02 September 2005
A new tool to measure customer satisfaction across the public sector is not a way of introducing more target-setting by the back door, Cabinet Office minister John Hutton has promised.
In his first major speech in the role, Hutton said work was under way on the construction of a complex customer satisfaction index that would highlight strengths and weaknesses across the public sector.
But he dismissed concerns that the index would become yet another government tool for target-setting.
'It will principally be an assessment tool for providers. I don't want it to become a Trojan horse for more targets,' he told delegates at a seminar hosted by the Social Market Foundation on August 24.
Hutton said the creation of a usable model to measure customer satisfaction was a groundbreaking project.
'If we can succeed in constructing such a model, we could provide institutions with vital information to identify and prioritise the action they need to improve the quality of the service they provide,' he said.
Hutton added that the index would create a driving force for change from the ground up, showing which areas of the public sector were leading the way and which needed to improve.
The minister also used the speech to announce that Bernard Herdan, chief executive of the Passport Agency, has been recruited to review the Charter Mark scheme, which is to be replaced with a new benchmark of success that will apply across the public, private and voluntary sectors.
'As the barriers between state, business and voluntary providers are increasingly broken down… it is only fair that the efforts of each in delivering customer satisfaction are given equal merit,' Hutton said.
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