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08/12/2003

Local councillors a key access point for advice says survey

Local councillors are a key access point for help and advice on public services according to the results of a survey of people’s views on public services in Northern Ireland.

This is according to the findings of a report published today by the Review of Public Administration (RPA).

The RPA team commissioned independent analysis of questions that were included in the Northern Ireland Omnibus Survey, to explore the statistics in more detail.

The key findings of the surveys were:
  • People have a strong sense of local identity and local councillors are seen as a key access point for help and advice on public services generally.
  • There is a large degree of support for local government in any future public administration arrangements, but it is unclear what that role should be.
  • Almost in equal measure people felt that, over the past five years, the quality of public services had improved (34%), remained unchanged (34%) or deteriorated (31%).
  • People do not feel engaged by public service providers, and there is a lack of confidence in complaining about public services, as people feel nothing would be done anyway.
  • People working in manual/unskilled occupations are less likely to be satisfied with public services than those in non-manual occupations.
  • Non-Departmental public bodies (or “quangos”) provide the services that the public see as being most in need of improvement.
  • There is a general lack of awareness of quangos, and people felt that if they were to continue then Members of the Boards should be elected and not selected.
  • There is support for the involvement of voluntary, community and private sector organisations in service planning, provision and policy development.
The RPA team commissioned researchers from the University of Ulster to carry out an independent analysis of the survey in order to explore the analysis in more detail and to provide an framework for the results.

Copies of the report are available on the RPA website at www.rpani.gov.uk.

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