Nowadays everyone expects users to be heavily involved in the design and delivery of buildings and public spaces.  It is an inherent part of the professional practice of architects and designers. 

This expectation contrasts sharply with what is happening with core public services in the UK, where meaningful involvement is still the exception.  The gulf of trust and confidence between the public and those responsible for public services is hardly surprising.

What is shocking is that so little is being done to repair that gap.  Involvement as both a concept and a practice does not feature in the professional codes or leadership development programmes on which so much public money is spent each year. 

Before talk of public services being "re-imagined", re-energised and re-formed can be taken seriously, leaders and professionals need to be re-educated to embrace public involvement and understand its power and consequences. 

Otherwise we can expect more of the same in our public services - the equivalent of buildings as impersonal and inadequate machines to live in, rather than living spaces reflecting real human need and hope, articulated by the users themselves.