Harnessing the capacity of local communities through behaviour

change, the Big Society and Smarter Services

The Ageing Well Programme

2 March 2011Gill Bull Executive Head, Policy and Customer Services

ENABLING ‘SMARTER CHOICES’ – SUTTON’S APPROACH TO

BEHAVIOUR CHANGE

Smarter choices: policy context

• Local government has always had three distinct – yet overlapping – roles: (1) community leadership in a democratically elected context (2) delivering services and (3) shaping people’s choices

• Recent debates about behaviour change and localism are fundamentally about a ‘tilting’ of approaches:

– towards freedom, personalisation, and the right to choose

– and away from top-down direction, uniformity, and coercion

• And there are some interesting policy choices to make in all of this

Smarter choices: policy choices

Smarter choices: Sutton’s approach

• Sutton is widely recognised as a leader in the field of behaviour change

• Our award-winning “smarter choices” programmes have provoked interest from around the world – especially Smarter Travel Sutton

• But these are simply a refined and well-delivered example of a range of approaches that we have been using for a long time

• We have learned some interesting lessons along the way

• In particular, we think that behaviour change should focus on “more of the carrot, and less of the stick…”

• Our approach is about working with our residents to enable them to make smarter choices about how they live their lives

Smarter choices: some examples

In Sutton, we recognise that there is a wide scale of behaviour change approaches

“Carrots” “Sticks”

Events

Community champions

Physical changes

One-to-ones

Social advertising Peer pressure

Education

Financial incentives

Making it easier

Legislation

Enforcement

Fines

Prosecution

Naming and shaming

Service changes

Fees and charges

Smarter Travel Sutton

• Our most successful smarter choices initiative - a three-year, £5m behaviour change programme delivered in partnership with TfL

• Working with residents to enable them to make better choices about their travel

• Encouraging them to walk, cycle and use public transport more (and their cars less)

• The benefits are: better health lower carbon emissions less congestion cheaper transport

Smarter Travel Sutton

Smarter Travel Sutton is “more of the carrot, and less of the stick…”

“Carrots” “Sticks”

Events

Community champions

Physical changes

One-to-ones

Social advertising Peer pressure

Education

Financial incentives

Making it easier

Legislation

Enforcement

Fines

Prosecution

Naming and shaming

Service changes

Fees and charges

Ten lessons from Smarter Travel

1. Be clear about the your objectives

2. Be transparent with residents

3. Segment your audience

4. Use a wide range of approaches

5. Find the movers and shakers in the population

6. Ensure you have the resources, time and commitment

7. Measure what works, and what doesn’t

8. Deliver in partnership with others, at a local level

9. Find ways of mainstreaming behaviour change

10. The most successful behaviour change campaigns aren’t about ‘tricking’ residents into doing things differently – they’re about working with them to enable them to make smarter choices

Smarter choices: other examples

Our smarter choices initiatives give residents greater choice over their lives – and the ability to reassess some established habits and behaviours

Choose to keep the streets

clean…

Choose to use SEN pick-up

points…

Choose to remain drug-free,

and to stop smoking…

Choose to eat more healthily…

Choose to drive safely – or not at

all…

Choose to obey the law, and to report crime…

Choose to behave more

considerately…

Choose to use your local shops…

Choose to get involved in culture…

Choose to take more exercise…

Choose to access services over the web…

Choose to try not to spread the

flu…

Choose to walk to school

sometimes…

Choose your own care package…

Choose when you want to get

pregnant…

Choose to reduce, re-use and recycle…

Choose to produce less

carbon…

Choose to learn…

Choose to drink less alcohol…

Please choose not to let your dog

foul…

‘TAKE PART, TAKE PRIDE’ – BUILDING THE BIGGER SOCIETY

IN SUTTON

Take part, take pride: context

• Sutton has an active voluntary and community sector, and a wealth of clubs, societies and associations

• “Helping people to help themselves” has been part of Sutton’s philosophy for decades

• “Take Part, Take Pride” has become part of our branding, and is celebrated as a major festival in Sutton every year

• So the emerging themes of the Big Society are not new to us, and are evident in many areas of our work

• For these reasons, Sutton agreed to become a vanguard area for the Big Society

Take part, take pride: projects

• Big Society thinking and approaches are evident in many areas of our work

• But as part of our vanguard status, we have agreed four particular ‘signature projects’ with government:

