Radical Efficiency: Different, better, lower cost public services

Went to a fabulous session this morning which launched a new report from NESTA about 'radical efficiency' and how to make it work. The point was well made that delivering public services in a radically different way is no longer just very important or even critical - it is an imperative! Here is a link to their excellent report:

http://www.nesta.org.uk/home/assets/features/radical_efficiency

The launch had some excellent presentations and questions - which prompted lots of ideas in my head about how to make effective and efficient innovation happen. I will write more later - but here is quick summary which I have already tweeted (of course!): 

• Use the common wealth to create more common wealth...
• Look for ways to connect consumers together to create new expertise resources
• Stop blaming central govt and just get on with taking radical action locally
• Break accountability 'rules' and give authority to the point of service delivery
• Lead so that you enable risk taking, not to close it down
• Get everyone in one room so that professionals can 'hear' the voices of consumers directly!
• Think of doing more with more (not less) - but redefine what you count as your resources
• Create a culture where structure & passion coexist sublimely to achieve real results

My huge thanks to everyone involved with the report and indeed present at this morning's event. (I wish we'd had the whole day to debate the issues emerging... perhaps NESTA would like to organise such a day....?)

Postcard Safety: great idea from the NHS

How postcards that asked four simple questions improved patient feedback on safety: A postcard that patients can use to give feedback on their hospital experience is the latest measure adopted by a trust since it signed up to Patient Safety First...

More here (thanks to Nursing Times & Helen Noble, clinical governance and patient safety manager, Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare Trust - who developed the idea)

The questions are:

• Did you feel safe in hospital? Yes/no. If no, please give further details;
• Were you given enough information in relation to your hospital stay/treatment? Yes/no. If no, please give further details;
• Was a member of staff readily available when you needed them? Yes/no. If no, please give further details;
• Do you feel the physical environment was safe? Yes/no. If no, please give further details.

I posed the question - why not ask for the positive feedback too? Appreciation can lead to improvements as well.

Radical efficiency: new report

Great interim report (full report to come soon) from The Innovation Unit:

Radical Efficiency: Delivering Much Better Public Outcomes for Lower Costs Through Innovation

Radical efficiency means different, better and cheaper public services. This is achieved by reconsidering the challenges faced by public services as well as rethinking the resources that are best suited to tackle them. By redefining desired outcomes rather than simply adjusting or trimming old models, they are able to make savings on a significant scale.

The report lists some good ideas and some challenging questions to get people thinking about innovation for efficiency in the public services.

And here is one place where these ideas have been applied: Croydon Council - Total Place

You might also be interested to read my (other blog's) recent posting on a 'legs eleven' set of ideas around beliefs that will help to build more efficiency and effectiveness in the 'new country' we are about to enter. Click here

iPhone App: reporting things to fix

Just spotted this application via iNews (see the original post here) - Lewisham have developed a phone application that allows people to easily report problems for the council to fix - such as potholes or instances of vandalism. You can find more information here. It has just been extended to all of London.

But why not an app to allow people to praise what a local authority, or NHS service or police unit is doing too?

Customer Journey Mapping: New Workshop!

Will Haywood from Stoke-on-Trent City Council has kindly emailed me to say they have organised another workshop about their CJM approach. It is on 28th May starting at 10.00am. If you wish to go - please email him either by clicking here or here 

Details of previous workshops and their approach can be found by clicking on these links here:

• Customer Journey Mapping Workshop: the results!
• Customer Journey Mapping Workshop
• Customer Journey Mapping

I have also blogged about this too - if you have an interest: 

• Customer journey mapping and attendance allowance

Some questions I would pose about CJM are:

• Can too much mapping lead to exhaustion? (see this post for further ideas on this)
• Can mapping get in the way of exploring?
• Is it appropriate to use the term 'customer' when financial restrictions will mean that partnering with local citizens becomes an economic necessity (see here for more about this debate)
• Is CJM on its own enough? What other organisational development is required to make the most of the insights and ideas gained?
• How hard is it to engage executive and political leaders in CJM? What else needs to be done?
• How much danger is there that CJM sanitises the frustrations and ambitions of local citizens by turning it into a 'map'? How direct, face to face and authentic conversations between service users & providers (at all levels) built into the process?
• What change of culture is required to make the most of CJM? Or does CJM itself stimulate a change in culture?
• How should the investment in CJM be evaluated? How has it been evaluated already? 
• In these increasingly stringent times - is CJM a nice to do or a need to do? What are the key arguments to assert its value?

Just some thoughts. As always I wish Will and his colleagues all the best with their forthcoming workshop!

UPDATE: It is my understanding that this team has now been disbanded.

Twittering for the Queen's peace

Here is a very interesting blog about how real time twittering helped to police high profile and volatile demonstrations by the English Defence League and Unite Against Facism at the weekend.

Is this part of the future of policing?

How are other public agencies (and police forces) using the power of the web to co-create better futures?

Please send any more examples to me - thank you!

