Citizen‘s Charter - What will charters be like in practice?

Citizen‘s Charter

Modernization of Public Administration Department (Odbor modernizace veřejné správy)

czech

english

Group Exercise - What will charters be like in practice?

SIGMA - Support for Improvement in Governance and Management
A joint initiative of the OECD and the European Union, principally financed by the EU

Objective of this session: The workshop will help participants to test their draft charters from a multiple stakeholder perspective.

Service charters can be a powerful tool for public agencies to improve service delivery to clients provided that the service standards are challenging. At the same time; they have to be realistic and set out clearly what the agency can do and what it cannot deliver. Ideally; they also set out client responsibilities.

During the workshop participants will discuss one charter from two different perspectives.

Session I: evaluating charters from a users' perspective (with plenary feedback)

does it include a standard for all the issues in which you think users will be interested?

do the standards included sound relevant to the likely needs of users?

are the standards clear?

is it clear what will happen if the standard is not met?

is it clear what the responsibilities of the user are when he/she uses the service?

is it clear what will happen if the user does carry out these responsibilities?

how do you think this charter might be improved from the user's perspective?

Session II: evaluating charters from the organisation's perspective (with plenary feedback)

does it include all a standard for all the issues which you think professionals and staff in the organization consider to be important?

are the standards included relevant to the effectiveness of the service?

will the standards be easy to measure?

will it be easy to report how well the standards are met?

will it be easy for the organization to APPEAR to meet this standard without really addressing what service users actually want?

is it clear what the organization will need to do if the standard is not met?

is it clear what the organization should do if users do carry out their responsibilities?

how do you think this charter might be improved from the organisation's perspective?

This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OECD and its Member countries or of the beneficiary countries participating in the SIGMA Programme.