How to use Public Participation to Cut Costs

This round table, held in association with Northgate Public Services, will address the question...how to make sure that public participation can cut costs as well as improve service quality. 

Civil servants are confident that better public engagement can foster stronger and more effective public services: in a CSW survey, 89% of senior managers said that the active contribution of citizens can lead to better services, with 49% believing that it can help “a great deal”.

Fewer are convinced that improving public engagement can help civil servants to cut costs. Yet services more closely targeted at people’s expressed needs are often less wasteful and more effective, whilst involving service users in decision-making and service provision can foster volunteering and build delivery partnerships – reducing the load on public sector bodies. Actively bringing people into the design and delivery of public services can also improve the available data, help ensure that services meet local needs, and ensure that provision evolves with demand.

Many local authorities, for example, encourage citizens to report graffiti or potholes by emailing pictures from their smartphones, helping council staff to prioritise workloads. In Boston, the city authorities have even automated this process: if people download the phone app Street Bump, their smartphone automatically provides the city with the exact location whenever it senses that it’s been driven over a pothole.

Topics will include:

  • What techniques can be used to improve public participation?
  • Which civil service bodies have saved money by engaging the public?
  • Where do the greatest potential savings lie?
  • How can we avoid the risk of criticism over ‘postcode lotteries’?
  • What new social media and IT skills are required to pursue this agenda?
  • How might greater participation from the public impact on performance and standards?
  • How can business cases be built around greater public participation?

To find out more about this roundtable and to register, please contact roundtables@dods.co.uk or call Daisy Crisp on 020 7593 5664.

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Date & time
20/01/2015
12:30 - 14:30