Public sector - Local Authorities

The regeneration team in Burton wanted to involve the public in building a common picture of community needs and generating project ideas for their agreed objective. VISTA helped design and facilitate the event.

"To build community support for regeneration in Burton."

The Design Team wanted to focus on recognising achievements so far and building clarity about the role of the Public Health Network and what it means for them. VISTA partnered with Don Braisby to work with the team and design and facilitate this, the first Cheshire and Merseyside PHT meeting.

"An event for everyone involved in the improvement of health and well-being and the reduction of inequalities for people in Cheshire and Merseyside in order to take the next critical steps in creating, sustaining and developing our capacity."

We worked with Merseyside HAZ over three years, working with Design Teams and facilitating a number of events. The internal team attended several of our open training sessions as well as commissioning training sessions for themselves and other facilitators from organisations they regularly partnered with.

This was the first Merseyside HAZ conference and was attended by around 200 participants. The design team wanted to focus on what had been achieved in the first year of HAZ and involve community groups who had benefited from the work of the HAZ. 'Mock Beggar', a professional disabled people's theatre company, opened the conference in a highly original way. During the day people then went on to built networks and developed tangible plans and next steps individually and collectively.

"To celebrate the journey so far and share some practical ideas to:
1. Overcome barriers and move forward and;
2. Make a difference in Merseyside Health Action Zone"

The Design Team came together from different parts of the community to focus on bringing key stakeholder groups together for a Future Search. VISTA partnered with Jane Tyrer of Manchester Centre for Health Care Management to work with the team and facilitate the event at Aintree Race Course.

"To share perspectives and produce better services for older people."

This two-day leadership development workshop for the 30+ team at Housing and Community Services was planned to prepare for a CPA. They wanted to look at teamwork in a new and different way and we used The Organisation Workshop, (pdf file), as a provocative start to the work. This allowed them to develop new leadership 'stands' based on an appreciation of system dynamics. Then they looked at the patterns in their external environment and developed a clear vision of what excellence means for them as well as what a successful CPA would need. They finished by making plans to deliver improvements.

"To prepare for the Comprehensive Performance Assessment in a way which builds the team and develops strategies for improvements in delivery."

The newly elected Social Democrat Council wanted to bring members and officials together for an event at the beginning of their term. They worked together to develop a values statement, some specific goals and agreed ways forward.

"To work together as members and officials to ensure that the Council can effectively fulfil it's role, purpose and live its values."

We worked with Sandwell Local Authority and Health Action Zone over a three-year period, advising on and facilitating several events. The internal team from Sandwell attended several of our open training sessions and supported us with other clients to learn more about how LGIs worked.

The community Plan had been developed and discussed in one event and the event was planned to look at what local delivery would mean, how it could be whole system and what would be needed for the partnerships to work.

The design team wanted a high-energy event with a lot of focus on how things could be different so that everyone would leave with a concrete vision of the future. They wanted to experience working in partnership and develop commitment to joint plans.

VISTA worked on design and delivery of this two-day event for 160 people in partnership with the internal team.

"To make a reality of our vision for Sandwell in the Community Plan."

The various teams working across the HAZ developed this event to share what they were doing, reflect on progress, take stock and refocus their work in a climate of openness and honesty. In the after lunch slot the OH team demonstrated work they had been doing, on fitness for older people, by leading a workout!

"Join together to build a comprehensive picture of the range of work, connections and gaps in the Health Action Zen and Health Improvement programmes and agree what we should do next."

The design team for this event wanted to focus on communication and participation. They wanted to identify strengths and weaknesses in communications and participation and reduce gaps that cause barriers to communications and participation. The teams, which included a large number of clients, identified next steps for strengthening communication and participation in Mental Health.

"Closing the gaps in Mental Health... and increasing our ability to participate and communicate."

This was an Event for Agencies and Professionals in Sandwell with a stake in the success of the exciting Innovations Fund Project for health focussed economic opportunities to combat exclusion and enhance the quality of life and the independence of people in Sandwell. Participants looked at Local Currency using a simulation, inclusive design work and social enterprises. They developed a vision and gave feedback on work in progress.

"To launch the project in an innovative way road testing our priorities, refining our activities, enlisting commitment and actively developing the basis for a new network with ideas and some clear and specific plans for action."

After the Shaping the Future Event the voluntary sector took on board the feedback they had been given and the actions they had agreed. One of these was to develop their own vision of the future in the sector. They wanted an event which was energetic and exciting and which would use the powerful story of the history of the sector to develop future partnerships and build new plans.

"To create a common identity of the Voluntary Sector in Sandwell and define a clear set of goals for the future."

The design team for this event wanted to leave with a clear understanding of Best Value and how it empowers service users to influence the decisions that will shape the service of the future in Sandwell. They wanted people to feel valued and to build on and extend collaborative working between organisations that have a positive impact on the lives of people who use Home Care Services.

"To Shape The Future Of Home Care In Sandwell."

Unlocking the Potential of People with Disabilities.

VISTA in partnership with Don Braisby worked with the design team and facilitated the meeting in the Council chamber of around 40 people with the aims of raising the profile, purpose and value of the JIP.

Additionally participants started building the infrastructure and capacity to implement the plan.

"Involving people and building commitment and buy-in from the stakeholders who will make the JIP work."

VISTA in partnership with Don Braisby designed and facilitated an interactive mapping and decision-making meeting of key strategic stakeholders to begin developing an integrated approach to Housing and Support Needs of Older People. This was part of an overall aim to identify single agency, joint working and mainstream work and develop processes and solutions connected to the initiative with wide circles of involvement. The meeting was seen as a key part of this strategy in terms of accelerating the process and modelling the new ways of working needed for successful implementation in this and other projects. Outputs and decisions from the meeting were captured in real time and copied into a CD ROM strategy template for participants to take away with them on the day.

