www.bexley.gov.uk

Building a culture of

design

Anne-Louise Clark

Ellen Care

@Innovate_Bexley

A bit about you

@Innovate_Bexley

A bit about us

@Innovate_Bexley

Anne-Louise “Design thinking gave me a new optimism about achieving

better outcomes for citizens in a time of austerity”

Best part of the job:

• Working with multidisciplinary teams to explore tricky issues

• Hearing about the lived experiences of our citizens

• Spotting opportunities

Challenges of the job:

• Breaking down ‘professional policy conflict’

• Dealing with assumptions that are based on little evidence

• Maintaining focus when over excited

Motivations:

• Wants to unlock potential

• Would like to strengthen the design thinking across a system

Age: 54

Job: Head of

Transformation and

Change

Role: Lead for the

organisation’s change

programmes with

particular attention on

the need for self-

sufficiency

Ellen Care “Design is doing something on purpose, for a purpose – it

fits perfectly in the public sector”

Best part of the job:

• Learning about lots of different services and working with

different teams

• Conducting user research

• Giving enthusiastic people the tools they need to make

something different happen

Challenges of the job:

• Mixture of different levels of experience and understanding

• Seeing the need for change but not always having the power

to make the change

Motivations:

• Respecting people as the experts in their own lives

• Delivering public value

Age: 28

Job: Transformation &

Change Officer – Service

Design and Engagement

Role: Advocating design

and sharing our design

toolkit to support

various teams and the

Design and Innovation

Board

Building a culture of

design

@Innovate_Bexley

Design at LB Bexley

2018

@Innovate_Bexley

Transformation & Change Team

Outcomes based planning

Design and Innovation

Board

Commissioning Cycle

Service reviews and Deep Dives

Bexley D School

@Innovate_Bexley

2015

Catalysts for change

New Corporate Leadership Team

Outcomes based budgeting

Head of Transformation

Looking up and out

@Innovate_Bexley

Why design was right

A moment of change

Ready to take a chance

Values match

Sector-wide movement

@Innovate_Bexley

Working with designers

@Innovate_Bexley

Starting a first design project

Why this project? Why this approach?

What’s the context?

How will you work together?

How will you build capacity and relationships?

@Innovate_Bexley

Lessons learnt

Challenging power dynamics

Holding space for discovery

Working at pace (within existing structures)

Proving the concept – building a reputation

Learning from different designers

@Innovate_Bexley

The most important

thing is,

we started

@Innovate_Bexley

Building capability and

consolidating

Transformation & Change team

Bexley D School

In house design projects

Building external networks

Reading, talking, exploring

@Innovate_Bexley

Going mainstream

@Innovate_Bexley

Design and Innovation Board

Innovation

Events

Commissioning

Board

Insight and

Analytics

Staff lunches

Discussions and

suggestions

Design and Innovation

Board

Hear pitches

Allocate resources

Provide sponsorship

Track progress

Membership from across

the organisation

Services supported to in

their projects by

Transformation & Change

team

Business as usual

Governance

Boards

DMTs

Team monitoring

and improvements

@Innovate_Bexley

Innovation Principles Innovation comes from anywhere and anyone

Nothing is too big or too small to consider

Focus on improving outcomes for residents, businesses and visitors

Start with, include, end with and return to users

Give every idea the best possible chance of success

Come with an open and curious mind

Don’t be hindered by the past

Asking questions is more important than having solutions

Iterate

Don’t expect to be perfect from day 1 (or even day 100)

Fail well

It’s better to get it wrong and learn, than fear not being perfect

@Innovate_Bexley

Pioneer Scheme / Fostering 50

Pioneer Foster Carer scheme developed

with FutureGov and funded

Building the Fostering 50 programme to

develop recruitment models for foster

carers that could be offered, for a fee, to

other local authorities

What’s happened:

- Presentations to Design and Innovation Board as the project was developed

- Funding from Transformation Reserve to backfill team manager post for 2

years to allow both programmes to enable transformation of the service

@Innovate_Bexley

Bexley Heritage Trails App

Face to face walks are popular but cannot

be delivered at scale

Currently no provision for re-using or

sharing the information in the walks online

Links to Growth Strategy and London

Borough of Culture

What’s happened:

