The AI revolution in children's services - what to consider

AI is all around us, from text prediction in WhatsApp to generating all kinds of things via ChatGPT and other such tools. It's certainly not going away and is playing a significant role in not just our lives but the lives of children and families. So, what does this mean for AI in the youth sector? And what could it do for your work and organisation? Dartington Service Design Lab has been at the forefront of progressive applications of research for over fifty years, and we’re intrigued by the advances in artificial intelligence (AI), which is already changing the way we develop, deliver and evaluate services for children, young people and families – bringing a wealth of opportunities and challenges to navigate.

Using an Appreciative Inquiry Framework: Bridging ‘what is’ to ‘what could be’

Comic Relief’s Rise and Shine programme funds organisations supporting early childhood development for vulnerable families in the UK and globally. Earlier this year, grantees came together for a day of reflection and learning, facilitated by Dartington Service Design Lab, the Learning Partners for the fund.

The goal of the learning event was to create a space where UK Rise and Shine grantees could reflect on what they’ve learnt to date, to inform their planning for the future as the funding programme nears its conclusion.

How we’re Changing Up the system to respond to what young people want and need

From training packs for teachers on how to respond to disclosures of abusive relationships, to resources for young people on how to recognise the signs of coercive control, there’s something for everyone to feel better educated on both topics and empowered to take action so that young people and families have their needs met. We’ll be celebrating and sharing the exciting work these young changemakers have been designing – in person – at the #ChangeUp Exhibition in Paisley. This exhibition, open to everyone in Renfrewshire and beyond, is packed with the innovations designed by and for young people and system leaders, to inspire all of us to educate, empower and equalise systems to tackle coercive control and take early action on mental wellbeing.

Reflection: Evaluating digital services to create the “new normal”

This blog reflects on parents’ experiences of services during the pandemic and staff’s hopes and concerns for future delivery. We also share how evaluation has helped organisations understand these, and how it can be used to shape delivery in the future.

Dartington named as core partner in ambitious £5.3m initiative called Kailo: a systemic approach to improving adolescent mental health

Dartington has formed an exciting partnership to develop, test and refine an ambitious approach to help young people and local areas develop locally produced and evidence-informed approaches to improve adolescent mental health. The team is led by Research Director, Professor Peter Fonagy OBE (UCL Psychology and Language Sciences) and Professor Tim Hobbs (Dartington Service Design Lab). Their partnership has been awarded a UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP) Consortium award of £5.3 million over five years.

NewsBLOG26 July 2021resilience, Evidence, Tim, inequality, research, mental health, mental ill health, PRP, Kailo, health

Tackling racism in social research and design: Why the glacial pace of change?

This is a blog about anti-racism, and the actions and commitments we are taking at Dartington Service Design Lab to address it.

ReflectionBLOG16 June 2021resilience, Evidence, evaluation, Tim, Racism, Anti-racism, inequality, structural racism, research, Design

Using evidence to improve - sharing our learning to date

We talk about evidence a lot at Dartington, and using evidence ‘in new ways’. We try to put this in practical terms without too much jargon, but we know it still sounds pretty abstract. What do we actually mean? Our new report tries to bring it all down to earth.

Reimagining Help: Three things we learned through co-designing a ‘Good Help’ guide

Those who know us well will know this is a departure from our area of focus: children, young people, and families. But supporting the use of evidence through co-design and rapid iteration is at the heart of our work. That is why we teamed up with Nesta, the British Heart Foundation (BHF), Macmillan Cancer Support and UCL on the ‘Reimagining Help’ guide, a toolkit for service and system leaders to design support that helps people reach the goals that matter most to them.

Publications, ReflectionBLOG16 September 2020Finlay, Help, Toolkit, Evidence, Design, Behaviour Change

Dartington to lead new Youth Endowment Fund COVID-19 Learning Partnership

The Dartington Service Design Lab joins the Centre for Youth Impact, Research in Practice and the University of Plymouth to form the Learning Partnership for the new Youth Endowment Fund COVID-19 Grant Round. We will focus on understanding the impact of COVID-19 on young people at risk of being drawn into violent crime, and the most effective approaches to reaching, engaging and serving vulnerable young people during the pandemic.

Key learnings from People Powered approaches

Across our projects at the Dartington Service Design Lab we are seeing many Local Authorities who want to empower parents and other community members to support each other during crucial times – including during children’s early years. The role we play is to ensure that any ‘people powered’ support works in the best way it can. So far, we have learned three key lessons.

ReflectionBLOG9 July 2020Evidence, Young people, children., families, stress, lockdown, covid, coronavirus, Harvard, mental health, pregnancy, Ben

Child safety and wellbeing during Covid-19: A tool for strategic responses

A tool to help service planners consider and respond to risks posed to children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated control measures

ReflectionBLOG11 June 2020Evidence, Young people, children., families, stress, lockdown, covid, coronavirus, Harvard, mental health, pregnancy, Kate

Supporting families in the early years during a pandemic

In a time where everything feels unprecedented and many services are in crisis response mode, we ask the question, what should we prioritise under the “new normal” and what can we do to prepare our resources now? Rachel Lily explores…

Rebalancing power in research: a chat with Chicago Beyond

At Dartington, and across our sector, we know that co-production is an important feature of good service design and research. But how can we practice what we preach? Chicago Beyond and their partners have been trying to meet this challenge head-on. An impact investor focused on improving young people’s life chances, they’ve called out the power imbalance that often characterises social research and taken big strides to help them and others do something about it. Here, Finlay Green explains what he learned after reaching out to them earlier this year.

ReflectionBLOG1 May 2020Evidence, research, sector, Finlay, Chicago Beyond, Power, Youth violence, Young people

The ‘Questions Generator 1.0’: producing scientific evidence to inform child and family service adaptation in response to COVID-19

We’re ready to generate and synthesise the knowledge that delivery organisations and commissioners need during the COVID-19 crisis. We want to hear from statutory and voluntary sector service providers and commissioners about their most important and pressing needs are. We also want to hear about what sorts of support would be most valuable in applying this evidence. Fill in our five-minute survey now.

ReflectionBLOG9 April 2020Tim, Evidence, research, sector, children, families

Our Blog

DARTINGTON SERVICE DESIGN LAB

⚑ Lower Ground Floor, Higher Mills, Buckfast Abbey, Buckfastleigh, Devon TQ11 0EE

✆ (01803)762400

✉ info@dartington.org.uk

SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Please check our General Privacy Policy here.