Portrait of the Artist as a Young Person...

I came home late last night from a piece of work in Birmingham to find this wonderful picture created by my 2 and a bit year old daughter Grace on the wall.

It simply captures the creativity and vision of young children - it is powerful, colourful, bold and confident. I am thinking of using it as the logo for my consultancy business! And it was just what I needed after a long and tiring journey across London.

It has also been a strong reminder of how important our visual senses are and what young children can do to teach us adults to stop and look once in a while.

And by the way, Grace tells me it is not a portrait of me...

Trainer Development - Some Thoughts and Reflections

I thought I would post the presentation I gave at the wonderful National Children's Bureau PEAL Trainer Development Days last week. It was part of a workshop exploring issues of trainer development, accreditation and the new City & Guilds qualification called PTLLS (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector).

Trainer Development Some Thoughts And Reflections

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

For me as a trainer who generally operates as a one man band (or at most with one other co-trainer) it was great to get together with so many experienced trainers for a couple of days. Events like these really prompt self-reflection and it is always good to reconnect with people and have fun in the process.

PEAL (Parents, Early Years and Learning) can be found at www.peal.org.uk

Participation and SMS Text Messaging

I have been collecting links and websites with information and tools about using SMS text messaging as a form of participation.

Here are some sites I have come across.


http://www.polleverywhere.com/

http://www.smspoll.net/

http://algoritmer.dk/widget/

http://moblog.net/home/

http://twitter.com/

http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/systemsandservices/nhsmail/about/studies/mackenzie

http://sms.bigfoot.com/business/business_download.jsp

http://www.tucows.com/preview/233692

http://www.softsea.com/review/e-txt-SMS-Message-Manager.html

http://www.mdr-computers.com.au/Software/SMSManager.htm

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39242047,00.htm

http://www.publictechnology.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=9948

http://www.ehiprimarycare.com/news/3468/nhs_direct_launches_sms_service

Blogging the Dream - Mental Health Activism in Romania

My friends in northern Romania are part of an great new project using blogging as a way to give a voice to mental health service users and those who are often not heard.

The wider project is called Blogging the Dream. It already includes some interesting articles and some photos of real people making changes in their community.

Next year I will be returning to Romania to link up with Orizonturi and other organisations to run some workshops at a conference on activism, communication and grassroots policy development.

Happy Birthday National Health Service - 60 Years Old Today

The British National Health Service (NHS) is 60 years old today.

As a major party of the welfare state established after the Second World War it has been a great achievement to continue to give unrestricted access to healthcare, free at the point of access, to everyone.

I still think the principle of public service is relevant to the 21st century. It inspires people to give their careers to an institution that is different and part of the wider public sphere. In an increasingly commoditised era, it is essential to retain these values and also our connections to our past.

I am very proud to be a small part of the NHS as a non-executive director of Bexley Care Trust.

It is when I work abroad that I most become aware of how unique the NHS is. Having just returned from Switzerland where you have to pay for your own private health insurance it helps me remember that this is the norm in most parts of the world.

How did I celebrate the birthday? Well we had some young people spend the day with us to explore the local history of the NHS in south east London. And then we worked with them to look at ways young people and other service users can participate in modern day health commissioning. They will be coming back to us for three days in later July to design a young person's council and do some real commissioning. Exciting stuff.

Here is the link to the story on the BBC website

Participation and Citizenship - Contributions from Political Economy

Whilst reading around issues of the media and political economy I came across this very interesting definition of citizenship from the works of Murdock (1999 and 2005 - no, not the Australia chap) on the political economy of communication.

He defines citizenship as "...the right to participate fully in social life and to help shape the forms it might it take in the future..."

To make this a reality Murdock (quoted in Murdock and Golding, 2005, pp.65-66) argues that people need access to a range of communicative resources that support participation including:

1. Access to information, advice, and analysis that enables them to know their rights and to pursue them effectively

2. Access to the broadest possible range of interpretation and debate on areas that involve political choices

3. The right to have one's experiences, beliefs and aspirations represented without distortion or stereotyping

4. The right to participate in public culture by speaking in one's own voice - registering dissent and proposing alternatives

I think this is a really useful model that could be adapted to many different dimensions of communication and participation. It resonates with my own feelings about the value of peoples life stories and experiences and the expertise they have in living their own lives in their local communities.

