Big Society Public Services: Revolution or evolution?

What does the Big Society agenda mean for public services?

Nat Wei, Government adviser, member of the House of Lords and former McKinsey consultant, has been tasked with delivering Prime Minister David Cameron's Big Society vision. In the first seminar of a major series, hosted by the Institute for Government, the Design Council and NESTA, Wei introduced an audience of public service leaders, policy makers, academics and leading thinkers in their field to discussions on how public services will be given greater freedom from central control and become more accountable to the public they serve.

Browse through the slides that Nat Wei used during the discussions.

Read a note providing an overview of the discussions

Public services lie at the heart of the new Government's vision of a Big Society, and giving schools, hospitals and police forces greater freedom from central control is central to this vision. To translate this vision into a practical reality that can improve services even at a time of restrained spending is a challenge the Design Council believes needs to be addressed by working innovatively whenever and wherever possible and by using creative thinking and new approaches as well as new technologies.

A handful of public service leaders have already demonstrated how many of the elements of the Big Society vision can work in practice.

Collaborations like the Big Society Network are already starting to systematically remove the barriers to mass civic action and provide the support to help devolve capacity in areas which need them the most. Lord Wei made it clear that the government is looking for, and looking to develop, geographical showcases, flagship policies and case studies of the Big Society in action.

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I see a need for a local "what's happening" website for an area, encompassing all public events: poltical, social, cultural, artistic, sports, you name it. The sites would be "hosted" but not controlled at a local level, "local" being village, town or city. Contributors, i.e. event organisers, would add/control/maintain their own data via the web linked to their own websites if required, thus making it largely self-maintainable. It would provide a local current "what's on" service for the public, loc gov administrators, media companies, to know what was happening in their area now or any time. I see this as part of the Big Society, partially run by volunteers, local businesses, civil partnerships et al, and could be rolled out area by area, multi-lingual where necessary. Technically it is not rocket sclence and would involve typical scalable database, web service and map display facilities, for home or mobile use. I am a software engineer in the NW nearing retirement and would welcome some participation. Andy Pinnington, business director, 19 July 2010

What I think the design community is able to do differently to other problem solvers actively working within local groups is about providing models that can be packaged and replicated. Most of the time it’s about individual inspiring people who are solving the problem, providing localised specific solutions and being entrepreneurial, but that’s not enough for the so called 'Big Society'. Tell them to go and replicate that elsewhere and it’s difficult, their solution is often very specific for their community but could also be the answer to many similar situations. As designer I do believe in personalisation and localisation, but how can you make sure the system underneath is designed so it can be used again and again? That’s where designers come in. Lots of people can be design thinkers but not design doers and designers bring skills and training that can facilitate wide reaching change. Co-designing better solutions with the ideas and expertise of people in the community added to the skills and delivery capacity of designers could be the solution. Vincenzo Di Maria, designer, Common Ground, 19 July 2010

It is all very well to ask for input, but when it comes to research there is one rule which is; only ask the question if you plan on doing something with the answer. This is the easy part asking everyone for input and ideas. The hard part is making sense of it all and choosing which idea is the strongest and not just the loudest. Then you need to implement these plans while ensuring that whatever comes out is not killed at birth, due to the design by committee curse. Neale Gilhooley, designer, 20 July 2010

Thanks Neale ... This forum will, we hope, help designers discuss and better understand what their unique contribution to delivering the Big Society vision could be and we hope everyone who contributes to this debate will also share their thoughts with the Big Society Networkand with the Institute for Government. There are lots of existing examples of the Big Society in action, including design projects. The change is the priority and politicians are committed to achieving Big Society outcomes. Collaborations like the Big Society Network are already starting to systematically remove the barriers to mass civic action and provide the support to help devolve capacity in areas which need them the most. Lord Wei made it clear that the government is looking for, and looking to develop, geographical showcases, flagship policies and case studies of the Big Society in action. We can share some Design Council projects that demonstrate the Big Society thinking in action, but are sure there are other examples the design community should be highlighting, not least the designer's ability to help interpret research and progress the strongest ideas. Joe Manning, Policy Advisor, Design Council, 20 July 2010

Big Society Public Services: Revolution or evolution?

What does the Big Society agenda mean for public services?

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