From Making Citizen Empowerment a Cornerstone of National Health Policy by R. Craig Lefebvre at On Social Marketing and Social Change.

As the Government seeks to move the public services forward, the next stage of our reform programme must put power directly into the hands of citizens, driving services to become more responsive and personalised to each individual’s needs and aspirations – and provide a strong set of incentives for the system to innovate and improve. As a consequence:

• Services should reflect people’s aspirations and lifestyles to offer users the increased personal control they demand, and adapt to meet new demands such as more flexible opening hours or better online access.
• Services must be designed around people’s complex and interrelated needs, for instance providing those with long term health conditions with greater continuity of care between their home and hospital.
• A stronger relationship needs to be created between the citizen and public service professionals. Only when citizens are treated as equal partners do they bring their knowledge, time and energy to address challenges such as preventing ill-health ... [to read more]

Recommended Resources

Excellence and fairness: Achieving world class public services [pdf file]