This book has been informed by my experiences over many years, which started with my involvement in community health campaigns against cuts in the NHS budget and more widely for improved access to health services. This was accompanied by working for voluntary organisations which I believed, then, had an important role in contributing to innovation in public services. The experience of working in the voluntary sector also gave me insights into how workers can design and run services with little overall management. This has helped me to appreciate the role of workers in designing and managing services, especially in sectors where the quality of service is directly related to the quality of the workers. Judith Tendler's book ‘Good Government in the Tropics’ (1997), which examined how public service workers worked to improve public service delivery in Brazil, has helped to shape my view that public service workers should guide reforms of public services.

With the introduction of public management reforms, I became intrigued by how people manage the tensions between their ideals and the requirements and practicalities of service delivery in an environment led by targets and inspections. More generally, I have seen the impact of public sector reforms on public services and the damage to public professionals working in those services.

Working for the Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) at the University of Greenwich for over 17 years has given me a privileged place to contribute research to public sector union campaigns against privatisation and the lobbying for improved public services at European and international levels. The importance of public service workers being well paid, trained, supported and respected remains a goal that is too rarely achieved.

More recently, in an age where experts are no longer valued, I have become interested in the concept of the professional, how it has been viewed over time, how professional identities are created and their role in the delivery of public services. Some of the reasons for the sceptical view of experts lie, I think, in a lack of democracy in the way in which expertise is created and shared. The role of professionals in the future democratic design and delivery of public services has yet to receive the attention that it merits. This book is an attempt to raise the profile of this issue.