5 Use innovation as a means of delivering service improvements and value for money

Private sector involvement can help bring new skills and ideas to the way public services are delivered. Co-operation between different sectors brings together skills and ideas in designing and developing better services for the end user. In contracts where providers are required to reduce costs, they are incentivised to think of an original solution to the existing situation. Focusing on the processes and specifically how the outcomes will be achieved can be restricting and limit innovation.

Building service delivery into PPP programmes is a key area where the UK has moved ahead of other countries. For example, Serco designed and built a Ministry of Defence training academy with the concept of 'people flow' in mind. The design was divided with the accommodation kept on one side, the central hub containing the refectory and library and the classrooms on the other side. This meant the provider could clean the refectory, kitchens and classrooms in the morning and, while students were in lessons, the contractor could clean the accommodation - saving manpower and avoiding having to move students around unnecessarily.33

In the prisons sector, PPP prisons are planned to maximise efficiency. The introduction of competition has encouraged significant innovation in prison management regimes, organisational culture, design, construction and technology. Initiatives such as requiring all prisoners to be provided with 15 hours out of their cell each day, innovative designs, the use of CCTV cameras and magnetic keys have helped reduce staffing numbers.34 Another example is in prison education, a daily activity required for all inmates, where one prison was designed so that the education accommodation was next to the housing wing, which meant that prisoners were near their classrooms, saving prison officers' time and reducing the distance they had to cover.