Customer and Citizen Focused Public Service Provision
Chapter 2 - BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
2.1 Policy Context
Modernising Government
The delivery of public services that are focused on the needs of customers and citizens, rather than providers, is one of the central aims of the Scottish Executive's strategic vision for the modernisation of government and the delivery of better public services. Focusing on the needs of customers and citizens is therefore a key challenge for all public service organisations. The ultimate aim is to ensure that public services are responsive to the needs of customers and that public policy reflects the views and expectations of citizens.
The need to adopt a customer and citizen focus to the planning and delivery of public services is an integral element of a number of major policy initiatives designed to support the wider modernisation agenda.
Best Value
Under the Best Value system local authorities and other public service providers are required to demonstrate that they have adopted a customer/citizen focus to the process of reviewing and improving the quality of service delivery. This requires service providers to adopt a range of approaches to consulting and involving customers, citizens and other stakeholders in: -
- identifying needs and setting objectives, priorities and targets
- considering options for the delivery of services; and
- reviewing services and past performance and setting out improvements to be made in the future.
Community Planning
Community Planning has been defined as a "process through which councils and their public sector partners, in consultation with the voluntary sector and the community, can agree both a strategic vision for the area and the action which each of the partners will take in pursuit of that vision". Community Planning partnerships in each of Scotland's 32 local authority areas have adopted or are currently developing a range of ways of involving and consulting with local communities in the development of community planning.
21 st Century Government
Making effective use of the capabilities of modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) to transform the way public service providers engage with customers and citizens is another key element of the modernising government agenda. The emphasis is on giving customers and citizens more choices about how, where and when they can access services and interact with public service providers.
A number of public sector organisations are starting to explore the use of electronic channels such as customer contact centres and the Internet as new ways of seeking feedback from customers and consulting with citizens. The Scottish Executive has supported a number of innovative projects designed to use ICTs to deliver services that are focused on the needs of customers and citizens by providing funding through the Modernising Government Fund.
In addition to these "cross-cutting" initiatives there have also been a wide range of recent initiatives relating to individual policy areas, e.g. health, education, planning and housing, that have placed a strong emphasis on public service providers becoming more focused on the needs of customers and citizens. All of these initiatives require public sector organisations to adopt a range of different techniques and approaches designed to improve the way they interact with the public as customers and citizens. However, it is important that the approach adopted is "fit for purpose" and can contribute to service improvement and help inform decision making.
2.2 Approaches to developing a customer/ citizen focus in public services
The previous section described a range of initiatives that place a strong emphasis on the need for public service providers to become more responsive to the needs and aspirations of customers and citizens. While these initiatives share a common theme, in as much that they all suggest that public service providers need to be more focused on the needs of the public, they approach this from a variety of different perspectives.
Some initiatives emphasise the need to consult with citizens to ensure that the policies and priorities adopted by public sector organisations reflect the needs and aspirations of the public. Others place a greater emphasis on the need to make services more responsive to the people who use them and the use of feedback from customers as a source of information that can be used to improve the way services are delivered. Finally, some initiatives place an emphasis on increased public participation and community involvement as an end in itself, which has an important role to play in terms of democratic renewal and the promotion of a more inclusive society. Each of these approaches can be seen as being derived from one of three distinctive traditions or perspectives.
- Public Engagement as a way of informing decision making by consulting with the public about issues that will effect them as citizens and members of local communities.
- Consumerism as a way of seeking to make services more responsive to the needs of customers.
- Public Involvement as a way of promoting a more participative approach to decision making and encouraging active citizenship.
While the distinction between these three strands of thinking can be made in theory it is not always clear in practice. Many policy initiatives do not explicitly state which of these approaches they are intended to support. There is often confusion in the use of language with certain terms such as citizens, customers and communities or involvement, engagement and participation sometimes being used interchangeably as if they meant the same thing. While it may be argued that this amounts to no more than semantics it can lead to confusion and a lack of focus in relation to the methods that are used to develop a more citizen and customer focused approach to the delivery of public services.
Terms such as "the public" or "the community" are often used as if there was one single, commonly accepted definition of their meaning. In practice, however, they can mean different things to different people. While these terms can provide useful shorthand descriptions, there is a danger that this can lead to a simplistic analysis that ignores the complexity of how individuals and groups actually interact with and have an interest in the work of public service providers. People interact with public sector organisations "wearing a number of different hats". Sometimes they will interact as customers or consumers of individual services, sometimes they will interact as citizens with an interest in the broad policy objectives or priorities being pursued by public sector organisations, while at other times they will have an interest in particular issues that effect their local community.
Figure 2.1 below attempts to describe graphically the various relationships that the "public" can have with public sector organisations.
Figure 2.1 - Customers, Citizens and Stakeholders
This is inevitably a simplification of what is a very complex situation but it does attempt to identify the wide range of different "constituencies" that public sector organisations have to interact with. It also needs to be emphasised that individuals will be members of more than one of these constituencies and that they may place more or less emphasis on their membership of any one of them depending on the issue involved.
This report examines how public service providers are dealing with two particular forms of interaction with the public. The next chapter examines how public service providers in Scotland handle feedback from customers who have experience of using individual services and how this information is used to help improve service delivery. The following chapter looks at approaches to consulting with the public as citizens and the impact this has on decision making.