How to draw up a local charter

Contents

Chapter 4 - Consulting and Involving People

Key points

4.1 The "Involving users: improving the delivery of local public services" guidance and its companion reports (see Annex C) contain a great deal of useful advice on methods for involving and consulting users, and the issues which arise. One of the most important messages is that when you are thinking about what issues to discuss with your users, try to keep an open mind, be prepared for surprises and allow users to set the agenda.

4.2 If you are revising an existing charter, it might be best to consult users on that. But remember, first ask yourself, and others, whether the charter has contributed to an improvement in service or accountability. If it has not then it might be best to start again afresh. Similarly, if much has changed since the previous version then you will probably need to prepare a new draft. In these instances, and if you are producing a charter for the first time, you may find that users will respond more positively if they have an early draft to consider. It is often much harder to generate ideas from a blank piece of paper. But take care not to be too prescriptive or inflexible. 

4.3 You will also need to talk to your staff, as well as other relevant local service providers, to learn from their experiences. You will want to find out how you can plan your services to meet the needs of people who use them, and what local people want to see in your charter. Different people may have different priorities (for example, according to age, sex, ethnicity, or special needs), and you will need to think about the different points of view.

Planning to consult and involve users of your services

4.4 Do not underestimate the time, effort and cost of involving a broad range of people in the preparation and delivery of your charter. But this is always well spent if it ensures that your service better meets people’s needs. Most organisations find that there are many positive benefits, including a better understanding of different views, and greater job satisfaction for staff. You will need to plan very carefully how you are to involve and consult users. Make sure you have an open agenda, which does not just stick to what you want to discuss. Involve some of your users in planning what you will talk about more widely.

4.5 You are likely to get feedback on wider service delivery issues, and complaints as well. You will want to let people have their say about services and how they are delivered, but it is important to manage people’s expectations from the start. Make clear if there are some issues that you cannot change (for example, Government policy, benefit rates, and entitlement conditions). There are other channels people can use to raise these issues, for example, through local authority elected members or their MP. Include details of your complaints procedure, in case people are prompted to complain about the service they have received in the past.

The Courts’ Charter for County and other courts, such as the Social Security Commissioners, Land Tribunals, etc. makes clear that complaints about verdicts, decisions and sentences are not covered by the charter. It also makes clear reference to how complaints of this nature should be pursued.

4.6 Think about the following:

who are your users and potential users, and who has used your service in the past? Identify and involve the right range of people. For example, discussion on refuse collection should include a large sample of people receiving the service, while consideration of food hygiene inspection should be targeted on owners/occupiers of premises covered by these inspections, and on people who use the premises concerned;

talk to a wide range of people. It may not be practical to involve everyone (for example, because of the geographical spread of your organisation). But make sure that you include men and women of all ages, and from different areas and social backgrounds, who us the different types of service you provide. Ensure you include a representative sample of people from ethnic minorities and people with special needs. You should also consult local representative groups and others with an interest, who can pass on information to other users you cannot consult direct. Try to find out as much about the people you are consulting as possible in advance of meeting them;

use available information to best effect. For instance, complaints often provide a good starting point for identifying potential problems; then see whether these problems are more widely shared during your consultation. But remember that existing information is only as good as the systems which gather it;

how to present the exercise to users when you contact them. Ensure that you present the exercise in the broader context of improving services rather than presenting the charter as an end in itself. You may find that people are not used to being consulted, and have little knowledge about charters. You may need to explain what a charter is, why you are producing one, how it will improve the service they receive, and how they can help. People will need to see the value of a written document. You may need to give further explanations as people may not know about all the services you provide, or may confuse you with other service providers. But try and keep things simple and to the point; 

timing. If you can, consult your users during or immediately after your busiest period, when people have experienced your service at its most stretched. This will give you the most useful feedback on any problems;

how to publicise the exercise to users and to user groups. You may be able to invite people you are already in contact with to take part. You might meet people who use your service at regular user group meetings (which is cheaper than organising a meeting yourself), advertise on posters in waiting rooms, use newspapers, or ask members of staff in regular contact with users to pass on information about the consultation. You could also telephone user groups direct. Think about  how you can best involve others with an interest, such asother related services and voluntary organisations (see Chapter 7 "Working with other service providers");

how much time and money you have for this. Involving users may include paying for a place to hold a meeting, travel costs, and someone to lead the meeting. If you are issuing a consultation document, or draft charter, you should allow people ample time to respond, taking into account holiday periods (for example the summer and Christmas) and the time it will take for information to be passed down. Where you are carrying out qualitative research (for example focus groups), remember that these take time to set up properly. It isimportant to consult people as early as possible in the process so that you can take their views on board.

