We’ve created a list of services, now what?

Listing services has given us the tool we need to start doing the real work of service development

Not that long ago we spoke about our plan to list our services. We planned to do this as the first step in our Service Development programme for our refugee services. Fast-forward a few months and we’ve got a list of services that we currently provide.

The list is constantly evolving, it might look different than this screenshot now.

Here’s a few things to bear in mind when looking at this list:

1. We are listing what we’re doing, not what we should be doing.
2. Not every service is available in every part of the UK, or even in most parts of the UK.
3. Sometimes we do the whole end-to-end service, sometimes we work with partners, and sometimes we make referrals or signpost to make it happen, and this varies depending on where you are in the UK.

How did we do it?

• Ran 14 ‘Listing workshops’ *
• Recorded verbatim data from when service users contact us
• Analysed existing records and reports
• Synthesised all this data to create a first draft
• Validated the language we were using with people who have lived experience of accessing services like ours
• Put the list through many rounds of feedback with frontline staff and managers.

A very small part of a sea of post-its from our synthesis phase

What did we find out along the way?

A) We don’t offer a clear list of transactional services, we offer caseworkers.

Some services are transactional, delivered quickly and with little interaction, others are more involved, where “consideration or mindfulness is called for”**, meaning the steps are often slower. Even if ultimately we offer a transactional service, most of our caseworkers described the early stages of a client relationship as an involved service as they diagnose what it is the client needs.

A unifying feature in the work we offer, is the ability for caseworkers to diagnose the problem in front of them. In the same way that to see a doctor is the service for many patients, seeing the caseworker is the service for many of our clients. Obviously a patient wants to come out of an appointment with a path to getting well, our service users want a path forward too, but they won’t always come asking for the solution, they’ll simply present the problem. Like a ball of wool, the caseworker will tease the string until the problem begins to unfurl. For this reason, what we do is far bigger than a menu of services that users of our service can simply select from.

Casework is like an iceberg, most of it lies below the surface.

As a result ‘casework’ is made up of a lot of activities that clients don’t see and haven’t asked for. That is why we separated the list into 3 sections:

1. Things a caseworker can help you with. The service user could come and ask for these things, but don’t always. This list represents the tangible things we can help a client achieve.
2. How they will help you. The how is important for service users as it sets their expectations for what they can expect and also gives reassurance (for example, it’s critical that service users know that we won’t talk to other organisations without their consent).
3. Things effective caseworkers do. The mechanics, service users don’t need to know what’s under the bonnet, but it is very important for us to list this work so we know what standard we need to be at to deliver a safe and effective service.

B) We don’t have to be the ‘do-ers’ to deliver value

By a service, we mean ‘something that helps someone do something’***, we don’t necessarily mean ‘doing the whole thing’. For that reason, sometimes we help service users directly, and in other cases we refer or signpost them on to someone else who can.

‘A service is still a service even if you don’t provide all of it’ — Lou Downe

As a large organisation we often feel responsible to take the lead in meeting local needs, and where there are gaps, we try to fill it. But while we often feel like we ought to be able to do everything, local teams find themselves spread thin, sacrificing staff wellbeing, service quality or both. Making the most of opportunities to be the facilitator rather than the doer can enrich the support available in the local area, while leaving us more time to consolidate our efforts on fewer, higher quality services.

C) But, we lack visibility of where we are the do-ers and where we direct people to other organisations

However, a referral is still a service insofar as a caseworker helps the client get there. For that reason, all our services, whether we do part, or all of the service, have been listed. The next step is to map where we refer, where we do it ourselves and where we do a mix. This is an ever changing state, so we are making a spreadsheet to manage this data across the many areas we cover. The first draft is looking a bit like this:

An excel model to show an overview of when we do the service ourselves, and when we work with partners. It plugs in data from local areas to create a national picture.

D) There is no shared language amongst clients or caseworkers, so if we can’t find it, we will need to build it.

The way people talk or categorise the work they do depends on a wide range of things, including:

• what we called it in the funding bid
• the way my boss talks about it
• the way my old boss used to talk about it
• that workshop I went to a few years back
• ‘it’s just the way I think about things’.

The lack of common language creates confusion, and a great example of this is ‘complex casework’. For the reasons listed above, everyone has ended up with a different concept of what we mean by ‘complex’, making it redundant in classifying the work caseworkers do. So we’ve stopped using it for the moment.

The list is a tool. It gives us visibility so we can:

• Start questioning whether what we are doing, is what we should be doing
• Think about how new services and funding opportunities fit within our current portfolio
• Explain what we do to service users more effectively
• Explain what we do to funders, referrers and partners more effectively
• Check if our caseworkers have what they need to deliver the services
• Start breaking off bitesize chunks to work on

On the last point, we can either start work on an end-to-end service, such as ‘get emergency cash’, or pick a common pattern, such as ‘run a group session’, ‘make a referral’ or ‘check someone’s status’, and optimise that for use across multiple services. We are beginning to prioritise what to work on first.

This list is laying the foundation for us to build services around what service users can achieve when they come to us. It is the springboard for lots more work, but if all goes well, will keep us focussed on what someone is trying to achieve, rather than our organisational structures.

* What happens at a listing workshop? Caseworkers, project leaders and service support assistants from different areas and service lines tapped into their stream of consciousness, worked hard, and came up with creative ways to list all the things they help clients achieved. The lists varied from things a client could ask for, such as ‘change my accommodation’, to the softer things that might go unnoticed, such as listening and identifying signs of gender-based violence.

**Lou Downe, Good Services pg.126

*** Lou Downe, Good Services, pg 18