Public policies, private strategies and local public spending bodies

Local Public Spending Bodies (LPSBs) occupy an important position in the co ntemporary structures of governance in the UK. As exemplars of many of the diverse characteristics of the New Public Management, LPSBs inhabit the fuz zy space between the public and private spheres, both in terms of organizat ional structure and service delivery. One finding from recent research into the internal governance of three kinds of LPSBs - Further Education Colleg es, Housing Associations and Training and Enterprise Councils - was that th e language of strategy predominated over that of policy on the boards of su ch organizations. In this article we assess the significance of this Ending . We contend that the two terms are not interchangeable and that a vital di stinction needs to be maintained between them. Specifically we argue that p olicy refers to collections of decisions grounded in public values whereas the concept of strategy, particularly as currently understood in the contex t of the New Public Management, refers to the positioning of an organizatio n in its struggle to survive and grow. We conclude that LPSBs have been inv ited to behave strategically within a framework of increasingly centralized policy objectives and resource allocations.