Public spending cuts are in the news today, as the first five departments agree their resource spending ahead of next month’s spending review.

Actually, perhaps that’s a little misleading. Public spending cuts – and, by implication, public service cuts – have been in the  news almost every day for weeks now, and we can expect them to remain there for years to come as cuts are speculated about, campaigned against, announced and, eventually, as their results are felt across the public and private sectors.

We can expect the discussion over public spending to be a key theme at the Labour party conference next week, just as it was the mood music to the Liberal Democract conference this week; the subtext to almost every event, debate and discussion.

Alongside the debate over cuts sits the deeper question about the role of the state, of both local and central government and the relationship between public, private and third sectors.

An an event on ‘saving the world and saving money’, hosted by CentreForum and the RSPB at the Lib Dem conference earlier this week is perhaps not the most obvious venue for a debate on the role of the state. Given that the RSPB is a huge national charity, however, it’s not so surprising that its chief executive Mike Clarke has an interest in how government works with third sector and businesses to achieve its aims. He argued for more government support to increase the capacity of voluntary organisations, but also said business must do more work with the third sector, and government’s role should be to create the regulatory framework in which businesses are incentivised to do this.

Clarke gave an example of government payments to land managers to help support wildlife and rural communities as one way in which the state step back but still play a role in achieving public benefits, and cited as an another example a water company which is investing in environmental work which improves the quality and sustainability of the water supply as well as improving biodiversity.

The government is already talking about new partnerships with the private sector to deliver public services. In some ways, that’s the easy part of public/private working. The more complex area is finding a way – with the limited financial levers at policy makers’ disposal – to create a sustainable balance between private, public and third sectors which achieves policy aims and social outcomes while sticking to the coalition’s agenda of reducing regulation, removing targets and decentralising power.

In times when public money is going to be less available, a key challenge for policy makers across government will be to identify these areas where businesses’ bottom lines can be aligned with the public and voluntary sector’s social outcomes, and find the right tools to support, and encourage, that convergence.