Engaging customers in their decision-making is now an essential part of the work of all Scottish public bodies and Consumer Focus Scotland is looking for examples of best practice in this area.
The consumer champion wants councils, police and fire services, health boards and their partners to nominate examples of work they have carried out to engage consumers in developing and providing services which will be used to help share best practice and celebrate success.
Jennifer Wallace, Principal Policy Advocate for Consumer Focus Scotland, said:
“The need to engage consumers in decision-making is a principle accepted across the Scottish public sector. But what is best practice, and how can public bodies learn from what colleagues across the public sector are doing?”
“We want to encourage the widest possible range of nominations from public services in Scotland to celebrate and share success. So if you have completed a project or programme in the last two years that has successfully engaged consumers in decision-making please let us know about it so that we can spread the word.”
Martin Brown, Head of Customer Relationship Management, the Improvement Service said:
“Actively engaging with service users and potential users is vital to the delivery of better quality public services, and to the credibility and reputation of local government and the wider public sector. In a new spending context for the Scottish public sector, Consumer Focus Scotland is to be strongly commended for this practical approach towards surfacing and sharing examples of consumer engagement good practice.”
Nominations will be considered by an expert panel and successful projects will be invited to take part in an event to discuss best practice and how it can be shared more widely across public service providers in Scotland. The projects will also be featured in a publication exploring best practice in consumer engagement that will be circulated to MSPs and senior managers across the public sector.
Please note that full submissions must be received by 14th June 2010.
For more details, including information on how to make nominations, please visit www.consumerfocus.org.uk/scotland/local-government-and-education/current-work.
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Notes to editors
1. Consumer Focus Scotland is rooted in over 30 years of work promoting the interests of consumers, particularly those who experience disadvantage in society. We work for consumers in all aspects of their lives: as tenants, householders, patients, parents, solicitors’ clients, postal service users, energy consumers and as shoppers.
2. The expert panel is chaired by Nicola Munro (CFS Board member), who is recently retired from the Scottish Government where she led in a variety of work areas. The members are: Alan Alexander, retired Chair of Local And Public Management at the Strathclyde Business School; Alice Brown, former Scottish Public Services Ombudsman; Martin Brown, Head of Customer Relationship Management at the Improvement Service; Keith Geddes, a former Council Leader of City of Edinburgh Council and former President of the Convention of Local Authorities; Kaliani Lyle, former Chief Executive of Citizen Advice Scotland; and Keith Yates former Chief Executive of Stirling Council.
Media contact
For more information please contact Ryan Norton, Communications Manager on 0141 227 1852 or ryan.norton@consumerfocus.org.uk