Chalk + Talk with Julian Le Grand: Privatisation and Public Services

At the next ESRC sponsored Chalk + Talk, Professor Le Grand will explore issues around 'outsourcing' and privatisation in the delivery of public services, considering the roles of for-profits, non-profits and mutuals.

Julian Le Grand has been the Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics since 1993. He was awarded a knighthood in the 2015 New Year's Honours list for services to social sciences and public service.

From 2003 to 2005 he was seconded to No 10 Downing St to serves as Senior Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair. In 2007 he was Chairman of the Social Work Practices Working Group for the UK Department for Children, Families and Schools. From 2007 to 2009 he was Chair of Health England: the National Reference Group for Health and Well Being for the UK Department of Health. From 2011 to 2013, he was Chair of the UK Cabinet Office's Mutuals TaskForce. In 2013 and 2014, he chaired the Panels reviewing Doncaster's and Birmingham's Children's Services for the Department for Education.

As well as these positions, he has acted as an adviser to the President of the European Commission, the World Bank, the World Health Organisation, the OECD, HM Treasury, the UK Department of Work and Pensions and the BBC. He has been Vice-Chairman of a major teaching hospital and a non-executive director of several health authorities. He has served on several think-tank commissions and on two grants boards for the Economic and Social Research Council.

He is the author, co-author or editor of over twenty books, and has written more than one hundred refereed journal articles and book chapters on economics, philosophy and public policy. He was listed as one of the Guardian's and Prospect’s top British public intellectuals.

He is a principal architect of the UK’s public service reforms, empowering users and introducing contestability into health care and education. His other policy innovations include the Pupil Premium Social Work Practices, and Patient Buets.