PM Gordon Brown has reaffirmed a commitment to his predecessor's campaign for public services reform, arguing that they are still ‘not yet world class'. In a Cabinet Office report, Reaching world class: the next stage in improving public services, the prime minister says: ‘I want world class to mean what it says – every element of our public services to be the best in the world.' The report says such services have three principal characteristics, namely ‘empowering citizens, fostering a new professionalism in the public service workforce, and strong, strategic leadership from central government'. It adds: ‘Central Government would take a very different approach, setting the overall direction rather than directing and controlling services.'
