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Public policies aim to enhance citizen welfare through evidence-based approaches, including design thinking, which can optimize service commissioning by leveraging local knowledge and collaboration, thereby improving social and economic outcomes.
Effective public policies and programs, when well-designed and implemented, can significantly enhance economic and social outcomes, functioning as investments where benefits surpass costs over time. Current initiatives emphasize evidence utilization, experimentation, and program monitoring to ensure desired effects. Recognizing the vital link between design thinking and efficient public service commissioning, we advocate for its utilization to bridge gaps between government intentions and citizen experiences, fostering empathy, contextual understanding, and local knowledge application for improved service delivery and increased public value.
Policy design often occurs distantly from where implementation happens, leading to a disconnect between policymakers and service providers. This gap results in varied outcomes across regions, influenced by local contexts and institutional pressures. Despite efforts to analyze and improve policy effectiveness, the challenge remains in designing policies that efficiently address widespread issues.
The roots of modern commissioning practices can be traced to 1980s and 1990s United Kingdom, aiming to improve coordination between health and social care authorities. Commissioning emerged as a crucial tool in New Public Management, focusing on frontline delivery challenges rather than policy or budgetary aspects. It often involves engagement with third parties for defined tasks, aligning authority with accountability to inform resource allocation decisions based on delivery evidence. Governments face challenges in integrating fragmented services, managing performance effectively, and engaging with external suppliers strategically. Terms like procurement, purchasing, and contracting are associated with commissioning, but they represent different aspects of the process, from needs assessment to outcome evaluation. Lessons from the UK experience emphasize the importance of committed collaboration, appropriate financial incentives, understanding population needs, and possessing necessary technical and managerial skills for successful commissioning.
In the realm of public policy, design has long been recognized as integral to policy development and implementation. Design thinking, commonly applied in industrial settings, aims to align product development with consumer expectations. However, in public policy, there often exists a gap between policy design, service delivery, and citizen needs, requiring deep contextual understanding for effective policy creation. Design thinking shows promise in bridging this gap by emphasizing evidence-based decision-making, although critics caution against its limitations. Public service commissioning shifts the government’s role to that of an overseer, emphasizing collaboration among stakeholders. A key aspect of design thinking is empathy, allowing policymakers to understand diverse perspectives and improve service delivery. Techniques such as environment scanning and participant observation aid in gathering evidence and understanding local contexts, essential for informed policymaking. Sensemaking, another technique, assists in aligning policy goals with client needs through iterative learning and collaboration.
The effectiveness of public policies relies heavily on their implementation at the local level, where they translate into high-quality programs. A case study involving Doug Lemov illustrates this principle within the charter school movement in the United States. Charter schools, though publicly funded, operate with autonomy, fostering innovation and competition. Lemov’s work with Uncommon Schools exemplifies this innovation, focusing on improving teaching practices in low-income communities.
Lemov’s approach involved analyzing data to identify successful schools despite high poverty rates, then studying their teaching methods. This led to the development of concrete teaching techniques, documented in his book “Teach Like a Champion.” These techniques, widely disseminated, have influenced teaching practices nationwide and globally.
Evidence indicates that Lemov’s methods, applied in charter schools, lead to significant improvements in student outcomes. For instance, students in New York City charter schools showed substantial gains in reading and math compared to peers in traditional schools.
While Lemov’s success demonstrates the potential of charter schools to enhance education, not all charters perform as well. Greater emphasis on design thinking and community engagement in policy implementation could lead to better outcomes. Commissioners should adopt a growth mindset and actively engage in designing services to maximize public value.
Lemov’s case underscores the importance of local implementation in policy success. By fostering innovation and engagement, charter schools can significantly improve educational outcomes, but careful design and oversight are crucial for success.
Governments globally face the challenge of delivering enhanced services to citizens while minimizing taxes. Prioritizing experiments in governance and service provision commissioning is crucial, with a focus on evidence-based investigations into sustainable social and economic outcomes. Encouraging increased engagement between traditional policymakers and local service managers, facilitated by commissioning arrangements and design thinking, can optimize policy innovation and resource utilization for better societal outcomes.
Source:
Michael Mintrom & Madeline Thomas (2018) Improving commissioning through design thinking, Policy Design and Practice, 1:4, 310-322, DOI: 10.1080/25741292.2018.1551756