Social Security Scotland
User-centred training for service design and delivery
Helping to grow understanding around the value of ‘reuse’ in service delivery using modularity and patterns.
This work was one of several workstreams I was a part of while at Social Security Scotland with the operations and strategic design.
The client
Social Security Scotland is responsible for the delivery of Scotland’s newly devolved welfare benefits. Established in 2018 Social Security Scotland is responsible for the creation of 14 brand new devolved welfare benefits for Scottish citizens as well as their service delivery.
It is the first example of nationally delivered devolved service provision at scale and serves 1.4m people with 4000 staff located regionally across the nation.
My role
To unite ‘pattern’ thinking in User-Centred Design across operations and digital.
To help design User-Centred Design leads to a better understand the potential opportunities and pitfalls to inform recommendations, next steps and share with practitioners.
To set up a series of workshops and materials to help build capability around ‘reuse’ from small components up to whole services.
The work
Scope
To deliver 5 week cross-organisational training on modularity, patterns and reuse for user-centred design practitioners. The aim of this work was to improve understanding and reduce working barriers across organisational teams.
Description
The work involved a series of workshop sessions with UCD leadership and key people as well as conceptual models, and frameworks for analysis and identifying opportunities.
The aim was to help grow understanding around using modularity and ‘patterns’ – from components up to whole services to help teams better understand the potential value and pitfalls so that they can identify opportunities for reuse.
As the conclusion to the sessions participants agreed on a joint area of focus for a combined delivery project.
Outcomes
Collaborative working to identify and agree on a starting opportunity to put aside differences and encourage deeper cross-organisational working and operational needs.
A reuse framework to help assess internal capability to implement reuse opportunities.
Participants stated a deepened understanding of reuse, its value within service delivery and the role of design as well as tools advocate learnings to the wider team.
“George is a genuine expert and I learnt a lot working with her at the Scottish Government. Her ability to tackle any problem is remarkable and I highly recommend her”
Marta Kuczkowska, Senior User Researcher
Social Security Scotland
About this work
Cross-organisational collaborative working: Social Security Scotland is made up of two separate organisations. An important part of this work was to help foster closer working relationships across UCD in both delivery and operations teams.
Growing capability: Both UCD teams were keen to grow their understanding of the value and purpose of patterns and service systems. There was an awareness that organizationally there was not a shared understanding of what these are, why and how best to use them.
Tools, conceptual models and frameworks: Using a conceptual model that represented both complexity and types of reuse we were able to discuss the right types of opportunities for the current organisational conditions. This model is something I have continued to find useful for discussions about the value of modularity and reuse.
Joint opportunity identification: Together the teams were able to identify opportunities that took into account the needs and challenges across the different stages of service design outside of traditional structural barriers.