How well does our local community measure up to these four points? What do we need to do to get closer to these standards?

Communication is a vital part of making participation real - I think the focus on difference and the possibilities of appreciating and valuing dissent and alternative viewpoints is really powerful.

It is also a real challenge to the limited range of views that are usually portrayed in the media and in organisational communication.

How do we make communication a part of the participatory process and not a tool of limited interests or groups?

I think that face-to-face (or situated) communication still retains a lot of power and is something we need to do more of. It is when people are able to engage directly, build rapport and trust, and work together to understand and appreciate each other that participation becomes something active and life changing.

So how do we build more face-to-face communication in this increasing fragmented society? And what is the role of social networking including its limits?

Reference: Murdock, G. & Golding, P. (2005) Culture, Communications and Political Economy in Curran, J. and Gurevitch, M. (2005) Mass Media and Society. Hodder Arnold: London

Visiting Google in Zurich

I went to Google Zurich today to have a look around their offices and have some lunch. It is a very impressive set up with a dynamic feel to the organisation and some interesting features.

Everyone says hello to everyone else whenever they walk past each other in corridors or in offices - it is complusory and part of the culture. It feels friendly and welcoming.

There are lots of creative spaces for meetings (small and large) as well as places to relax, get away from your desk and think and reflect. Some of these spaces are very interesting - converted ski lifts, pods and converted ice stations from the north pole.

The organisation is young and also has a young feel - most of the employees seem to be under 30 years old.

There is also a commitment to employees using some of their time (up to 20%) to pursue their own innovative projects that can complement their core work. This is an interesting way of promoting innovation and new thinking.

There is also a real sense of vision and mission about the place - they want to be a great company, to be a great place to work and to do something good in the world.

Now I don't think any organisation is perfect. Organisations are social entities with a range of dynamics and peculiarities that sometimes only reveal themselves over the longer term. But I do wonder how the Google experience might be adapted to the voluntary sector and to social and health development. And of course they do give a lot of their products away for free at the moment.

I think there is a lot we can learn from different ways of doing things. We don't need to take the whole package but we can 'borrow' and experiment with different ways of doing things - and make work fun and vibrant at the same time.

Have a look at the Google offices - click here for a video tour

What Does Your World Look Like?

How does your world look? How do you capture what you are about?

Well there are many ways to answer those questions - and it could take a while and we could get fairly philosophical too.

A shorter answer is to think about a visual representation of your world. And the new free website wordle does just that.

You can feed in any text and it will create a visual representation. You could paste your diary entry, a short story or anything infact.

Here I have pasted in the text from my own website front page. Wordle produces an interesting representation. It also emphasises the important words. What does your world look like?

The Power of Local Networks

Local people have the most powerful networks. They have the local knowledge and the local relationships to build alliances and make things happen on the ground. But often they do not recognise how much these networks are worth.

In a local community there is often only 2-degrees of separation between everyone. It is possible for the service user to know the local politician or the local business owner either directly or through one other contact.

How can local people use their networks to take control of their lives and promote their voices?

Public action is most effective when local people organise together. And when they use the diverse talents and skills that exist within their networks. The example of Menqual which I blogged about recently shows what people in Middlesbrough have been able to do together.

I get frustrated when I see powerful outside organisations harvest or benefit from these local networks without giving anything back. They rely on the introductions and the trust established within local networks to be able to meet and research with local people. Their products are then sold or promoted for their own benefit but would have been impossible to produce without the openness and willingness of people to engage.

How can local people own their networks? How can we ensure that powerful outside agencies respect and value these networks?

I have found that bringing local people together to map and share their local networks together is a powerful way to capture the breadth of their connections. Mapping is a very visible tool and can represent a network in a direct way.

Below is a presentation I gave about using mapping to capture and promote local networks. It comes from part of a wider public action programme I was part of.

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Menqual - My Admiration for the Mental Health Service Users of Middlesbrough

I had the pleasure of returning to Middlesbrough in early May to see the mental health service user led forum called Menqual.

