An Inspector Calls: Citizen-Led Service Inspection by West Lothian Council

Outcomes

The key successes of this process have been the improvements being developed by services,  driven by the feedback of customers.   This kind of participation and co-production with the local community usually comes only as a result of expensive, high volume, repeated interfaces through a myriad of engagement exercises.  By investing in citizens, the council is  building capacity in people that it will continue to nurture and engage in future council improvement processes.

The process also means that council officers are gaining valuable insights about community needs and preferences that bring about positive changes in the planning, prioritisation and improvement of services.    Detailed responses from the community are being used to develop customer-led improvements, saving time and costs of consultation and, crucially, getting it right first time with meaningful improvements for the customer. The two inspection processes undertaken to date have been responsible for the direction of tens of thousands of pounds of investment in service improvement and staff development.  Following the success in winter maintenance and pupil placement, the council is now expanding the process into a rolling inspection programme that will be targeted at services with the greatest impact on the people living in West Lothian.

Rebecca Kelly wrote
this case study for
Governance International
on 17 June 2012