Davy Jones Consultancy

Giving Citizens and Service Users a Say on

Assessing Your Services

Davy Jones

Sector-Led Improvement Conference

Birmingham 17th October 2011

Davy Jones Consultancy

• Sleepwalking to environmental catastrophe…

• UN: 200,000 people dying each year already

• Worst Economic crisis since Great Depression

• Massive demographic changes• Trust in traditional politics at rock-

bottom• We need to be more “political”• We need more participation

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Reaching a defining moment

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Change of Government

• Reduce public sector deficit• Shrink the size of the state / less regulation• Reorganise local services• More localism• More transparency• More self reliance – Big Society

Agree

Disagree

“There is a real need to cut spending on public services in order to pay off the very high national debt we now have”

Public support for cuts

Davy Jones Consultancy

Davy Jones Consultancy

Is the tide turning ?

62% Cuts are unfair

58% Cuts are too quick, 26% about right

50% Cuts are too deep, 27% about right

Latest YouGov poll, September 2011

Mervyn King (Bank of England): “ The price of this financial crisis is being borne by people who absolutely did not cause it.”

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Who is to blame ?

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Who are the real spongers?Bank bailout figure of £1.3trn taken from Bank of England website

Tax and fraud evasion by rich variously estimated at between £80-120bn

Benefit fraud figure of £3.3bn taken from DWP report on 2009/10

Billions of pounds

• Neighbourhood planning • Local referenda – 5% petition• Community “right to challenge”• Community “right to buy”• BUT new BV guidance repeals

Duty to Involve !• And cuts undermine existing

community involvement

Localism Bill extends participation ?

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• Old-style “community development” work

• Private sector approach to customer focus

• Robert Putnam – Social Capital• New Labour “top-down”

Empowerment - laws• Big Society – “bottom up” emphasis -

but fatally linked to cuts in public perception

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Evolving involvement agenda

Base: 1,000 GB adults, 18+. June 2010. Source: Ipsos MORI

36%

29%

11%

22%

Would like to be actively involved

Would like a say in decisions

Would like Information only

Not interested as long as experts involved

5.7m people

15m people

18.6m people

Involvement on the cutsDo people want to be involved on the cuts ?

Davy Jones Consultancy

Davy Jones Consultancy

Involvement in the economic crisis

• Involvement leads to better targeting of services

• Involvement is key to community cohesion

People now expect transparency & to “have a say” in how their money

is spent !

• LAAs/CAA may be gone but emphasis on place still key

• Total Place programme – multi-agency focus on prevention & outcomes – Community Budgets

• New LG Group model of self regulation

• Place-based budgeting: pooling budgets across council & across partners for better outcomes –Participatory Budgeting potential

LG Group self-regulation regime

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• People simply do not trust service providers to tell truth

• “Council papers like Pravda” – Pickles• Baby P /other social care tragedies• People now rely on

friends/family/media & other sources for opinions

• Rate your GP site - more to come• Users / citizens expect now to “have

a say”

Davy Jones Consultancy

Sector-led is not enough

• Performance information on the web prerequisite for dialogue – but not enough !

• Much of raw data is incomprehensible !

• “Armchair auditors” myth• One-stop portals good, but not

everyone on web !• New Local Health Watch• New Health & Well-Being Boards

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Transparency & new structures not enough

Local Accounts - Adult Services“An effective community-based

approach is achieved when councils and their partners actively involve people, carers, families and communities in the design, development, delivery and review of innovative care and support arrangements to maximise choice and independence and utilise the widest range of resources.”

Think Local Act Personal, January 2011

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Let users/citizens decide

• Co-design: citizens & service users identify what they want/need from local services/providers;

• Co-commission: citizens & service users directly involved in choosing service & budget priorities and shaping services to meet those identified needs;

• Co-deliver: citizens & service users increasingly involved in running services directly; and

• Co-evaluation: citizens & service users take a leading role in directly assessing the effectiveness of services and their impact on local areas.

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A new co-operative model

• Area– Parish / neighbourhood / locality – Neighbourhood charter / contract

• Service– Mutli or single agency / personal – Service charter / contract

• Agreement– Signed off with users / citizens !– Use PB for public money coming into

area (Community Budgets) or services

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How it might work in practice

• Users/citizens decide what is important – quality of life/service – what should be provided/assessed

• Variety of user/advocacy/area-based mechanisms used to gather opinions, insight & data

• Deliberative forums and online methods• Provision of comparative data & information stores• Expert help to weigh up all info and decide results• Final agreement on content/judgements• Wide dissemination of outcomes• Feeds back into next round of service planning

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How it might work in practice (2)

Davy Jones Consultancy

Contact

Davy Jones

07932 616843davy@davyjonesconsultancy.co.u

k www.davyjonesconsultancy.co.uk

Twitter:@davyjones2