Personalisation Through Participation

Personalisation can be likened to privatisation of state-owned utilities in the 1980s - a big idea with the potential to transform the public sector. The Prime Minister has promised personalised public services in a series of recent speeches. This pamphlet argues that offering personalised education and health services will increase people's expectations and create a demand-led pressure for reform. Charles Leadbeater believes that if government is serious about personalisation, public sector bodies should regard this promise as a big challenge to the way they currently operate. He explains how personalisation go beyond a simple consumer model to actually involving users in their design and delivery of the next generation of services. Charles Leadbeater is an author, consultant and government adviser. This report was produced as part of a Demos project on personalisation with the Innovation Unit of the Department for Education and Skills