The way of thinking about the quality of public services has evolved alongside the public management model. One of the critical aspects of this process was expanding the responsibility for organizing and planning services. This transformation has led to the development of participatory budgeting software, community budgeting platforms, citizen budget engagement platforms, and online budgeting platforms for local government to facilitate a more significant role for citizens in the planning, management, and evaluation of public services.
The transition from the traditional bureaucratic system to the New Public Management system focused on the service recipient as the primary point of reference, rather than the administration itself. This shift aimed to satisfy consumer needs, moving from a "performing services" logic to a "satisfying the needs of consumers" logic. The second stage, New Public Governance, aimed to transform service recipients into active participants in service planning and quality evaluation by changing the role of public administration from a provider of services to a coordinator and facilitator.
This shift in perspective has affected how service quality is measured. In the era of New Public Management, the focus has moved from the process of providing services to their effects. This change has led to the development of online budgeting platforms for local government, which gather data on service performance, their impact on recipients, and satisfaction levels. As a result, measuring service quality has shifted from analyzing data on service delivery to analyzing public perception and impact.
The New Public Governance model emphasizes citizen participation in every stage of the process of planning local strategies for public service development. This approach requires a comprehensive diagnosis of service quality at the local level, taking into account various stakeholders' perspectives. In order to achieve this, local governments need to adopt innovative methods and tools for collecting, processing, and interpreting data on public services.
Several models for assessing service quality have been developed since the 1980s. These models have evolved to focus on service user satisfaction rather than internal procedures and efficiency of institutions. This shift is in line with the philosophy of New Public Governance, which seeks to develop strategies for local service development through citizen participation.
Some of these models include Meeting Britain's Unmet Needs, Community Resilience, and the Multiple Deprivation Index used by the British government. While these ventures differ in many respects, they all have in common a territorial (as opposed to "sectoral") approach to assessing service quality, linking this assessment to a diagnosis of quality of life, a "holistic" analytical scheme that covers a range of issues making up the overall assessment of service quality, and an emphasis on including the voice of the public.
In conclusion, the evolution of public management models has led to the emergence of participatory budgeting software, community budgeting platforms, citizen budget engagement platforms, and online budgeting platforms for local government. These tools have facilitated a more citizen-centric approach to measuring service quality and fostering greater engagement from the public in the planning and evaluation of public services. This paradigm shift has encouraged local governments to be more responsive to the needs of their citizens and to work in partnership with them to deliver better services and improve.
