The Government’s Work Placement Scheme: Where’s the informed debate?

Thursday 1st March 2012 – 4:56 PM

The last week has seen a fair bit of debate going on about the Government’s Work Placement Scheme, which is aimed at 16–24 year olds on JSA (Job Seekers Allowance) and is intended to get unemployed youngsters back into work.  Controversy is bubbling up from the Right to Work campaign – amongst others – claiming that the scheme isn’t really voluntary.

I’m intrigued that most of the debate seems to revolve around whether ministers are telling the truth and if it’s really a ‘slave labour’ scheme.  There seems to be little debate on the true effectiveness of the scheme.  If its purpose is to help reduce unemployment in 16-24 year olds, I’d pose a few questions:

  • How is the scheme’s performance measured?
  • What other initiatives have been considered?
  • What is the root cause of unemployment (in this age group)?
  • How does this scheme address these root causes?
  • What is the perception of the employer towards the initiative?
  • How is the programme tailored to meet individual needs?
  • Who would do the work if the scheme didn’t exist?

Reports state that some 34,000 people have been on the scheme between January and November 2011.  So what are the results looking like?  Was there a trial or experiment to prove its effectiveness before its nationwide launch?  The list of questions is endless.

At ICE, we work with organisations to help them change and improve the way they work.  When this involves large scale changes, i.e. the sort of changes that impact on customers and people in the work (their roles, their jobs and their lives) we usually experiment to prove or disprove a concept.

After all, most changes start off as a theory and we don’t want to end up with proverbial egg on our faces if a theory doesn’t turn out to deliver quite what we expected.  (Ever heard of the law of unintended consequences?)

Experimenting also lets us engage with many stakeholders across our client organisations and understand the worries, fears and likely resistance that we will encounter.  We don’t want to deliver just change, we want to deliver improvement – better for everyone.

So… if the Government’s Work Experience Scheme is designed to make things better, my question is: where is the informed debate around the questions that matter?

Jaime Beckett, Principal Organisational Change Practitioner – jaime.beckett@icecreates.com

By icecreates | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Your Essential Guide: Transforming young people’s sexual behaviours

Wednesday 29th February 2012 – 3:51 PM

According to the Health Protection Agency, STIs are more common among young people than any other group. 16-24s represent only 12% of the UK population, but they account for more than half of all new STIs diagnosed and 65% of new chlamydia diagnoses. Yet they are also the least likely group to access services.

So can you overcome barriers to access and support sustainable behaviour change in this challenging area? Some key trends and tactics have emerged from our one-to-one work in the heart of communities….

 

  1. Make young people integral to the intervention – We’ve found that in order to ‘nudge’ positive changes in behaviour and realise a quantifiable shift of sexual health outcomes, it’s essential that sexual health services are appropriately targeted and designed specifically with young people at their heart – with full participation from the young people themselves.
  2. Move away from clinical settings – Provide flexible services in comfortable, non-traditional settings, at a time and place to suit young people. For instance, meeting 18-24 year olds ‘on their own turf’ (such as pubs, clubs and sports groups) has been essential to our chlamydia screening programme with one NHS Trust, as it’s allowed target groups to gain access to information informally without necessarily seeing a health professional. 
  3. Use a peer-to-peer approach – Enlisting young people themselves to help deliver sexual health services can be transformational. Not only will peer groups help reduce the stigma of accessing services but they instinctively use language which young people know and understand. This also lessens the prospect of individuals feeling they’re being judged or preached to.
  4. Keep messaging clear and straightforward – It sounds obvious but brief, targeted communications are essential to drive home key messaging and avoid information overload. Our research for one Strategic Healthy Authority also highlighted that word of mouth was a primary form of communication for young people, particularly females.
  5. Tap into new technologies – More than any other age group, young people access information ‘on the go’, so use digital technologies to target messaging and make it as easy as possible for your audiences to atively engage with you where and when they choose. For example, we’ve successfully used discrete ‘easyscreen’ text messages services to deliver test results and provide tailored tips, reminders and signposting.

 

download a pdf version of this blog here..

 

 

If you’d like to know more about replicating this proven approach and making it work for you, contact our Director of Health & Lifestyle Services, Simon Dudman on 07740 252144  / simon.dudman@icecreates.com 

 

By icecreates | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Making the most of Digital Communications for CDRPs: Five top tips

Wednesday 22nd February 2012 – 12:24 PM

Whether you’re aiming to tackle violence and anti-social behaviour, increase community confidence or improve the flexibility of local services, digital communications can be a powerful tool to help CDRPs engage a wide cross-section of local communities.