Norfolk Constabulary holds meetings on burglary, domestic violence and road accidents as forums for debate on service standards in these areas. They advertise the forums in local newspapers and invite people who have been involved in incidents etc, and organisations such as Relate that have experience of dealing with the police.

Consulting and involving staff

4.7 Consulting and involving the people who work in your organisation is important because they have much to contribute from their own first-hand experience. They will also be required to deliver the standards in your charter, and so must recognise them as realistic. You should explain the benefits to them of your charter, and encourage them to ‘own’ it. Seek out ideas from different parts of your organisation, not just those who have a direct involvement with the job. There may be occasions when you will need to tackle possible conflicts between what users want and what your staff believe they can deliver (for example, at times of budgetary restraint). This will need careful handling, but you should be able to find a way forward, as most staff want to deliver the best possible service.

The Borough of Broxbourne consults both staff and users about the service standards to be delivered. It has produced a Customer Care Guide for staff following consultation with them at customer services group meetings. The Guide sets out the customer care standards all users have a right to expect. The standards are also discussed with users and published in a Customer Information leaflet, together with recent levels of performance in ten quantifiable areas.

4.8 A good starting point might be a discussion about the type of business your organisation is in, and what you see as your main services. It may be useful to compare your staffs’ views with those of, for instance, a customer focus group or comparable organisations in the UK or overseas.

4.9 Talk especially to your front-line staff, who are closest to the people using your service, together with those who handle complaints. They will be able to give you information about customer satisfaction, including any trends in complaints. Staff suggestion schemes are in many circumstances a good way of getting positive and negative feedback, and will show your staff that you value their opinions. The Cabinet Office "Guidance on Schemes to Reward Innovative Ideas" (see Annex C) contains various ideas for increasing staff involvement, and examples of good practice can be found on the Cabinet Office’s best practice website at www.servicefirst.gov.uk. 

4.10 You also need to involve a range of staff in other services with which you work closely. You might consider setting up a consultation group that meets regularly to review progress. There is much to be gained from talking to other organisations about service improvements, and how to help users identify and contact related services. You might get ideas from their charters or similar documents. The identification and exchange of good ideas is essential to achieving continuous improvement.

Ways of consulting and involving users

4.11 First of all decide who will take responsibility for consulting and involving users. Then agree which tasks they will need help with and how they will get that help. Different people will be able to help in different ways and at different stages of developing the charter. The "Involving users: improving the delivery of local public services" guidance analyses the application of various consultation and involvement techniques. Remember that there is a difference between finding out what your users want and involving them in the decision-making process. You need to cover both elements in developing your charter.

4.12 The methods you use will depend on the complexity of the issues, the input you are seeking and the profile of your users. The value will depend on how well such activities are conducted. Remember that there are various methods you can use to consult and involve users, and that one method alone will probably not give you all the information you want. The "Involving users: improving the delivery of local public services" guidance and its companion reports set out a variety of methods for involving and consulting users. 

Use existing feedback from your users. Complaints will often tell you what issues people feel strongly about and can help you identify recurring problems. But only if your complaints system is effective and representative. Copies of the Cabinet Office guidance "How to deal with complaints" can be obtained by calling the Service First Publications line on 0845 7 22 32 42 or via the Cabinet Office website at www.servicefirst.gov.uk. Use positive feedback, comments and suggestions to make sure you have a balanced view of your service from users. User suggestion schemes are a good way of getting instant information about how people feel when they use your service. But remember that using existing information does not remove the need to further seek views from users. You still need to approach the exercise with a blank sheet of paper and an open agenda.

Use existing information and networks. Go to meetings of users and their representatives, consumer and special interest groups, or look at information already held by user organisations about customer priorities. For example, if your users include older people, contact local older people’s groups, Forums or Advocacy schemes. This will help you to better understand and ultimately meet their needs. In local authorities, elected members can give feedback, for example, on issues raised at their surgeries. Be careful though not only to get input from informed groups, used to voicing their views. Although they may offer useful insights, they do not necessarily know everything that users want.

Northamptonshire County Council’s Environment Directorate Service Charter publicises the availability of a phone-in as an additional way for the public to ask questions and comment on any aspect of customer service. The County Transportation Officer uses this regular phone-in on Radio Northampton to let the public know about current service developments.

Hold group discussions, as they encourage people to speak their minds. You may find it useful to have an independent person take the lead at these meetings to encourage people to be more open. Or you could provide training for members of your own team.

Talk to users at places they find comfortable and at times they find convenient: this might be at meetings they were going to attend anyway, at open days, or when they are calling in at your offices for other reasons. Open days or roadshows can be a good way of contacting potential users, publicising your services and providing information. And open days give users a chance to become familiar with your premises and meet your staff, so promoting good relations generally.