25 Talks to Ignite & Unleash Your Creativity

Just been sent this link to a series of presentations to inspire your creativity & innovation. I have not watched them all - but if they are all of the quality of this one:

Mallika Sarabhai: Dance to change the world 

... they are well worth a browse.  I was struck by her point that art is able to effect social change in ways that straight politics may not always be able to. A point worth pondering on

The blog posting describes the list of 25 talks:

Whether you’ve fallen into a creative slump or just want to get inspired to make something new, there are loads of speakers and lectures out there that can explain, ignite and hopefully, motivate your creativity. Here are just a few we’ve pulled together to help you get your creative juices flowing and offer a free online education in everything creative, innovative and artistic right at your fingertips

Do have a browse.

Thank you to Emma Taylor for this link.

Technology being used to catch paedophiles

In a story put out today by Police Information, it seems as some IT boffins are working on ways to determine the age and gender of someone merely by the way they type:

Paedophiles who use the internet to groom vulnerable youngsters could be identified by the way they type on a keyboard. Computer tracking experts at a Brit university have been looking at ways to determine a typists age, sex and culture in just ten keystrokes. This would enable computer companies to identify whether an adult is intruding on a child's conversation.

Full story can be found here

Some clever stuff which I assume began with someone just having an idea. 

Local Innovation Awards Scheme winners

Lots of good ideas here - of where local innovation is making a difference to the lives of local people:

• Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council - Building economic resilience
• Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council - Taking control of care
• Sunderland City Council - Policing our communities together
• Northumberland Council - Keeping children and young people safe in the community
• Northumberland Council - Achieving more through partnerships
• Halton Borough Council - Bright Ideas: Priory Brewery and Refectory
• Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service - Bright Ideas: promoting healthy eating
• Northumberland Council - Bright Ideas: carers as expert care partners
• Northumberland Council - Bright Ideas: strengthening families

The links to all the projects and more information - can be found here

But here is a challenge for next year:

Tackling challenging community issues using talents across the generations: The evaluators did not shortlist any of the applications in this theme.

Buying with confidence in Tameside

Neat idea from Tameside Council to support local traders & the economy whilst simultaneously protecting local consumers:

Tameside Trading Standards has launched their Buy With Confidence approved trader scheme to support legitimate businesses and to protect the residents of Tameside from the rogue trader. The scheme has 100 businesses/traders on the list but is expected to increase very quickly to become a comprehensive directory of reliable, trusted traders. All members are independently checked by staff from Trading Standards for compliance with the letter and spirit of the law and will benefit from positive publicity... More here

Should all local councils be doing this? 

Care & Repair - Knowsley

This seems like an excellent service

http://twitter.com/KnowsleyCouncil - If you live in Knowsley, it's worth keeping a note of this service in case your heating ever breaks down - it's free! http://bit.ly/cmFcng

The role of Care & Repair Knowsley is to promote independence by providing advice and help to Knowsley residents who require assistance. We do this by providing a wide range of cost effective, efficient, client centred services, which are flexible and can be adapted to meet changing needs.

Devon County car sharing

http://www.carsharedevon.com/Default.asp?uxi=&cr=check

What a neat idea - why aren't all councils doing this?

CAR SHARING continues to grow in popularity in Devon and more people have signed up to Carsharedevon.com already this year. Almost 120 people registered last month with the free car share service commissioned by Devon County Council, in partnership with Plymouth and Torbay Councils. The free prize draw for newly registered members joining between 1 and 31 January helped boost figures again. Elle Scragg, from Crediton, was the lucky winner of £100 vouchers. Elle travels daily into Exeter. She said “So far I've been really impressed with Carsharedevon. I found out about it by seeing the boards up on the lamp posts on my trip to work....

More information here 

Innovation, alcohol & violence

It is now a fairly common practice for the police to hand out lollipops to late night clubbers as they spill out onto the streets in the early hours of the morning. Here is one story for example from a local newspaper: http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/1058566.lollies_prevent_booze_violence/

West Oxfordshire Local Area Commander, Chief Insp Dennis Evernden said: "Research shows the sugar content helps to stabilise the behaviour of those who have consumed alcohol."

This is great innovation for several reasons:

• It works
• It is evidence based
• It is cheap
• It has several positive outcomes (including reducing noise levels and helping to create a better relationship between police and clubbers) as well as the main one
• It is fun!

Thanks to my associate Gary Purser for reminding me of this innovative strategy

Greater Manchester Police & innovation

Greater Manchester Police has won an award for innovation in its fight against crime. The force’s Design for Security consultancy has scooped the Association of Chief Police Officer’s Secured by Design Innovation prize of £10,000. The award recognises GMP’s pioneering work in providing crime prevention design advice to architects, planners and developers.

http://www.gmp.police.uk/mainsite/pages/F015A10222C2FB74802576C100568BB5

Good to see how GMP have developed a process for designing out crime from the earliest stage of a new building or shopping centre development:

A major part of the service is the Crime Impact Statement. This is a collaborative process in which the Design for Security consultant works closely with the architectural design team during the very early stages of development. This work embeds well-established crime prevention principles within the design to protect the proposed buildings from crime

Innovation in Justice

I have a long time association with the Centre for Court Innovation based in New York. They do some excellent work around reforming how justice is administered not only in New York but also the rest of the USA. Indeed their reach has extended to these shores and they have been involved the establishment of new kinds of courts in this country. I worked with them on setting up, facilitating and reporting on a round table discussion about Justice reform in this country. There is a report of it here if you are interested. (I also got to meet Shami Chakrabarti on that day and she is just as impressive in real life as she is on BBC Question Time - more so in fact!)

