Councils can save money by involving citizens

20 Apr 11
Councils should identify their most active citizens and use their experience to help improve services as well as save money, a think-tank said today.
By Richard Johnstone

20 April 2011

Councils should identify their most active citizens and use their experience to help improve services as well as save money, a think-tank said today.

A report by the New Local Government Network says involving citizens in restructuring services can cut costs significantly by better understanding the motivations of different groups in society. Pilot schemes run by councils saved between 15% and 20%.

Examples include special education needs (SEN) transport services run by Coventry City Council and the London Borough of Croydon. These had made savings by recruiting travel trainers to help children become less reliant on state transport.

The research found that different groups often express radically different views towards proposals for change. Both Coventry and Croydon have altered the services to tailor it to three groups, based on their willingness to change. Service changes take place first with so-called ‘pioneers’, who are more willing to work alongside the council and more likely to volunteer to help run services.

The new service includes travel training for the pioneers, who are identified along with ‘prospectors’ and ‘settlers’, as three service user groups.

The work in these two authorities has identified savings of between 15-20% on the budget in the first year, including 8% through decreased demand. There is an expectation that further savings can follow in future years as the other two groups see personal travel budgets and travel training in action.

Nigel Keohane, report author and NLGN’s head of research, said that the findings could be critical to achieving change in local government, which faces a 28% cut in central government grant over the period of this Parliament.

‘Councils need to take the lead in adopting behaviour change techniques to make the government’s Big Society agenda a reality,’ he said.

‘However, moving away from a one-size-fits-all model of public services means fundamental change in the way government operates. Our research shows that identifying citizen pioneers who are prepared to initiate and lead increased public engagement with service design can encourage wider participation among communities as these practices become part of the norm.’  

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