Barriers to choice in public services - please share your experiences

[Lucie Stephens]

nef fellow David Boyle has been asked by the government to lead an independent review into barriers to choice in public services. This is fascinating topic, one closely related to the work we’re all doing on co-production.

Davids priority is both to look through the research (and rhetoric) about choice theory or service competition and try to find out what is actually happening in public services here and now; whether people get and use the rights to choose they have been given.

He believe's that he may get to the nub of the question from successful stories about choices offered and used, rather than just from stories where it was denied - though he is interested in those too. 

So if you have a story you can share, please tell David – either by writing to him direct (c/o Choice Review, Cabinet Office, 1 Horse Guards Road (room 2.29), London SW1A 2HQ) or via email.

He says 'I really want to hear positive stories because I have a sense that it is the variety of ways that choice actually works that may give us the clues we need to suggest solutions when it doesn’t. We’ll be travelling around the country as much as we can, but we can’t meet everyone – and your experience may provide us with a clue we can get nowhere else.'