09 May 2008
Government departments pushing for 'personalised' public services need to set up rigorous systems to assess the so far unproven cost-effectiveness of a 'user-driven' approach, MPs have warned.
This new model of service delivery has great potential to improve services and user satisfaction, the Commons public administration select committee says, but Whitehall ministries need to monitor closely the
costs and outcomes of initiatives such as the introduction of individual budgets in health and social care.
PASC members also call for vigilance to ensure that, where individuals are unable or unwilling to play an active role in shaping provision, they are not penalised with inferior services as a result.
Committee chair Tony Wright, commenting as the MPs published their findings on May 7, said there was a need for 'robust evidence' to gauge the effectiveness of what amounted to a significant shift in policy.
'Involving people in public services is an important and innovative idea, with huge potential. Genuinely empowering service users, as the government says it wants to do, would fundamentally change the way many of our public services are currently provided,' he said.
'The question is still about cost-effectiveness, and how best to make “personalisation” of public services work. It is early days still for these ideas and we need monitoring and evaluation in the areas where strong user involvement is being pioneered to begin to assess its true potential.'
The PASC's report, User involvement in public services, concludes there is 'emerging evidence' that giving users of public services greater financial or managerial control over their delivery can boost quality and increase satisfaction ratings.
This applies principally in cases where users have a direct stake in the outcomes, the report says, citing the experience of tenant management organisations, where social housing residents run their estates.
The committee is also calling for government departments to 'actively promote' user involvement as an important principle underpinning service provision.
Whitehall training programmes designed to develop public service skills, such as Professional Skills for Government, should emphasise the need to involve and engage service users, the report says.
But Philip Cullum, acting chief executive of the National Consumer Council – which has campaigned for the rights of public service users – said the PASC's conclusions, while welcome, needed to go further.
'It's too easy to describe people as unable or unwilling to engage. They aren't, but they can find it hard to make themselves heard. The real issue is whether public services have the ability to listen,' Cullum said.
'We need action – a more joined-up approach and a stronger direction from government.'
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