Easier INC

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Collaborate CICs report into four case study sites working in a HLS way.

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Funded by the CORRA Whole Family Approach – System Change fund Families and Communities First will work with the people and communities of North West Dumfries to review the provision of whole family support for families affected by substance misuse.  Aberlour, D&G Children and Family Services and D&G Alcohol and Drugs Partnership will be supported by Collaborate and follow a Human Learning Systems approach with families communities and local partners to carry out a whole system review and carry out tests of change in North West Dumfries. We will produce a Learning Report which will propose an ongoing plan for continuous change and improvement – looking beyond the boundaries of substance misuse and support.

• Organisation name: Aberlour Child Care Trust
• Authors: David Barr
• Date: March 2021

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Physical Activity in and for Cornwall: A story of our Learning Journey taking a Human Learning Systems Approach for Strategy Development

This case study outlines an approach to strategy development informed by Human Learning Systems.

It covers the journey of the first two phases of a three phased approach to taking a more relational, collaborative and human centred approach to developing strategy.

Although it focusses on physical inactivity it has application, relevance and meaning for anyone leading strategic thinking in complex environments and interested in positioning on-ward deployment of work in a more experimental way that puts people and learning at its core.

 

Organisation: Active Cornwall

Author: Ali Wills 

Date: November 2024

 

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www.weshinebright.co.uk

 

Organisation: Barnardos

Author: Anna Willow 

Date: November 2024

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Bicester Healthy New Town (BHNT) was part of a Department of Health innovation programme, supporting places across the county to become healthier places to live.  Rosie Rowe, the Director of Public Health for Cherwell District Council decided to use the Human Learning Systems approach to understand the “systems connector” role that the BHNT partnership had been playing.  This case study explores the role that became the “System Steward” role, by reflecting on their actions using the Lankelly Chase Foundation’s System Behaviours.

• Organisation name: Bicester Healthy New Town
• Authors: Melissa Hawkins / Rosie Rowe
• Date: April 2020

 

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PRESENTATION: Enabling Health and Wellbeing through Healthy Place Shaping

Rosie Rowe (Cherwell District Council) reflects on the Bicester Healthy New Towns programme, through the lens of a Human Learning Systems approach.

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In 2020, Clackmannanshire Council established the Family Wellbeing Partnership, a transformation strategy aimed at improving the wellbeing and capabilities of individuals in Clackmannanshire by placing people at the heart of decision making. The Family Wellbeing Partnership works to empower young people, their families, communities and staff, encouraging their voice and agency. This includes a focus on what needs to change within the existing system, shifting the values and behaviours of those designing and delivering services, as well as those receiving support within Clackmannanshire. 

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Working alongside people in communities to help them achieve the improvements they want to see in the places they live. Seeking to influence and work with other organisations across all sectors whose activities can help this.

• Organisation name: Coast and Vale Community Action
• Authors: David Stone
• Date: March 2021

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Designing the Systems Innovation Experimentation Fund: An experimental learning journey towards funding-for-learning

How might we shape a learning-focused approach to development funding?

As part of EIT Climate-KIC and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency’s learning partnership around systems innovation (the Systems Innovation Learning Partnership – or, SILP), we used Human Learning Systems (HLS) as a conceptual framework to explore this question collaboratively.

Designing the Systems Innovation Experimentation Fund has been a deliberate exercise in navigating the process of unlearning our business-as-usual approach as funders. We describe our process and pitfalls, as well as guiding principles that emerged through this journey.

Organisation: Climate KIC 

Authors: Tom Pruunsild, Will Wade 

Date: November 2024 

 

 

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We help socially minded people and organisations work together more effectively. In practice this means lots of informal relationship building, connecting people to one another, creating and holding collective spaces for people to reflect and learn together – and to deepen their relationships as a result, forming groups around shared interests to experiment with doing things differently and doing better things, and everything in between.

• Organisation name: Collective Impact Agency 
• Authors: Andy Crosbie
• Date: March 2021

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This case study looks at the Collective Leadership for Scotland Team’s response to supporting leaders and others across public services during the early months of Covid. We explored what could be offered in response to the pace, overwhelm and necessarily reactive nature of leadership at this time. A programme was developed called “One Thing at a Time” building from our work around system change and leadership. The aim of the programme was to create space for people to learn, connect and reflect in ways that supported engagement at the depth and with the issues that most resonated for them.

• Organisation name: Collective Leadership for Scotland
• Date: March 2021

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Lifting Neighbourhoods Together is a five-year experiment (2019-2024), integrating a frontline multi-disciplinary neighbourhood team who focus on a more human approach to engagement, casework and connecting the whole system together.

Community Renewal Trust has spent 20 years in deprived neighbourhoods creating, testing and learning from approaches to community engagement and case management which can cut across different disciplines such as employment support, youth work, health/wellbeing and community development. These approaches are all about rehumanising and working at a neighbourhood-level – placing local knowledge, trust and relationships before constant assessment cycles or “fixing” people.

This latest programme, with £2.1m funding from National Lottery Community Fund, is the culmination of that work and brings together all the elements for testing together in one of Scotland’s most deprived neighbourhoods. The added element is that all of those activities are being delivered not by new/additional staff but by integrating an existing group of third sector and public sector staff who have come together to form a neighbourhood team supported by a system change consultancy.

• Organisation name: Community Renewal
• Authors: John Halliday
• Date: August 2022

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Renewing child protection in Pardubice region in Czechia

The project to renew child protection in the Pardubice region of Czechia targeted one of the country's 14 regions.

It focused on supporting three local child protection offices in refining their approaches to serving families and children. The aim was to foster solution-oriented practices, build trustworthy relationships, and identify effective strategies.

Concurrently, the project improved inter-office relationships by linking the three offices with the regional child protection authority. This network enhancement should enable scaling and dissemination of successful practices to 12 additional teams in the region.

Ultimately, child protection workers spent more time with families, developed new skills and tools, confidence and inspired a follow-up project enhancing the managerial competencies of approximately 20 regional managers.

Organisation: GovLab

Author: Richard Kokes 

Date: November 2024 

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Devon sought to re-design aspects of its health & social care service, to make it genuinely more person-centred and develop integrated working. They applied an HLS approach, based around understanding and responding to the variety of needs of citizens. The social care team and the leaders were able to design a way of working prototype which enabled a bespoke response to “what matters” to each person, improving genuine outcomes and reducing cost.

