Demos claims top-down reform is not enough to win public trust in services :: PublicTechnology.net :: e-Government & public sector IT news + job vacancies:

Local government Minister John Healey has signalled his support for a new direction in public service reform, where innovation focuses on citizens’ everyday interactions with providers rather than administrative restructuring.

Appointed as part of a wide ranging reorganisation of Whitehall, Healey is expected to lead the next stage of the local government reform, putting the Prime Ministers ambition of greater citizen engagement into action at local authority level.

Mr Healey spoke at the launch of a new pamphlet from the think tank Demos. Produced in association with Hewlett-Packard, the pamphlet, Unlocking Innovation: Why citizens hold the key to public service reform, collects essays and analysis from a wide range of public sector experts and practitioners. The pamphlet’s chapters offer timely lessons on how public services can better engage their users based on examples of best practice in the public and private sectors.

Welcoming the pamphlet, Mr Healey said:
“Over the past 10 years the government’s investment and reform have delivered massive improvements in our public services. Waiting lists have shortened, crime figures have fallen, and the performances of local authorities have vastly improved. But the public rightly demands more. As the new Demos pamphlet demonstrates, the next stage of reform must be about allowing frontline service staff the resources, time and motivation to fully engage citizens in designing the services that the public relies on.”

The collection includes contributions from:

• Paul Coen, Chief Executive of the Local Government Association arguing that local authorities should learn how to develop and spread innovation without relying on Whitehall direction.

• Sir David Varney, Treasury Adviser on transformational government calling for services to improve effectiveness and efficiency by focusing new technologies on front line delivery as well as back office functions.

• Geoff Mulgan, Former Head of Policy in the Prime Ministers Office on the challenges of scaling up small, local initiatives.

It also presents a series of case studies that showcase citizen-focused innovation in action, including:

• ‘In Control’, a social enterprise that provides social care users with easy and flexible access to individual budgets, making it simple for them to choose their own package of services.

• Hammersmith and Fulham council using detailed survey data to redesign their customer contact centre to better serve local people.

• Public private partnerships for tenant management organisations using deep dialogue with local residents to improve levels of service in social housing.

• ‘Innovative ecosystems’ that have allowed educationalists, academics and artists to come together to build ‘mediascapes’ that allow pupils to enter a virtual world of sights and sounds in order to learn in an interactive and cooperative way.

Simon Parker, co-editor of the collection and Head of Demos’ Public Services programme, said:
“Our public services are in danger of being out of step with the everyday experiences of the people they serve, creating a damaging paradox where services improve but satisfaction declines. Solutions to this challenge won’t come from Whitehall, but from giving teachers, police officers and doctors the space to work with citizens in delivering services that meet their needs and expectations, putting the public at the heart of reform. The message is clear: Whitehall cannot have a monopoly on innovation.”

While the pamphlet offers guidance for local service delivery, it will also resonate with central government departments. With this in mind, Healey’s government colleague and newly appointed Secretary of State at the Cabinet Office Ed Miliband, has contributed a foreword to the collection.

Mr Miliband writes:
“Genuinely supporting the involvement of users and communities is a way to bring about a higher quality of service, a stronger public realm, and the flow of innovative ideas that this pamphlet rightly identifies as necessary. It means that across public services we need to strengthen the scope for input from users, improve the opportunities for collective accountability for local services and strengthen the ability of frontline staff to be sources of innovation and collaboration

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