But faced with a range of complex challenges and pressures, how can you best use these tools and techniques to support safer, more secure communities and deliver a measurable return on investment? That’s the question we’re exploring with a variety of CDRPs who are successfully using digital solutions to engage local people and break down the barriers to sustainable behaviour change.

Download a pdf version of this blog here.

Here are some of the key trends we’ve identified:

  • Think objective first NOT channel: It’s all too easy to fall into a trap of thinking “we need to do some social media” or “we need an app” but take a step back and consider what you’re trying to achieve. Yes, these might be the right channels, but is that decision insight-driven? If not, your efforts to create the right environment to reshape attitudes around, say, vandalism or anti-social behaviour, will always fall short. Get it right and you’ll see measurable results (take our recent integrated campaign with one CDRP, which supported a 7% fall in violent crime and a 45% reduction in public order offenses over a one month period).
  • Set KPIs at the outset:  It seems obvious, but setting clear KPIs and using robust monitoring to evaluate activity is just as important for digital communications as any other sphere of your work.  So whether it’s web applications, mobile phone apps or social media tools, there are a range of bespoke evaluation tools you can use to help you demonstrate reach and value for money.
  • Get ‘people-centred’: It’s a fact, mass communications don’t work. To drive innovation and connect with audiences on the deepest level, we’ve found it’s essential to segment target groups and personalise your communications. That way, you develop integrated, end-to-end solutions which positively influence and motivate people to change their behaviours.
  • ‘Co-create’ solutions with your audience: Of course, working together will be an integral part of your multi-agency approach. However, it’s worth considering how you can actively involve target groups in developing and refining solutions which enable you to interact with them in different, more productive ways. For instance, we regularly use usability testing groups to ensure web development work is truly user-friendly and meets users’ needs and expectations.

If you’d like to hear more about some of the practical ways emerging technologies can help you add real value to your strategic communications and drive sustainable behaviour change, contact: Ian Dixon, 07970 037012  / ian.dixon@icecreates.com

By icecreates | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

More Effective Highways Services: Your Five Key Steps

Wednesday 15th February 2012 – 1:13 PM

With some of the lowest temperatures of the winter so far and the current culture of “where there’s blame, there’s a claim”, local authorities are taking a hammering on insurance payouts– and that’s driving a reactive culture which concentrates on mitigating insurance risk rather than making the streets safer.

So how can councils better deal with the big peaks in demand for road repairs that come with the bad weather?

Having worked with teams across the UK around these issues, our systems thinking specialists have identified some key actions which can support local authorities to drive more productive behaviours.  Here’s our essential guide:

1. Eliminate temporary repairs – Often, a temporary fix will be made to a particular stretch of road safe, so no-one else can make a claim. However, this fix will inevitably not last long-term and will need further repair. It sounds obvious, but doing it right first time would make all the difference.

2. Work geographically – We recommend focusing teams on a particular parish, ward or group of wards. The size of the geographical areas assigned to each team will be determined by the areas which need repairs most frequently. For instance, these localised teams will better understand the ‘predictable demand’ of a country lane frequently used as a rat run by local drivers.

3. Understand the reasons for ‘wasted’ journeys – Over time, your geographical teams will build a deep local knowledge and immediately recognise when there may be specific barriers to getting the job done. For example, making repairs outside a school at hometime would be problematic, with a maintenance team having to ‘come back later’ rather than completing the job at the allotted time.

4. Be proactive, not just reactive – Again, this may seem fairly obvious, but a planned programme of road maintenance will eliminate many problems before they reach crisis point and need emergency repair. (In these challenging times, however, this is often an area where cuts are made first!)

5. Forge closer links between identifying an issue and successfully resolving it –Identifying a problem and passing it directly to the person who will fix it removes unnecessary duplication and paperwork. They can then report back directly when each job is done and are empowered to work more flexibly and productively.

We’ve seen time and time again that taking this approach will cut out waste, duplication, unnecessary handoffs and wasted journeys meaning teams can fix more potholes without increasing the size of teams.  Our recent work with one council, for example, supported a 38 day reduction in the average time taken to resolve highways defects.

To view a pdf version of this blog, click here.

To discuss how this approach could work for you, contact our Organisational Change team – Chris Lunn, Senior Organisational Change Practitioner: chris.lunn@icecreates.com / 07809 704 910.