Meanwhile - they carry on their excellent work and they have recently put together a list of podcasts about new thinking in justice. You can access it here. There are some excellent examples of how relatively small changes to the justice system can be made more effective, efficient and fair.

Another healthy checklist!

Just come across another checklist derived from research with a wide number of nurses. Developed by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement - these "Eight High Impact Actions" are designed to guide nurses to transform care and quality:

• Your skin matters – ensuring no avoidable pressure ulcers
• Staying safe – preventing falls
• Keeping nourished – getting better
• Promoting normal birth
• Important choices – where to die when the time comes
• Fit and well to care
• Ready to go - no delays
• Protection from infection

The full 'Nursing Times' (thank you to them) article can be seen here (or a quick summary here).

Inner tube tyres: vending machine

Thank you @OxfordSpring for this link to a German system of vending inner tubes for marooned cyclists. Could we have something like this here?

The power of the checklist

Yes - we all 'hate' checklists and all that infuriating 'box-ticking' that goes along with it... But are we in danger of overlooking the power and usefulness of a good checklist that has been well researched?

Listening to the radio this morning (BBC Radio 4) I heard a piece about how the airline industry & World Health Organisation has been working with the NHS to deploy the 'Surgical Safety Checklist'. The main principle of this seems to be about team work and making sure that, at the start of an operation, everyone knows what they are doing.

To quote a well known meerkat - "simples!"

There are the other stories about these developments here, here and here. And there is more information about the whole approach to create "The Productive Operating Theatre" on the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement here.

But back to checklists... how many other services could be improved for want of a good checklist? Whenever I talk about 'knowledge management' (which is often over complicated beyond belief) I talk about the value of a simple checklist as being the embodiment of practical knowledge.

What checklists do you work with... and what new ones would help?

UPDATE: A couple of good articles here too: New Yorker 1 & New Yorker 2

Kent County Council: making research more collaborative and cost-effective.

(Thanks to fellow blogger and KCC Research Support Officer, Kirsty  Russell for this contribution)


Kent County Council has long been acknowledged as an ‘innovative council’. It has led the way on several fronts including Telecare and Telehealth, the Kent Payment Card, Gateways, Kent TV and a vast range of service specific projects.
In addition to those ground breaking initiatives, the Technology Research and Transformation Team has been looking at how the innovative use of technologies and tools can change the way business is done, support individuals to work smarter and enable knowledge and ideas to be exchanged seamlessly.


This has taken many forms, from the establishment of e-Catalogues to Innovations Fairs through to the development of a public sector ‘mash-up’ service. Our recent focus has been directed towards the deployment of tools that are more collaborative and cost effective. Part of that process has been the establishment of a blog called iNews.


You may be wondering why we are using blogging techniques rather than more traditional mechanisms? Primarily it’s because we recognise that it’s often difficult to find out the latest news and views across a broad topic area. At the moment we are testing out a range of new tools as we want to develop mechanisms for enabling ‘innovation conversations’ with a range of individuals and organisations including officers, Members, partners, private, public, third and FE sectors and the public. Blogging offers an alternative to more traditional ‘broadcast’ mode options as it is immediate, interactive and offers the capability for multiway dialogues.


We want to use emerging technologies to provide a better understanding of key topics as well as establishing a platform for comments, ideas and challenges. From using games to influence behaviours, clubbing for jobs to sharing links on managing knowledge, we feel it’s by sharing stories that we can best convey how innovation can help realise benefits, maintain tangible change and reduce risks.
In addition to sharing what we do, we also use the blog to highlight other projects, reports, conversations, ideas or articles via a free social bookmarking service (http://delicious.com/KCCInnovation). People can opt in to receive a daily digest of research findings, and they can personalise what areas are relevant to them by filtering for specific topics. To maximise participation and help users feel comfortable about using this new way of communicating we provide tips and guidelines on how to blog.


Other ideas we are currently researching and developing include better use of semantic web tools to enable greater engagement, text to speech visual presenters that may potentially save users and staff up to 40% of their time in answering standard questions by an enhanced (and hopefully intuitive) FAQ system, the impact of disruptive technologies on an organisation, opportunities within Web 3.0 and how interactive gaming tools can increase and strengthen community interactions. Clearly there is a lot happening and we welcome readers’ contributions and comments via i-News.


For more information please contact Kirsty on kirstyjoanna.russell@kent.gov.uk and visit our blog which can be found here: www.transformedbyyou.blogspot.com

10,000!!

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Just to note that this blog has now had 10,000 page loads since I started it back at the end of February last year. Woohoo!  Thank you and welcome to all readers, visitors and regulars.

Jon
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