Memorandum from the CBI
1. The CBI welcomes the opportunity to submit
evidence to the Select Committee on the involvement of users in
shaping and delivering public services. Business supports good
public services and has a strong interest in their effectiveness.
As a user and funder of public services, business shares concern
about the quality and efficiency of services with all citizens.
But businesses are also increasingly involved in supplying of
public services as provider, working in partnership with the public
sector through contracts as suppliers or joint venture partners.
A common interest for business in all these roles is how best
to design services to meet citizens' needs.
2. The CBI's commitment to achieving better
user-focussed services is emphasised by our membership of the
Future Services Network, along with the National Consumer Council
(NCC) and the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations
(ACEVO). The network is a body which came together to campaign
explicitly for improved user voice in the public services. In
April 2006 the network launched six key principles for reform
which were designed to help deliver services which are more reactive
to individual's changing needs. A copy of our launch document
is included with this brief. The principles set out were that:
— the public needs a voice in public
services;
— we need flexible public services
that respond to people's needs;
— many services could be delivered
in new ways, such as by voluntary organisations or private companies;
— people need more of a choice in public
services;
— public services need to focus on
customer satisfaction; and
— motivated staff make for better public
services.
3. This response echoes many of these themes,
in particular:
— The public needs a voice in public
service provision to deliver better outcomes.
— Using a range of providers can help
deliver better standards through choice.
— To become more responsive, public
services should focus on user satisfaction.
THE PUBLIC
NEEDS A
VOICE IN
PUBLIC SERVICE
PROVISION TO
DELIVER BETTER
OUTCOMES
4. The CBI believes that individuals and
local communities should be given a real voice over key decisions
about public services. A variety of vehicles exist to achieve
this, but at present they are often too bureaucratic to be effective.
Yet it is essential that we develop a culture in the public services
not only of hearing what citizens have to say, but also acting
on it to ensure that funding is focussed on those services that
have a real impact on people's lives and that successful approaches
spread.
5. Involving users in service design and
delivery is good not only for users but also for those responsible
for the service and for those providing it. If a service corresponds
to user needs then it is likely to have user support and responsive
users can lead to a more motivated workforce with better job satisfaction.
6. The use of consultations and advisory
panels can be effective in influencing the design and delivery
of public services. In 2003 Serco began delivering landscaping
and street cleaning services for Woking Borough Council. On preparing
to take over the service, Serco conducted an initial survey of
citizens and responded to concerns by restructuring services,
splitting the borough into four areas, each with its own integrated,
multi-skilled service team. At the beginning of the contract,
community focus groups fed into the development of a five-year
strategic plan. Overall customer satisfaction has risen from 65%
to 80% and Serco has collected 70% of its target performance payment.
7. Effective feedback mechanisms are important
in maintaining user satisfaction. In Woking, Serco proposed a
solution based on staying in touch with the community. Performance
is measured through a quarterly user satisfaction survey of 350
people based on the Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPI).
Up to 10% of Serco's payment is at risk on a sliding scale according
to the level of customer satisfaction. If satisfaction levels
stay below a certain threshold the contract is at risk of termination.
This is one way of ensuring effective user involvement without
disproportionate cost.
8. Serco was able to respond to customer
needs because of a flexible approach to contracting focusing on
outcomes rather than inputs. This allows Serco to focus resources
where they can meet customer needs, such as through changing the
frequency and scope of the service. 10-20% of staff time is freed
through less travelling and condition-based cleaning. The spread
of this kind of approach, which clearly establishes customer needs
in service design and measures customer satisfaction during the
supply stage, has great potential as a way of improving services
in line with people's needs. If service providers or commissioners
do not know what users want from a service, it is unlikely that
it will be effective. Services that do not meet user needs should
not be regarded as good value for money.
USING A
RANGE OF
PROVIDERS CAN
HELP DELIVER
BETTER STANDARDS
THROUGH CHOICE
9. Standards can be set for public services
but the challenge should not be to become "good enough",
but rather to seek continuous improvement. The CBI provided input
into the Charter Mark review and supports the recommendation that
Charter Mark should be refocused to help public services achieve
continuous improvement and enable them to demonstrate outcomes
based on customer satisfaction.
10. CBI members believe that only challenge
can drive such service improvement—either in the hands of
service users themselves through choice—as in schools and
the NHS—or by ensuring that local commissioning authorities,
having consulted with citizens and acting as their champions,
can choose the most appropriate service from a range of providers.
Such a diverse supply market for public services should enable
commissioning authorities to set up arrangements that ensure that
user consultation, and service redesign based on it, are integral
to the way services operate. The competitive pressure that such
a model puts on providers encourages them to innovate in service
design.