This case study contains a video of the team story-telling a case study to a group of senior leaders.

Interested in learning more ? Continue reading here

• Organisation name: Devon Health Trust
• Authors: John Mortimer
• Date: January 2019

 

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Inverclyde, Type 2 Diabetes Prevention: A Collaborative Approach

Diabetes Scotland have been using a Human Learning Systems approach to systems change to collaborate with key stakeholders within Inverclyde on a community approach to tackling the complex issue of type 2 diabetes prevention.

We have built positive relationships with organisations in Inverclyde to better understand the priorities of the locality and to learn how we can work collaboratively to create meaningful and lasting connections to improve the health and wellbeing of the local community.

Organisation: Diabetes UK

Author: Judith Kennon

Date: November 2024 

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"In my last year of life, help me live well until I die". What do we need to be amazing at, to ensure the last year of life is as good as possible? How well does reality match our aspirations? Results through relationships is collaborative work to understand what matters, and to focus on that together.

• Organisation name: Dorset Health and Social Care
• Authors: Saskie Dorman
• Date: March 2021

 

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Health and care partners in Dorset recognised a need to work collaboratively across the county in order to improve the experience of people in their last year of life. They approached this by firstly understanding what matters to the people of Dorset and to each other; an approach they called Results Through Relationships. Their work has revealed a small set of ‘core capabilities’ - things that partners needed to do well together in order to support what matters in the last year of life. Focusing on these has been the anchor point for developing their human learning system in practice.

 

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BLOG SERIES: Saskie Dorman, a consultant in palliative medicine in Dorset, describes the work they have been doing to shift the mechanisms governing their End of Life care system from accountability, assurance and performance management to simple practices that create fellowship, systematic empathy and mutual action for improvement.

 

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BLOG: Saskie and colleagues reflect on the difference that shifting away from traditional Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and quality standards has made to how they think about, discuss and improve performance.

 

VIDEO: Saskie describes the transformation story behind this work and how it has impacted her, her colleagues and those they support. 

 

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BLOG SERIES: Dorset public service leaders, together with Andy Brogan (Founding Partner at Easier Inc.), reflect on their work together to kick start a more personalised focus for care across the County.

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Based in Blackpool, Empowerment is an advocacy charity working alongside people with mental health issues, learning disabilities, young people who have experienced domestic abuse and those people who are experiencing multiple disadvantage.

• Organisation name: Empowerment
• Authors: Mike Crowther
• Date: March 2021

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Adaptive Management programming within the Foreign & Commonwealth Development Office demonstrates that the UK Government has examples of optimising for learning within its existing management practice. However, currently, the adaptive management practices are unhelpfully framed by an approach which limits both their effectiveness and scope.

The programmes use learning as their meta- strategy. They succeed in connecting practice- based learning with strategic learning, and make a shift towards reframing accountability as accountability for learning

This learning strategy is enabled by funding and contract management arrangements which prioritise learning. Both at macro-level of programme management and micro level of de-risking experimentation and enabling necessary failure by decoupling people’s job security from potential failure.

• Organisation name: Foreign & Commonwealth Development Office
• Authors: Lauren Sweeney / Emmeline Skinner
• Date: March 2021

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The Gateshead Community Bridgebuilders (GCB) are building community power.

This team is working to enable local people to have the opportunities, skills, and confidence to engage in making decisions that are going to improve their lives now and in the future.

The GCB are a team of individuals who represent many of the diverse communities of Gateshead.

This team has at its disposal an annual budget (to date, provided by the Lankelly Chase Foundation) which it uses to run experiments which try to challenge the systems that marginalise and build the power of local communities.

Organisation: Gateshead Community Bridgebuilders

Author: Andy Crosbie 

Date: November 2024 

 

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A four-site prototype that created the Liberated Method by working outwards from people through the use of low caseload generalists that were able to pull upon specialists for reasons that are coproduced and based upon a citizen’s context.

Caseworkers were empowered to operate as determined by the relationship within a set of rules and principles that keep things safe and legal.

This meant scope was unlimited and solutions creative...and very effective. The programme focused upon building in learning and evaluation. Caseworkers were committed to/expected to participate in learning as much as they were casework.

We developed a measures framework and a digital platform to encompass emergent practice and measures.

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Organisation: Gateshead - Changing Futures Northumbria 

Author: Mark Smith 

Date: November 2024 

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Mark Smith, Director of Public Service Reform at Gateshead Council began a change programme which sought to enable all residents of Gateshead to get bespoke public service. He began by exploring the ways in which the Council could respond differently to people who got into Council Tax debt, by understanding and helping them, rather than punishing them. Having prototyped a different approach to public service, this is now being explored in other aspects of Gateshead’s public service including homelessness, and neighbourhood working.

• Organisation name: Gateshead Council
• Authors: Mark Smith
• Date: March 2019

 

VIDEO: Bespoke Public Services - Learning from Gateshead's Prototypes

Mark Smith (Director of Public Service Reform at Gateshead Council) describes the what, why and how of taking a Human.Learning.Systems approach in practice. Includes case examples and reflections on what this means for public service commissioners and leaders.

 

VIDEO: The Benefits of Prototyping

Mark Smith (Director of Public Service Reform at Gateshead Council) describes the benefits of taking a prototyping approach to transformation work.

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The Good Cents approach to financial wellbeing is a community-led initiative based in the Porirua suburb of Cannons Creek. It arose out of concerns about the high levels of debt in the local low-income community and now has several strands, including an 8-week course, a fruit and vegetable coop, a timebank and a savings pool.

The Good Cents approach was developed through a partnership between Wesley Community Action and the Cannons Creek community. At the heart of the Good Cents approach is the belief that with the right support, communities can find ways of negotiating complex problems to enhance their wellbeing.

• Organisation name: Wesley Community Action and the Cannons Creek community
• Authors: David Hanna
• Date: October 2021

 

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• National Strategy for Financial Capability Wesley Community Action (Video)

• Making Change (Video)
  

   

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GreaterSport works across Greater Manchester to develop a whole system approach to physical activity. By trying to work together across Greater Manchester we believe we will be able change the things that have the biggest influence on whether people are active. This means we have to work differently in lots of ways, including in how we measure change. Through Sport England’s local pilot project, we are working across the system to understand how we can get people active within a place. The focus of this project has been on test and learn, with critical reflection, trust and relationships at the centre.

