Public Value Management: A Paradigm Shift?

ABSTRACT

This chapter reflects on the previous chapters and provides an assessment of what the evidence from the British context tells us about the debate regarding whether we are living in a time of post-new public management, whether public value management fills a conceptual vacuum, or whether this represents the ‘emperors new clothes’. It concludes that there has not been a paradigmatic shift away from new public management ideas but that there has been an incremental shift in terms of how public value outcomes are being considered by policy-makers. What has been missing is a comprehensive reform agenda that allows public value management to be a consistent and integral part of British governance. However, the twin crises of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic may offer a springboard for reform in the medium to long term. © 2021, The Author(s).