Trust and local government
Trust in local government is widely felt to be declining. But what do we mean by trust, how do people form trusting relationships, and how can public service organisations realistically develop more of those relationships?
- Lips don't lie? It's with interest that I read Birmingham County Council has introduced telephone lie detector tests, sorry voice stress tests, for claimants calling their benefit office. Whilst on the face of it, this seems to have purported benefits (apparently Harrow Council has saved £110,000 in three months during a pilot scheme), I wonder at what costs?I would think such measures begin to subtly change the dynamics of the claimant-staff interactions (already quite fraught one would imagine),... continue reading on 9th September 2007 Comments (1)
- If Demos did call centres... The work we're doing on trust and service design at the moment has got me thinking - we seem to have developed a terrible habit of 'improving' public services in ways that actually harm people's experiences of them. Just look at local government over the past five or six years - the Audit Commission says services have improved significantly, but there's not much evidence that the public has noticed.I think this is about the call centre problem. You outsource your customer contact services, put... continue reading 18th July 2006 Comments (4)