1. traffic and transport

2. the Sutton Life Centre

3. community planning champions

4. local health changes

Take part, take pride: projects

• Big Society thinking and approaches are evident in many areas of our work

• But as part of our vanguard status, we have agreed four particular ‘signature projects’ with government:

1. traffic and transport

2. the Sutton Life Centre

3. community champions

4. local health Giving people greater power over traffic and transport schemes in their

communities – from bus services and trains, to speed humps and yellow lines

Take part, take pride: projects

• Big Society thinking and approaches are evident in many areas of our work

• But as part of our vanguard status, we have agreed four particular ‘signature projects’ with government:

1. traffic and transport

2. the Sutton Life Centre

3. community champions

4. local healthUsing our recently opened state-of-the-art interactive citizenship centre to encourage our younger people to make smarter choices about their

lives, and to take a lead role in their local community

Take part, take pride: projects

Take part, take pride: projects

Take part, take pride: projects

• Big Society thinking and approaches are evident in many areas of our work

• But as part of our vanguard status, we have agreed four particular ‘signature projects’ with government:

1. traffic and transport

2. the Sutton Life Centre

3. community champions

4. local health

Working with residents in Hackbridge to develop the first UK eco-suburb – using retrofit, behaviour change, and

neighbourhood planning

Take part, take pride: projects

• Big Society thinking and approaches are evident in many areas of our work

• But as part of our vanguard status, we have agreed four particular ‘signature projects’ with government:

1. traffic and transport

2. the Sutton Life Centre

3. community champions

4. local health

Making health services in Sutton truly local, through the early adoption of

key elements of the NHS White Paper

Take part, take pride: themes

• None of our work on Big Society is about starting from scratch, or about delivering new sets of services

• Rather, it’s about looking at what we do, and how we do it, through a new lens

• There are six common themes underlying our work on Big Society:

1. behaviour change

2. devolving decision-making

3. closer collaboration with voluntary and private sectors

4. cutting red tape

5. new models of service delivery

6. openness and transparency

Take part, take pride: Mr P

“I was excited to read that Sutton has been chosen by the coalition government to be one of several places where the Big Society project begins. To this end I would like to volunteer my services to improve my community and to save the council money that could be better spent elsewhere.

I am a keen gardener and I have always felt that our environment has a direct bearing on the way we feel and the way we act… I would like to “adopt” the gardens in front of Wallington Library, the grounds around Orchard Hill College and the raised beds on the Shotfield car park site… All I ask in return is that the council workers do not come along and wreck what has been planted out of ignorance.

I would be interested to hear what you think about my proposal. The Big Society idea excites me because now is our chance to make a meaningful contribution to this town and to change it into the place we would wish it to be. I think people long for bold ideas instead of mediocrity and want their local authorities to be braver about delivering them.”

SMARTER SERVICES SUTTON – A CUSTOMER LED APPROACH TO

BUDGET REDUCTION

Smarter Services Sutton: context

• Sutton needs to reduce its net expenditure by about 25% over the next few years

• Smarter Services Sutton is the transformation programme we’ve put in place to tackle this, and we started it 18 months ago

• Our aspiration is to do three things simultaneously:

– to transform services

– to cut costs

– to maintain resident satisfaction

• We’re doing this through a series of service-based reviews, that will cover the whole council over a three-year period

• So far, our reviews are exceeding their financial savings targets

Smarter Services Sutton principles

• There are six principles that form the structure to each of our Smarter Services Sutton reviews:

– personalisation, choice and behaviour change

– meeting customer needs in new ways

– partnerships

– affordable management overhead

– better management of risk

– creating new leadership behaviours

• We are about a quarter of the way through our reviews, and are ahead of target on savings

Make true partnership with users the best choice for everyone

Make true partnership with users the best choice for everyone

Work with the grain and in the spirit of families, friends and neighbours

Work with the grain and in the spirit of families, friends and neighbours

Start with people’s quality of life not the quality of your service

Start with people’s quality of life not the quality of your service

Enable committed, passionate and open-minded leaders to emerge from anywhere

Enable committed, passionate and open-minded leaders to emerge from anywhere

Manage risks, don’t just avoid them

Manage risks, don’t just avoid them

Conditions for innovation from

NESTA

SOME CONCLUSIONS

Conclusions and advice

• Be true to local principles and local political priorities

• Build strong foundations of community engagement, community empowerment and devolution

• Be honest and frank in communication with residents

• Look outside the normal constraints of service delivery; and examine what you do through new lenses where possible

gill.bull@sutton.gov.uk

www.sutton.gov.uk