About the consumer focus

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About the consumer focus for public services

On 9 February, Cabinet Office Minister Ian McCartney announced a new consumer focus for public services. The aim is to encourage services to be more responsive to their user, with a focus on how consumers' views are built into an organisation's planning process and how the quality of service delivery is improved as a result.

The consumer focus is not about carrying out a single test of user satisfaction, but about cultural change (although measuring satisfaction will play a part). It means gathering information where it will be most useful and have most effect.

The consumer focus is not finger wagging by Government or criticism of the state of public services as a whole.

The consumer focus is designed to build on the best of what is there already. It is a forum for the exchange of ideas: it is about learning from one another, bringing all services up to the standards of the best, and then improving them further.

Who benefits? The consumer - both individuals and business will benefit as their views will be used to help design and improve the quality of their public services.

The key elements of the consumer focus are:

The Cabinet Office Modernising Public Service Group will use the People's Panel regularly to assess consumer satisfaction with and expectations of key public services.

Departments and agencies responsible for delivering services to the public should put in place a programme to ensure that these services meet the needs of consumers. This includes:

	designating an official at senior board level to take responsibility for the design and implementation of the programme: a 'consumer champion' (it may be sensible to appoint consumer champions at other levels too);
	identifying user priorities and examining user satisfaction through regular research and consultation;
	taking account of consumer views at every level in the organisation both in the design and delivery of services and reporting on improvements made in annual reports; and;
	providing feedback to consumers.

Targets will be set in Service Delivery Agreements during the 2000 Spending Review wherever possible and sensible.

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Last updated: May 2000