• Organisation name: GreaterSport
• Authors: Emily Woodward-Esseen
• Date: March 2021

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Working towards a whole system approach to tackling physical activity inequalities in Hackney.

Over the last five years, we’ve been working with Sport England and 11 other places (previously known as local delivery pilots) on a learning journey to understand the barriers to being physically active and how these can be addressed by taking a whole systems approach to reducing inequalities in physical activity.

We work with a range of partners from different sectors and our approach has continued to develop and evolve as a dynamic Human Learning System.

Organisation: Hackney Council

Author: Lola Akindoyin

Date: November 2024 

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Conduct disorders are one of the most common mental health disorders in children and young people and were the focus for Halton’s Complete Care Community Programme.

This national programme utilises local Primary Care Networks to tackle key health inequality challenges working with partners. We adopted a Human Learning System approach as part of this inquiry which has enabled stakeholders to embrace the complexity inherent in this public health challenge, and to work effectively with that complexity to explore ways forward.

This inquiry has informed a series of recommendations for policy makers to improve outcomes for those at risk of or living with conduct disorders.

• Organisation name: Wellbeing Enterprises
• Authors: Mark Swift
• Date: February 2024

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Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s Improvement Hub (ihub) supports those delivering health and social care across Scotland to redesign and continuously improve services.  At the initial stage of the COVID response, the ihub developed a learning system to understand how the health and social care system in Scotland was responding to pandemic and to identify key learning for the future. This identified the following key themes as critical to enabling services to respond effective to the pandemic:  

• Importance of trusting relationships; 
• Role of communities and 
• Technology enabled services. 

The approach embraced the Human Learning System model by allowing space and conversation to reflect on gathered insights and collaborative sense making around the implications of the emerging practice.

• Organisation name: Healthcare Improvement Scotland
• Authors: Diana Hekerem, Des McCart and Sharon Weiner-Ogilvie
• Date: March 2021

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This case study sets out learning that has contributed to the development of the ScottishApproach to Change.

This case study focuses on:

• Taking a whole person approach: emerging evidence of delivering more sustainableservices by shifting from addressing single issues to a holistic approach
• Having learning-based culture and leadership: a learning-based approach results in amore engaged and motivated workforce with increased autonomy and trust
• Change requires a blend of multiple methods, proportionate use of theory, beingcomfortable with uncertainty and active learning to move forward.

 

Organisation: Health Improvement Scotland

Lead contact: Diana Hekerem, Associate Director of Transformational Change 

Date: May 2025

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Into the Unknown - A collaborative partnership for fairer health in Gloucestershire 

When HCT Gloucestershire was awarded a grant and learning partnership with the Kings Fund and National Lottery we were certain our approach to tackling health inequality wasn’t working. 

We wanted to ‘rip up the rulebook’: question everything and, in doing so, illuminate a new way forward.  Our statutory and VCSE collaboration started a journey that was still “out there”.   Through HLS we pivoted to “in here”: we didn’t expect what we learnt to be so personal, so humbling and to arrive, repeatedly, in a place where we know less than we thought.  It’s “from here” that the real work begins.

Organisation: HCT Gloucestershire 

Author: Jo Underwood 

Date: November 2024 

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Help on Your Doorstep (HOYD) is a charity working with residents who are vulnerable, isolated and experience social inequality in Islington, London. Our goal is to support people to thrive and live in happy, healthy communities.

• Organisation name: Help on Your Doorstep
• Authors: Ken Kanu
• Date: March 2021

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Here (Care Unbound) are a Brighton-based and employee owned social enterprise that has embraced the 3 core ‘teal’ insights of evolutionary purpose, wholeness and self-management. Working across a range of health and care services as well looking at their whole organisation as a human learning system, they have sought to systematically nurture a focus on purpose and what matters. In 2017 this work led to them being awarded Social Enterprise of the Year and, for their work to improve their Memory Assessment Service, Employee Owned Innovation of the Year.

• Organisation name: Here (Care Unbound)
• Authors: Mark Cannon / Andy Brogan
• Date: January 2018

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Helping managers and leaders to begin to understand their organisation from a systemic perspectiverarely works in a classroom situation.

Using this action learning technique, the operational work intheir organisation is used to uncover and demonstrate the power of an outside-in derived Purposefrom the customer perspective.

They also begin to recognise the potential of a redesigned servicemight look be. And they learn how beneficial going into the workplace can be. As a method of learning, this approach introduces the manager to different perspectives, which isthe beginning of understanding using a systems thinking lens.

Organisation: Impro Consult

Author: John Mortimer 

Date: November 2024 

 

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The Innovation Centre of the Finnish National Education Agency (EDUFI) has developed an approach to public management at national government level which uses learning as the meta-strategy. They redefine the role of the central government as enabling local actors to collaborate and learn together better.

This ‘learning as meta-strategy’ is enacted through Experimentation Labs in which EDUFI’s role is to build the capacity of actors in local and national education systems to learn and improve together through the use of experimentation and co-design methods. 

This represents an evolution of traditional Innovation strategy - they do not seek to scale what has been learnt in any place, rather it is the capacity for learning which is taken to scale.

• Organisation name: Finnish National Education Agency (EDUFI)
• Authors: Anneli Rautiainen and Paula Tyrvainen
• Date: March 2021

 

VIDEO: Toby Lowe in conversation with Olli-Pekka Heinonen

A conversation between Toby Lowe of the Centre for Public Impact and Olli-Pekka Heinonen, Director General of the Finnish National Agency for Education, exploring the Human Learning Systems approach to public management at a national scale.

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Lankelly Chase works to tackle systems of injustice and oppression that result in the mental distress, violence and destitution experienced by our most marginalised citizens. We focus on power, culture, mindsets and relationships, all of which are key to understanding the dynamics of complex interlocking systems. At the level of places, we are supporting interconnected networks of changemakers across six places in England. These networks of changemakers, from all parts of local systems, are engaged in action-inquiries, united by the question ‘how do we change the systems that perpetuate severe and multiple disadvantage in our place?’. 

• Organisation name: Lankelly Chase
• Authors: Habiba Nabatu
• Date: July 2020

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Using learning as a management strategy to provide bespoke public services for residents in Gateshead.

