How we manage public services and hold them to account is critically important. Yet austerity
recent changes to accountability frameworks and the loss of the Audit Commission have created
a huge deficit in our understanding of how well services are delivered. The time is thus right
to re-examine the state of our vital public services as well as how we can make them more
accountable. This book reopens the debate on what accountability means and provides unique
insights into an increasingly complex organizational landscape. It presents a new and
innovative way of evaluating public services that should be of use to academics and public
servants alike. Synthesising empirical work across local government health and social care
the police and fire services this book also explores the relationship between financial and
performance accountability and makes the case for the need for a distinctive sense of public
service accountability.
