3. Responsive public services:

We will deliver public services to meet the needs of citizens, not the convenience of service providers

1. Modernising Government means making sure that citizens and businesses come first. It means a genuine partnership between those providing services and those using them. People have grown impatient of barriers to effective and convenient service that stem simply from the way government is organised. They should not have to worry about what part of government they are dealing with. We must deliver services and programmes that are not only efficient and effective but also joined up and responsive. People have grown used to services being available when they want them. The Government is committed to making public services available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, where there is a demand. In short, we want public services that respond to users' needs and are not arranged for the provider's convenience.

Identifying the problem

2. Research with the People's Panel (see paragraph 7) shows that more people agree than disagree that our public service providers are friendly, hard-working and keen to help. But, although the number of people who are satisfied is increasing, many services still fall short of expectations. Two out of five people think services have got no better in the last five years, and over one in three thinks they have become worse.

3. There are many barriers to providing services in the way people want them. The separation of government into different units ­ though necessary for administrative purposes ­ often means that people do not receive services in a co-ordinated way or that they receive multiple visits from different agencies. Individual agencies' performance targets and budgets can get in the way of them working together. Audit and inspection processes may hinder cross-cutting work (see chapter 4). Different government offices are often situated a long way apart from one another, and attempts to bring them together can be hampered by rules and regulations. And the multiplicity of administrative boundaries across the country can lead to inefficiency, complication and confusion.

4. Earlier this year, a number of 'Integrated-Service Teams' were set up to identify the practical problems facing people when they use public services. The teams looked at seven of the most common 'life episodes': leaving school; having a baby; becoming unemployed; changing address; retiring; needing long-term care at home; and bereavement. Some of the most common problems were:

• People had to give the same information more than once to different ­ or even the same ­ organisations. A mother of a boy with physical disabilities said: "I have lost count of the times I have had to recount my son's case history to professionals involved in his care."

• There is often no obvious person to help those most in need to find their way around the system.

• There is a lack of integrated information to enable service providers to give a full picture of what help might be available.

• There is minimal use of new technology. Most government Departments have a website, but few allow people to fill in forms on line. And government websites are not well linked to other relevant sites.

5. The number of organisations a person needing long-term care may have to deal with is well illustrated by the diagram below.

NEEDING LONG-TERM DOMICILIARY CARE

NOTE: This diagram is for illustration only. The list is not exhaustive and other organisations, friends and family may provide alternative services to those shown.

What must change

6. The Government wants public services that:

• listen to people's concerns and involve them in decisions about how services should be provided.

• are sensitive to the needs of particular groups of people or businesses.

• reflect people's real lives. Government should be organised so that people don't have to hunt down services by a process of trial and error.

• make it easy to complain and get a result when things go wrong.

Making a start

Listening to people

7. If public services are to serve people better, the Government needs to know more about what people want. Rather than imposing solutions we must consult and work with people. That is why we have set up the People's Panel: a 5,000-strong nationally representative group ­ a world first ­ to tell us what people really think about their public services and our attempts to make them better. The Panel supplements research being carried out by individual parts of government, including local initiatives such as citizens' juries, community fora and focus groups. We will also build in the views of customers when measuring the progress that Departments are making against their performance targets in their Public Service Agreements.

Central government

8. Government Departments and agencies must be sensitive to their customers. This is true even of organisations whose work does not bring them into daily contact with the public. The Government set six standards in 1997 to improve central government's response to the public. We have now reviewed these and have added new commitments. We will also set new targets to improve correspondence handling across central government.

Images -

Hereford and Worcester ­ Employment Service.

Bridgend and Glamorgan ­ Employment Service.

New service standards for central government In serving you, every central government Department and agency will aim to: answer your letters quickly and clearly. Each Department and agency will set a target for answering correspondence (including letters, faxes, and e-mails) and will publish its performance against this target. see you within 10 minutes of any appointment you have made at its office; it will *set a target for seeing callers without appointments, and publish performance against this target. answer telephone calls quickly and helpfully. *Each Department and agency will set a target for answering calls to telephone enquiry points, and will publish its performance against this target. provide clear and straightforward information about its service and those of related providers, along with one or more telephone enquiry numbers and *e-mail addresses to help you or to put you in touch with someone who can. have a complaints procedure ­ or procedures ­ for the services it provides, publicise it, including on the Internet, and send you information about it if you ask. do everything reasonably possible to make its services available to everyone, including people with special needs. Consult users and potential users regularly about the service it provides and report on the results. *These commitments will take effect on 1 October 1999.