• Organisation name: Gateshead Council
• Authors: Mark Smith 
• Date: May 2022

 

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Lighthouse’s mission is to give children in care the same opportunities as everyone else by providing high-quality children’s homes with a strong focus on education. It applies a framework based on social pedagogy, which is a holistic, relational approach based on empowerment and learning. The approach shares many features of the Human Learning Systems approach. Its model was developed through a deep process of research and consultation, including visits to children’s homes in Germany and Denmark. The system values the contribution of young people and empowers them to shape the design and practice of services.

• Organisation name: Lighthouse
• Authors: Nicola Boyce
• Date: March 2021

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The HLS approach has provided a framework and a language for learning from the local mental health system’s response to Covid-19. It supported our confidence in opening up honest, difficult, and productive conversations with our local partners, enabling the development of a more joined-up mental health response across our local area, and moving us from the periphery into the centre of the local mental health system. The focus on learning has also helped uncover systemic risks and opportunities, but challenges remain in emphasising diverse forms of learning and in re-defining our systemic role.

• Organisation name: Likewise
• Authors: Sam Kammerling
• Date: March 2021

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The Liverpool City Region (LCR) Combined Authority explored how to commission differently.

In this case study the Contract and Review Lead reflects on the learning taken from working to implement an HLS approach to commissioning and contract monitoring and in doing so highlight factors that support or prevent the embedding of an HLS approach. This study explores ways in which spaces which enable commissioners and providers to learn together help to build the necessary sense of trust between all the actors in a local system.

Author: Katie Fleeman

Date: November 2024 

 

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Following the award of Trailblazers funding to the Liverpool City Region to support with the implement of the Homelessness Reduction Act.  It was acknowledged that commissioning a Liverpool city Region Assertive Outreach service provided an opportunity to pilot a Human Learning Systems approach to the commissioning of the service. Therefore, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority embraced a Human Learning System approach as a tool for commissioning and highlighting change implementing the approach in the commissioning of a regional Assertive Outreach service.

• Organisation name: Liverpool City Region
• Authors: Katie Owen
• Date: November 2020

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Inspired by the Buurtzorg approach to neighbourhood-based social care,  Cornerstone created a self-managed-teams environment in which decisions about care were devolved to workers on the ground, so that they could use their relationships with people to provide a personalised, bespoke response to each person’s needs. In order to make this approach work in the Scottish context, they also developed new relationships with commissioners, and the Care Inspectorate to enable the experiment to operate within the Scottish care system.

 

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PRESENTATION: Local Cornerstone - Our journey

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This case study looks at creative and child centered methods used to engage young people in Triangle Consulting “Shooting Star” as an in – service monitoring tool to gauge children’s progress and to structure meaningful conversations supporting those young people in navigating across their school, family and community systems safely.

Overall findings are positive and point to the importance of centring the child in all conversations as well how systems are perceived and experienced. Findings also highlight the need to use creative, sometimes unconventional methods such as role reversal to elicit more complete and genuine responses from the participants.

Organisation: Manchester Safe Task Force

Authors: Lucy Perrone, Joy MacKeith, Karen Bodger

Date: November 2024

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A Radical Approach to Reducing Social Isolation in Barking and Dagenham

In response to increased social isolation exacerbated by the pandemic, Barking and Dagenham Council adopted a radical collaborative and community-centred learning approach.

They formed the 'Connect' network, comprising over 30 local organisations to work together on iterative funding programs and workshops to address diverse community needs by developing tailored interventions, fostering trust, and building community resilience.

The approach emphasised adaptive learning, flexibility, and ongoing collaboration, transitioning from a council-led to a community-led model looking at how to design a system community resilience approach.

Partnerships with local organizations like BD_Collective and Care City helped sustain efforts, emphasizing the importance of collaboration, local knowledge, and iterative learning.

This Human Learning approach aims to create sustainable solutions through scaled and pooled funding to enhance social connection across the borough.

Organisation: London Borough of Barking and Dagenham 

Author: Zoe Christodoulou

Date: November 2024 

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Mayday Trust was originally established over 40 years ago as a traditional housing support provider, but underwent a radical transformation in 2011 by prototyping a person-led, transitional and strength-based (PTS) response, which is used to explore the Human Learning Systems approach. People going through tough times are supported by a PTS coach, who focuses on their strengths, as well as their unique context. Mayday is continually reflecting and evolving its approach based on new learnings. The problem Mayday tries to address is not homelessness but rather the systemic institutionalisation of people accessing support services.

• Organisation name: Mayday Trust
• Authors: Lynn Mumford
• Date: March 2021

 

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Mayday Trust developed a way to provide a person-led and strength-based approach with people experiencing homelessness and tough times, The Personal Transitions Service.  It emerged following years of prototyping a new way of working that ensured power was passed back to the individual and uncovered the many systemic barriers people face when accessing services. Modelling this new approach required Mayday to fundamentally transform how the organisation worked and has exposed how a new person led system, including new models for funding and commissioning, is needed.

 

ANIMATION: Personal Transitions Service

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Beta test for public innovation with a model named “M.E.R.A.K.I. Jalisco” Organization Model based on Emotion (heart) and Adaptative Responsibility, from the iKigai to Interdependence

This case describes the implementation of the MERAKI model, an innovative approach to public management based on the principles of human learning and complex systems, carried out by the Ministry of Citizen Participation in the State of Jalisco, Mexico. Led by Celia Ramírez, the project focuses on building a participatory governance environment that integrates a culture of peace and citizen participation into all government processes.

Through experimentation and continuous learning, the team has created a public innovation lab that fosters trust, collaboration, and adaptability within public administration.

This approach has helped overcome resistance to change, improve interinstitutional relationships, and empower local and community actors.

Authors: Medina, Jesus., Ramírez, Celia., & Urzúa, Salvador. (2024)

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This is an account of how managers became enthused and who took responsibly for leading the change and co-creating it with their staff. This was performed in one of the most transactional and regulated statutory services in a local council, demonstrating that the HLS approach can be applied to all types of services; both complex, and also simple and transactional. 

The approach they took was in stark contrast with their standard and legislative based thinking, and obvious digital solutions. And they incorporated new management behaviours and team working, allowing for a human approach to working with staff.

Waste was dramatically cut, the manager became enthused, and the staff environment created a highly motivating culture.

