Scottish Approach to Service Design
The vision for the Scottish Approach to Service Design is that the people of Scotland are supported and empowered to actively participate in the definition, design and delivery of their public services (from policy making to live service improvement).
Why an update?
The original Scottish Approach to Service Design was designed to support organisations to use design to engage people and communities in their work and to create the conditions for that to flourish across the sector. Since then, design has increasingly become part of the ‘toolkit’ in organisations that design and deliver public services across local and national government, public, and third sectors.
Also in that time, strengthening opportunities for the people of Scotland to take part in the design of public services and policies has become a key priority for Scottish Government.
The Participation Handbook, the result of a commitment in our Open Government Action Plan, clearly sets out our desire to embed high-quality and meaningful participation in the delivery of public services, building on the well-established National Standards for Community Engagement.
We have also learned a great deal over the last few years from working with people who have been driving forward the Scottish Approach to Service Design in all different kinds of challenging and important work, whether that’s the initial stages of policy development, where people are involved in defining future services, or making sure people and communities have meaningful opportunities to influence how services are delivered, based on a deep knowledge of the needs of those communities.
This update draws out more clearly the link between design and participation and the importance of ‘co-design’ (the collaborative design of policies and services). It also provides an updated Maturity Assessment Matrix for organisations that reflects the strengthened focus on participation and allows for ongoing review and improvement. This also complements the Scottish Approach to Change, which provides a range of methods to support sustainable change.
Thank you to everyone who has been part of the development of the Scottish Approach to Service Design so far. We hope you find the latest update reflects your own ambitions and hopes for the future of co-design in local and national government and the public sector.
This is a journey, but look how far we’ve come together already.
Cat Macaulay,
Chief Design Officer, Scottish Government
Martyn Wallace,
Chief Digital Officer, Local Government Digital Office
Contact
Email: design@gov.scot