"To develop a shared action plan and support processes which will inform our developing housing strategy and planning process for residential care and emerging estates strategy within health."

In a series of local meetings in different locations VISTA facilitated meetings of carers, including young carers to establish what was working and not working, gaps in provision, constraints and benefits of caring, opportunities for improving support for carers. More than 80 people attended the meetings in local centres which included a provocative opening piece by Women and Theatre followed by discussions and group work using graphic templates.

"To engage key stakeholders in building a shared understanding of the Caring environment in Sandwell, which will inform an ongoing Carers Strategy we can all buy in and commit to."

Using the principles and some processes from Future Search VISTA designed and facilitated Stafford's first Community Conference in partnership with Wikima Consulting. Around 50 Stakeholders from across the community attended to explore and build consensus around key issues focused on town centre regeneration.

"To identify the sort of place people want the area to be and to forge partnerships to implement commonly held objectives."

The Design Team for this event was a unique mix of young people and others from various youth agencies. We met to design the meeting outside of school hours to cause the least disruption to their day and they decided they wanted to have a fun day joining in with other young people and agencies to share views and generate useful and realistic ideas for services available in the centre. Using a variety of graphic tools, theatre (All Talk Productions) and small interactive group work they joined in with planners and architects to have their say on the new centre. A special attraction was the appearance in the lunch break of a star St Helens RFC player which caused quite a commotion!

"To design a centre where young people can meet and share experiences, which will provide...
ο A safe and friendly environment
ο Advice, guidance and information
ο Money and benefits advice
ο Advice on health matters
ο Educational and training advice, social and recreational facilities
ο Personal support and counselling
...to meet the needs and work with issues which affect young people."

Surrey have an annual event for their 200+ managers. For this event they wanted to use an RTSC approach. The design team developed several desired outcomes.
We have

• All been heard and could make a difference
• Identified the key challenges facing us and the responses needed
• Networked and built new relationships
• A sense of the big picture and one organisation
• Recognised our past achievements
• Recognised our role as leaders
• Practical take away actions and ideas

and
We are feeling positive, motivated and inspired.

They used these to develop an active design for the day.

LEADING TOGETHER - recognising our challenges and moving Surrey forward with confidence.

In many ways this event followed up on the work we had done several years before to develop the values for the Unitary Authority (see below). The design team for this workshop, which would include 200+ people, wanted to improve satisfaction for employees by developing an understanding of what is happening, ideas about how to move forward and commitments to positive action and making change.

"To make a better place to work."

VISTA facilitated two workshops to look at strategy implementation in terms of development of values and culture. Participants looked at draft values and developed ideas about behaviours and barriers to implementation.

"To engage people in the dialogue about building a culture for the new unitary authority and build confidence that the change plans are resilient."

"Imagine an organisation where, the day after a strategy for change is agreed, hundreds of people from all levels and departments are working to implement it. Imagine that process transforming into focused development plans for staff, improved communications and widespread participation in improvement projects within weeks. Imagine all those people being energised and inspired by the opportunities that change presents.

Such a watershed was reached in Walsall council after 300 people were involved in an interactive strategic planning meeting. The two-day meeting was the culmination of four years' work on customer service and continuous improvement by the Chief Executive and other senior officers."

Extract from 'People Management" 5 October 1995

The GLA was about to be launched, with staff coming from several different authorities. Whilst new accommodation for staff was still under construction the event took place in a maze of rooms where the transition team had been working. Working in partnership with Inside Outreach a process was put in place to enable people to connect with each other and begin to identify some commonly agreed behaviours and processes for working together. Interactive sessions were run in parallel to enable participants to take on board key information and begin to understand what was to come in the new organisation.

"To welcome us all to the GLA."

As part of the overall programme of speakers sessions and forums the design team wanted to include some time for people to create and use their time in the best way they saw fit. For this reason time was put aside for the whole of the second day and part of the third for open space. Three spaces were used in parallel to accommodate all of the participants where agendas and sessions were created and run in real time - 'no holds barred, inspired by what you have heard on day one'. VISTA facilitated one area and the closing space attended by all participants. Co-facilitators in the other areas were John Norrie of Tetra-Main and Roger Key of Prescient.

"To spread the word and increase the use of family group conferences throughout the UK and further afield."

This conference was the first step in a process of equal participation by the Voluntary and Community sector with the other LPG Partners. A diverse team of over 20 voluntary sector people worked together through several meetings to develop the plan for the event. They agreed they wanted to leave with a start of something new and commitment to change based on principles of equality, democracy and accountability for all.

This would include:
A collective vision and purpose and a sense of how to get there:

• achievable goals,
• realistic strategies,
• practical steps,
• knowing what we have agreed to go away and do

A sense of inclusion, involvement and unity, optimism, enthusiasm and trust

A better understanding of:

• each other and things as a whole system - less them and us
• where everyone is coming from
• the patchwork quilt of separate initiatives all put together in ways that make sense
• knowledge of resources

An opportunity to influence policy and to have a significant impact in the City

The event was held on a Saturday and included over 400 people form across the voluntary sector.

Our aim is to work together to develop the Local Strategic Partnership as a fully inclusive organisation with policies to improve the quality of life in our CITY.

To be successful all sectors must:
Have access to sufficient resources to play a full and active part
Commitment to working together
This opportunity can only be realised with the agreement of all the partners