• Organisation name: Melton Borough Council
• Authors: John Mortimer
• Date: September 2020

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Middlesbrough Council have been working towards using a Human Learning Systems approach in the recommissioning of adult services.  Different service areas were brought together to develop a single approach to supporting people experiencing any or all of homelessness, substance misuse and domestic violence. The  vision is to create a real learning community across services.The aim is to encourage innovation, build on strengths, both of staff and service users and develop a system that grows to better meet the needs of all.

• Organisation name: Middlesborough Council
• Authors: Polly Wright
• Date: February 2020

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MitWirkung supports local government authorities in Berlin to effectively address child poverty.

We act as systems stewards to facilitate learning across systems that leads to change. We offer systemic consulting service to the administrative staff in charge – we are systems stewards.

We believe that the fight against poverty can only be successful if we change the way we think about poverty. To help others change their perspectives, we need to change our own first. And this is where the HLS approach comes in.

Organisation: MitWirkung 

Authors: Claire Horst, Dagmar Lettner

Date: November 2024 

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Grassroots place-based organisation emerged from peer-leaders with lived experience of mental health challenges delivering support-groups, now has over 300 in collective. Commitment to peer-values approach above all else – mutual, intentional, authentic – experimentation with self-managing team business model aiming for sufficiency in delivering activity with statutory, voluntary and public partners, with a goal to increase mental ‘wealth’ of the Moray locality.

Journey involved continual influencing and questioning as critical friend to many layers of the system simultaneously. Challenges in resources, navigating funding relationships and being specific regarding the value. Navigating the hinterland, preparing the ground ready for others. The potential needs innovatively resourced.

• Organisation name: Moray Wellbeing Hub CIC
• Authors: Heidi Tweedie
• Date: March 2021

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A Learning Community-Collaboration between The National House Project and Lancashire County Council's Permanence Service for Children Looked After and Leaving Care.

This example of practice looks at the learning taken from the Relational Practise Peer Learning project.

This was developed by the National House Project and Lancashire County Council’s Permanence Service for Children Looked After and Leaving Care.

The peer learning project was funded by the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum and Esmée Foundation. The aim of this Peer Learning Programme was to give care experienced young people and professionals the time and space to explore the meaning of relational practise and build connections between different organisations and services working with care experienced children and young people.

Organisation: Lancashire County Council, Preston

Author: Jane Hylton 

Date: November 2024 

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NM was a midwifery social enterprise commissioned to provide a 2 year NHS pilot in Northeast London as part of NHS England’s Maternity Transformation programme. NM’s aim was to provide individualised, continuity of care to women and their families, by autonomous midwives, working in self-managing teams. Before closure NM was in the process of developing an organisation wide coaching system, starting with discovering and defining what ‘good’ looked like across all our ‘core and support capabilities’. Our coaching practices included reflective feedback, compassionate communication and an agreed set of ‘non negotiables’ to underpin our ongoing learning and development as well as provide external assurance to the regulatory bodies.

• Organisation name: Neighbourhood Midwives
• Authors: Annie Francis
• Date: March 2021

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Partners in North Devon recognised that commissioning pathology services on a payment-by-results (unit cost per test) basis was locking in cost and activity. As they looked closer they also discovered that it was creating iatrogenic harm (harm caused to patients in the process of trying to help them). Their work together shifted the funding approach to a ‘system cost’ basis and coalesced around a simple action learning framework (The “Clean” Framework). The result has been marked reductions in cost, activity and harm alongside associated improvements in quality.

• Organisation name: North Devon Pathology Services (inc. NEW Devon CCG, North Devon Healthcare NHS Trust and various general practices in North Devon area)
• Authors: Tom Lewis, Darunee Whiting, Richard Croker and Andy Brogan
• Date: January 2018

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Self-directed Support: Self-Evaluation and Co-Production in Highland

NHS Highland used Appreciative Inquiry approach to provide the foundation of a self-evaluation process centred on the implementation of Self-directed Support (SDS).

We wanted to understand where we were in terms of culture and practice rather than performance and process. The approach has provided a richness of data that surpasses previous experiences.

It has set ambitions high, and staff have felt included, motivated, and most importantly safe to explore positive alternative futures for themselves and the communities they serve.

The work has given us the foundation to design experiments in system change, from staff autonomy to commissioning differently.

Organisation: NHs Highlands

Author: Ian Thompson

Date: Novem ber 2024 

 

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North Edinburgh Support Service (NESSie) is an approach used by a collaboration of four third sector organisations using a liberated method to support people where they are and embrace the complexity of their lives.

NESSie deals very much in the early intervention and prevention end of the acuity spectrum and often intervenes when people face continued barriers in accessing support.

The four organisations Fresh Start, Move On, Spartans Community Foundation and North Edinburgh Arts cover a diverse range of thematic areas across the community-Housing; Homelessness, Cultural; Arts, Sports, Social Enterprise, Circular Economy, Place Making, Community Health, Education, Employability.

Each of the four organisations have a Development Worker (DW) who are part of the NESSie team while still being hosted by one of the four organisations.

Each DW is liberated to do what is needed and they operate within 3 rules: Do no harm, Don’t break the law; Don’t Break the bank.

They have a budget to use as they see fit which they have to account for but not justify.

Find out more about NESSie here.

One element to working in a human way across system(s) is collaboration. This Example of Practice is the learning from the NESSie alliance of organisations and how they work in collaboration.

Authors: Biddy Kelly, Karen McNeill 

Date: November 2024 

Read the case study    Contact the author  Stakeholder needs analysis resource See the slides Watch the webinar

In 2019 Scottish Government started moving to a more locally relevant, integrated and person-centred approach to commissioning employability services, informed by the voices of those who seek support.

The Opportunities Fife Partnership had experience in successful co-production previously. They invested resource in working with people who use services as well as service providers to co-produce a large-scale series of Collaborative Conversations and survey during lockdown 2020. 

The findings led to a fundamental shift in how employability services in the area are delivered, commissioned and overseen. The journey has been started, but the learning is ongoing.

Organisation: Opportunities Fife Partnership

Author: Pegs Bailey

Date: November 2024 

 

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How learning as a management strategy for the pathology system in North Devon led to significant performance gains, influencing national priorities and the approach to pathology accreditation.

