White Paper: Citizen-Centred Service Delivery
Governments around the world have for many years delivered service to their citizens through a programmatic business model. Service is delivered by program specific delivery channels owned by individual policy departments and duplicated at each and every level of government. The result, when viewed by department, looks logical. However, when looked at from the citizen’s perspective, it is complex, confusing and difficult to penetrate. When you overlay multiple departments, levels of government and community organizations there is clearly duplication, overlap and replication of services and channels that add cost, complexity and obscure the ability to achieve social outcomes.
According to research in Canada1, citizens believe that government should understand their needs and circumstances and have a focus on finding ways to help them. Most have come to expect from government the same level of service they experience in the private sector and would prefer to use alternative models of access, if only they were available or as good as they are used to using.
This paper explores Citizen-Centred Service Delivery and concepts that provide government the opportunity to:
- Deliver good service when it is needed
- At a lower cost of delivery than is incurred today
- That achieves improved outcomes for the individual, their family and the country as a whole.