This document discusses service design and outcomes-focused approaches to social innovation. It compares the approaches on three key differences: 1) Whether innovation is incremental or radical, with service design seen as managing risk through iteration while social services typically involve high uncertainty; 2) Who generates the ideas, with outcomes focused on the person but service design taking a more collaborative, democratic approach; 3) The use of visualization tools in service design versus conversational approaches. Overall, the document suggests service design and outcomes-focused approaches can be complementary in enhancing personalization, choice, and efficiency in social services innovation.

1. Spot the difference
service designers and outcomes
focused practitioners and their role
in social innovation
September 14, 2012 1

2. Innovation in social services
• A decisive shift towards prevention
• Greater integration of public services
at a local level driven by better
partnership. Collaboration and
effective local delivery
• Greater investment in the people who
deliver services through enhanced
workforce development, effective
leadership
• A sharp focus on improving
performance though innovation and
use of digital technology
(Christie, 2011)
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3. Innovation at IRISS
Whether innovation is radical or incremental is
implies a real change in the way work is
done, using new knowledge organisational
forms, or processes to develop changes in the
way we deliver support to people.
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4. An outcomes focused approach
• Outcomes in a social care context
refers to the impacts or end results of
support in a person life
• Aims to shift the balance of power for
the professional to the service user
(Boyle et al. 2010)
• Benefits of approach found for
individuals staff and organisations
(Miller 2011)
• Innovative because provision of
support typically been led by available
resources rather than outcomes
people want to achieve
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5. A service design approach
• Holistic, multidisciplinary and integrative
approach where designers with different
expertise work with service stakeholder
(Bartlett et al. 2008)
• Aims to make services more
useful, usable, desirable for people and
effective and efficient for organisation
(Moritz 2005)
• Perceptions are challenged, change is
stimulated through process and products
which can change cultures (Burns et al.
2006)
• Innovative because collaborative
process, integrating across boundaries
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6. In our paper
• 3 different themes
• Many similarities and differences
• This presentation, 3 differences
– Incremental or radical social innovation
– Focus on the person but who generates the idea?
– Visualisation vs. conversation
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7. Difference
Incremental or radical social innovation
• Petts et al (2001) innovation and risk in social
services
• Mager (2006) high levels of uncertainty are
the hallmark of service design projects
• Process of iteration manages risk and supports
a focus on outcomes at each stage of design
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8. Questions
Incremental or radical social innovation
• Do we need to be radical to be innovative?
• How do can we support the social care sector
to embrace risk?
• Can service design approaches effectively
manage risk?
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9. Difference
Focus on the person but who generates the idea?
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10. Questions
Focus on the person but who generates the idea?
• Is the use of service designers democracy with
the designer facilitating?
• Is the designer first among equals, so
ultimately as responsible for the outcome as
the idea?
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11. Difference
Visualisation vs. conversation
• Skills and tools
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12. Questions
Visualisation vs. conversation
• How sustainable is the inclusion of visual
methods in service delivery and
development?
• How do we measure meaningful interactions
when including visual methods?
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13. More questions than answers?
• We think service design could be considered as a
complimentary asset (Tether 2008), that is it enhances the
value of an outcomes focused approach and is also enhanced
by the use of the approach
• Both could contribute to innovation by involving service
stakeholders in the design of services, leading to:
– Increased personalisation of services
– Wider and richer choices of ideas
– Lower cost by eliminating processes that users do not
value/are inefficient
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14. Thoughts…
• What can learn from others who are working
within public sector improvement field?
• What can we learn from others who are
appraising different social innovation
approaches?
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