Francis Maude, minister for the Cabinet Office announced plans to "create a level playing field for civil society organisations" at a Downing Street summit yesterday.

The minister announced that a Green Paper outlining plans to "put Big Society at the heart of public service reform" will be published later this year and will inform the Public Service Reform White Paper being published next year.

Maude (pictured) said: “In the past, huge amounts of money have gone into public services and been swallowed up by bureaucracy before it reached the frontline. A Big Society approach will drive improvements by giving power to people working on the ground who know how to do things better.

“I want to see a whole mix of providers. New models like public sector staff forming co-ops to run their services and civil society organisations forming new alliances with government and the private sector can drive this change. They will break down the old-fashioned public service hierarchies and replace them with vibrant, efficient services that give people the support they need. 

Minister for civil society, Nick Hurd, was present at the announcement and said that the paper would be "a radical shift in public service contracting so only the most innovative approaches to win through".

"We know that there are too many barriers for civil society organisations that want to deliver public services and we are determined to sort them out," he said. "I’m very pleased that we can continue training public services commissioners in working with civil society, better understanding in this area will be critical to our success."

Maude reinforced that social enterprises are eligible to apply for funding from the £1.4bn regional growth fund announced in last month's spending review. He also advised that the public service commissioners training programme for working with civil society organisations, launched in 2006, would continue.