presentation to keep britain tidy annual conference, march 2011
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BEHAVIOUR CHANGE, BIG SOCIETY & SMARTER SERVICES
Sutton’s approach to transformation
Keep Britain Tidy
March 2011Daniel Ratchford - Strategic Director, Environment & Leisure
ENABLING ‘SMARTER CHOICES’ – SUTTON’S APPROACH TO
BEHAVIOUR CHANGE
Smarter choices: policy context
• Local government has always had two distinct – yet overlapping – roles: (1) delivering services, and (2) shaping people’s choices
• Recent decades have focused on (1); so much so, that many recent commentaries on ‘behaviour change’ mistakenly treat (2) as something entirely new
• But in fact, government has always focused on behaviour change
• The recent debate about behaviour change is fundamentally about a ‘tilting’ of government approaches:
– towards freedom, personalisation, and the right to choose
– and away from top-down direction, uniformity, and coercion
• And there are some interesting policy choices to make in all of this
Smarter choices: Sutton’s approach
• Sutton is widely recognised as a leader in the field of behaviour change
• Our award-winning “smarter choices” programmes have provoked interest from around the world – especially Smarter Travel Sutton
• But these are simply a refined and well-delivered example of a range of approaches that we have been using for a long time
• We have learned some interesting lessons along the way
• In particular, we think that behaviour change should focus on “more of the carrot, and less of the stick…”
• Our approach is about working with our residents to enable them to make smarter choices about how they live their lives
Smarter Travel Sutton
• Our most successful smarter choices initiative - a three-year, £5m behaviour change programme delivered in partnership with TfL
• Working with residents to enable them to make better choices about their travel
• Encouraging them to walk, cycle and use public transport more (and their cars less)
• The benefits are: less congestion lower carbon emissions cheaper transport better health
Smarter Travel Sutton
• There are already positive outcomes: a 6% reduction in car use a 75% increase in cycling a 16% increase in bus use 100% of schools covered by a school travel plan 16,000 employees covered by a workforce travel plan
• Smarter Travel Sutton is the best-recognised brand in the borough, and has already won a host of industry awards
• We are learning lessons from Smarter Travel Sutton to apply in our other smarter choices programmes
Smarter Streets: keeping Sutton tidy
• Our newest behaviour campaign is around littering and street cleaning
• For some time we’ve been encouraging people to be part of the team that keeps Sutton clean
• Ideally, we’d like residents and business to:
– drop less litter
– tell us about it when they see it
– sometimes pick some up
• We’re now running some experiments around the borough in different approaches to community involvement in doing this…
• …with lots of help, and lots of interest in the results
Smarter Streets: keeping Sutton tidy
Smarter Streets: keeping Sutton tidy
• Our initial survey results of residents in our trial areas are fascinating, and encouraging:
– 60% are satisfied with the street cleaning service
– The most common forms of litter are sweet wrappers, cans, bottles and fast food packaging
– A quarter would be willing to report litterers
– A third would be happy to take part in an occasional litter pick
– Two thirds would be willing to pick up a piece of litter a day
– The majority think that whoever drops litter should be responsible for picking it up…
– …closely followed by the council
Smarter choices: Sutton’s approach
‘TAKE PART, TAKE PRIDE’ – BUILDING THE BIGGER SOCIETY
IN SUTTON
Take part, take pride: context
• Sutton has an active voluntary and community sector, and a wealth of clubs, societies and associations
• “Helping people to help themselves” has been part of Sutton’s philosophy for decades
• “Take Part, Take Pride” has become part of our branding, and is celebrated as a major festival in Sutton every year
• So the emerging themes of the Big Society are not new to us, and are evident in many areas of our work
• For these reasons, Sutton agreed to become a vanguard area for the Big Society
Take part, take pride: themes
• None of our work on Big Society is about starting from scratch, or about delivering new sets of services
• Rather, it’s about looking at what we do, and how we do it, through a new lens
• There are six common themes underlying our work on Big Society:
1. behaviour change
2. devolving decision-making
3. closer collaboration with voluntary and private sectors
4. cutting red tape
5. new models of service delivery
6. openness and transparency
Take part, take pride: Mr P
“I was excited to read that Sutton has been chosen by the coalition government to be one of several places where the Big Society project begins. To this end I would like to volunteer my services to improve my community and to save the council money that could be better spent elsewhere.
I am a keen gardener and I have always felt that our environment has a direct bearing on the way we feel and the way we act… I would like to “adopt” the gardens in front of Wallington Library, the grounds around Orchard Hill College and the raised beds on the Shotfield car park site… All I ask in return is that the council workers do not come along and wreck what has been planted out of ignorance.
I would be interested to hear what you think about my proposal. The Big Society idea excites me because now is our chance to make a meaningful contribution to this town and to change it into the place we would wish it to be. I think people long for bold ideas instead of mediocrity and want their local authorities to be braver about delivering them.”
Smarter Streets: keeping Sutton tidy
Smarter choices: Sutton’s approach
Take part, take pride
Take part, take pride
SMARTER SERVICES SUTTON – A PRINCIPLED APPROACH TO
BUDGET REDUCTION
Smarter Services Sutton: context
• Sutton needs to reduce its net expenditure by about 25% over the next few years
• Smarter Services Sutton is the transformation programme we’ve put in place to tackle this, and we started it 18 months ago
• Our aspiration is to do three things simultaneously:
– to transform services
– to cut costs
– to maintain resident satisfaction
• We’re doing this through a series of service-based reviews, that will cover the whole council over a three-year period
• So far, our reviews are exceeding their financial savings targets
Smarter Services Sutton principles
• There are six principles that form the structure to each of our Smarter Services Sutton reviews:
– personalisation, choice and behaviour change
– meeting customer needs
– partnerships
– affordable management overhead
– risk management
– leadership behaviours
• We are about a quarter of the way through our reviews, and are ahead of target on savings
Conclusions and advice
• Be true to local principles and local political priorities
• Build strong foundations of community engagement, community empowerment and devolution
• Be honest and frank in communication with residents
• Look outside the normal constraints of service delivery; and examine what you do through new lenses where possible
www.twitter.com/danielratchford #behaviourchange
www.sutton.gov.uk