Social Innovation.

Programmes to tackle priority local issues.

During my time in local government I oversaw partnership working around the biggest social challenges. My approach – a kind of early Innovation Lab – was to combine quant data with the qualitative information from my neighbourhood teams and use it to inform resource prioritisation and collaboration.

We had funding that enabled us to be a little more experimental in our work than might usually be the case. We were – probably – the first District council to set up its own data observatory, implement a nudge-based approach to behaviour change (before Nudge was published), create a community resource for older people (before Social Prescribing became a thing), undertake a face-to-face Quality of Life survey every two years, and pull together all the schools in its district to invest in improving attainment and aspirations – among other initiatives.

More information on these is provided below.

Tackling educational attainment

This programme set out to mobilise system-wide activity to improve the whole population outcomes for young people, which by every measure were falling far short of expectations. It required working across all schools (nearly 100 across primary and secondary) with multiple stakeholders.

Original data presentation
Project summary and workstreams
Nice House, good Job (Young Foundation) – research into young people’s aspirations
Learning Catalyst Programme (toolkit)
Learning catalysts review
Local Work 100 – Learning Catalysts

Behaviour change – Do something different

The first District Council-led health programme supporting those in some of our most deprived communities to make positive life changes. The programme was grounded in community and delivered through innovative ‘nudges’ from 2008 (before ‘nudges’ became a thing).

Case study
Submission to the House of Lords committee on Behaviour Change [2010]
Research Excellence Framework Evaluation [2014]

Health and well-being

Another broad area of work is health and well-being, where I have focused on understanding the local health economy, integrating services and improving health outcomes – with a particular focus on older people.

Community engagement events: Population health profile [2013]
West Norfolk Alliance
Proposals for Improved services for Older People (LILY)

Strategy

I led the development of the Council’s corporate strategy, integrating it with the wider partnership and using outcomes-based accountability to drive performance.

Corporate Strategy [2011]
Outcomes Framework [2011 and 2015]
Corporate Business Plan [2012]

Data analysis

I worked to ensure there was improved understanding of the core issues and challenges facing the area across core partners. Two major achievements were the commissioning of a biannual quality of life survey (example below) and the establishment of the first Data Observatory for a district council. This gave us unparalleled information about the area and this informed strategies (above) and resource allocation.

Quality of life review [2015]
Quality of Life report [2011]
West Norfolk Partnership Strategy

Community programmes

I have been involved in all aspects of public policy and worked on a full range of social challenges across communities. Three further programmes I am particularly proud of. I saw the opportunity to be one of the first three local authorities to pilot the time credits programme, now going from strength-to-strength nationally. We established a programme of work around community cohesion to address the rapid migration and population change experienced in an area unused to this (including exploitation and trafficking and the rise of the far right). And working with the Young Foundation we undertook network analysis in communities back in 2011 before it was a thing.

Time Credits: Volunteering as pathways to employment [2014]
Social Network Analysis: improving public service delivery in disadvantaged communities [2011]
Community Cohesion: Written evidence to the House of Commons CLG committee 10th report [2007-2008]