Overview
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This conference took place in April 2004. If you would like to order copies of the speaker's slide presentations, you can still do this using the booking page here.
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Can vouchers, smartcards and per-capita funding of public service combine efficiency with equity?
5th-6th April 2004, Radisson Edwardian, Mayfair London
As public policy makers look to improve efficiency in delivery, and offer more choice and voice to consumers of public services, interest in vouchers and other per-capita funding models continues to grow. Once regarded as an ideological hobbyhorse of the right, vouchers are now championed by many across the political spectrum as an effective way of reforming top-down welfare programmes.
But for many policy makers, vouchers still pose many questions:
· Can they work in practice - can public services ever facilitate real choice?
· Are they efficient - or will voucher schemes create yet more costly and cumbersome bureaucracy?
· Are they fair - or will vouchers lead to two-tiered levels of provision?
· And will vouchers facilitate undesirable outcomes - should consumers be free to make bad as well as good decisions?
This ground-breaking conference, the first of its kind in the UK, examines the history of government funded voucher and smartcard programmes; looks at examples and lessons from abroad and tackles head-on the challenging social policy dilemmas raised. It considers whether new voucher policies, supported by innovative new technology, can deliver choice, voice, equity and efficiency in public service resource allocation?
Choice & Voice - Can Vouchers Deliver? also brings together policy makers from around the world with suppliers and experts with practical experience in voucher programme design, administration and delivery.
Topics Covered:
· Definitions, history and context of public sector vouchers
· Policy dilemmas & trade-offs - Choice vs. Equity?
· Lessons from abroad - US & European vouchers
· Examples of new and innovative voucher applications
· Voucher politics & presentation - Avoiding the "V-word"
· Efficiency & deliverability - the role of technology
· Local authority applications - UK and European examples
· Policy development & future trends.
Principal Sponsor
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