Comments on: ThePublicOffice: morning-after reflections on the Sensational Experience

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 18:02:00 +0000

William and Ruth and all others who made it

Well done. I attended the show and took part in a workshop.
Workshop stats. 2 women and 25 men. Perhaps a telling reflection on public sector and private sector gender equality.
Members of the families who were able to attend – none. A telling reflection on life for those who are suffering. This was the emotive part – the people who Gus O’Donnell wants to put at the heart of public services can never be there because they are struggling to find public tranport, get their voice heard, gain access to their children, etc…

I do not believe GO’D should talk of customers. This implies that we have a choice and we do not. We are more likely to be citizens.

If this is to work, then maybe we could give the five people and families who took part access to a member of the public sector for 6 months, and see what could be done.

WIBBI the five families who took part had someone from the public sector show they care, and try to act as a trusted friend and adviser, document their experience as a blog, who knows what else to show what might be done ?

By: Ideal Gov administrator

Ideal Gov administrator — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 17:15:58 +0000

Also, the idea was that people in their home context – their families of whatever shape and format – are at the centre. Not the state. Given that they’re entitled to state services, let’s design them to work well.

By: Ideal Gov administrator

Ideal Gov administrator — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 17:14:12 +0000

There could be more, of course. We could have squaddies in Iraq (are they adequately supported); consumers (do they get the info, choice, redress they need) or any other number of experiences where people “touch the state” as the Design Council RED team put it. We thought examples of people facing crises in life and requiring complex service packages was most telling. It’s widespread, but by no means universal. I think they are the group that is most seriously let down, and perhaps therefore best place to bring empathy into public service reform with the urgency this requires.

By: Richard S

Richard S — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:29:54 +0000

Congratulations on this skilfully constructed experiment.

However, I got the disappointing impression that all examples reflected the “dependency” model of public services – one where the “State,” along with semi-state organisations, is at the centre of people’s lives.

Perhaps I was mistaken, perhaps in the wrong mood, but I “walked thru,” around and out – admittedly before the VIPs arrived.

By: Pond

Pond — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:09:16 +0000

My congratulations to you. You did it! Photo reveals domestic atmosphere in the office. And this is nice

By: W

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:39:14 +0000

Oh yes, so there is thanks, thanks (also neatly supporting one of ThePublicOffice themes about how user generated fedabck can help improve services). We”l try to sort it.

By: Laurence Hygate

Laurence Hygate — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:29:09 +0000

Congratulations!

There’s a minor technical blip on http://www.thepublicoffice.org.uk/lisa.html – looking at the page through Firefox it looks like there’s a smart quote in “children’s”. It’s displayed as some garbage characters.