On Friday we had a Lab session looking at our next extra care scheme.
Jargon Buster - Extra Care: Housing with care. Normally self-contained flats with some communal facilities such as a restaurant, hair salon etc. Will have an onsite
care agency thereby enabling 24 hour care support without moving to
a residential care home
Things have progressed since we last updated you - and we've moved on to the exciting stage - design.
In the Lab - we love looking at the design of services. So few public sector organisations even look at design let alone try to be radical about it. Often the solution to a problem is to throw resources at it - usually a person. However , that often doesn't solve anything , indeed it can make things worse.
Older persons services are a case in point.
Do a Google image search for older persons services or care. Very likely you'll see lots of people sitting in a chair whilst a lady in a blue uniform puts their arm around them. And they'll be smiling gratefully. Always smiling.
Like this.
Very few people would choose this type of service - but alternatives are few and far between. Technology is under explored and there is scant evidence of design thinking.
To get people thinking about design we initially looked at organisations that do it well - Apple , Amazon , John Lewis - to look at how they obsess over the finer details of customer experience.
Then we split the group into teams to look at older persons services from three perspectives:
- A potential user (Helen Mirren)
- Some potential children of users (Steph and Dom from Gogglebox)
- A Bromford colleague working at the scheme
Breaking the service down this way enables us to start building a number of "user stories" - the first stage of constructing something fresh.
We'll post a link to the draft stories as soon as we've polished them - and you'll be able to follow the birth of a new service as our ideas become reality.
We know that the older persons services available aren't fit for purpose for Helen , Steph , Dom, you or me.
Time for some disruptive thinking and application!