Technologies Open Up New Consultation Possibilities

The importance of public services embracing new technology in their consultations with users and citizens is emphasised in a new report from the Audit Commission.

The report, Connecting with Users and Citizens says, “In our discussions with service providers, those who used a wider choice of approaches and techniques were more likely to see themselves as successful in community consultation. New technology provides an ongoing source of ideas and developments that can both stimulate new approaches to consultation and open up new possibilities for analysis and the feedback of results.”

Inequality of access to some new technologies such as computers and mobile phones is acknowledged, but the report points out, “New technology has the potential to enable involvement in complex and demanding issues and to allow participants to lead discussions according to their own priorities.”

The report records two case studies of technology used in public consultation in Suffolk and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Suffolk Police Constabulary has used TV game show technology at public meetings to get “serious and rigorous information” about people’s views. The system uses handsets to enable audiences at public meetings to vote on issues including fear of crime and priorities for the county’s annual policing plan.

The system has been found to be fun, lively and interactive. It also ensures an instant and accurate picture of the full range of views of people attending a meeting, not just those of the most vocal participants.

Voting on the same questions at a series of meetings enables the force to gain an overall picture of public views and comparisons can be made with answers given at previous forums. Participants go away with instant information about results and outcomes.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea recruited a residents’ panel which used Internet facilities to contribute views on the implementation of the borough’s electronic government strategy.

Local library internet facilities were promoted for those who did not have home access. Nevertheless the borough still recorded concerns about making the process inclusive.

More positively, many benefits were found including: the ability to capture views from a wide range of people, not just the most vocal and the facility to give feedback easily and show the panel that their views were being used.