A call for radical innovation to create brilliant public services

Service design has the potential to radically innovate services and systems, but are we missing the point by focusing on easy wins and incremental improvements, particularly focused in the digital world?

Are we fiddling with the deckchairs on the Titanic?

Titanic breaks in half before sinking

Applying a service design mindset, allows us to view a problem from the perspective of service users and staff - looking for the root cause of the problem - zooming out and looking at the whole end-to-end service or system and creating better ways to meet challenges.

This requires us to stand back and consider the desired outcomes and how else we might better achieve them - rather than worrying about whether we need to send a message notification or design an app to make our service work a bit better. 

Let’s look at this through the lens of social care. There are well-rehearsed reasons for why we need to radically re-think how we deliver social care in the UK: the ageing population; increasing issues of mental health; and decreasing budgets to name a few.

Two similar local authorities decide to re-think how family support is offered to those going through a tough time. 

Local Authority A decides they need to digitise an element of their existing service. Perhaps they offer a chatbot that provides advice and points families in the right direction. The chatbot is well designed from the user's perspective and offers good information at any time of day or night. However, the solution is superficial and it doesn’t really impact outcomes for people.

Local Authority A is focused on making operations more efficient - how to get to the same place more quickly. They are busy executing incremental change, chipping away at what exists to make it a bit better. They are less inclined or encouraged to see the whole picture. Instead, the focus is on their part of the bigger system. 

But what if they’re heading in the wrong direction? Making things more efficient could just be getting them to the wrong place more quickly.

The chatbot did nothing to improve outcomes for people and the LA are still struggling with staff retention and recruitment with hundreds of hours of unmet need every week, while private-equity-backed organisations take their profits. They have put a veneer of modernity over antiquated services.

Local Authority B decides that it needs to radically re-think its model of service delivery. They zoom out, looking at the whole system and wonder how they might help families achieve better outcomes. Giving people permission to look at the bigger picture, make new connections and take the opportunity to do something greater - looking at the sum of the parts

Let me just pause here and ask you a question: 

“When you have an issue at home that you’re unable to deal with, who do you turn to for advice and support?” 

It probably isn’t someone from the Council. It’s probably someone in your family or friendship group.  But what if you aren’t connected to friends and family who can help you? Then what?

Taking this thinking, Local Authority B were facing reduced budgets and increased demand for services from families facing hardship.

They realised that it was time to radically re-think the whole system - and not just rely on incremental improvements.

Before doing anything else, they started by understanding the needs of the people they’re designing for, or “walking a mile in their shoes”. Seeing the world from the citizens' perspective. They started by understanding the problem, before arriving at a possible solution.

The other thing they did was to start small and gradually test, learn adapt and build their solution (what some people call iteratively) - prototyping the idea in a small way before improving and scaling more widely.

The solution they came up with moved away from a traditional top-down approach. Here, they set up a peer-to-peer model, pairing families in need with those who have “been there, done that”.

The set-up involves 1 professional Family Coach: 15 Sharing Families: 40 Seeking Families, reaching up to 100 children at risk with a single professional. They measured a £7 return for every £1 spent.

But the rewards are much more than just financial - it offers something that professional services can’t: human connections and relationships. 

Families have problems 24/7. This support is there when it’s needed.

Now that this peer-to-peer model has been tested in one service area, it’s now being considered for other challenging areas. Eg, refugees and migrant resettlement, domestic violence, and substance use.

This model is scalable and repeatable. 

For this sort of radical innovation to emerge, requires a different way of working - and thinking. One that starts by understanding the problem space and redresses the balance between organisational needs and citizen needs. It requires an approach that looks at the whole system, not just one part of it. And it needs organisations to work together to deliver better outcomes. 

“Local Authority A” is an amalgamation of things I’ve seen in multiple organisations across the UK. “Local Authority B” is a real project - initiated by The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI). Read more about Family by Family. The model is available for others to replicate.

Family by family’s vision

One thing’s for sure, we cannot go on designing and delivering public services in the same way we always have done. With many services on the brink of collapse, the time to act is now.

We don’t have the luxury of time anymore. It’s time to radically re-think what we do and how we do it and stop tinkering with the edges.

This re-think requires organisations to make space for change to happen and to invest in their people to be the initiators or agitators of change.

This is why we work with people in public and third sector organisations to develop skills and capability in service design. And we encourage participants to take a zoomed-out look at their services and reimagine what could be.

If you want to become the change you want to see, sign up for our 6-month SDN accredited course, Service Design in Practice designed specifically for public and third sector organisations and add a design mindset to your way of thinking - and doing!

One thing’s for sure - you’ll never look back!

“Of all the training I’ve done, this course has changed my mindset the most”

— Howard Merrett, Business Analyst Partner at Valleys to Coast Housing Association