New ways to improve services

Who It's For

Senior leaders, commissioners and service designers in health, housing, local government and the voluntary sector

Overview

Co-production is one of the most used and misused words in public services. Completing the Immerse Better ideas, made together, this half day begins with co-production, from Elinor Ostrom's research on Chicago policing and Edgar Cahn's five core values to the Welsh legal duty and Local Area Coordination in Swansea. It then examines AI strategy that starts with the problem rather than the tool, mapping UK, Welsh and European policy. Problem solving follows, with design thinking as one technique among several and Michael Kirton's Adaption Innovation continuum. It concludes with Human Learning Systems from Toby Lowe and colleagues, and measuring what matters, from Goodhart's law to Results-Based Accountability.

Aims

This programme aims to help leaders improve services by sharing power and learning in the open: practising co-production beyond the legal floor, framing AI strategy around real need, valuing different problem solving styles and designing measures for learning rather than control.

In summary, you will be able to:

1. 1Explain the origins of co-production and apply it beyond the Welsh legal duty, drawing on Local Area Coordination in Swansea.
2. 2Plan an AI strategy that starts from a real problem and reflects the UK, Welsh and European policy landscape.
3. 3Design measures that support learning rather than control, using Human Learning Systems, Goodhart's law and Results-Based Accountability.

What you'll develop

Across this Explore, you will develop the ability to:

1. 1Explain the origins of co-production in Ostrom's research and Cahn's core economy, and describe why reciprocity turns recipients into contributors.
2. 2Describe the five principles of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, the section 16 duty and the involvement way of working, and explain why a legal duty is a floor rather than a ceiling.
3. 3Explain why an AI strategy should start with the problem and rest on data, people, governance and trust foundations.
4. 4Describe the main milestones in UK and Welsh AI policy and the distinct Welsh frame of AI Cymru and social partnership.
5. 5Identify when the need itself is uncertain enough to call for design thinking rather than another technique.
6. 6Describe Kirton's Adaption Innovation continuum and distinguish what KAI measures from personality and learning style.
7. 7Explain the three principles of Human Learning Systems and the familiar management habit each one replaces.
8. 8Explain how targets change behaviour, using Goodhart's law, Campbell's law and Bevan and Hood's ratchet, threshold and output distortion effects.