they have
developed their policies and aligned them with patient’s focus. Hospitals under national health
service has provided extra capacity for patients so that services can be provided to all people who
requires medical attention. In order to support this approach, NHS has established multiple
hospitals.
Primary care: NHS is combination of multiple hospitals and general practitioners. It has
been seen that most of people in UK requires primary care rather than serious hospital care.
Primary care includes services such as dentist, opticians, pharmacists etc. All these primary care
practitioners work with NHS on independent contracts. These doctors are salaried but are paid
according to the number of patients, they treat in a period. This approach has developed NHS
hospitals as these doctors can work for NHS and also can work independently as well. This
service opens up the scope of involving local doctors.
Community services: In recent years, NHS has been developed a lot in the area of
community services. These services are referred to amenities which are essentials for an
individual. These services include vaccinations, immunisation, health education, child welfare
clinics etc. By providing all these services, NHS has gained trust and funds of public as it is
considered that this organisation is working for the welfare of public. Community services is
most significant development for national health services. NHS ensures that every individual
should be educated about basic health information due to which they promote and advertise their
various campaigns so that various diseases can be prevented. This development contributes in the
favour of organisation as well, as NHS able to procure huge funds from public (Dror, 2017).
Cost effectiveness and affordability: National health service is a public service provider
and they do not work for earning any kind of profit. Regardless to this statement, most services
of NHS are chargeable. The reason behind these charges in medicines and maintenance of
hospital premises. But then also these services are of low cost and do not involves any profits.
NHS has developed in recent times and they have make sure that each and every service of their
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organisation will be cost effective so that everyone can afford them. Another reason that these
services are cost effective is because this services do not involve any kind of commissioning or
tariffs.
Improved NHS budget: United Kingdom is a stable economy but due to the impact of
BREXIT, UK has to suffer a financial crisis in which all the public services of UK has been
affected. In order to make sure that in future any financial crises must not effect public services,
NHS has improved their budget where they have involved a provision for crises management
funds. This improved budget is the sign of high development of this organisation. This
development makes sure that in kind of crises, this organisation will be in a stable state and they
will provide public services in an effective manner (Ferlie and Ongaro, 2015).
Sustainability and transformation plans: Another development of NHS is their
sustainability and transformational plans. As according to these plans, NHS has planned to
transform their services using digital technology. There is no doubt that digital technology is the
most promising development in the world right now which can transform any system for better.
In this plan of NHS, they have make sure that their all the activities will be converted to digital.
All the data of patients and staff will be managed by digitalisation which will be bring
sustainability in their activities.
From the above developments, it has been clear that the selected public service
organisation that is NHS is a developed organisation and is influenced by digital technology in a
positive way. In each step of its development, digital technology has make sure that the
development can reach to the needy people.
M1 Analysing the ways in which contemporary practice sits within a tradition of historical
practice
The most appropriate example of a contemporary practice within a tradition of historical
practice is providing health care services by National health service. Providing health services to
needy is a tradition of historical practice but providing those services in hospital is a
contemporary practice. The most significant way of providing contemporary practice and
historical practice is digitalisation (Gill, 2018). When a patient is treated by a doctor, it is
considered as a traditional practice but when a patient is treated by a doctor using digital
machineries and advanced equipment is considered as contemporary practice. So, it can be said
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that digital technology is the way by which both of these practices are provided by NHS to their
patients.
D1 Evaluating contemporary issues within the development of public services
Public services are the facilities which are provided by the government to their citizens.
There are various contemporary issues which has to face by government while developing these
services. Some of these issues are mentioned as follows. The most influencing issue which is
faced by public services is corruption. Public services are handled by officers and in order to get
the work done some parties offer these officers bribe due to which the needy people get
adversely affected. Another contemporary issue is technology; digital technology is the most
effectively way to provide public services in effectively way but in case where departments
cannot afford to use updated technology, public services gets affected. Other contemporary
issues are inequality, social equity, transparency and many more.
TASK 2
P3 Analysing the operational structure of a given public services organisation
Operational structure is well defined hierarchy which involves all the operations which are
done by an organisation along with the department who conducts those operations. Operational
structure is different from organisational structure as it is only concerned with the operations
done by an organisation. This structure is defined by the top level management of a company and
is followed by entire organisation (Gonzales, 2016).
National health service of United Kingdom is the public service organisation which is
selected for this report. Operational structure of NHS even involves department of health, UK as
it is the association which overlooks this organisation. Operational structure of NHS is presented
below:
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(Figure 1: NHS Operational structure)
(Source: NHS Operational structure, 2015)
Operational structure of NHS is quite complex as it is related with Department of Health of
United Kingdom. Along with internal parties, there are several external parties which are
involved in this structure as well. In order to better understand this structure, all the parties must
be divide in internal and external parties and must be discussed one by one.
Public health and its local authorities: Public health department of United Kingdom
along with its local authorities’ work for the welfare of people by providing them medical
facilities. These authorities are not the superiors or the sub ordinates of NHS, but work
independently under Department of Health. This is s external party in the operational structure of
NHS which is not directly related with operations of NHS but the only link they has is that all the
health service providers including NHS, public health authorities, other provide hospitals has to
follow rules and regulations provided by Department of Health, UK.
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Clinical Commissioning groups: National health service is a large scale organisation
which provides ample health services and in order to simply the operational structure, these
services are divided into four classes mentioned below:
NHS Trust: These trust are clinical hospitals which operate on the funds provided by
government. These hospitals are placed in every area of United Kingdom and each unit
facilitates to the population of their jurisdiction. These hospitals are the internal party of
operational structure of NHS.
NHS Foundation trusts: These trusts are same as the above units but the only difference is
that these units are funded by various foundations in which local public donate money for the
welfare of society. These trusts are also an internal part of operational structure and provide
health care services to required people (Hodge and Greve, 2017).
