"Placing power in the hands of those who use our public services": UK's new policy embraces open government

The British Prime-Minister will announce today its vision for the future shape of public services.

The policy document Working Together - Public Services On Your Side explains "the steps the Government is taking to give people, communities and frontline staff the information and real power they need to personalise public services. Reflecting their local and individual needs will create a richer, fairer and safer society."

"We will put people first by placing power in the hands of those who use our public service", says Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the forward remarks.

"We will put people first by placing power in the hands of those who use our public services. This will mean personalised services and greater choice - with personal budgets helping people choose the specific care they most need, education and training tailored to the needs of individuals, police services that respond to local priorities set in monthly neighbourhood beat meetings rather than national targets.

Underpinning all this will be an information revolution to enable parents, patients and citizens to share information and experiences on the performance of schools, hospitals and police forces. For I believe government has been much too slow to make use of the enormous democratising power of information. People take it for granted that they will access other people’s reviews and ratings before buying something on e-bay or Amazon, and yet we do not yet have systematic access to other people’s experiences when choosing a GP practice or nursery. We have clearly got the balance wrong when online businesses have higher standards of transparency than they public services we pay for and support.

An open government
 
"knowledge is power. When we give people knowledge about their public services, we give them power over them; power to shape and even transform them. We are ushering in a new world of accountability in which parents, patients and local communities shape the services they receive, ensuring all our public services respond not simply to the hand of government, but to the voice of local people."

"Transparency" is one of the principles of this policy, wich will adoipt the recommendations of the Power or Information Task Force.

"A focus on outcomes is only meaningful when it is combined with clear and reliable information on performance. Transparency that delivers accessible and useful information on the performance of services and the outcomes they achieve is at the heart of our strategy for improving public services.

The independent Power of Information Task Force published its report on 2 March. The report contained 25 challenging recommendations to government aimed at improving the use of information in this new world. The Task Force's work has been recognised internationally as providing a cutting-edge vision, with examples of what modern public service delivery might be.

The Government welcomes the task force’s vision, accepts its overall messages and will be responding on the detailed recommendations shortly. We are already taking steps to implement this vision and in 2009 we will seek to deliver the following:

Open information. To have an effective voice, people need to be able to understand what is going on in their public services. Government will publish information about public services in ways that are easy to find,easy to use, and easy to re-use, and will unlock data, where appropriate, through the work of the Office of Public Sector Information.

Open innovation. We will promote innovation in online public services to respond to changing expectations. The Government will seek to build on the early success of innovate.direct.gov.uk by building such innovation into the culture of public services and public sector websites.

Open discussion. We will promote greater engagement with the public through more interactive online consultation and collaboration.  We will also empower professionals to be active on online peer-support networks in their area of work.

Open feedback. Most importantly, the public should be able to have a fair say about their services. The Government will publish best practice in engaging with the public in large numbers online, drawing on the experience of the www.showusabetterway.com  competition and the www.londonsummit.gov.uk, as well as leading private sector examples like www.ideastorm.com."

Working Together - Public Services On Your Side is availabe here and includes a session of case studies.