August 2011
Civic Agenda Briefing Customer Focussed Services
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Introduction The Government has set out in the Open Public Services White Paper its intention “to shift the approach of government from ‘public services all in one place’ (focused on how departments want to deliver) to ‘government services wherever you are’ (open and distributed, available where citizens want to access them)”1. Developing Customer Focussed Services lies at the heart of current Government policy to syndicate its content and services to the private and not for profit sectors, with the intention that they will provide a more convenient portal for their customer-‐bases to access Government transactions. The Cabinet Office has followed Martha Lane Fox’s recommendation for appointing an Executive Director of Digital, with Mike Bracken taking up the post in May 2011 under the remit of improving user experience. Martha Lane Fox, the Government’s Digital Champion highlights that: “For years, businesses have been using digital communications to improve services and engagement with their consumers. Government should take advantage of the more open, agile and cheaper digital technologies to deliver simpler and more effective digital services to users, particularly to disadvantaged groups who are some of the heaviest users of government services.” The Government aims to develop Customer Focussed Services in a number of key ways: Demand-‐driven services The Government has set out that its plans to stay ahead of technological developments and requirements by reorientating itself as a “wholesaler”2 of services which have been developed as a result of specific user demand. For example, the NHS website already directs visitors to independently developed applications for smartphones as well as its own, and the Open Public Services white paper sets out plans for more general support for privately offered digital services through the Government Digital Service (GDS)3. The Government Digital Service also intends to leverage the growing online trend for crowd sourcing expertise and opinion, epitomised in Wiki-‐ applications. The Government envisages that in the future all digital services will be open to feedback4, thereby ensuring transparency as well as continued review of service quality and relevance for users in the face of changing technology and demand. 1
Open Public Services White Paper, July 2011, p. 52. http://www.openpublicservices.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ Martha Lane Fox, Directgov 2010 and Beyond: Revolution not Evolution, October 2010, p. 2. 3 Open Public Services White Paper, July 2011, p. 53. 4 Ibid. 2