By icecreates | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Behaviour Change: Can you contribute to international best practice?

Tuesday 14th February 2012 – 2:46 PM

Supporting increased engagement across international and cultural boundaries will be vital to driving sustainable change to some complex and deeply entrenched behavioural challenges for us all. That’s why I’m working with peers internationally to help build a new Europe-wide network of behaviour change specialists.

With a working name of the European Social Marketing Association, it’s being spearheaded by a core group of social change and social marketing practitioners and academics from across Europe.

More than 40 people from ten different countries recently attended the group’s inaugural meeting and momentum for the initiative has been steadily building. Eight working groups are now being formed to shape products and services which will support members’ specific needs.

The aim is to work collaboratively to share best practice and maximise the effectiveness of behaviour change programmes. As well as supplementing individual country networks and associations, it will also provide a strong link to the new International Social Marketing Association.

Achieving networking across Europe is a challenging prospect, but one we’re collectively committed to. Bringing leading thinkers and practitioners together to collaborate and share best practice

It’s expected that the first set of elections for the network’s executive board will be held later this year. In the meantime, participation in the groups is open to any behaviour change professionals interested in engaging with the new association.

We see this as a really inclusive process, so regardless of whether you’re working within the public, private and voluntary sectors, your involvement and contribution will be highly valued. Let’s work together to build a broader shared understanding of national and international health and social development issues and how they can be tackled and evaluated.

To express interest or to join the mailing list, you can contact me direct: jeff.french@strategic-social-marketing.org.

Professor Jeff French, Non-Executive Director, ICE.

By icecreates | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

What’s in your glass?

Friday 10th February 2012 – 11:18 AM

 

I have mixed feelings about the Government’s new ‘sneaky drinks’ Change4Life TV ad.

Overall, I think it’s got a lot of appeal.  But, by focusing on ‘glasses’ and not ‘units’ I do think it misses a key point.

 

This ad specifically talks about the number of glasses people consume, but the fact is a ‘glass’ could mean virtually anything! What one person views as a small glass might be perceived as a big glass to someone else.

One argument is that people will be confused by the concept of units, but this isn’t borne out by the one-to-one intervention work I do in communities on a day-to-day basis.

I work within some of the most deprived communities in Liverpool and when I speak to people one-to-one it makes much more sense to talk about units, not least because the percentage alcohol content in a ‘glass’ of wine can vary as well. (Just think about the difference between a ‘standard’ 12% wine and some of the New World wines which might be 14% or 15%). This is a vital element that just doesn’t come across in the video.

For me, assuming that people cannot grasp what a unit means just comes across as condescending. Of course people won’t automatically understand units unless you help them understand!

That’s what the work we do in a wide variety of venues (from on-street engagement to workplaces and community venues) is all about – engaging, informing and advising people, and then helping to reshape social norms around their drinking behaviours. By developing a plan together which reduces units, and not just drinks, we set the scene for sustainable behaviour change.

So yes, in terms of the video, tackling the issue of that ‘sneaky’ second drink, there’s a lot of value in this latest film. (After all, we are talking about people who are just slightly overindulging here over a long period of time, not serious alcohol addiction).

But let’s really focus on a localised, face-to-face approach which supports a real understanding of units and what this means when they’re pouring that extra drink. That way, people can be supported to make changes which make a sustainable difference to their lives.

 

Les Jackson, Community Intervention Worker - les.jackson@icecreates.com

By icecreates | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Meeting the challenge of NHS Dental Reforms: Your Essential Guide

Wednesday 8th February 2012 – 12:15 PM

Balancing the need for efficient and effective dental services with the drive to offer a truly people-centric patient experience is at the heart of the new commissioning landscape. 

As dental practices take ownership of marketing their services to local people – often ‘in competition’ with neighbouring practices – they’re looking to increase patient numbers and find new ways to absorb the additional demand. So how can commissioners help practices work smarter to meet these new challenges? Our work in the heart of communities underlines some practical tips to help shape a new approach to delivering dental services:

To view a pdf version of this blog, click here.