The group have been running for over 2 years now and are making sure that the service user voice is heard within the wider policy context. One great thing they have achieved is a service users charter for employment. It tells the story of what service users need and want from employers and shows that people with mental health problems can be great employees.

The charter took a lot of work and preparation. There were many different perspectives and lots of debate about the best way to produce it. But they had the support of some powerful stakeholders including the mayor. Now published, the charter is being promoted and shared with employers, employment agencies and local people.

Menqual say that work is one of the most important things for service users. It helps lift people out of poverty and supports recovery. It is also important for identity and self-esteem.

Reflecting on the journey of Menqual is interesting for me. I worked with local people to start the group back in 2006 with a series of workshops and open events. Since then the group has had active and quieter periods. But despite this it has continued to operate and make a difference. I have learned a lot of valuable lessons from the group and it has given me a chance to be involved in some very direct, local public action.

Participatory forums often have their own rhythms and life cycles. Reflection can be balanced with public action, as can activities such as campaigning with periods of learning.

I always enjoy visiting Menqual in Middlesbrough. They are a great example of what local people can do with few financial resources. The journey for social change is not a sprint - and Menqual are in it for the long term.

Definition of a Blogger

I just have to share this wonderful definition of a blogger. I found it in a book I was glancing through the other day with the rather pompous title of ‘Be Your Own Spin Doctor’. And to be honest it is not a very good book and not one I would recommend - it is quite simplistic and ironically I did not find it that well written.

Anyway, at the end of the book there is as usual a glossary. Some of it is quite helpful with definitions of terms used by journalists and PR professionals. But hidden in this list there is one reference (and only one reference) to new media - a definition of the word ‘blog’. I will reproduce the definition from the book in full because it made me laugh out loud:

Blog: a ‘weblog’. An online diary or running commentary, often written by cranks, egotists or obsessives, with some notable exceptions. (Page 175, Richards 2005)

Wow - my first reaction was I wonder which of these am I? I am sure I would not come under the list of notable exceptions. My second reaction was how dated this definition is and how far we have moved in how we understand the internet and social media. The book was originally published in 1998 but the text I was reading from was an updated 2005 edition.

I don’t want to leave you without a positive alternative to this. So I will recommend Chris Rose’s How to Win Campaigns as a good book on communications. On the internet, the blogs CopyBlogger and ProBlogger are good places to get up-to-date advice and inspiration for blogging.

But a word of warning - reading these and other blogs can become quite addictive. Much like checking your email every 30 seconds. So maybe Richards’ label of ‘obessive’ is not too far from the truth.

Participation, Parental Engagement and Technology

I am making the following presentation at the KidSmart conference on Monday. 

It explores ways that parents and practitioners can work together to promote participation both in early years services and children's learning. It is based on the National Children's Bureau PEAL project (www.peal.org.uk) and captures a particular aspect of the work which has used a variety of technologies including video, digital photography and mobile phones. 

Case studies come from some of the most disadvantaged communities across England and demonstrate that families are able to use technology to empower themselves and gain insight to how their children learn and grow.

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Participation, Parental Involvement and Technology - Lessons from the PEAL Project and Beyond

SlideShare Link

The Many Meanings of Participation

I have been thinking about the word participation. It can mean so many different things. When talking to others it quickly becomes clear that different people can see participation in a variety of ways. This is not a problem - it is interesting and part of the richness of the idea.

I am not necessarily thinking here about firm definitions of participation. They can be helpful but often they only describe one dimension of the term. So I have taken a step back and begun to think what I mean by participation. Is it a concept? Is it a set of tools? Is it a value? Is it something else too?

One way I find it helpful to think about ideas is to use a mind map. I like the fact that maps do not have to be linear. This allows them to capture the complexity and diversity of a term.

So here is my map of participation. I don't think it is exhaustive by any means. But it does start to help me think of the different areas and levels participation can cover.

Click to see a larger version of the map.

10 Public Action Tools on the Computer

I thought I would share ten tools I regularly use on the computer to promote public action. The sites make my work a bit more efficient. They enable me to network and share with others both at a local level and beyond. I won’t focus on the most common sites - Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and all that - because they are already well documented. Instead I will write about a few lesser known sites and tools that offer some really useful functions for the local activist.

