Public to give online feedback on government services

Brown: "Feedback" for public services

UK citizens will soon be able to rate the services of GPs, police, childcare and councils online, in eBay-style feedback systems, Gordon Brown said today.

The government has already announced that patients will be able to leave comments on hospital web sites from the summer. Brown also proposed increasing the proportion of government funding for hospitals and local councils based on user satisfaction.

In the document, titled Working Together, the prime minister promised an "information revolution".

"We are ushering in a new world of accountability in which parents, patients and local communities shape the services they receive, ensuring all our public services respond not simply to the hand of government, but to the voice of local people," he said.

Setting out the public service goals he expects the government to achieve in the next 12 months, Brown acknowledged the government has been "much too slow to make use of the enormous democratising power of information", but will seek to make amends before the next general election.

A site comparing council services is due to go live in May and the government is also bringing together a national crime map for England and Wales to be available online by the end of 2009 – local crime maps are already available through police forces.

From this summer, patients will be able to comment on local services and provide feedback on GPs via the NHS Choices web site.

Childcare providers are to undergo similar scrutiny from parents via a site expected to be operational in 2010.

The British Medical Association and public sector unions have expressed concern that the rating systems will accelerate the "target driven" culture that Tony Blair introduced into the public sector.