Social Sciences

Local Public Services and Quality of Life

1 July 2009 - 30 June 2010

PI/s in Exeter: Professor Oliver James

Funding awarded: £ 24,040

Sponsor(s): ESRC

Project webpage(s)

Local Public Services and Quality of Life

About the research

This project has been jointly planned by the applicant and Marketing Means, a small opinion research enterprise based in the South West of England.

The project transfers knowledge primarily generated by a small ESRC research grant examining citizens' attitudes towards performance and their satisfaction with public services. It will build and apply an innovative, interactive website tool for consulting an invited panel of citizens about the performance of local public services and the contribution to key quality of life priorities for their area.

The panel will be applied as a pilot for a local area (parts of Devon) and focus on identified local consultation priorities. Following a 2 month period of development, the website be interactive and allow a panel of invited citizens to express their views about expectations, performance and satisfaction with public services and these services' contribution to achieving key priorities for the local area. The site will also allow information exchange and citizens' discussion about performance issues. The project will involve transfer of knowledge to Marketing Means and will entail communication with local public bodies about the website tool, and the findings for the pilot area, to promote use of similar tools and approaches.