Capacity has spent the last ten years working in and around public services. That’s enough strategy meetings, workshops and roundtables to have some opinions on what’s working – or isn’t.
None of this is new. Our work isn’t the difference between knowing and not knowing what needs to change. It’s between knowing and doing something about it. That’s the space Capacity has been working in for the last ten years. We’ve still got a long way to go.
And this definitely isn’t about the people doing the work. Anyone who’s spent time working in public services knows how much skill, care and hard graft goes into keeping them running. This is about the systems they’re stuck inside.
We asked our team to share their thoughts.
1. Let’s find the bravery to start from scratch – Harriet
Most public services are still designed around what works for the system, based on arrangements and processes that were set up a long time ago. We hear time and time again, ‘that’s the way things are’ – which can shut down conversation about making things better. If we started every service design process by asking ‘how do we create services that fit into people’s lives now?’ – they’d look different.
2. Trust frontline workers to make decisions – Becky
In our experience, people closest to the problem are the best decision-makers. But we’ve spent years managing professional judgement out of frontline teams. They know when something’s wrong before there’s a form to fill in. Give them the conditions and flexibility to use their expertise and creativity, not what’s compliant.
3. Create space for honest learning – Emma
Being open about what we’re learning about public services can still be hard to do.
Better public services aren’t about having everything worked out on day one. They come from creating the conditions to learn quickly, be honest about what isn’t working and adapt services with the people who are closest to and know the problem best.
Some of the most useful things we’ve learned at Capacity have come from being honest about what did and didn’t go to plan. The more normal that becomes, the better the decisions we make and the bigger the impact.
4. Make prevention mean something – Alice
Every public service strategy document in the UK talks about early intervention. In ten years of Capacity, we’re still waiting to see a funding system that makes it possible. The money still goes to people in crisis. Liverpool City Region is doing innovative work on early help – in family hubs, communities and preventative health – but mainstream budgets haven’t shifted to stop crisis happening in the first place.
5. Lived experience isn’t a nice to have – Annie
Things are changing, but for most of the last ten years, lived experience was a box to tick, someone to quote in the funding bid. It wasn’t a real input into decisions. The people who know most about what it’s like to use and rely on public services should be the people deciding how services are designed, delivered and evaluated. Lived experience is the most important data we’ve got. We’re wasting it.
6. Change doesn’t happen in Westminster – George
Real change happens in our communities with people working together on the ground. Capacity’s work to build partnerships at a hyperlocal level can sometimes be written off as small-scale. In reality, it’s the only scale where things really work and change. There’s now recognition by national and local government that public service reform can’t be done to people and places. It has to be done with and, increasingly, by them. That sounds obvious. It isn’t.
7. Stop counting the wrong things – Sophie
The number of assessments or referrals isn’t the same as the number of lives that public services change. We’ve known this for years. It’s what we measure because it’s easy to measure. Do they really tell us whether anyone’s life got better? But procurement frameworks still push commissioners and providers towards counting inputs and activities, because outcomes are harder to measure and longer to materialise. That needs to change.
8. Fund relationships, not just interventions – Sara
We’re in a cycle of funding projects – a year-long pilot, a six-month programme. But what matters most to people is a relationship with someone they trust. We heard the real-life impact from Louisa Mitchell of AllChild at our Fundamentally Different event in March. The school’s link worker, the community health team. It’s hard to commission relationships. They’re the thing that changes lives. It can be the difference between someone falling through the gaps in the system and someone getting the right help at the right time.
9. Make collaboration the default – Katie
No one organisation or service can solve complex public service challenges alone. Collaboration that makes a difference means shared risk, shared accountability and everyone being prepared to give up some control. It’s more than meetings or logos on a PowerPoint slide; it’s about what we’re willing to do differently together.
10. Sometimes we don’t have all the answers – Aggie
It’s ok to start work without having all the answers. Moving beyond ‘talking about talking’ to making something happen, getting stuff done. Some of the biggest changes we’ve seen in public services are people having the courage to do something rather than waiting until everything is perfect. Everything is never perfect.
