Tracy Aarons

Deputy Chief Executive

Mendip District Council

Design in Public Services Local Government partnership with Design Council

Bid to join South West Programme successful

Aim to use design led approaches applied in the commercial sector to address problems.

Mendip submitted a joint submission from itself, Police, National Probation, Somerset County Council

The Problem Funding pressures meant a cut of £879k in funding for

housing related support for adults with complex needs by one agency

Rippled resource impact out to other agencies

Fractured relationships

Concerns about risks to public safety and to those individuals affected

To engage partners to create cost effective cross sector support for people with complex needs

Vision &

StrategyCustomer

& User

Brand &

Comms

Product &

Service

Culture &

Environment

Opportunity framework

Divergent and convergent process

DeliverSolutions which work

DevelopPotential solutions

DefineThe area to focus upon

DiscoverInsight into the problem

DeliverSolutions which work

DevelopPotential solutions

DefineThe area to focus upon

DiscoverInsight into the problem

Key principles and methods

Being people centred

Being visual

Being collaborative & iterative

Customer Insight

“The most common leadership failure stems from attempting to apply technical solutions to adaptive challenges”

Ronald Heifitz, HBR 2009 Immunity to change

Clues…

We keep meeting but don’t move forward

Trust is low, and organisations are in conflict

People feel confused and ask ‘what problem are we trying to solve’

There are many competing views of ‘the answer’

Papers are produced, projects are set up, committees meet – but service users don’t see any change

People are passive aggressive – don’t contribute, don’t turn up, or don’t do what they said they would do

“Propagating Hope”The change in the room

Collective agreement on need to change

Desire to alter the way of working

Separate ‘support’ from ‘housing’

Promote the person not the problem

Taking the concepts forward into practice

Overarching governance board

Series of prototypes identified initially by participants but then from wider pool of interested parties

Heavy focus on prototyping as a way forward

Emergency Host Family Accommodation History of using local families to give short notice

accommodation to youngster

Allows them to get back on an even keel

Approached families to see if they would consider trying this with adults

Outcome means adult feels supported, move more easily to standard housing

Trauma Informed Practice

Identified in ethnographic research and ‘move on’ research that the way staff dealt with clients often exacerbated problems.

Training for staff on trauma and it’s impacts

Supervision and support for staff from psychotherapist

Areas of difficulty

Rapid prototyping works well with bits of cardboard and sellotape, but not where vulnerable people are involved

It is early days and promotion of approach takes time

Getting the message across that there is a framework and it is not just about messing around.

Benefits

Integration across agencies for shared benefits

Greater width of services on offer for far reduced sums

A change in thoughts as regards housing related support.

Rough sleeping and homelessness stats monitored and showing stability or reduction.

Thank youAny Questions?