 

  1. Use a blended ‘whole system’ change approach – It’s vital to move away from ‘silo’ thinking. Interweaving methodologies like LEAN Systems Thinking with social change (using behavioural science methodology) enables organisations to develop a new paradigm of change which delivers increased performance AND supports citizens at their greatest point of need. We’ve coined the phrase ‘SOChange’ (Social Change + Organisational Change) to encapsulate this innovative approach.
  1. Harness patient insight – To provide patients with the best possible experience, it’s essential to understand, create and communicate in a way which resonates, motivates and inspires them to use the services and see themselves as participants in their dental health. In tandem, understanding how systems and processes are currently designed and how these need to be developed is essential for optimising future service delivery.
  1. Create a vision for the future – An effective way of bringing all the insight together and consolidating the findings is hosting a ‘visioning event’ with a practice team(s) and their stakeholders. This empowers organisations to create a vision of what good looks like in terms of the processes and systems in the future. And because practices take ownership of their vision, this adds sustainable value and enables individuals to see the role they’ll play in delivering the vision.
  1. Work in partnership – Building lasting relationships with staff and stakeholders is integral at every stage and aligns with the NHS Network’s mission to promote intelligence-sharing and collaboration. Their buy-in will underpin new, more productive ways of working, and help calm fears that they’re being judged or new arrangements are being imposed on them.
  1. Test, refine and test again – Working to the principle that we need to do things ‘with’ people – and not ‘to’ them – co-creation sessions are a powerful way of testing initial ideas with patients to better understand how they’ll be received. Consistently refining and adjusting the offer is crucial to meet their every-changing needs.

Of course, demonstrating cost savings is a thread which runs throughout. In fact, we’re currently looking at a ‘risk and reward’ model to maximise patient satisfaction, while ensuring dental practices are lean and efficient. That way, activities are self-sustaining and in effect, pay for themselves.

 

If you’d like to know more about some of the specific projects we’ve been involved in, and how this approach could work for you, contact Rachel Stamp (rachel.stamp@icecreates.com / 07979 906065.

By icecreates | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

That ‘C’ word

Friday 3rd February 2012 – 10:21 AM

This Saturday is World Cancer Day and this got me thinking.

Tackling the prevalence of cancer in our communities is still a major concern, but where do you start when the mere mention of the word makes people change the subject?

We know that many people worry about the ‘C’ word, but the truth is, if caught early some cancers can be treated and controlled.

I’ve worked on a number of awareness raising and early diagnosis projects and if I’m honest I didn’t realise how much fear the word cancer can instill in people and that the majority of people you speak to at engagement events either know someone who’s been diagnosed or they’ve been affected directly.

So why do people put up barriers when the word cancer is mentioned?

  • People often have first-hand experience of cancer, which can bring back difficult memories and upset them
  • Some types of symptoms may cause people alarm.
  • Just hearing the word cancer can be frightening.

Although some people don’t like to talk about cancer it’s also important to recognise that one conversation can encourage an individual, who may have been considering making an appointment, to take action.

Hearing success stories about how your conversation prompted a member of the public to speak to their doctor about recurring symptoms and how, as a result of your intervention, they have been referred into secondary care for treatment is one of the best things you can hear.

Being a part of awareness raising and early diagnosis projects is a challenging, but rewarding experience. If I can make a difference to one person’s life imagine the difference we could all make if we start to talk more openly about that ‘C’ word…..

 

Sarah Love, Principal Social Marketing Practitioner – sarah.love@icecreates.com

www.icecreates.com

By icecreates | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments (0)

The Government’s Responsibility Deal: A real commitment to sustainable behaviour change?

Monday 30th January 2012 – 2:20 PM

The recent post by the Lancet (and my response here) reminded me about the extent to which the Government’s Responsibility Deal remains widely regarded with suspicion by many in public health and the voluntary sector. At its launch many commentators described it as “a mess” that needs to be “more ambitious”. The pledges were felt to be “not that impressive”.

Among those who walked away from the negotiations was The Royal College of Physicians, with Professor Sir Ian Gilmore insisting: “These large corporations, whether they sell tobacco, food or alcohol, are legally obliged to maximise shareholder returns. They therefore have to oppose any policies that could reduce sales and profitability – in other words, the most effective policies.”

Earlier this month the Portman Group, now chairing the alcohol committee of the Responsibility Deal, took the opportunity of a shared platform with the Royal College at the Drinkaware annual conference in London to invite Sir Ian back into the fold.

At ICE we’ve been working a lot with retailers, manufacturers, trade bodies and interest groups involved in food and alcohol recently, and it’s been encouraging to see some genuine commitment to behaviour change. Retailers like Sainsbury’s and The Co-operative have made clear commitments that go beyond government initiatives and make a deliberate link between social good and increased profitability and market share.