Catering for the needs of different groups

9. Many people who use public services have particular needs or problems: for example, families, older people, women, ethnic communities and people with disabilities. The Government is determined that public services should address the needs of all groups.

10. Many older people find public services remote and intimidating. To give them a greater voice, the Government has set up the Better Government for Older People programme. We have also set up a Ministerial Group on Older People to ensure that Departments work together to respond to their needs. As part of the UN Year of Older Persons, Ministers will take part in a series of listening events for older people. And the new Performance and Innovation Unit has an Active Ageing Project, which will report in the autumn on how to improve the well-being and quality of life of older people by helping them remain active.

Images -

Newlon Housing Trust.

Walsgrave Hospitals NHS Trust ­ Occupational Therapy Department.

Older people Older people are among the major users of public services. But they often suffer from a lack of integration in our services, and a failure to respond to their particular needs. The Better Government for Older People programme aims to improve public services for older people by better meeting their needs, listening to their views, and encouraging and recognising their contribution. The programme is an example of partnership in action. There are 28 local pilots across the United Kingdom, involving well over 300 partner organisations from local government, central government, the health service, the voluntary and business sectors and many other areas. The pilots are wide-ranging: some focus on developing a comprehensive strategy for older people's services, while others are more specific, looking at areas such as health care, lifelong learning or personal safety. Many are devising innovative ways of involving older people: North Yorkshire has set up two new community forums to generate dialogue with older people over new ways of promoting and supporting independent living and to help them contribute to community self-help projects; Warwick District Council has recently opened an older people's information shop with access to the very latest in IT; Hackney has established a Council for Older People to help to ensure that services are sensitive to the ethnic diversity of its older people, while South Lanarkshire has developed vocational qualifications in community work for the over 50s. And services, too, are being joined up. For instance, in mid Devon, the Benefits Agency and the local Council are involved in developing seamless and better integrated benefits advice, while in Hartlepool, the Retired Resource Network has been instrumental in introducing a new subsidised taxi service. The programme is dynamic and growing. On 16 March 1999, we launched a national learning network to help everyone share the emerging lessons from the pilots, and to encourage all levels of government, central and local, to prepare for the needs of an ageing population.

11. The Government has recognised the distinct interests and concerns of women by appointing a Minister for Women at Cabinet level. And initiatives such as the National Childcare Strategy and the National Minimum Wage have been designed with women at the forefront of our thinking. Future policies and services need to reflect the realities of women's daily lives, and should change as priorities and attitudes change. To help achieve this, the Minister for Women launched a Listening to Women exercise on 22 February 1999. This consists of regional road shows, a national conference of women's organisations, qualitative research, and a postcard campaign. Government has never communicated with women in this way before. We will circulate our findings in the autumn to all parts of government so that they can use them in their own policy making, and will develop women-specific guidelines for service providers.

12. The Government also recognises the needs of ethnic minorities. The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, published in February 1999, starkly illustrated the need to rebuild the confidence of ethnic minority communities in public services. The Home Secretary has published his action plan setting out the programme of work in response to the inquiry's findings. When Parliamentary time permits, the Government will put beyond doubt that public services and law enforcement will be covered by race discrimination legislation.

13. Ethnic minority communities have already been given a voice at the heart of government through the establishment last June of the Home Secretary's Race Relations Forum. Its 28 members, drawn from a wide spectrum of experience, have already considered how to deliver better services, including how to improve the educational achievement of young people from ethnic communities. The Forum has close links with the Department for Education and Employment's Advisory Group on Raising Ethnic Minority Pupil Achievement.

14. For families, the consultation document, Supporting Families, published in November 1998, sought views on how to make services more family-friendly.

