Local Government
Local Government has a key role to play in citizen engagement, to develop a more active dialogue between agencies (service providers) and citizens (service receivers) - the intention being to move the agenda from people being 'customer beneficiaries of services' to 'active citizens for change'.
A recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation case study in the London borough of Haringey examined the degree to which officers and managers in a Primary Care Trust and a Local Authority engaged with local communities. While most public officials had very positive views and feelings about the principles of community engagement, almost all of those interviewed felt uncertain about putting it into practice. There was no coherent training or methodology for implementing the principles of community engagement., the study concluded that the debate about the need for citizen engagement should move away from policy statements, corporate plans and local area agreements to tangible methodologies about 'how we do it'.
The new methodologies are based on two transferable principles for citizen engagement.
1. People are assets- Citizen engagement makes sense. When citizens participate and have greater ownership, public services become more in tune with communities and achieve better results. Public services wishing to deepen and broaden citizen engagement should view citizens not only as service users but also as people who have something of value which they can contribute.
2. Co-production - create a two way street - Co-production is based on the understanding that public services are best delivered 'with' people not 'to' people. Evidence proves that co-production creates deeper more durable change than traditional methods of public service delivery which often fail to recognise the value of service users. Co-production goes beyond consultative or representative approaches, to tap the vast but currently under engaged assets that are intrinsic to all public services, the individuals and communities that use them. One successful and proven method of co-production involves the use of time banking. Time banking is housed within a public sector agency accrediting citizen engagement.
Below are a series of co-production starter questions that service providers could consider to progress service user (citizen) engagement.
1. What role do you envisage for service users' in the development and delivery of your service?
2. How does your service identify and mobilise service users' strengths?
3. How does your service support clients finding ways to help/support others, including fellow service users, family and the local community.
4. In what ways does your service support client-based membership groups which can function as informal support groups, peer group or extended family?
5. What role do you envisage for service users', carers, family, peer group, neighbours and wider community in service provision? How would their contribution be measured?
6. Do you have a membership? And if so, how many active members do you have? (Active Citizenship Proofing)
A study by the New Economics Foundation 'Why System Fail' noted 'the fact that community disengagement continues to rise is not to a failure to consult or conduct opinion research. It is due to a failure to ask people for their help and to use the skills that they have. This is the forgotten engine for change that makes the difference between system working and systems failing'.'
userfiles/Voice not Choice(3).pdf
