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Final Report: Public Sector Performance: An international comparison of education, health care, law and order and public administration
Social and Cultural Planning Office - The Hague
Preface
The performance of public services is subject to sometimes fi ery debate in the Netherlands.
Whereas, in the late 1990s, reforms of social security programs received a great deal of attention, in recent years the focus has shifted to failing public sector performance. Opinion polls and available statistical evidence indicate that the quality of public services leaves a lot to be desired, with waiting lists for health care, staff shortages in education and low crime clear-up rates. The aim of the present report is to trace differences in public sector performance in the Netherlands and twentyeight other industrialized countries and to improve insight in the factors that might explain these differences. The exercice serves several purposes. Above all, international comparison of public sector performance allows the identifi cation of best practices, may suggest explanations of perceived and actual differences in public performance and could contribute to more effective government interventions in the public sector.
This report is the result of a joint venture of bzk and scp. In view of the Dutch Presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2004, the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (bzk) asked the Social and Cultural Planning Offi ce of the Netherlands (scp) to investigate public performance in the eu member states and four major non-eu Anglo-Saxon countries. The Ministry is particularly interested in the productivity and effectivenes of public sector producers and in the quality of their products. Taking lessons from abroad may assist in implementing improvements deemed necessary.eu partners during the Dutch Presidency.
However, the present report will be used not only for the national policy agenda, but also to initiate an exchange of know-how with
To this end, the results will be discussed at a Conference of Directors General and permanent secretaries for the public service, scheduled to take place during the second half of the Dutch presidency. It is hoped this Conference will produce recommendations for improving the performance of various public bodies.
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