Images -

Preston acute hospitals NHS Trust ­ Disablement Services Centre

Care being provided at the Bexley Council Whitehall Centre

New Deal for Disabled People The Department of Social Security (DSS) and the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) are working in partnership to develop proposals for the New Deal for Disabled People (NDDP). The aim is to find out how best to help people on incapacity benefits to find, or stay in, work. Disabled people and their organisations were involved from the start and advised, for example, on the design of Personal Adviser Service pilots. Two main conferences were held and a number of suggestions were taken on board as a result, including changes to the payment of benefits if a job did not work out for them. The Personal Adviser Service is being piloted in 12 areas. Ten innovative schemes are already up and running and another group will begin shortly. The NDDP is being delivered and evaluated in close co-operation with disabled people and their organisations. The evaluation results will be made widely available and the DSS/DfEE expect to hold further conferences to help ensure that the lessons learned will fully inform the future direction of this area of policy.

Services that reflect business needs

15. Many of the problems identified through the Integrated-Service Teams apply equally to businesses ­ especially small businesses ­ when they have to deal with government. The Government will establish a new Small Business Service, designed to provide the kind of practical help that smaller businesses need. The Department of Trade and Industry will consult small businesses, their representative organisations and other interested parties to make sure that the new body provides high quality services and support to small firms. The new service will have over £100 million of new money over the next three years for this purpose. Its role will be to:

• act as a strong voice for small business at the heart of government.

• improve the quality and coherence of delivery of government support programmes for small businesses and ensure that they address their needs.

• help small firms deal with regulation, working with others such as the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise to cut the burdens of compliance.

Access Business Business is subject to a confusing array of regulations and enforcement. Access Business is a partnership of Ministers and representatives from business and local government, which is helping businesses through, for example: guidance on performance management, to be published in April 1999. We are also looking to reduce the reporting burden on local authority trading standards and environmental health functions. Trials of a single electronic report will begin in the summer. the INFOSHOP pilot, which is building on work in Bexley to develop an information system to enable local government front-line staff to resolve complex customer queries at the first point of contact. the Enforcement Concordat ­ a blueprint for fair, practical and consistent enforcement.

Looking for a job: Employment Service Direct If you are looking for a job, you can now do so by phone. For the price of a local call, you can call the national 0845 6060234 number for Employment Service Direct and talk to advisers who have access to a database of over 300,000 job vacancies in England, Scotland and Wales. They can put you in touch with employers or arrange job interviews on the spot. There are separate ES Direct services for people with hearing difficulties and for Welsh speakers. Between January and March of this year, more than 10,000 people found jobs through ES Direct.

Services that reflect real lives

16. Over the past two years, the Government has launched a range of new programmes to improve the joined up delivery of services both to individuals and to businesses. We have created Service First ­ the new Charter programme. We are tackling the problems of particularly deprived areas. And we are combining government's resources ­ at all levels ­ with those of the voluntary and private sectors.

17. We are setting up:

• national, citizen-focused programmes. Managed centrally by government Departments or agencies, these will cover the whole country, and will be available to all. Examples include NHS Direct and Employment Service Direct.

• group-focused programmes. These may be national or area-based, but are concerned with the needs of particular groups of people, such as the Better Government for Older People pilots, the New Deal for the Young Unemployed, or the Service Families Task Force.

• area-based programmes. These tackle the problems of particular areas or localities. Some have relatively large area boundaries (such as Health Action Zones and the Local Government Association's New Commitment to Regeneration). Others may be more locally based (such as Employment Zones, Education Action Zones, the New Deal for Communities and, in Wales, People in Communities). They are often targeted on areas of multiple deprivation.

The LGA's New Commitment to Regeneration The New Commitment to Regeneration is an initiative by the Local Government Association to bring a new strategic approach to the regeneration of local communities. It has been developed with a range of national and local partners and with full government support. Twenty-two pathfinders have been chosen to lead the initiative. The New Commitment will: bring together partner organisations in the public, voluntary and private sectors, drawing on mainstream programmes and budgets. involve national government as a key partner. provide agreed strategies for regenerating whole local authorities or groups of authorities, and achieve new flexibilities in the way national policies are carried out locally, in health, welfare, housing, finance, transport, education and other areas.

