Read the case study and then answer the following questions. From New Public Management to New Public Governance: The implications for a new public service Helen Dickinson Rarely a day goes by without the performance of government and public services providing a topic of discussion and debate within the media. Whether this is in relation to child protection services, the quality of built infrastructure, the operation of border controls or rising healthcare costs, what is clear is that there is extensive public scrutiny of governments and the services they deliver and to a degree we have not previously seen. This greater focus on the activities of governments takes place against a background of transition. The reasons for this have been well rehearsed and relate to factors such as shifting demographic structures and disease burden, rising citizen expectations, rapid advances in technology and a host of other related challenges, all of which mean that governments are under pressure to be more efficient and effective. Reform has become a common refrain within many governments around the world in their search for new ways in which to deliver services that are less expensive and more appropriate to the wants and needs of individuals and communities. Within this context, the reform of governance has received significant attention. Governance can, and has been, defined in any number of ways (for example, Kjaer 2004 Pierre and Peters 2000). For the purposes of this chapter, governance can be understood as the coordination of institutions and agency in a given policy area towards collective objectives. It therefore describes the division of control and patterns of interaction among key (types of) actors in that policy area. Over the past 30 years it has been argued that governance reform has been a necessary actionfirst, in response to the perceived failings of big government and, subsequently, in response to the unanticipated consequences of the market mechanisms that were intended corrections to unwieldy government arrangements. In more recent years, the concept of new public governance (NPG) has come to the fore to describe the plural nature of the contemporary state, where multiple different actors contribute to the delivery of public services and the policymaking system. This chapter explores the purported shifts in governance forms and the degree to which these have resulted in significant changes to the practice of public services. Rhetorically speaking, it would seem that governments have gone through a period of profound governance reform however, in practice, the impacts of this reform process are less palpable. The reality is that hybrid forms of governance prevail, with a complex overlay of different governance arrangements. This observation has significant implications for the way we organise public services and the kinds of skills and values we require of public servants

. Question 1 (20 Marks) Explicate New Public Management and its role in the improvement of public service delivery