Choice and voice in the future

In yesterday’s Guardian, Ed Mayo the chief executive of the National Consumer Council had some strong words for politicians whose words sound good, but hold little delivery for users and the public.

…while it is welcome that the language politicians use about public services has moved on to focus on people as consumers and citizens - wrapped up in the jargon of "localism", "personalisation" and "choice" - we need action not words.

The three partners in this work, unusual bedfellows, decided to try to create more of a consensus around practical action by putting down a series of "call my bluff" challenges, for open sign-up, in a Future Services Network.

I saw Ed Mayo speak at the launch of the Future Services Network last week, along with representatives from the partner bodies: Stephen Bubb, Chief Executive of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) and Tom Drury from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Public Services Board.

It is laudable effort, backed by sound principles:

• The public needs a voice in public services
• We need flexible public services that respond to people’s needs
• Many services could be delivered in new ways, such as by voluntary organisations or private companies
• People need more of a choice in public services
• Public services need to focus on customer satisfactionMotivated staff make for better public services

The issues of choice and voice are important and merit every bit of the current attention they are receiving.

The debate at the Future Services Network launch event was lively and interesting. Jim Murphy MP, Parliamentary Secretary with responsibiilty for e-government was enthusiastic. One thing that struck me was that he said that for too long the centre-left has been too focused on "redistribution of income" and too muted on the idea of "redistribution of power" and urged public services to extend choice and engagement to the poorest communities (in terms of income and aspiration) quickly.

Some questioned whether a sustained focus on choice, engagement and satisfaction would result in a raft of new targets and reporting. (Answer: possibly but that they would be more outcome focused). I also found interesting a debate on the idea of risk - that as citizens became more actively engaged in the design and provision of services, they will have to shoulder more of the risk and responsibility for outcomes as well.

Local government is already working to accelerate the improvement of services and to increase customer satisfaction, by listening to responding to and working with users and citizens. The LGA is developing a very interesting programme on Customer Led Performance Management, which includes looking at how businesses use customer intelligence to provide the services consumers want, how local government can use similar information to use services, and examples of such from around the world. Through the Performance, Management, Measurement and Information (PMMI) project, we will soon be publishing a briefing on engaging users in performance management itself.