• Organisation name: North Devon Pathology Services
• Authors: Andy Brogan
• Date: May 2022

 

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The Plymouth Alliance was established as a means to work across organisational silos to achieve the city’s vision of improving population-based wellbeing and reducing inequalities in health.  It integrates commissioning, health and social care and a system of health and wellbeing. This innovation in commissioning and collaboration has played a substantial part in the development of a Human Learning Systems approach. Plymouth Alliance’s seven organisations operate together under one contract and use a set of principles to guide decision-making. The alliance values building relationships and trust and considers learning to be an integral part of its work.

• Organisation name: Plymouth Alliance
• Authors: Gary Wallace
• Date: March 2021

 

More...

VIDEO: We know New Public Management fails but what else can we do? 

Is there a better way than management by targets? Toby Lowe and Gary Wallace share the pioneering Human Learning Systems approach of Plymouth’s Health & Care system.

 

VIDEO: Whole Systems For Whole People - Achieving Outcomes In Complex Environments

Gary Wallace explores what it means to put the 'human' into a Human.Learning.Systems approach and why this is so vital to success.

 

View the slides

PRESENTATION: Whole Systems For Whole People

Gary Wallace (Plymouth Council) and John Hamblin (Shekinah) outline how they developed the Plymouth Alliance – a method of commissioning and delivery of a whole system of support for vulnerable adults, based on learning and trust, rather than targets or Key Performance Indicators.

 

View the slides

PRESENTATION: The View From Here

John Hamblin (Shekinah) gives a provider perspective on the formation and working of the Plymouth Alliance.

 

FURTHER RESOURCES

 

View the TOR

TERMS OF REFERENCE: Creative Solutions Forum - Terms Of Reference

‘The aim of the forum is to provide an additional multi-agency, multi-disciplinary response, including commissioners, which will agree bespoke packages of care, enable better risk sharing and risk management between agencies and facilitate better outcomes for people than could be achieved with a ‘usual care’ approach.’

 

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REPORT: Big Buzz Event Report - Hearing All the Voices in the System

This is the full report of the Open Space visioning event held on November 18 – 20 2015 in Plymouth’s Guildhall. The theme of the event was ‘Your Needs. Your Service. What does a great multiple needs service for Plymouth look like and how can we work together to make it happen? The 2½ day event was attended by a total of 148 people (out of 178 who registered), of whom 40 were people who use ‘multiple needs’ services (homelessness, substance misuse, ex-offending & mental ill-health) across Plymouth.

 

View the letter

EXAMPLE LETTER: Complex Needs Provider Letter

Example of a commissioner to provider letter which takes a complexity-informed/Human Learning Systems approach to commissioning. 

 

View the specification

SPECIFICATION: System For People With Complex Needs - System Specification

Example of a commissioning specification which takes a complexity-informed / Human Learning Systems approach.  

 

View the TOR

TERMS OF REFERENCE: Complex Lives System Optimisation Group - Terms Of Reference

Terms of Reference for Plymouth City Councils Systems Optimisation Group

 

View the specification

SPECIFICATION: Alliance For People With Complex Needs - Alliance Specification

Tender specification for people with complex needs in Plymouth using an Alliance approach.

 

View the slide-share

SLIDE SHARE: Transformational Change And Complex Needs

Gary Wallace, Public Health Specialist, outlines Plymouth City Councils approach to commissioning at the ‘Whole New World’ report launch event.

 

View the slides

PRESENTATION: Integrated Health and Wellbeing - The Plymouth Journey

Craig Ardle, Strategic Director at Plymouth City Council, discusses The journey  Plymouth City Council has been on with its approach to integrated commissioning.

 

View the slides

PRESENTATION: Whole Systems For Whole People

Gary Wallace, Public Health Specialist, outlines Plymouth City Councils approach to commissioning.

 

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This is a story of a local authority’s Start for Life and Family Hubs journey.

The roots of the programme lie in a consultation that the local authority City Council carried out with families and children.

The main finding of the consultation was that families needed to access support early on, before problems deepened, and that support needed to be easy to access, very local to them and focussed on relationships.

The ambition was to drive significant system change over the next decade, to deliver improved experiences and outcomes for families, that are felt at every level, from strategic to operational, delivery to community and family life.

Organisation: Plymouth City Council

Authors: Sally Kendrick, Joy MacKeith

Date: November 2024 

Read the 2021 case study    Read the 2024 case study

Plymouth Octopus Project (POP) was set up in 2014 as a project of the Zebra Collective. Aiming to connect and revitalise the relationships between charities, community groups and other socially and environmentally focussed organisations, POP operates as a network weaver and facilitator that at the same time provides and acts as a conduit for critical intelligence, knowledge and experience for our members through news, training and 1:1 support. From this source, POP has been pioneering the use of small-scale, trust-based, collaborative-by-default grant-making through these networks.

• Organisation name: Plymouth Octupus Project
• Authors: Matt Bell
• Date: March 2021

 Contact the author

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The case study uses the HLS framework to prompt analysis of current work focussing on older people and social prescribing in two areas of Leicester:

Belgrave, a ward with a substantial Gujarati Hindu population, and New Parks, a largely, socio-economically challenged white working class estate.

The analysis examines three levels of the work - the lives of older people; the work of paid and unpaid statutory and VCFSE staff; the systems surrounding the work – and the framework proves useful in suggesting a range of developments.

Organisation: Reaching People, Leicester

Author: Rob Hunter 

Date: November 2024 

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Collaboration between government departments is often challenging due to siloed strategies, different operational processes (budgets, IT, HR), and unique departmental cultures.

These barriers make working across departments complex and time-consuming. The challenge becomes even greater when addressing regional priorities. The further priorities are from the ‘centre of government’, the less potent advocacy and influence tends to be.

To address these issues, the Queensland State Government introduced the Regional Collaborative Governance Model (the Model). Initially convened by the Public Sector Commission and developed in partnership with regional leaders, this initiative aims to strengthen system coordination and advance regional priorities.

Organisation: Queensland Public Sector Commission

Author: Abbey Richards, Program Manager and Implementation Lead, Regional Reform, Public Sector Commission

Date: November 2024

Learning is at the heart of everything we do at Save the Children UK.Over the last two years, we've started to develop a more systemic approach to learning which we believe will enable us to hardess the collective power of the work we do to end child poverty in the UK. 

To help us to do this, we've piloted a learning framework which aims to make our learning practice intentional, drive continuios improvement, enable us to collaborate inclusively and build an equitable learning environment for our teams, partners and communities.

