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Tuesday, 9 February 2010

Newsroom

A chance to share your views on public services

  • Published: Tuesday, 10 March 2009

People in England will soon be able to leave feedback on GPs, police, childcare and councils. New websites will be launched allowing people to share their views about local services in a similar way to sites like Amazon and eBay; helping to improve local services and make them more personal for local people.

"Information revolution"

Commenting on plans to put people first, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "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.

"People take it for granted that they will access other people’s reviews and ratings before buying something on eBay 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 the public services we pay for and support."

The plans are part of a package of measures on public service delivery published by the government today

Feedback on NHS

"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."

Gordon Brown

Patients can already make comments, observations and suggestions about hospital services using the NHS Choices website. Around 10,000 such comments have been posted since the launch of NHS Choices in 2007. These comments can be read by other internet users, helping to shape local NHS services.

Later this year patients will be able to comment on their experiences of GP practices.

It is hoped that soon patients will be able to comment on all NHS services.

Feedback on childcare

A new childcare price and quality comparison website is expected to be up and running by early 2010.

As well as containing information on prices and from Ofsted on quality, the site will contain parents’ views, for example by providing a message board that allows parents to feedback on any childcare provider.

This will mean that when making choices about childcare parents will be able to read the views of the people who often know most about how good a service is: other parents.

Crime maps

"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."

Gordon Brown

Crime maps for the whole of the UK will be available through Directgov by the end of March.

These crime maps will show recorded crime in a local area. Just type in the post code and it will show you the average level of crime in that area.

By the end of 2009 an estimated two million people will have used a crime map.

It is hoped that by making information on crime patterns and the performance of local police forces available to the public, policing will become more effective and responsive to local needs.

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