The politics of public service reform has never been the most engaging of subjects, but now it seems that its soporific effects have even extended to the Government itself. I Googled the term “public sector reform” and, happening upon the link to the official government website, I opened it to be informed that the topic can now be viewed only in the government archive.

So that's it then: the war is won and the scars on Tony Blair's back have finally healed. Or maybe the rather more saturnine topic of public service reform is simply losing ground in the perpetual battle for finite public interest? Guessing that the latter of these is more likely, I want to set out why I think reforming public services remains an issue of critical importance.

First, it is all too easy for a debate about public service reform to be viewed in myopic terms. For too many involved in delivering local services, reform is aligned with resources - financial, human and technical. Resources are inputs. Inputs are tangible and measurable and so are used to proclaim reassurance, making them prone to the vagaries of political hubris - more police, more nurses, and so on. Demand, meanwhile, is more irksome: difficult to assess, even more difficult to predict and so hard to distil into generic, reassuring soundbites.

Nonetheless, an assessment of demand is critical to the debate about public sector reform and it is within this context that some of the more familiar contemporary political invective is to be found. Understanding and interpreting these demands invariably falls on the people charged with leading and shaping public services. Success in future will be linked to the promotion of more people who can use ambiguity to the advantage of service-users who are able to see beyond political and social horizons, taking measured risks and breaking out of the mono- culture of central domination that has become so ingrained in our thinking.

Assessors wreathed in secrecy

Research assessment exercises are now so secretive that academics are using the Freedom of Information Act to view assessors' reports

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The past 20 years have seen seismic social, cultural and technological change. The war against terrorism since 9/11 has confronted us with a stark view of the future in which the material spoils of our Pyrrhic economic victory are consumed behind concrete barriers and barbed wire. We have changed the way we procure goods and services too. The influence of the internet has imbued the notions of choice and on demand not only in the way we use services but also in our ability to understand and share why things do or don't happen. This new age has led to something of a breakdown in traditional societal roles - few of us arrive at a doctor's surgery completely ignorant of our symptoms, or feel unable to challenge a diagnosis. With myriad websites out there, the idea that doctor knows best has all but vanished.

Public servants have struggled to keep pace with this agenda and have therefore had little impact in shaping it. We've tinkered with the inputs, but for the most part have ignored, and continue to ignore, the outcomes.

Successful public service reform is not providing more cash, people or BlackBerries. Local champions need to lift their attention from the exertions of the here and now and reshape local services and the way they are delivered. That means re-engineering our concept of demand, just as much as it means refining our means of acceding to it. We need to reform the way we act and, more importantly, the way we think about delivering services.

Aidan Rave is head of local government at the executive recruitment company Rockpools

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