This developmental work aligns closely to a Human Learning Systems approach and has informed key desicions relating to our new strategy. In doing so, it's laid the groundwork 'learning' to play a central role in helping us to deliver our mission. 

 

Read the case study

Learning to Learn - Evaluation

Learning to Learn - Framework

Job Description - Senior Learning Facilitator

 

Contact the authors:

 

Peter Richards - Head of Evidence & Learning, SCUK  - Email | LinkedIn

Sanjana Jayakrishnan - Senior Learning Facilitator, SCUK (2024-2025) Email | LinkedIn

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An ongoing HLS based grant programme that seeks to fund local private and third sector organisations to:

 Tackle climate change/work towards net zero

 Alleviate poverty (esp amongst the young and families)

 Provide better services to the public/be more socially inclusive

 Grow the Borders economy/create more employment opportunities

The funds are given to the Local Action Group to distribute; the LAG is made up of individuals from the local public, private and third sectors (and anyone who volunteers) dedicated to improving life in the Borders.

Organisation: Scottish Borders Council

Authors: Simon Lynch

Date: November 2024 

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Sobell House is an NHS Hospice and a department in Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust that provides palliative and end of life care for adults. It implemented  system-wide improvements to its care of the dying through a three-year project funded by the Sobell Foundation. The project asked fundamental questions about the governance of care of the dying, and what was actually happening, thereby embracing the complexity of the system. Staff led the process, identifying where improvements were possible and how they could gain skills and confidence. There was evidence of a significant improvement in the care of the dying since 2016.

• Organisation name: Sobell House Hospice, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust
• Authors: Mary Miller & Sharon Yates
• Date: March 2021

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In South Tyneside we recognised the interconnectivity of the actions within a complex system and we wanted to collectively embrace being ‘all in it together’, not just as a project but as a way of being. Changing our behaviours based on learning from colleagues in Canterbury NZ, was very challenging, but we have focussed on building relationships as the cornerstone of success. We are trying to do what is ‘best for person, best for system’, rather than our individual organisations and learning to trust each other and say yes to ideas from our teams.

• Organisation name: South Tyneside Alliance
• Authors: David Hambleton
• Date: March 2021

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The Robertson Trust is an independent charitable Foundation which focuses on tackling health, social and educational inequalities prevalent in Scotland. In 2017/18, the Trust worked with Stirling Council over a period of around 15 months to explore the potential for an early intervention, systems-change approach to improving outcomes for children and families in the area. Crucially, the starting point for the conversation was not about providing funding for projects and interventions. Instead, the Trust offered a “system Stewardship” approach -  facilitation for key stakeholders in Stirling to explore a collective approach to solving complex problems facing children and families.

• Organisation name: Stirling Council and The Robertson Trust
• Authors: Annabel Davidson Knight / Bryony Monaghan
• Date: October 2019

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 Our approach is all about working with people - colleagues, volunteers, and the network our volunteers have and how we can support them to forge new partnerships within their local communities. This gives us the opportunity to listen to people’s real experiences and understand them, i.e., the practical and social barriers they experience to walking and cycling.

Adopting a Human Learning Systems approach enables us to see the world that we are working in and the impact of our actions more clearly. By acknowledging complexity and gathering learning, we can innovate more easily to improve our work.

• Organisation name: Sustrans
• Authors: Lisa Morton
• Date: June 2022

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Building learning systems in Sunderland Primary Care Networks

The Collective Impact Agency and the Centre for Public Impact supported three Primary Care Networks (PCNs) in Sunderland to develop new ‘learning systems’ – dedicated space for learning, exploration, and reflection.

PCNs are relatively new system units, established shortly before the Covid pandemic. They have had little capacity, opportunity, or guidance to figure out how these networks of GP practices work together.

Through a facilitated process over nine months, the PCNs were able to surface what mattered to them, to design experiments to run collectively, and see what they learnt in the process.

Organisations: Collective Impact Acency, Centre for Public Impact

Authors: Andy Crosbie, Harriet Hunter 

Date: November 2024 

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Surrey Youth Focus is an independent charity that works with youth organisations and the public sector to improve the lives of children, young people and families. As representatives of the youth third sector in Surrey, we bring key people together to tackle issues collaboratively with the aim of creating a system where every child has the opportunity to flourish and reach their potential. Our approach had been different for a while, but the Human Learning System’s ‘System Steward’ model has validated our way of working and has given us the confidence to launch new initiatives and advocate change at a higher level.

• Organisation name: Surrey Youth Focus
• Authors: Cate Newnes-Smith
• Date: March 2021

 

Read the 2024 case study 

Surrey Youth Focus has been exploring how we re-imagine the jungle that children and families often face. How can we create the conditions for collaboration between agencies in order to serve our children and families better?

Rather than traditional top down approaches, we often use a bottom up approach – convening passionate individuals from multiple agencies, including the third sector, to come on a learning journey with us. We go through a process of discovery to find out about the people, services, boards, projects and principles that exist for a particular locality or serving a particular cohort and agree a collective mission or series of missions.

Date: November 2024

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Disrupting Exploitation is a National Programme funded by the National Lottery Community Fund (2018-2021), with a systemic goal to ‘disrupt’ child criminal exploitation across three geographic regions. The emphasis on ‘disruption’ reflected our organisational strategy at the time, which was to “break cycles of disadvantage.” The programme has an emphasis on systemic working, co-design and experimentation, a significant shift from The Children’s Society’s more typical 1-2-1 service delivery for young people conducted alongside separate policy and campaigning teams.

The HLS model hadn’t been articulated at the time we developed the programme. It was designed with reference to similar underlying insights regarding relational work in complex systems.

• Organisation name: The Children's Society
• Authors: Adam Groves
• Date: March 2021

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The Tudor Trust is an independent grant making trust which supports voluntary and community groups across the UK. Tudor aims to put relationships at the heart of applications and grant management, gives core and flexible funding, and provides additional support when needed. This case study looks at how Tudor has explored what it really means to work in a Human Learning Systems way, both within the Trust and in support of organisations working in complex environments. 

• Organisation name: The Tudor Trust
• Author: Richard Jenkins
• Date: May 2021

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Complex Housing Improvement Project (CHIP)

Thurrock has a cohort of people with a dual diagnosis of mental health and addiction who are homeless or are facing eviction due to anti-social behaviour.