11. A key factor in achieving such continuous
improvement, however, is skilled commercial staff acting for the
commissioning body. As well as the commercial procurement skills
that are essential to this work, commissioning bodies need the
skills to understand user needs and build service requirements
around them, so that they can then think innovatively about service
design.
12. One example of where this approach has
worked successfully is in Edinburgh, where the city council awarded
Amey plc a PFI contract to manage the buildings of 17 schools
in an effort to turn around poor performance. The council has
set Amey specific targets for client satisfaction and service
delivery, whereby performance is checked on a monthly basis and
services are monitored through a Quality Facilities Management
support centre, which allows the Council to check Amey's performance
at any time. This system ensures that Amey regards the client
satisfaction and service delivery performance indicators as a
minimum standard, rather than a target, and creates a clear accountability
framework. In this situation, service users have a clear route
to voice any comments on services.
13. This kind of user input should be developed
further, but it requires the existence of a number of potential
providers, each willing to engage in user focussed service design
in order to deliver innovation and efficiency. To deliver this,
commissioners will need to develop a strong strategic understanding
of the outcomes they must achieve and the commissioning and procurement
skills to ensure this happens in a fair way. The CBI has published
a number of papers dealing with better market management of services.
TO BECOME
MORE RESPONSIVE,
PUBLIC SERVICES
SHOULD FOCUS
ON USER
SATISFACTION
14. The real challenge of achieving greater
public satisfaction with public services is ensuring that users
can see demonstrable evidence that they have been listened to
and that services have improved as a result. This requires providers
to engage with users not only at the planning and design stage
of a service but throughout its operation. Evidence from focus
groups with public sector service leaders conducted by the CBI
and Manchester University Business School in summer 2006 emphasised
that the source of many users' dissatisfaction with services is
the fact that frontline staff are not empowered to resolve their
queries—the service is process, rather than people driven.
[74]
15. The CBI believes that all services should
be subject to a rigorous and consistent measure of customer or
user satisfaction so that the performance of services over time
is clear and the relative qualities of different approaches and
providers can be assessed. This is the best way to ensure that
organisations take steps to align themselves to deliver better
service to the public, especially if some penalty or reward is
tied to performance levels, as with Serco at Woking.
16. A good example of how providers can
align their approach to better customer service is provided by
Pinnacle. In 1998, Pinnacle began to deliver a standard housing
management service for around 5,000 properties in Shoreditch and
Hackney. Central to the service was dealing with anti-social behaviour
and neighbourhood disputes, rent collection and repairs. Over
time, however, Pinnacle has aligned its operation to focus on
outreach to residents, establishing a new neighbourhood office
and warden scheme.
17. Engagement with users began during the
procurement process, it was an integral part of Pinnacle's bid.
Residents' panels meet regularly and there is contact with all
residents through questionnaires and surveys. Pinnacle has introduced
new dial-up phones so that residents' views can be polled more
regularly than before. Improved services have led to a degree
of customer complacency, challenging Pinnacle to find new methods
of engaging the community—recent innovations have included
sports events and Brazilian dance classes. Another innovation
has been a youth panel for the area.
18. Service performance measurement has
shifted over time from a range of KPIs to a focus on resident
satisfaction. User engagement has not necessarily increased efficiency
but has delivered the services people want and is crucial to the
success of the contract. A key factor has been constantly challenging
and renewing the approach to user engagement. The firm did not
rest after the initial consultation process and has used new techniques
to keep the users involved particularly in the face of the complacency
brought by success.
19. A key factor in Pinnacle's success in
Hackney was better people management practices. The CBI believes
that setting up external incentives to align service design to
user needs is only one part of achieving a truly people-focussed
business. Accountability within service management and better
use of information are also key factors. Failure to empower staff
with the information needed to address user concerns at the first
point of contact was a key issue in our focus group study. The
recommendations that came out of that work were:
— Services should be designed to allow
even the most junior members of staff to resolve public concerns.
Such a one-stop-shop will require better information management,
skills and training. Service managers should be accountable for
delivering this.
— Public Service leaders have a responsibility
to set clearer service-related objectives for all staff, with
reward for achieving them and constructive action taken where
staff struggle to meet goals.
20. The CBI believes that these recommendations—in
particular around ensuring the focus of the service is on user
satisfaction and that this is reflected in the objectives of all
staff and that these are managed—reflect the main challenge
facing public services in becoming people, rather than process,
focussed. We believe greater use of challenge in general and commissioning
in particular will help drive this change where possible, but
that all service leaders should be held accountable for delivery
against them.
January 2007
74 Hansard Society/Electoral Commission, Audit of Political
Engagement 3 (London, 2006) available to download from www.hansardsociety.org.org.uk Back
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