Primary care providers: This group of service providers are independent medical
practitioners which provide services on behalf of NHS. These practitioners are not salaried but
get paid according to their work. Primary care service providers are the part of internal
operational structure and includes dentist, opticians etc.
Other service providers: These are also internal parties of NHS operational structure.
These parties involve local clinics and hospitals which work under the guidance of NHS.
National Institute for Health and Care excellence: This is an external party and is not
directly related to the operations of NHS. National Institute of Health and Care excellence is an
advisory commission which advices NHS in various operational activities. This institute even
hires medical practitioners for NHS.
Care Quality Commission and Monitor: CQC is a commission which monitors the
operational activities of NHS in order to check whether or not these NHS hospitals are properly
working.
From above operational structure, it has been observed that the structure level of NHS is
complex but effective.
P4 Explaining how the public sector is held accountable for its actions and direction both
operationally and strategically
Accountability is a concept which held liable a particular action due to which an adverse
effect has been faced. In the case of public sector, these organisations are government owned and
are controlled by governmental authorities. Any action or direction by these organisation is
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recorded so that appropriate party can be held liable. Public sector organisations such as National
health service develops strategies and perform operations but if any of these strategies fail and
these options result in causing harm to their patients then there are various parties who will be
held liable. These parties are mentioned below:
Clinical commissioning groups: As studied in operational structure of NHS, composing
groups are the operational heads which actually conducts the activities. These parties will be held
liable if any administrative action has been caused a harm. In order to hold these groups
accountable, a lawsuit is required to be filed by the party who is the victim of that harm (Jones,
2016).
Regulators: These parties are the quality commissions and other upper level departments
who prepares strategies for NHS for its smooth functioning. If any of these strategies results to
be the reason of harm, then these parties can be held accountable. In order to make these parties
accountable, a complaint must be filed before any legal proceedings. This complaint can be filed
at CQC office and even electronically using a basic enquiry form.
Medical practitioners: These are the doctors who are responsible for the any treatment
they have given to their patients. These medical practitioners are accountable for all their actions.
If any medical practitioner has caused harm to any of its patient, then the patient or their family
can file a complaint. In order to make these parties accountable, a compliant must be first filed in
health department.
According to the other authorities, all public sector organisations are accountable for their
actions and directions and they can even hold liable by legal proceedings. The procedure to
making public sector accountable is different in every sector but a citizen holds all the rights to
exercise its human rights and make a party accountable due to which harm has been caused.
Public sector is accountable for its operations and all the strategies made by them so that public
interest can be protected (Julios, 2017).
M2 Assessing the structure of a public sector organisation with reference to responsibilities
Structure of a public sector organisation such NHS can be better understandable with
analysis of the responsibility at each level. In case of NHS, this organisation is divided into
various stages and at each stage different responsibilities are required to fulfilled. In order to
fulfil these responsibility, a personnel team is appointed with has a national director so that all
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responsibilities can be properly fulfilled and can be monitored as well. At all these levels, a
specific personnel are appointed. Operational structure in terms of personnel is presented below:
Figure 2: Senior management structure
(Source: Senior management structure of NHS, 2017)
From the above structure, it can be said that at each level of NHS, a director is appointed
which makes sure to fulfil all the responsibilities so that NHS can operate effectively. These
contemporary public services of NHS, makes sure that there all responsibilities are fulfilled and
digital technology helps in monitoring these services. This operational structure is benefitted by
the use of digital technology as it ensures proper workforce development.
TASK 3
P5 Explaining the types of sources of funding available to the public sector
Funding are the financial resources which are gained to finance various activities of an
organisation. Every organisation which is engaged in public service requires funding, this
funding is available from various sources. These sources of funding in context of public sector of
United Kingdom is mentioned below:
Indirect and direct taxes: Public sector is a government owned sector which runs on the
income of government. Direct and indirect taxes are the major source of government income by
which public sector is funded (Keane, 2018). Direct taxes are paid by the households and
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companies to government which includes income tax, profit tax, corporate tax etc. On the other
hand, indirect taxes are paid via third parties. This tax includes sales tax, value added tax, excise
tax etc. Both of these taxes are paid to government and some of this income is used to fund
public sector and its various public service organisations.
Loan funding: Loan is the amount which is gained on interest basis and must be paid off
after a certain period of time. Public sector avail loans from central government when they
require it and after a period that amount is paid off from grants and funds. This source of finance
is not considered appropriate in most cases as public service organisations has to pay high
interest and overall liability relies in the hands of government only (Lovan, Murray and Shaffer,
2017).
Office for Civil Society: This source of funding allows public sector and its
organisations to acquire funds from government treasure which is kept for civil society. The
main aim of office of civil society is to support the voluntary and other organisations which are
engaged in welfare of public society.
Grants: Grants are the funds which are procured by the various charitable foundations
and donations from public. This is the most important source of funding for public sector. This
source helps public service organisations by providing them funds so that their operations can be
done smoothly. These grants are acquired by wealthy families and businesses which believes in
donations and contributes towards society. This source of finance is most effective and can be
used by every public sector organisation.
Income generation: In this source of finance, public sector generate income by their
selves. In this public sector organisation organises events and other shows to raise funds which
can be used by them. This source of finance is most effective when the economic growth of a
nation is low. When government fails to fund public sector then they generate income by their
own (Mishra, 2019).
The above sources are appropriate for different public sector organisations. These sources
help public sector to operate smoothly. Public sector has the main aim to contribute towards
society and for that they require funds and this requirement is fulfilled by above sources. Digital
technology also helps public sector to raise their funds. For example, if a public service
organisation wants to raise their funds by the source of income generation then they can organise
an event and promotion of that event can be done effectively by using digital technology.
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