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We are the intersectionists

  We are approaching a crossroads in how we think about the design, improvement and evaluation of services for our children, families and communities. Here’s my take on how we at the Dartington Service Design Lab, and others, have tackled these tasks to date, and what we think is the way forward.   Evidence and users Out there are evidence-based purists who assert that the route to improvement of our health and well-being lies in the scientific knowledge amassed over decades of empirical pursuit. If only, they say (I’ve said it!), policy-makers, commissioners and practitioners would engage with the evidence. Only they don’t, because it tends to be over-engineered or professionalised; disconnected from what users want and slow to adapt to rapidly changing or variable local contexts. Also, who has time to read the research and evidence?   Then there are the user-centred, co-designing, nimble and/or agile service designers. They bring a lot of post-i

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FNP ADAPT Interim Report

  This is the interim report on Dartington Service Design Lab’s ADAPT work with the Family Nurse Partnership. It describes our experience of working with the National Unit and local sites over a year to design, implement, and test multiple adaptation to the FNP programme. These include both clinical and system adaptations. As well as detailing the Rapid Cycle Adaptation & Testing methodology and the adaptations, the report also provides an update on progress, and the early insights on the project team, including on the challenges of this innovative approach. The report concludes with next steps, ahead of a final report later in the year.

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Responding to change by changing

This is a story about evolution. It considers what evidence-based programmes and the green lizards of Florida have in common. It’s about what we at the Dartington Service Design Lab think is the next frontier in the generation of evidence designed to evolve, and improve, practice. Our thinking has been shaped by our ambitious programme of partnership working with the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) National Unit.   The evolution of green lizards The native green lizards of Florida lived happily in shrubs and the lower branches of trees. That was until an unruly and invasive species of brown lizard moved into town. Faced with dwindling resources, a changing environment and increased competition, the green lizards faced a choice. Adapt or die. And adapt they did. Within just 20 generations they had evolved bigger and stickier toepads. This allowed them to scale the higher, smoother and previously unassailable branches of the trees. The green lizards now thrive in these hig

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People in Harmony Event Launch

People in Harmony has commissioned cutting-edge research into the lives of mixed race children and families in 21st century England.   People in Harmony, an anti-racist organisation that promotes the positive experience of interracial life in Britain today, are promoting their new report “Mixed Race Children and Families in the UK” with three launch events across England. This research uses data from the Dartington Service Design Lab’s ChildrenCount Wellbeing Surveys; a suite of tools designed to measure - at the local population level - children’s health and development from birth to early adulthood. “In using a state-of-the-art and up-to-date survey of parents of nought to nine-year-olds, ‘Breaking Stereotypes with Data’ provides new insights into the pervasive nature of lingering stereotypes, concluding that the lives of mixed race children and families are far more complex than these stereotypes would have us believe."   The report will be laun

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Research Fellow (Service Design)

Location: Remotely (anywhere in UK) Salary: £33,437 - £46,644 (NJC Band 5/6, Scale 3 -7 Spinal point 38 - 52) with generous pension and holiday allowance. Hours of work: 35 hours per week; flexible and part-time working will be considered. Accountable to: Deputy Lab Director Application deadline: 12 noon, Monday 26 February 2018   The Dartington Service Design Lab – an internationally respected research charity dedicated to improving child outcomes – is seeking a Research Fellow (Service Design) to join our team. The Lab is pioneering ways to reform and improve crucial services by blending user-centred and science-based design approaches. We’ll train the right candidate in our emerging methodologies. At the same time, you’ll be taking a lead on some of our most high-profile and exciting projects, and working with great partners.   You’ll be qualified to a minimum of Masters level or preferably PhD level in a relevant social science, and ex

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Dartington Service Design Lab welcomes new trustees

The Dartington Service Design Lab will be kicking off 2018 by welcoming four new trustees.     The Service Design Lab, which launched in April 2017, is strengthening its Board with leading figures from policy, consultancy, and journalism. Deborah Cohen, Patrick Diamond, Sandra Di Vito, and Ruth Dobson will join the Board in January and all bring a wealth of experience to support the Lab as it pioneers a new approach to system and service design to improve outcomes for children, young people, and communities.   Deborah Cohen is an award-winning, medically-qualified TV and print reporter, and was the first Investigations Editor of The BMJ. She has reported and co-produced documentaries for Panorama, Dispatches, and Newsnight, and works closely with the Centre of Evidence Based Medicine, combining epidemiology with journalism. Patrick Diamond is Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at Queen Mary University of London, and co-chair of the Policy Network think t

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Strategic Collaboration with The Children’s Society

