Blue-light services (ambulance, fire and police services) are public bodies, so they have a duty to consult the public just like local authorities do.
From Surrey to Scotland, here are some public consultations being run by blue-light services on Citizen Space at the moment.
Police Scotland
Police Scotland run the Your Police survey every year. In 2019 it got thousands of responses, but this year’s version is up to 20000+ as of June which is pretty astounding, as well as being testament to the good promotion work that’s gone into it.
Why it’s good: although the questions are broad, the consultation asks for respondents’ post codes so responses can be sent to local police divisions, who then act on the feedback. This means that a national consultation is having extremely localised results. The team have already posted an interim ‘We asked, you said, we did’ report, proving that resident feedback is having real-world impacts in real-time.
Surrey Fire and Rescue Service
Surrey Fire and Rescue Service are asking for resident feedback on the quality of their website. This might not seem all that exciting but the websites of public bodies can be notoriously difficult to navigate (hands up if you’ve had a frustrating experience with a council website search box before). Some of them don’t even conform to web accessibility standards yet, even though this is a legal requirement in the UK. So seeing a service actively seeking user feedback on their website is encouraging to see.
Why it’s good: I like that it focusses not just on how usable the site is, but it also asks what actions, if any, users have taken as a result of visiting it, neatly assessing both the website’s usability and its effectiveness.
Scottish Police Authority
Who polices the police? In Scotland’s case, the Scottish Police Authority does. They’ve set up an Independent Advisory Group ‘to examine the way Police Scotland has used its new [COVID-19-related] powers and the impact this has had on people’s attitudes and behaviours’. They’re running a call for evidence on peoples’ experiences of the pandemic and of Police Scotland’s emergency powers.
Why it’s good: this is an important issue and it’s great that this call for evidence is being conducted while the pandemic is ongoing, so that they can make changes as necessary, rather than afterwards when it’s too late to make improvements. The wording is clear and easy to read, asking for personal experiences rather than delving into complex legalities.
If you’d like to explore more of what Delib’s customers are doing, there are over 20000 public consultations on the Citizen Space Aggregator.
Citizen Space is a citizen engagement platform trusted by government around the world. Government organisations and public bodies use Citizen Space to connect with more citizens, increase engagement and improve processes.
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