Citizens Advice Innovation Community: Improving access to remote advice at scale
A rapid response funded programme to address barriers in accessing remote advice
In July 2020, as the scale of the pandemic evolved into a longer term crisis, the closure of face to face services created new barriers for some clients and reinforced existing ones.
We set out to solve these urgent, new problems by experimenting fast, at scale and collectively.
My role was to build the community, support participants in their experiments and identify opportunities for scaling. I coached participants in user centred design and innovation skills and facilitated peer-to-peer learning. I produced clear, inclusive communication. I evaluated the impact of the programme for funders and the organisation.
This culminated in our first unconference, which created a dynamic space for knowledge sharing between national and local organisations.
Experiments addressed barriers such as digital exclusion, language barriers and being reliant on signposting from other in-person services:
Using video call as a channel to contact Citizens Advice
Access points in the community and new forms of outreach
Making it easier to contact a local Citizens Advice
Making it easier to share documents with advisers
Experimenting with community based marketing and communication
Supporting peer to peer learning in an emerging community of practice
I hosted over 20 learning events during the programme. From guest speakers, to drop in calls and peer to peer show and tells, events were designed to create spaces for sharing shared problems and finding ways forward together. Our first online unconference helped find opportunities for scaling and transformed the relationships between national and local colleagues.
Developing a culture of innovation based on peer to peer relationships was key to embedding learning and scaling new ideas. Creating a space without judgement, helped people share what hadn’t worked and what they learned as a result.
“[the community gave us] new ways of thinking about “innovation” and not being afraid to try things out. Not being too “output” focused has been helpful in generating ideas and challenging mindsets.”
Shifting the system with a new funding and governance model
Like for all federated organisations, there are many competing dynamics to work with.
We awarded funding based on a commitment to a user-centred, test and learn approach. This was a radical departure from previous funding models. These funded the delivery of pre-determined requirements with little to no flexibility.
We also shifted power through our governance panel with equal participation from national and local Citizens Advice. Building trust in the group helped us co-create pathways for scaling and understand risks in doing so.
Preparing the organisation for this change was challenging but ultimately a successful, experience. It led to different dynamics and outcomes to those we had previously seen, focused on relationships and creating the environment to test and scale new ideas.
Evaluating the impact of collective learning at scale
Participants completed monthly reports to reflect on learning and how they were improving access to remote services. This evolved over time to an open-sourced reporting tool to help all participants access insights for their own experiments.
At the end of the programme we looked at the impact of being part of the innovation community. We found the shift away from centralised output based funding, supported participants to make changes to their services to better meet the needs of users. This prototype way of working showed how the organisation could move towards decentralised mission-based innovation programmes.
88% of participants implemented improvements to their services following experiments and 72% of participants planned to remain part of the innovation community long term.