WRITTEN ON December 21st, 2008 BY Ruth Kennedy AND STORED IN Design: Co-creation, Design: user-oriented, Foundation of Trust, What do we want?

As explored in ThePublicOffice, we know that user created feedback has the potential to play an important part in improving public services (cf Patient Opinion, FixMyStreet, Inaccessible Barcelona etc). We’ve just returned from a quick trip to Paris (where we were REALLY smug to be spending the €145 we found residing in various pockets, under the mattress etc, rather than spending £’s at a 1:1 exchange rate). Leaving Gare du Nord this afternoon, I was interested to see a poster of the UK Border and Immigration Agency, which was headed ‘COMPLAINTS’ in large letters. The text went something like this:

Your complaints can help us improve our service. Please feed them back bah blah blah….

This is wonderful! Has Lin Homer brought about a change in culture at the BIA?? In my excitement, this Ideal Gov correspondent tried to take a quick snapshot of the sign to share with IG readers, a gesture to which the BIA staff responded urgently (and with paranoia?)… “Madam, c’est interdit de prendre des photos”.

I was however, sad to find that there were no equivalent signs on arrival in the BIA area at St Pancras (just equally assertive notices about not assaulting staff). Indeed, the BIA website complaints section fails to invite service-improving commentary from punters. Perhaps I have simply picked up on a small revolution starting quietly with the team which happens to be situated at the UK border at Gare du Nord….