Images -

Elmtree County First School, Chesham Buckinghamshire.

North West Water ­ Information Centre.

Education Action Zones

In England, Education Action Zones (EAZs) will support schools by bringing them together with local businesses, local councils and others in an Action Forum. Each zone will typically cover between 15 and 25 schools (usually two or three secondary schools and their feeder primaries) and will be set up for three to five years. EAZ schools are able to innovate to raise standards, for example by introducing new approaches to rewarding teachers, including Advanced Skills Teachers, or an altered curriculum. The Action Forum could even act as a governing body for some of the schools. Twenty-five EAZs have already been established, and applications for more were invited in January 1999.

18. The aims and timetables for these initiatives differ. But they all share some common principles. They depend on partnership between different agencies in the public, private and voluntary sectors, and often involve users and staff too. They encourage experimentation and innovation. They make access to services easier for citizens and for businesses. By working together with other services, each organisation can make more effective use of its resources. And they encourage the spread of good practice. Above all, they are designed to make a difference on the ground. They have measurable outcomes, such as improving healthcare and giving better value for money. The Government will make sure they do.

One-stop shops

19. One-stop shops make life easier for those who use services. They can take the form of places people visit to get advice and information about different services, such as the Public Record Office's Family Records Centre and the Lewisham and Camden one-stop shops for benefits. Or they can be 'virtual' one-stop shops, available via the telephone or the Internet, such as the MOD's Veterans' Advice Unit, or Business Links. They reduce the number of separate visits people have to make to get services. They also lead to a more efficient use of resources by service providers.

Lewisham one-stop shop People in Lewisham can now claim Income Support and Housing Benefit together on an electronic claim form, either in the Benefits Agency or local authority office, or by tele-claim to Belfast. This gives choice, uses new technology, and removes the need to deal with two separate organisations. Information is passed between the two electronically, rather than by paper. This speeds up decisions on financial help and delivers joined up service. People now receive one visit only, during which information for both parties is gathered. To get advice and help, people can choose to use video conferencing booths or call either the Benefits Agency or local authority office. This joined up approach is starting to provide a one-stop service for people in the area. Camden one-stop shop Lone parents living in Camden can now claim for Income Support, Child Support and Housing and Council Tax Benefit together, using a tele-claim to a call centre. This means they no longer have to provide much the same information separately to three organisations. Following the tele-claim, the lone parent receives one filled-in form for checking and signing. They can also get help about the New Deal for Lone Parents. This provides a better service, which is welcomed by lone parents, improves accuracy and speed of help, and involves staff positively.

Veterans' Advice Unit The Ministry of Defence has launched a Veterans' Advice Unit to provide a telephone focal point for the United Kingdom's estimated 15 million ex-Service men and women and their dependants. The Unit acts as a one-stop shop or 'signpost' to advise callers on how to obtain expert help on issues of concern to them, whether provided by central or local government or voluntary organisations. It has handled calls on a wide range of issues including housing, finance, tracing of relatives and pensions.

Pooled budgets

20. The Government has set up a number of cross-departmental budgets involving several Departments in delivering programmes such as Sure Start and the New Deal for Communities. And we are taking steps, through the Health Bill and the Local Government Bill, to build on existing work, such as the Single Regeneration Budget, to help local agencies work together to support innovative service delivery by establishing pooled budgets.

Invest to Save Budget

21. The Government will spend £230 million over the next three years to fund projects that involve two or more public bodies getting together to deliver services that are more innovative, more joined up, more locally responsive and more efficient. About half the projects funded so far are piloting new ways of joint working that have the potential to be used more widely within the public sector.

Single Work-Focused Gateway The Single Work-Focused Gateway pilots will place work and the steps needed to help a return to the labour market at the centre of the claim-making process. The Gateway will provide a single point of entrance to the benefit system for those of working age, combining in one place the services currently offered by the Benefits Agency, the Child Support Agency, the Employment Service and the benefit departments of local authorities. £80 million of the funding for the Gateway is being provided from the Invest to Save Budget. Wherever possible, the public will receive services in an open plan, screen-free environment with full disabled access. The pilots will explore other ways of improving customer-focused service, such as the greater use of telephony, electronic claim-taking and the involvement of the private and voluntary sectors. Clients will have their own Personal Adviser who will help them explore how they can become more independent and give them information about the wide range of opportunities and support available. The adviser will provide advice throughout the client's time on benefit and will be the point of contact for any issues related to benefits or work. The result will be a system that will encourage work and independence, will be more responsive to an individual's needs, will remove duplication of effort between different agencies, and provide a more efficient and effective service to clients.