This group has not achieved improved outcomes or stability despite a high usage of statutory services. It was clearly evidenced that this cohort of people required a different and integrated approach.

A Multi-Disciplinary Team, comprising of specialist roles working together in close partnership, was established to develop a new way of working with this cohort of people – an approach designed for complexity. The approach would create an environment with zero hand-offs and tailored solutions and working approaches.

 

Author: Dawn Shepherd

Date: November 2024 

 

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Thurrock Integrated Care Strategy

Better Care Together Thurrock: The Case for Further Change.

Thurrock health and care system partners have developed a whole systems approach to integrated care based on HLS principles.

The strategy defines a single model of integrated care as well as an ambitious transformation plan for each key element of the system: Community engagement and empowerment Primary Care Population Health Management Integrated Community Care Support in the home Residential and supported accommodation Commissioning.

The strategy describes a new operating model, based around the person and the area in which they live. This is driven by HLS principles and values. The Strategy is based on a number of years of transformative and strength-based activity.

Author: Ceri Armstrong

Date: November 2024 

 

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The Victorian Department of Education led a very successful and highly popular program of culture change across its 1600 highly devolved schools from 2003-2009. A very consultative process with participants across the school system developed a set of elements for the culture change, and then all schools were asked to become “accredited” for having achieved the culture change by 2008. Each school was then left to determine how to achieve each of those elements in a way that was relevant to their context. That unleashed a wave of innovation that wouldn’t have been inconceivable in a top-down driven process.

• Organisation name: Victorian Department of Education, Australia
• Lead: Stephen Fraser
• Date: April 2006

 

More...

Take a deep dive into further resources relating to this successful program of culture change:

• Driving Culture Change: Think Globally, Innovate Locally

• Performance and Development Culture: Revised Self Assessment Framework

• The Lakes South Morang P – 9 School: Application for Performance and Development Culture Accreditation

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This case study looks at the change in Vinařice Prison in the Czech Republic during the COVID-19 pandemic. The prison employed a human approach to dealing with inmates, which was supported by its partners, namely a firm offering call centre employment and a small charity which supported offenders and ex-offenders with social work services. During the pandemic, the team at the prison turned one of the call centre rooms into a sewing room, where inmates made masks for groups in need such as the police and the elderly. The inmates also acted as call centre operators for a specialised COVID-19 pandemic helpline providing information about the pandemic, which was a formative experience for them.

• Organisation name: Vinarice Prison
• Authors: Vladimír Kváča
• Date: March 2021

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How healthy are our palliative care and end of life systems? What are the Vital Signs?

This case study shows how the South West End of Life Network has worked to find a way - as simple as possible - to get a rapid sense for how well it’s going and to enable improvements:

• At the level of the individual and their family
• At a local levelAcross a whole integrated care system
• As a region.

An example of generative governance in practice, including commissioners, clinicians, managers alongside people with lived experience.

REPORT: Vital Signs Narrative 2024

Organisation: South West End of Life Network, NHS England

Author: Saskie Dorman

Date: November 2024 

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Wallsend Children’s Community (WCC) was established in 2016 with the aim of improving outcomes for children and make life better for families and young people in Wallsend. Everyone in the area, working or living. is part of the Children’s Community and collectively we hold a shared vision for a better future. A core team of three facilitate the work along with two community researchers. Together we work with our communities to understand our area, our assets and our strengths. This knowledge is used to bring together and empower every person who makes up the system: pupil or head-teacher, parent or counsellor, youth worker or police officer, parent or young person, to find new ways to work more collaboratively to change the system where it is not supporting children and young people to succeed. This case study was written in December 2020. As of April 2021, WCC continues to be hosted by Save the Children UK.

• Organisation name: Wallsend Children’s Community
• Authors: Paula McCormack
• Date: December 2020

 

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PRESENTATION: Wallsend Children's Community

Paula McCormack (Wallsend Children’s Community) reflects on their role as System Stewards.

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An innovative maternal mental health prototype programme managed by Ways to Wellness in four areas of North East and North Cumbria taking a test and learn approach to social prescribing link work delivery based in the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector.

Organisation: Ways to Wellness 

Authors: Ang Broadbridge, Prof. Chris Drinkwater, Sandra Guise, Rachel McDonald  

Date: November 2024 

 

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Improving outcomes for children and young people at risk of or living with conduct disorders. A Human Learning System.

Conduct disorders are one of the most common mental health disorders in children and young people and were the focus for Halton’s Complete Care Community Programme.

This national programme utilises local Primary Care Networks to tackle key health inequality challenges working with partners. We adopted a Human Learning System approach as part of this inquiry which has enabled stakeholders to embrace the complexity inherent in this public health challenge, and to work effectively with that complexity to explore ways forward. 

This inquiry has informed a series of recommendations for policy makers to improve outcomes for those at risk of or living with conduct disorders.

Organisation: Wellbeing Enterprises

Author: Mark Swift

Date: November 2024

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Wellbeing Teams are a start-up designed to demonstrate how small, neighbourhood self-managed teams can work in health and care. In Phase One, the teams worked within home care. Wellbeing Teams was the first self-managing health and care organisation to be regulated by CQC and awarded the highest rating of ‘outstanding’. The 5 key features of Wellbeing Teams are: 

1. Relationship-based care and support
2. Focus on what matters to the person and their wellbeing
3. Community focus
4. Recruiting people for values and bringing their whole selves to work
5. Self-management

In Phase Two, we are supporting providers and councils to introduce the model, principles and practices of Wellbeing Teams into other areas of health and care; for example, working with Camden Council to introduce Wellbeing Teams into Extra Care.

• Organisation name: Wellbeing Teams
• Authors: Helen Sanderson
• Date: March 2021

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Young People Cornwall supports youth across the county through various programmes, prioritising youth autonomy and engagement.

Recently, they adopted the Human Learning Systems (HLS) approach, integrating it into a multi-agency project in five colleges to provide personalised mental health support. This flexible method aligns with their long-standing youth work principles, emphasising individual needs and participatory tools like Mind Stars. They foster continuous learning through feedback and adaptive strategies.

Despite initial challenges, the HLS approach has enhanced responsiveness, collaboration, and resourcefulness within their team, with plans to extend it organisation-wide.

Organisation: Young People Cornwall 

Author: Charmain Taylor 

Date: November 2024