Little Voice: how to capture the beauty of the voluntary sector in policy development
Little Voice: how to capture the beauty of the voluntary sector in policy development
Do you know what innovation is?
OK you can probably picture it in your mind, but how do you take innovation and build it into a system so it makes a real contribution to the quality of a public service? That’s one part of a root-and-branch review of mental health services for young people in Norfolk and north east Suffolk that's being undertaken right now. When the chance came to contribute I stuck my hand in the air straight away: innovation has to mean being agile enough to do things differently and surely that leading edge is exactly where small charities work best?
Small voluntary sector organisations are light on structure. Sometimes the only embedded interest to be defended is the passion of a founding entrepreneur. As a sector we are free to pick up and run with ideas and, often working with a small group of beneficiaries, we can see the impact of our work with our own eyes. But being small usually means we struggle to make our voice heard. Our experience is often learned rather than formal so we might not speak the right language. We lack marketing and comms departments that would allow us to build the right connections. The fierce urgency of paying the mortgage stops any thoughts of scaling up our work to impress the world. There are real challenges to getting a seat at the table, but with a bit of effort on both sides everyone can benefit.
I'm writing this blog post in connection with Policy Day for Small Charities' Week. Focusing on such a specific system design question: how to capture, test and scale innovation; might seem an odd choice of topic. But that's kinda the point. Getting it right will have an enduring impact on thousands of people. There are around a quarter of a million children and young people living in Norfolk and Waveney, facing all the challenges that come with building fulfilling lives in this largely rural corner of England. And the agility and entrepreneurship of small voluntary organisations can have a big impact. With only limited time and resources to offer, it made sense to get stuck into a topic where the experience of my organisation could make a real difference.
I knew I had to think carefully about the questions I was going to pursue. Everything Musical Keys does is, broadly speaking, about improving wellbeing. But we don't currently engage in a formal way through mental health commissioned services and I thought it would be interesting to ask 'the system' why that's the case. After all, there are around 3,000 charities in Norfolk and a similar number of smaller groups and practitioners all working to improve their communities. That's a huge fund of knowledge, experience and enthusiasm that is already making a contribution to practice and innovation: it seemed worthwhile to ask the question, could it be better harnessed and applied? That starting point led to a number of specific questions about how commissioners might encourage small scale innovation that exists on the edge of current practice. And how the system could move good ideas into wider practice.
Successful engagement with a policy process is not just about picking the right battlefield and focusing on the right questions: deciding to influence what you can influence. If you are small and they are big, they need to lean in. I've been genuinely impressed by the way RETHINK Partners has made an effort to understand the role of the voluntary sector in improving mental health services. And how they have designed the idea-development process in a way that captures the voice of the sector. It makes demands on big organisations like the NHS or a Local Authority because we don't fit the structure. We appear messy and disorganised and get grumpy when we are asked to do things that don't match our plans. But making the effort to listen and engage in a meaningful way should be rewarding for both sides.
Now that's innovation!
Ed Maxfield is Chief Executive of Musical Keys
The images are of a bespoke instrument developed by Musical Keys to make music with bicycle parts; innovation in practice!
