The British Council’s Equality Exchange collection brings together new perspectives on the role public services can play in fostering social and economic equality. In it I argue that a more equal society cannot be imagined without strong and active public services – but these services must move with the times to reflect a challenging social, economic and political context. We need a new debate about how this might happen in practice, or the negative impact of the austerity agenda will be profound. Five starting points are below. The full article can be found here.