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Advancing Black leadership
Advancing Black leadership

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3 Holding local public service professionals accountable

Earlier in this week, you were reminded that professionals are mandated to deliver public services to you and other community members. You and the community regularly renew and sustain the mandate through the officials you are called upon to vote in and out of office. Consequently, you can ensure that the local NHS, the local councils, and the local police are held accountable through the councillors and the Police and Crime Commissioners, for example.

You have also been reminded how you can access the elected officials. Contact points include clinics, public meetings, voting and other interactions throughout the electoral campaigns.

In addition to holding local public services accountable through the elected officials, there are other formal and semi-formal mechanisms to engage with local authorities, the NHS, and the police. Now and then, the local public services will ask members of the public to join consultation panels. As a member of the public, you can apply where appropriate and get on such platforms. During the early months of the pandemic, some local councils and local NHS asked members of the public to apply to become COVID-19 ambassadors. Becoming an ambassador allowed volunteers to access first-hand information on the pandemic, vaccinations, and other COVID-19 related information.

The ambassadors were expected to share the information with community members, especially those least connected to mainstream information flows. Some local police forces have established independent advisory groups to improve their engagement with communities that are less connected with the police. In some areas, the membership is open and advertised widely. Some local police forces also have scrutiny panels where members of the public are invited to review police practices, such as stop-and-search, and then give feedback to help the police in improving their practices.

There are other accountability routes, and you will focus on three for the rest of this week:

  • internal complaints procedures
  • accountability to professional bodies
  • public sector duty.