From private choice to public trust: A new social basis for welfare

Consumer choice is an inadequate mechanism for empowering public service users. People want to feel confidence in services which are intended to meet their welfare needs. But it is no longer possible or acceptable to conceive of such confidence as based in unquestioning trust of service professionals. If it is to be effective in creating positive relationships between public services and their users, trust must be reciprocal. This article suggests how reciprocal relationships of trust can be built and sustained between welfare services and the citizens who use and pay for them, at both individual and collective levels.