An open public conversation about spending choices
The challenge
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 approach
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.
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.
The results
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.
Delib is a govtech leader specialising in consultation and engagement, trusted by over 600 government organisations worldwide, including major planning projects. Since 2004, we've been building secure, accessible digital platforms to make participation simpler, fairer, and more inclusive. Our flagship product, Citizen Space, was built in collaboration with the UK government and has supported more than 11 million responses across over 110,000 democratic activities.