Customer story: Isle of Man Government

Ideas for making savings

In pursuit of its goal of delivering efficient and appropriate services for its citizens, the Isle of Man government needed to save £25 million over five years.

In taking on this challenge, the government wanted to consult the public for their ideas and opinions on how to balance the budget.

The Isle of Man government chose to use Dialogue

The Isle of Man government decided to host an open, public conversation on spending choices – using Dialogue to run it online. This gave citizens a place to make their voices heard, helping identify opportunities, initiatives and policies to meet the budget savings target.

The government opened up a challenge around its ‘Securing Added Value and Efficiencies’ (SAVE) programme and asked for people's ideas so that they could hear 'on the ground' expertise and insight from citizens themselves.

As an accessible, digital platform, Dialogue extended the opportunity to participate to anyone, anywhere, any time. It created a space where diverse communities could hear from one another, and meant that those without the time or means to attend in-person events were not excluded from the process. And the conversation flowed, with suggestions covering a huge range of issues: from public transport and education to council tax and waste management.

Vigorous discussion and a frank exchange of views allowed the government to gauge the pulse of public opinion, and provided an efficient, easy-to-use method of engagement which was open to a range of varied demographics.

Alongside the public challenge, the Isle of Man government also ran an internal staff Dialogue, gathering input from civil servants to give them even more ideas to consider.

Thousands of valuable ideas

The SAVE programme was promoted to the public via local press and radio, and was met with a huge response. Thousands of people took part in the Dialogue, giving the Isle of Man government a wealth of input. With over 1,000 ideas regarding their budget, and a huge number of comments and ratings to boot, the Isle of Man government received a wealth of constructive insight to take forward and create more informed, participatory policies.