The IRISS Forum 2011 will focus on service design.  

Traditional approaches to improving service delivery tend to focus on consultative processes that create new policies, regulations and guidance. An alternative approach is for service providers and people who access support to work collaboratively, using Service Design processes to generate insights, develop ideas and then test them out.

Designing services together ensures outcomes important to people are the focus of the improvement process, advancing the personalisation agenda and enabling greater involvement and transparency by sharing the role of improving care and support.

The IRISS Forum 2011 will provide you with an opportunity to learn more about Service Design, how it has shaped service provision in England, and how IRISS and service providers in Scotland have embraced this approach. The Forum will also provide you with an opportunity to talk to people who have worked this way, try out some of the processes for yourself and discuss and plan the potential impact of designing support in different ways. We will hear from those who have been pioneers in the field and will showcase Service Design projects, which IRISS is working on.

Speakers 

• Angela Constance, MSP, Minister for Children and Young People 

• Joe Heapy, co-founder and Director of Engine
  leads the work with the public sector at Engine Service Design. He collaborated with Demos to research and publish The Journey to the Interface, setting out the role of user-centred approaches to service design in the public sector.  

• Denise Stephens, co-founder of Enabled by Design
  Enabled by Design is a community of people who are passionate about design that supports independent living.  Inspired by her personal experiences following a diagnosis of MS, Denise presented Enabled by Design at the first Social Innovation Camp in 2008 and emerged as the winner.  

• Students from Glasgow School of Art will present highlights from their work with IRISS on service design projects, focusing on Reshaping Care for Older People.
   

See the Forum Website for more details. http://forum.iriss.org.uk/ 

Workshops

Delegates will have the opportunity to attend two workshops, selected from a choice of six.

Evidence-informed practice

The role of evidence and practice wisdom in social services

This session will explore the role of evidence and practice wisdom in social services, focusing on questions such as:

• What constitutes evidence for social services?
• How do practitioners make sense of the multiple sources of evidence available to them?
• What is the role of gut feeling or initiative in decision making?
• Does decision-making change in situations where the evidence available is not of ideal quality or the circumstances around the investigation are limiting?

The session draws on the results of a small qualitative study about the role of evidence in social work, undertaken by IRISS in 2011, http://www.iriss.org.uk/resources/decision-making-and-social-work-scotland. The session will outline the findings from this research and provide participants with an opportunity to discuss, explore and challenge these findings based on their own experiences and knowledge.

Measuring and recording outcomes

This session, presented by Ellen Daly from IRISS and Emma Miller, Honorary Senior Research Associate at Glasgow School of Social Work, will explore with participants the evidence around measuring outcomes including the key issues and challenges. It will also focus on recording outcomes and the importance of recording as a critical link between engagement and improvement.

Innovation and improvement 

Involving people in the design of services

This session will introduce participants to how services can be co-designed with people, and on how to generate ideas around collaboratively designing new services. The session will showcase examples of organisations that involve people in the design of new or existing services and what that means for service sustainability, costs and outcomes. It will also feature examples of approaches taken by IRISS in the areas of mental health, self directed support, asset mapping and transitions.

Getting services right: Prototyping services

This workshop will focus on how early prototyping can help to save money. Participants will be introduced to the concept of prototyping and journey mapping as a way to test new ideas, drawing on IRISS's existing projects.

Knowledge media

Use your browser to work smarter

Make your browser work for you. This workshop will demonstrate how to create a simple web page containing web links you need to remember or share with others. For example, you might want to create a list of websites containing useful learning materials. The good part is you can add to the list, rearrange it or modify it all within your browser with no special skills or software, in minutes. This will change the way you work.

The Learning Exchange as a community resource

Using the Learning Exchange you can share all kinds of resources from audio recordings of conferences and training events to video to straightforward print materials. Learn more at this workshop.

Who should attend?

The event is targeted particularly at those able to make change happen: commissioners, heads of service, Change Fund leads, and those participating in planning groups.

Important registration information

We are funding this event from our core resources so there will be no attendance fee. However, as there was such a high demand for places, if you book a place and then do not attend, you will be invoiced a fee of £150.  

If you have any questions or queries, please contact Sharon Dennett: sharon.dennett@iriss.org.uk or call 0141 559 5059.