Public services are the main way people (citizens, businesses and organisations) interact with governments. These interactions allow people to exercise rights, access entitlements, execute obligations and achieve ambitions (Thijs, Mackie and Krievins, 2022[1]). Public services have a significant impact on peoples’ lives and are critical to upholding individual rights. Their quality can impact, for instance, how effectively citizens access essential services, how efficiently businesses operate, and, ultimately, how prosperous and equitable societies become. The mission of ensuring accessible, reliable and effective public services is vital for addressing people’s needs and fostering social well-being and progress.
Day-to-day interactions with public services are important in shaping citizens' trust in government institutions. These services are the tangible outcome of government policy, the real-world impact of policymakers' intentions, where intentions transform into action. By improving public services, governments enhance their capacity to deliver on publicly declared objectives and amplify the reach and efficacy of their policies. While a majority of people are satisfied with administrative services, new OECD research shows that improving the reliability, fairness and openness of public services could boost trust (OECD, 2024[2]). For instance, higher satisfaction with administrative services is associated with a 4.7% increased likelihood of having high or moderately high levels of trust in the national civil service. Believing that public institutions adopt innovative ideas to improve public services is associated with almost a 2.6% increase for trust in local government. The evidence is clear: Better public services boost trust levels.
Quality public services build confidence in a government's ability to fulfil its obligations and serve people’s needs. Conversely, miscommunication or failures in public service can erode trust, leading to citizen disillusionment and disenchantment. Developing valuable public services not only enhances the well-being of citizens and communities, but also lays the foundation for a stronger social contract and more effective democratic governance.
Private sector services are setting de facto standards for public services, as people increasingly expect the same kinds of personalised and seamless experiences from the public sector, such as lowering access costs, removing burdens and improving user experience and value for them. Maintaining high-quality public services requires constant adaptation to, and anticipation of, changing needs and preferences as well as technological advances and shifts in demographics (OECD, Forthcoming[3]).
Embracing innovation in government is not an option but an imperative. Governments can continuously improve their mission and create public value, remaining relevant, legitimate and trustworthy in the eyes of their populations. The 2019 OECD Declaration on Public Sector Innovation acknowledged that governments operate today in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous contexts (OECD, 2019[4]). Traditional structures and processes for public services are no longer enough to address the multifaceted issues connected to achieving the ecological, digital and other societal transitions.
Improving public services is a priority for the OECD, as shown with the recent adoption of the Recommendation on Human-centred Public Administrative Services (henceforth, Recommendation), which provides guidance for the development of reliable and trusted public services. The Recommendation, developed in dialogue with global governments, is structured around four pillars: (i) having a strategic vision, with clear and shared values and recognition of rights, (ii) establishing core foundations, both in terms of technical infrastructure and skills, (iii) providing seamless and accessible services, which leverage innovation and experimentation, and (iv) setting up adequate mechanisms and data gathering for measuring user satisfaction with services, to continuously improve services. Through this approach, the Recommendation provides a strong, human-centred policy framework that identifies a path for public services to better address users’ needs, improve public policy outcomes, and build trust in government.
The OECD gathered nearly 800 public services innovations from 83 countries in its 2024 Call for Government Innovations and associated research. This report presents an analysis of those government initiatives, outlining the pioneering practices and breakthroughs at the forefront of public services. It also equips policymakers with good practice examples for improving their own public services. The OECD used the Recommendation principles as a compass to explore the five trends presented in this report. The five trends emphasise the importance of human-centred public services, and the crucial role of future-proofing and co-creating services, leveraging technological transformations to improve service foundations, personalising services to ensure accessibility and inclusion, harnessing novel data to improve public services, and recognising and embracing the democratic role that public services play.
Governments have been crafting solutions to respond to the accelerating pace of change and growing complexity of the world. Building on top of decades of experience on public services reforms (see Box 1.1), now they have been increasingly shifting from isolated interventions and tools towards innovations that explore systemic challenges and address accelerated changes.