Southampton Community Health Services produced an adult mental-health charter, after consulting users, carers and staff. They held five meetings with local people and five with groups of staff to discuss the charter. The revised charter was discussed at a public meeting, and following this they made more changes to the charter before the launch.

Use telephone surveys. Contact a random sample of your users by phone and ask for their views on different parts of the service you provide. You may need professional advice on survey techniques, ‘cold-calling’ in particular can be off-putting to some people.

Use postal surveys and send questionnaires to a random selection of addresses. It is often best to pilot a survey on a small group of users to make sure they understand the questions. Make sure you set a timescale for responses and give clear instructions on how to complete the survey, putting questions in a logical order. Supplying a reply-paid envelope will encourage responses. This method will help you get the views of potential as well as existing users. Surveys can also allow you to analyse large samples quickly, and to track changes in users’ opinions if you use the same questions in later surveys.

Call on people at home to interview them about the services they use. But remember, this requires careful planning. Callers should arrange an interview time in advance and carry proof of identity. They may also need to be ready to deal with disabled people and those who cannot speak English. This is a useful method for finding out the views of users who have difficulty reading or writing (and who therefore cannot return postal surveys).

Tell users and staff about progress you make at each important stage.

Leicester City Council carries out surveys on a three-yearly basis, using a professional company, which looks at people’s attitudes towards the Council and its charter and assesses which service standards contained in the charter meet the needs of residents. The interviewers talk to a representative sample of residents in their homes, and leave copies of the Council charter to read for a week. The interviewers then return to ask more detailed questions about the charter.

Ayrshire Dumfries and Galloway District Employment Service produced revised District Jobseeker’s and Employer’s charters after sending questionnaires to both groups. The jobseeker’s questionnaire was given to unemployed people in the offices of the District. This asked for views on the national Jobseeker’s charter standards (for example, answering letters in full within 10 working days of receiving them, and making sure customers are seen within 10 minutes of their appointment time). The employer’s questionnaire was filled in by Jobcentre staff for the employers during visits or by phone contact. Its purpose was to find out what employers wanted from their Jobcentres in terms of standards to be included in the charter.

Provide an e-mail address where people can send their suggestions. Make sure your website encourages people to comment and helps them to do so. Any information you publish electronically should include an invitation to reply or comment by e-mail.

Prepare an action plan and a draft charter document. Users should be fully involved in the development of mechanisms to collect performance information, review service delivery procedures and prepare or revise charter documents. A written action  plan can help clarify these systems and mechanisms, and set a timetable. As for the charter document, users will often expect you to write a first draft, based on their priorities, on which they will provide comments.

Provide an e-mail address where people can send their suggestions.

Building a partnership with users

4.13 Your charter is a partnership of ‘common cause’ between your service and the people who use it. For you to deliver a first-class service will require your users to recognise that they have responsibilities as well as rights. Suggest to people how they can help you deliver a good service (for example, by giving you 48 hours notice if they cannot attend an appointment). You should say whether people are legally obliged to provide information, and explain the consequences if this is not done. Explain that the level of service you provide may depend on the people who use your service letting you have the right information at the right time. If this is the case, make clear what you have assumed in the commitments you give.

4.14 Tell people the cost of, for example, missed appointments, and say how this affects them. You could say what your target is for reducing missed appointments, how much you will save, and what you will spend this money on. Make clear to users that you value their co-operation in helping you deliver a good service, and think about how you might thank the most helpful.

4.15 But remember that effective systems are required to support users’ responsible behaviour. People cannot give you the information you need on time if the request is poorly written, your forms badly designed, the instructions are too complicated, or they are unable to contact you easily. Make sure your systems make it easy for people to help you.

4.16 You may also wish to explain that the service you provide is dependent on your users treating staff with respect and courtesy, and that users have a responsibility not to harass staff.

Ravenswood School, North Somerset, Parent’s Charter sets out ways in which parents can help support them, for example: ‘If your child is absent for any reason please phone the school or send a note when your child returns. This authorises the absence, which is very helpful as registers are checked fortnightly by the Education Welfare Officer… and have to be reported annually to the Department for Education and Skills. ‘

Providing feedback

4.17 If you tell people how their views have made a difference to your charter, they will feel that you value their opinions. Your relationship with them will be strengthened as a result. You should: tell users and staff about progress you make at each important stage; let people know about any changes you make to your charter as a result of involving and consulting them (when you produce your charter, make clear that it is based on public consultation and involvement). If individual feedback is not possible, provide feedback in other ways, for example via a press release, a leaflet, or posters in offices; and if you have not taken on board particular suggestions let people know why.

4.18 You will need to consider how best to do this within the resources available. You might, for instance, include a short summary (one or two paragraphs) in your charter if you have the space. Or include an insert which sets out performance against standards on one side of the page, and results of consultation and action taken on the other. Newsletters and general meetings are other possible mechanisms.