- £22,000 to develop an app

- Revenue costs paid from existing budgets and exploring recouping through

advertising

- Developing and testing the app in January

- First walks due for public release in March

@Innovate_Bexley

Bexley Junior Citizen

Citizenship / safety education delivered to

Year 6 pupils through scenario based

activities

Funding from Police ends in 2018

No further provision to deliver despite

being popular and valuable opportunity

What’s happened:

- Research with other boroughs, schools and pupils

- Workshop with key partners

- Funding an apprenticeship post to coordinate the scheme in 2019 and develop

a sustainable model for the future

@Innovate_Bexley

Danson Park Watersports Centre

Creating an online booking tool for sessions

at Danson Water Sports centre

Idea been on the cards for a long time but

picked up at an Innovation Event to give

some momentum and drive forwards

What’s happened:

- Workshop matchmaking with colleagues who have done similar things

- Key contacts in Web team to get things moving

@Innovate_Bexley

Support to pursue an idea

Q1: Attending an Innovation Event or the Design

and Innovation Board has supported me to

pursue an innovative idea

Strongly agree: 43%

Agree: 43%

Disagree: 14%

@Innovate_Bexley

Increased confidence

Q2: Attending an Innovation Event or the Design

and Innovation Board has increased my

confidence to take an innovative idea or service

improvement forward

Strongly agree: 43%

Agree: 57%

@Innovate_Bexley

Connecting with other people

Q3: Attending an Innovation Event or the Design

and Innovation Board has connected me with

other people to help me pursue my idea

Strongly agree: 29%

Agree: 71%

@Innovate_Bexley

Harder to pursue

Q4: Without the Innovation Event or the

Design and Innovation Board, it would have been

harder to pursue my idea for innovation or

improvement.

Strongly agree: 50%

Agree: 50%

@Innovate_Bexley

Learnt something new

Q5: I have learnt something new about design

and creating change from attending an

Innovation Event or the Design and Innovation

Board

Strongly agree: 43%

Agree: 57%

@Innovate_Bexley

What has been the most useful

part of attending an Innovation

Event or the D&I Board?

@Innovate_Bexley

How would you describe being part of the Design and

Innovation Board?

Still early days for me,

but really enjoyable

and nice to be involved

in a meeting with Gill

that is so different

One of the most

enjoyable aspects

of my work for

the Council

Exciting and insightful. It

is very rewarding to be

involved in the process of

making changes for the

benefit of the council and

ultimately the community

we serve

It has helped me to find out

about different innovative

ideas that are happening

around the council. It is also

helping me to build my

confidence and network

with staff in different service

areas.

Refreshing, invigorating,

exciting, giving me a fuller

sense of purpose and

ability. Also fun at times

whilst serious enough to

make things happen

Its great. The board

really helps realize and

enable the fantastic ideas

to come forward from

staff across the

organization.

Energising,

collaborative,

optimistic.

@Innovate_Bexley

Developing the Board

Building the profile

Active participants

Getting the practicalities right

Being okay with failing and saying no

@Innovate_Bexley

Why use HCD in the public

sector?

• Services people want and can use achieve outcomes

• Costs are reduced when users can understand and use products or services without additional assistance

• More usable services are more accessible

• Reducing discomfort and stress for people using a service

• Keep up with (or confound) expectations

@Innovate_Bexley

“Design is the process

of deciding on and

realizing preferred

futures”

Cameron Tonkinwise,

Carnegie Mellon School of Design

@Innovate_Bexley

Speculative design

Redrawn from Speculative Everything redrawing Stuart Candy @Innovate_Bexley

@Innovate_Bexley

Fixing the status quo

vs

Imagining new

models

@Innovate_Bexley

Three Horizons

@Innovate_Bexley

How might we….

• Blend design thinking with other human-centred approaches to shape different relationships with citizens?

• Build a design led mind set within traditional professional roles in the public sector?

• Expand the use of design thinking in policy and strategy spaces?

• Apply design thinking across place shaping work at a local level?

@Innovate_Bexley

Any questions?

@Innovate_Bexley

Anne-Louise Clark

Head of Transformation & Change

@AnneLouTonge

Ellen Care

Transformation & Change Officer -

Service Design & Engagement

@ellen_care