Future action

22. The Government will take its drive for more joined up and responsive services further by:

• actively encouraging initiatives to establish partnership delivery by all parts of government in ways that fit local circumstances; and establishing common targets, financial frameworks, IT links and so on that support such arrangements.

• launching a second round of bids to the Invest to Save Budget, which will be available to the wider public sector (local authorities, health bodies, Non- Departmental Public Bodies and police authorities) as well as to central government.

• ensuring that all public bodies are properly and fully accountable to the public. The Parliamentary Ombudsman's jurisdiction has been extended to cover an additional 158 public bodies. To ease public access and improve efficiency in dealing with complaints across different services, we will also review the organisation of public sector ombudsmen in England.

• implementing a community planning process so that local authorities and other local public bodies can adopt a common and co-ordinated approach to meeting local needs.

• consulting on radical improvements in the provision of registration services, particularly with respect to user-friendliness, use of IT, and links to other services.

23. The Government will also tackle the barriers to joint working, by:

• producing an action plan by the summer on the lessons learned from the Integrated-Service Teams' experiences of practical problems faced by people using public services, including a commitment for people to be able to notify different parts of government of details such as a change of address simply and electronically in one transaction.

• launching, in April, a network of local partnerships to identify where central requirements for information get in the way of joint working, and exploring how performance measures can be used to support partnerships. The project will run until October 2000, and will share lessons widely across government.

• responding to the Performance and Innovation Unit's study in the summer on the way central government is organised and delivers services at regional and local level.

• developing a more co-ordinated approach to property management, so that people do not have to visit offices some distance from one another to get related services. We want property to be managed more flexibly, so that service providers can be more innovative in achieving joined up services. The Property Advisers to the Civil Estate (PACE) will take on a much stronger role in ensuring a joined-up approach. It will do this, across government, by developing an interactive common database for the government's estate that will allow Departments to share information and best practice via the Government Secure Intranet or the Internet; and by working with the Local Government Association to achieve a more co-ordinated approach across the public sector.

• working to align the boundaries of public bodies. More than 100 different sets of regional boundaries are used in England alone. This complicates administration, reduces efficiency and frustrates joined up government. It also confuses the public. Wherever possible, boundaries should coincide with local authority boundaries at local level, and with Government Office regions' boundaries at regional level. The Government will work from a presumption that geographical boundaries should be aligned in this way whenever public bodies next review their administrative, managerial or delivery arrangements and structures. We will only make exceptions when there are strong over-riding considerations, for example where we have already committed ourselves as a result of recent reviews. We expect all newly created bodies to aim to meet these requirements from the outset and will review progress in 2002.

24. The Government is determined to ensure that public services reflect real lives. We intend to bring about a significant transformation over the coming years:

Health ­ by the end of 2000, everyone in the country will be able to phone NHS Direct, 24 hours a day, for healthcare advice and information from experienced, qualified nurses. Jobs ­ by 2001, jobseekers should be able to look for and apply for jobs through the Employment Service anywhere in England, Scotland and Wales using the telephone or Internet, including evenings and weekends. Learning ­ by 2002, students of all ages will be able to access the National Grid for Learning, through all schools, colleges, universities, public libraries and as many community centres as possible so as to share high quality learning materials and have access to the wider Internet. Older people ­ by the end of 2000, older people should benefit from joined up services and integrated planning in at least half our local authorities. Changing address ­ a committment for people to be able to notify different parts of government of details such as a change of address simply and electronically in one transaction. New benefit claimants ­ new benefit claimants will be able to deal with their employment needs and benefit claims in one place through the Single Work-Focused Gateway, eliminating the current duplication and confusion.

We welcome your comments on this site. Prepared 30 March 1999