Fact Sheet 5

Fact Sheet:5

Listening to customers, staff and other stakeholders

1. The Government wants public services that:

	listen to people’s concerns and involve them in decisions about how services should be provided;
	are sensitive to the needs of particular groups of people or businesses;
	reflect people’s real lives. Government should be organised so that people do not have to hunt down services by a process of trial and error, or go round the institutional houses; and
	make it easy to complain and get a result when things go wrong.

The Government also wants to involve staff in the evaluation of policies and services, in order to give them an opportunity to contribute their ideas about how they might be improved.

2. Finding out what an Agency’s or NDPB’s customers (including internal customers and those whose activities are regulated by particular Agencies or NDPBs), staff and their trade unions, and other stakeholders think about how it has delivered the services and functions it is responsible for, and how delivery could be improved in the future, is vital to achieving this drive for responsive and high quality public services. So too is finding out the views of those who currently do not have any contact with the Agency or NDPB but whose needs it could address. Therefore, planning and preparing for the review, and both stages of the review itself, should be informed by the views of these interested parties.

3. Many Agencies and NDPBs consult regularly with customers, staff and their trade unions and other stakeholders, and in the interest of reducing the burden of reviews every effort should be made to use the results of these exercises as part of an Agency or NDPB review. The details of the questions which are relevant in the context of reviews will differ between Agencies and NDPBs. But this Fact Sheet sets out some of the issues which should be borne in mind when seeking their views. Taking account of these will help both to ensure that the applicability of the results of routine consultations are maximised and help in the design of consultation exercises undertaken specifically for the review where these are necessary.

4. Where a specific consultation exercise is considered necessary for the review, it should be possible, in practice, to carry this out in one exercise, rather than separate exercises for both stages. This should help to reduce costs and time. Inviting responses via the web sites of the parent/sponsor Department, Agency or NDPB should be part of the consultation exercise.

5. Detailed guidance on consulting and involving customers and users can be found in the relevant Cabinet Office guidance¹. The Women’s Unit and People’s Panel web sites can also provide information on the views of different groups.

Issues to be considered

	Think about whom to consult – different users will be able to bring different perspectives to finding out about an Agency’s or NDPB’s responsiveness to customers’ needs, and how well it is performing. For example, how effective is the Agency or NDPB in identifying and meeting any special needs of disabled people, ethnic minorities, women etc? Also, you need to consider occasional users, former users and those who currently do not use the services of the Agency or NDPB.
	Think about what you want information on – you need to be able to relate the views of users to how well the Agency or NDPB has performed against its aims, objectives, key targets and quality standards. This will determine who you consult and the types of questions you ask.
	Think about the future as well as the past – you will be interested in users’ views on how the Agency or NDPB has performed to date, but finding out how users, and potential users, think services can be improved, changed or added to in order to better meet their needs is important for identifying how Government objectives can be best delivered in the future.
	Think about how to consult – you may need to tailor the way you consult to what is easiest for those you wish to gain views from. This may be through a paper-based exercise, but it may also be appropriate to invite comments via the Internet, through focus groups or other types of meetings.
	Involve Agency or NDPB staff and their trade unions as well – they actually provide the services received by users and so they should have the opportunity to be consulted on how they think the Agency or NDPB has performed in the past, and how services and Government objectives could be best delivered in the future.
	Seek the views of the parent/sponsor Department – it too may be a user of services provided by the Agency or NDPB, and its views will be of particular relevance to the effectiveness of the way in which the arms-length relationship has been set up.
	Involve other organisations, especially those with whom the Agency or NDPB is in partnership – they are likely to have particular insights into the Agency’s or NDPB’s performance.
	Think about obtaining views about the Agency’s or NDPB’s performance both in relation to national policies and local needs – the review needs to consider how the Agency or NDPB has contributed to achieving the Government’s priorities at the national level and how it has delivered services on the ground in pursuit of those priorities.
	For NDPBs, seek views of the relevant departmental Select Committee – the Government has invited Parliamentary Select Committees to take a more active role in scrutinising the work of NDPBs.

6. There may also be other sources of information which the review can draw upon. For example, assessments carried out under the European Foundation for Quality Management Excellence Model® and the Charter Mark award scheme² may also provide relevant information on customer and staff views.

Footnotes

1 Service First Unit, How to consult your users – an introductory guide. Also available on the Internet at http://www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/
servicefirst/1998/guidance/users/index.htm

Service First Unit, Involving users – improving the delivery of local public services. Also available at http://www.servicefirst.gov.uk/1999/consult/index.htm

2 Further information on the EFQM Excellence Model® can be obtained from British Quality Foundation, 32–34 Great Peter Street, London, SW1P 2QX (web site:http://www.quality-foundation.co.uk).

Information on how to apply the EFQM Excellence Model® to the UK public sector is available on the Internet at http://www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/eeg/1999/benchmarking.htm.

Information on Charter Mark is available on the Internet at http://www.chartermark.gov.uk