The Dartington Service Design Lab is entering into a strategic collaboration with The Children’s Society to advance our understanding and share learning about child wellbeing, multiple disadvantage and service design and system change efforts.  The collaboration builds on a set of user consultation and wellbeing measurement projects involving both organisations over the past five years.   The aim of the collaboration is to: Align and consolidate our extensive experience in measuring child wellbeing, making the most of the data we already have and coordinating our work in future; Coordinate efforts and share learning about how to most effectively support young people who are facing multiple disadvantage; Develop skills and share learning about service design and system change efforts as a means to improve child, young people, and family outcomes. Our collaboration will be practically realised by: Rolling up our sleeves and working together on service desig

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Edinburgh Skylight Crisis evaluation

The first of our Crisis Skylight evaluation reports are published, this one focusing on Edinburgh This evaluation report contains data, findings and lessons emerging from the three-year Progressing Towards Employment project, delivered by the Crisis Skylight Edinburgh team and funded by the Big Lottery Fund. It is a celebration of what Crisis members have achieved, and offers a series of 10 reflections and five recommendations for the service to consider in the future. This report, and others currently in progress, are part of the wider work the Lab is doing with Crisis, as part of the Hothouses for Innovation project. For more information, contact: Kate Tobin

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Systems thinking in health services

Collaboration between PenCLAHRC and the Lab The Dartington Service Design Lab is developing a strategic collaboration with PenCHORD and the wider PenCLAHRC. Based in the south-west of England, PenCHORD is a leading research centre specialising in operational research and healthcare system modelling. It sits within PenCLAHRC, a National Institute for Healthcare Research (NIHR) centre, that undertakes high-quality applied healthcare research focused on the needs of patients and the translation of research evidence into practice in the NHS. The aim of the collaboration is to: Develop strong multi-disciplinary links between healthcare research (which PenCHORD and PenCLAHRC focus on) and research in wider the social sector (that the Dartington Lab focus on): Reciprocally boost skills and capacity within the Lab and PenCHORD in relation to engagement and facilitation (something the Dartington Lab is particularly strong at) and technical aspects of system dynamics modelling (somethi

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The Lab waltzes to Vienna

The Lab will present papers at the European Society for Prevention Research (EU SPR) Conference on system modelling, rapid cycle innovation and ‘dark logic’. The Lab will be well represented this year at the 8th European Society for Prevention Research (EUSPR) conference! This annual event is a must for researchers working in prevention science and this year focuses on quality in prevention. Events stretch over three days, from Wednesday 20th until Friday 22nd September, with talks on prevention efforts in health, public health, mental health, education and criminal justice. Vicky Baker will speak about the our innovative system dynamic modelling of social care in Derbyshire, Blackpool and North Tyneside, as well as mental health system modelling in South Devon and Torbay. Keira Lowther will speak about the Lab ‘s experience of service design and rapid cycle adaptation with the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP). Senior Associate and erstwhile colleague, Nick Axford, will a

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Lab meets Lab

Strategic collaboration on systems thinking and modelling The Dartington Service Design Lab is entering into a strategic collaboration with the Brown School’s Social System Design Lab at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri.   The aim of the collaboration is to: Advance thinking and practice in relation to understanding the behaviour and dynamics of public systems, such as child welfare and mental health systems, in both the UK and US; Reciprocally boost skills and capacity within each Lab in relation to engagement and facilitation (something the Dartington Lab is particularly strong at) and technical aspects of system dynamics modelling (something the Social System Design Lab is particularly strong at); Share our learning, tools and approaches more widely, through the production of open-source materials and simulation models and scientific papers.   Our collaboration will be practically realised by: An ongoing Skills Lab: this is an exch

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Geek Chic: The future of service and system design

Fusing a science-based approached to service design and system reform with an inclusive approach that involves the people who use and deliver services Public services designed to support people to live healthy, fulfilling or productive lives can do amazing things, often in challenging circumstances. Yet at some point or other they often fail to live up to expectations. Most readers will recognise these failures in their interactions with services at some point in their lives, ranging from physical and mental health care provision, family support or education, to housing support or adult social care. Why so? I think it is due to a fundamental flaw in the design process (or absence thereof) and the complex and fragmented nature of our public systems. Most systems – such as education, child protection, physical and mental health, adult social care, etc. - have evolved, largely independently, over centuries. They tend to operate in silos, on short-term commissioning cycles that

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Service

Design

We take a scientific approach, coupled with a deep respect for the needs and wants of the people who use and deliver services.

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System

Reform

We help to change public systems so that they work more effectively for the people using them and more efficiently for the people running them.

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Information

Design

We present information in an engaging and accessible way. We do this to effectively inform the decisions that service leaders, managers and practitioners make.

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