Via the Public Decisions blog (co-organizer of the Including the Excluded online conference we’ll be attending), I just found out about a new research effort by Involve, a UK-based not-for-profit offering public participation consulting and services: Quantifying the Value of Engagement: A call for case studies
Dear Colleague,
Involve are embarking on an ambitious project with Consumer Focus England, we are seeking to develop an equation for identifying costs and benefits associated with public engagement structures and processes. The proposed equation will be a practical tool, aimed at public sector workers who wish to make the case for effective engagement by exploring and quantifying the costs and benefits. It will also help authorities, civil society and the public to identify when public engagement is an effective use of public money. We need to work with public sector organisations to test our equation, in order to ensure it is useful and that it is able to be applied in a variety of circumstances.
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Specifically we are looking for case studies which:
- Can demonstrate some tangible improvements in service outcomes as a result of the engagement, for example reduced crime levels, improved health outcomes, lowered bureaucratic requirements, or more targeted spending.
- Have some understanding of the costs and benefits of the exercise
- Includes some element of engaging with members of the public
- Occurred within the last twelve months
We are also interested in looking at examples which engaged people in issues around cuts in expenditure.
I look forward to their findings. In the spirit of moving this entire field forward, please make sure to make your cold, hard ROI data available.
No related posts.
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So let me get this straight.
Involve is looking for evidence that there is a benefit (ROI) when an organization becomes more attuned and, then, responsive to the needs of its customers (i.e., the people who the Org. is trying to serve).
Or simpler yet: They are looking for proof that there is some sort of a benefit related to higher customer satisfaction.
Or simplest yet: Is there a benefit to satisfying your customers/citizens?
Answer: By definition, Yes. The question answers itself.
Involve needs to go and do some reading about the Quality Revolution, customer satisfaction, etc. This has all been explained and proven over and over, in the private AND public sector.
For a good book on the latter, I suggest they read “Reinventing Government” by Osborne and Gaebler (link at Amazon.co.ud):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reinventing-Government-Entrepreneurial-Spirit-Transforming/dp/0201523949/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266816405&sr=1-2
The interesting thing here is that they’re trying to come up with a formula, an “equation for identifying costs and benefits associated with public engagement structures and processes.”
Not sure it can be done, but even an approximation might be helpful. I’m curious to see how exactly they’ll choose to derive (and quantify) costs and benefits and over what time period.
Should provide lots of food for thought.
I don’t think they’re out to prove ROI for public engagement in general. That’s what they do, after all.
New blog post: “Involve Looking for Participation Case Studies” — http://bit.ly/dgcQ3s /via @PublicDecisions #edem
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