It is five years since Lord Nolan produced his ground-breaking report aimed at eliminating sleaze within politics and opening up the shadowy world of quangos to public scrutiny.

There have been major changes as a result. A commissioner of public appointments now oversees and monitors the staffing of quangos; a code of conduct exists, to which many of these non-elected bodies have to subscribe; and the selection process is fairer and more open.

Sadly, however, these developments seem to have made little impact on public perceptions. A Mori poll, commissioned by the office of the commissioner for public appointments (OCPA) earlier this year, found that most people still thought appointments were politically influenced and bureaucratic.

Perhaps just as damning was the widespread belief that selection was based largely on personal connections. Being a "member of the right golf club" - rather than being able to demonstrate a proven track record - was the seen to be the most important factor.

Partly for this reason, the OCPA launches Public Service Week today. It will attempt - through seminars, workshops and role-playing exercises - to raise awareness of what quangos do and how ordinary people can get more involved.

But it is clear that it will have its work cut out. At the moment, despite the OCPA's best endeavours, the average quango member still fits the white, male, middle-aged stereotype.

According to latest figures, only a third of all public appointees are women and 4.7% come from ethnic minorities. Just 2.9% of new appointees last year were disabled, while three quarters were aged between 46 and 65 - with less than 3% under the age of 35.

Even some of these statistics don't tell the whole story. Most of the 33% of female appointees, for instance, tend to find themselves in lower status, unpaid roles. Only 3% of quango members who earn £50,000 or more are women.

It is also clear that politics still plays a significant part in the selection process. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in the NHS, where former health secretary Frank Dobson pledged to sweep out the "deadwood" among trust non-executive directors.

This led to a flood of Labour appointments. Between January 1998 and March 1999, the number of councillors on trust boards more than doubled - with 80% of these appointments being awarded to Labour.

In a hard-hitting report published earlier this year, Dame Rennie Fritchie, the commissioner for public appointments, suggested that political allegiance had been the "decisive factor" in the selection of a number of candidates and the whole process had become "politicised in a systemic way".

None of this has helped to improve the image of public bodies. But just as off-putting can be the selection process itself. Most applicants find they are faced with complex forms, arcane selection procedures, and long delays between initial application and final appointment.

Many jobs are still not advertised in the normal manner, and even where they are, the ad may be for a generic role - for example, NHS trust non-executive director - rather than a specific post.

Dame Rennie wants to see the selection process streamlined, and she supports the idea of advertising for specific posts wherever possible. She insists that much progress has been made over the past five years in making public bodies more representative, but she accepts there is still a long way to go - especially in the areas of disability and age diversity.

At the same time, the overriding criterion for selection has to be fitness for the job. "It's not enough to have the right recipe in terms of people who reflect their society," she points out. "They must also be people who can do the job."

The answer, she believes, is to bring more people into the pool of potential applicants, but then to appoint on merit.