Participation in the Social Security System: Experiments in Local Consultation

The 1980s witnessed a fundamental shift in thinking about the nature of participation public services. The commitment to forms of collective user involvement and representation has been challenged by the Thatcherite agenda with its emphasis on individualistic consumerism. Within the social security system there have been concerted efforts to mount customer surveys and service quality audits but running in parallel have been interests in consulting more directly with the customer constituency as a vehicle for improving the quality of the local service. This book provides a detailed and absorbing account of innovations in consultation about the delivery of local social security services which took root in the late 1980s. It makes a valuable contribution to policy debates about the status of and scope for user participation, representation and citizenship in the 1990s. Guidelines are presented about the establishment of effective consultation in public sector services. The book should have particular appeal to students of politics and social policy, community organisations and all those involved in the delivery of public services.