Research Report

Online services can be the default solution for people needing government services
- Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude

In 2010 Martha Lane Fox, the UK Digital Champion, published the report, Directgov 2010 and Beyond: Revolution Not Evolution. In it, she called for “radical improvement to Government internet services to provide higher quality and more convenient 24/7 services to users”¹. Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, welcomed the report and its message of ‘digital by default’, stating “online services can be the default solution for people needing Government services”².

Consumer Focus recognises that Directgov 2010 and Beyond: Revolution Not Evolution, along with a wider push towards digital being the primary delivery channel³, is likely to have a substantial impact on how consumers access public services. Taken together with the changes to public services arising from overall reductions in public spending, the environment in which public services are provided is changing rapidly.

In response to the expected acceleration of the shift to online public service delivery, Consumer Focus is keen to ensure that consumers have a meaningful voice in shaping this new generation of digital services. Consumers are experts on the services they use and, as such, their requirements should be central to the design and construction of all public services.

Failure to properly involve consumers in shaping future online public services not only risks alienating large swathes of the population, it raises the likelihood of scarce resources being allocated to services that fail to adequately meet the needs and expectations of service users. This in turn risks undermining the potential of online public services to deliver an improved user experience and efficiencies for service providers.

Consumer Focus commissioned thinkpublic to undertake this project in order to provide a better understanding of what consumers want need and expect from online public services. It has been designed to help ensure online public services of the future do not repeat the mistakes of their present incarnation. It captures consumers’ current experiences and their hopes and expectations for the future. It is intended that the insights will demonstrate the importance of understanding the consumer perspective and support policy makers and other stakeholders in placing the needs of consumers at the heart of future online public service design and delivery.

This report forms one of a group of outputs generated by the project. These include: a manifesto document setting out consumers’ expectations of online public services, a short film, and this website that will facilitate debate and comment on this project and on the future of online public services.

1. Cabinet Office, ‘Digital by default proposed for government services’, Cabinet Office, 23 November 2010, viewed 28 April 2011.
2. Ibid.
3. For example, in delivering Universal Credit the DWP intends to adopt the ‘digital first’ principle and meet the growing demand for flexible and comprehensive online services. See Universal Credit: welfare that works, Deparment for Work & Pensions, November 2010.