The industry wants to be part of the solution, and not be regarded as simply the source of the problem all the time. After all, these are enterprising companies built and grown on a basis of understanding consumers and utilising innovation – skills surely welcome in the battle to improve health and wellbeing?

The Royal College has a genuine point to make about the health impact of alcohol, of course. The average consumption for an adult is too high at 25 units per week, and Sir Ian suggests adding at least 15% to that for holidays. But they admit to not understanding the health inequalities exposed by the data: more research needs to be carried out to understand this. Indeed, one mental health professional pointed out that around 60% of the dependent drinkers he works with from among the poorest communities in Scotland consume strong, cheap cider: a tipple favoured by less than one per cent of the rest of the population, he said.

Is the solution to such inequality the one advocated by The Royal College – a minimum price for alcohol? If set at 50p per unit, it would save nearly 10,000 lives a year, Sir Ian says. Moreover, not enforcing a minimum price is tantamount to self-regulation, and “the internal records of the tobacco companies … show that companies pushed voluntary approaches specifically in order to avoid binding legislation.”

Holding all partners to account is important. Likening a shop that sells wine to a company that makes cigarettes is odd coming from a noble and evidence-based professional body. But in smoking, an area of public health where the tax and ban approach has been most applied, it could be argued it has had a limited effect on tackling health inequalities.

In spite of the ban on smoking in public places, prevalence of smoking amongst people in the routine and manual socio-economic group continues to be double than amongst those in the managerial and professional group (28% and 14% respectively). Cigarette smoking is still most prevalent among those who live in the most deprived areas and those with the lowest household income, at around two in five men and one in three women.

Would a minimum unit price have a similar impact in the areas where it is needed most? Is there a risk of illicit alcohol sale and production, in the same way as communities are now tackling illicit tobacco?

Fortunately there are enough advocates of genuine, sustained and community-led behaviour change to argue that tax and ban, or legislative ‘smack’ approaches, are not the only game in town, in the same way that nudges are just one tool of many.

Richard Forshaw, Director of Sales & Marketing – richard.forshaw@icecreates.com

By icecreates | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Sustainable Behaviour Change: Time the world’s leading medical journal had a rethink?

Friday 27th January 2012 – 11:29 AM

So The Lancet believes behaviour change programmes should be abandoned by the Government and replaced by what in their view ‘works’ – a tax and ban approach. Not exactly radical thinking. This, in spite of clear evidences (for example here and here) that tools like choice architecture and social marketing also work.

For an august publication to call for such a retrograde step is an alarming development, and one I’d put down to a lack of appreciation of the true facts… had it not been for other alarm bells that recently clanged at a conference on responsible drinking.

After all, those of us of a certain age will recall that this was a view dominant in the mid noughties. Although academic behaviour change theory was taught to health promotion workers, social marketing as a tool was greeted with scepticism by all but a few pioneers. There were good case studies available even then, but the prevailing view of the public health fraternity usually contained the words: “lack of evidence”, “statistically insignificant” and “not epidemiologically sound”.

I always recall a heated debate in the pub with a former head of health promotion colleague from my days as a Primary Care Trust Head of Comms that “health promotion has nothing to do with marketing, it’s about changing behaviour not selling crisps”. And yet health promotion activity was rarely co-created with the target community. It was too often poorly funded. Qualitative insight was viewed with suspicion. Quantitative research regarded as an expensive luxury. Design agencies might be called upon for posters and leaflets (where there was no in-house capacity), but the capacity and capability of independent practitioner support was not considered. And the programmes rarely had the sustained impact that was desired.

Fortunately, things changed. As an increasing number of practitioners began demonstrating success, the evidence base grew. The National Social Marketing Centre was established by Prof Jeff French – a Non-Executive Director at ICE – and the Department of Health began to fund training, awareness raising and pilot programmes.

Fast forward to 2012, and the international social marketing community has a growing network sharing best practice, and across Europe practitioners regard the UK as a leading example of behaviour change programmes being applied consistently and well. And in spite of recent upheavals in the NHS structure, there remain many, many people in public health committed to delivering improved health outcomes for their local communities, and who advocate all sorts of approaches to changing behaviour – whether a nudge, a hug, a smack or a shove. Fantastic developments, not just for us in the industry but for the clients and ultimately the communities we serve.

Austerity may force us to deliver challenging outcomes for less. But as an industry, we must guard against a return to the scepticism and disillusionment of the past.

Richard Forshaw, Director of Sales & Marketing – richard.forshaw@icecreates.com

By icecreates | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments (1)
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 44 other followers