Prototype Barnet

Despite significant investment across the public sector over the last decade, there remain intractable problems which current services are failing to resolve.

Prototyping is a method which is gaining momentum in service development in the context of rising customer needs and expectations, and limited public resource. NESTA believes that prototyping could be part of a strong approach to developing new services that deliver better outcomes for less money.

NESTA is currently working with the Local Authority of Barnet and thinkpublic to explore the use of prototyping in the design of a new service. Barnet’s past attempts to pilot services haven’t consistently demonstrated returns on investment. The Council hope that prototyping might help them improve their approach, enabling them to:

• secure early buy-in from all the key stakeholders needed for success
• generate and test a range of service options
• understand the systemic change needed to allow improved outcomes to be scalable
• and ultimately to unlock cashable savings.

Working closely with staff and community members, Barnet Council are learning to prototype through the development and testing of different ideas for a ‘Community Coach’ service that will support families facing multiple disadvantages.

Voices of Prototype Barnet: Participants share their views and thoughts on the project

Through the Prototype Barnet project, the Council hope to build the capacity of staff to use prototyping in service design on an ongoing basis, as well as to create a new and better way to reach out to and support the community’s most isolated and vulnerable families.

NESTA believes other Local Authorities will want to learn from Barnet’s experiment with prototyping and has commissioned Innovation Unit to follow the journey as a Learning Partner. This work will result in a detailed case study of Barnet’s experience of using prototyping to develop its Community Coach service, as well as an assessment of the practical challenges and benefits for councils of working in this way.

How we did it: an animation explaining how the Prototype Barnet project came together by social design agency thinkpublic