Public service delivery is undergoing a change, and consumers are at the heart of it. The NCC is working with service users and providers to transform public services into services that are 'by the people and for the people'. Our work aims to bridge the gap between rhetorical pledges and action, so that services are designed from the ground up with consumers' needs in mind.

The NCC's public services programme has gained a high profile in the last year - capped by recognition in the Local Government White Paper. Our unique understanding of consumers' experiences and aspirations enables us to work with local and national government, regulators, public service providers, unions and other relevant partners to put consumers in the driving seat.

In particular, our research and analysis on empowering and involving consumers, and our development of user-responsive criteria for quality public services, are gaining recognition and influence.

Nine principles of better engagement

Engaging consumers can be valuable in helping to create better public services,
promote social cohesion and foster a thriving democracy. There is already good
practice throughout the UK, and the full potential contribution of deliberation to
improving the quality of decisions and policy solutions. However, when done badly, it has far reaching negative impact - disengagement and high levels of public distrust of government and public bodies.

Moving from dialogue to effective action depends on a change in culture where involving consumers in decision-making becomes the natural way to operate. NCC, jointly with Involve, issues nine principles of effective engagement with the public.

click here for the nine principles.

Putting people into public services: engaging them in scrutiny

People are the experts in local public services. They know what it feels like to be on the receiving end and what might be changed to make services better. That is why people want to be involved in assessing services, in formal scrutiny and in regulation.

The National Consumer Council launches a vision for a more consumer-focused regulation that is centred on improving the culture and practices of public sector regulators.

Click here for the campaign report.

The previous booklets in this series are:

Putting people into public services: introduction

Intelligent commissioning

Involving people in policy 

Customer insight in local government

Customers are experts on local services. No public service can afford to operate
without high quality insight into who their customers are, what their needs are
and what they feel about services.

The National Consumer Council has been working in partnership with the Local Government Association to understand how local councils can become more customer focused. We have developed practical tools for councils to use to improve their customer insight, based on research that we commissioned Tetlow Associates, working with Dr Foster Research.

Click here to download the executive summary.

Click here to download the Customer Insight Protocol.

Click here to download the Segmentation model.