From ideals to realities: navigating complexities in adult social care

Marianne stood up presenting

We helped Redbridge Council involve communities in developing a solution to improve access to Adult Social Care

Co-authored with Hannah Wallwork from Neontribe

We worked with Redbridge Council to improve awareness and access to their Adult Social Care services. The project, which has been shortlisted for the customer experience award, aimed to free up time for the First Contact Team to focus on people with more complex or urgent social care needs.

Redbridge also wanted the service to better reflect the borough’s diverse population. Early on, we saw that working directly with a broad range of residents would help us understand access barriers for different groups.

To secure funding for the next phase of the project, we had 12 weeks to:

The tension between agile and ideal methodologies 

We initially thought about building a co-design community for the Council to consult with (following KA McKercher’s approach in their book Beyond Sticky Notes). But setting up research with marginalised groups or dedicated community groups can take time, in particular to:

Due to our short timescale, it was clear that following the perfect co-design methodology wasn’t practical. However, we didn’t want to abandon the concept completely and risk the solution not being fit for purpose. This meant we had to rethink and focus on what we could do in the time available. 

In 12 weeks, a small team from Redbridge and dxw:

Example of a workshop in action with sticky notes and pens

A truly multidisciplinary team

A constant throughout this work was the need for our team to be flexible and adaptable. We experienced changing deadlines and changing team availability. We also had to regularly adjust plans to accommodate engaging with stakeholders when they became available at short notice. 

Working collaboratively as a multidisciplinary team made this easier. Whether we were Researchers, Service Designers, Delivery Leads, or Interns, everyone contributed where needed. Job titles didn’t become blockers to getting things done.

This worked because we:

Supporting more equal participation

We opted to run “pop up” research to ensure we heard from a broader range of voices in the borough. This meant: 

We made sure any written material was translated into the top 3 languages for the borough. We created posters and offered people different ways to participate. This included using:

A workshop in action with sticky notes and people in the background

Protecting participants and ourselves

There can be safeguarding issues when you are involving potentially vulnerable adults and talking about a sensitive topic like adult social care. In our pop-up research we weren’t collecting any personal information like names and contact details, making it harder to follow up with anyone we may have been worried about. 

For this project, we established safeguarding measures from the outset. For example:

  1. Running a risk assessment
  2. Creating a safeguarding plan
  3. Checking research activities with people from the First Contact Team and Council
  4. Providing printed information signposting support
  5. Researching in pairs to look after each other and participants
  6. Asking members of the Council or First Contact Team to join so they could provide appropriate advice when needed

What we’re taking into our next project

This project is a great example of what small empowered teams can achieve. We were well supported by Redbridge, which made it possible to reach more people in the timescales we were working with.

Engaging with a broad range of people from residents to service providers, ensured Redbridge understood the perspectives of people seeking care and support and those who provide it. This understanding strengthened the service concepts and meant stakeholders could develop solutions based on user value and the feasibility/viability of delivery.