1. Qipit - send photos of flipcharts, graffiti walls, mapping and other materials and get them turned in to editable PDFs and graphics. Very useful for including in your reports and as part of a local evidence base.

2. Nabble - to set up a free discussion forum on any topic. Great for discussing public action and local issues. Embed it in your existing website.

3. Beth’s Blog is a good place to keep up to date with the latest news and innovations in the social media and not-for-profit sector around the world.

4. Mac Speech. I am not a good editor. I find it hard to read my own writing and I always seem to miss my mistakes or poor grammar. For years I have begged others to read and edit my text. This can try the patience of people near to me as I often ask them at short notice and in a rush. It also wastes paper as I tend to print out a draft of my writing for others. The speech function on my Mac has changed all this. The Mac reads my text to me. It makes editing easy as you can hear your writing in the voice of another. Very revealing and very powerful.

5. Slide Share is a great place to post your presentations and PowerPoints. It is an even better place to find and read other peoples’.

6. Lifehacker is a good blog for all kinds of shortcuts and productivity tools - otherwise know as lifehacks.

7. Google Docs is a free service that provides a word processor and spreadsheet programmes online. As well as being a real alternative to buying these products, the best feature is that you can make your documents public and invite others to contribute to them. It is a great way for team working and involving a network of people in the development of a report, fundraising application, planning document or news release. You can also produce online questionnaires and petitions that are automatically collated on a central spreadsheet as people respond individually by email.

8. Twitter - microblogging using SMS text messaging. A powerful way to coordinate a local networks and organise public action. By getting everyone to sign up to Twitter and then creating a themed network it is easy to communicate with all your fellow activists. Imagine seeing a situation on the street where you wanted to quickly share some information to all other local interested parties. Twitter can mobilise action. And it is free.

9. Set up and host your own wiki for free with wikispaces. This lets you build and share an information site on all kinds of topics from disability rights to patient activism. Other activists can then contribute to the development of the knowledge base.

10. LinkedIn - a social network combined with a community for people wanting to sell and trade their skills. Lots of voluntary sector and charity workers are there as well as a diverse group of other professionals. A good place to find a communications specialist or a human rights advisor for your projects.

And as a bonus site - Doodle is a great way to coordinate diaries with other activists.

Much local activism is low resourced. Often we have to work with little investment and divide our time between the day job and our activism. These tools have helped me be more efficient and make the most of my investment of time. I hope they are helpful. I am always interested in any other tools out there. Subscribing to the RSS feeds of different blogs is also a good way to stay in touch with new tools.

Comparing Childcare Systems in the UK and Japan - A Meeting

I was lucky to spend some time with two visiting Japanese Professors during their visit to a National Childminding Association workshop in Marble Arch, London last month. Professors Abe Kazuko and Mikiko Tabu are both regular visitors to the UK and have a fascinating insight into the differences of our respective childcare systems. They have been doing some comparative research on the role and training of childminders and were particularly interested in the training techniques and tools used by the PEAL (Parents, Early Years and Learning) workshops.

The two Professors spent the day participating the workshops - and how good it is to report their enthusiastic involvement with the discussions, throwing themselves into all the exercises and role plays - and making notes for their ongoing research.
At the end of the day we had time to sit down and discuss their work. They also took the opportunity to interview colleagues and myself for their research.

We exchanged business cards as is usual during these kinds of meetings. But I was struck by the beauty and elegance of the Japanese cards. They were so much more than the utilitarian card I happily give out to anyone with a passing interest in my work. They were on fine paper with delicate Japanese designs and embossed with symbols. I find the Japanese script fascinating - almost an art form in itself. The cards were in both Japanese and English. It felt like I was being given a gift rather than just another business card for my collection.

What is meaningful engagement? Experiences at a conference

I recently attended the Health Service Journal conference titled Achieving Meaningful Public Engagement in London on the 12th March. It has been a while since I have been to a conference. I arrive from Manchester after a night of storms and high winds that had delayed my train.

It was an interesting and varied day. I appreciated the time to think and reflect without the responsibility for leading or speaking at an event.

The stand out presentation for me was by Dr. Jeff French on social marketing - debunking the myth that this has anything to do with advertising or spin. The essential point was that the main thing we can learn from a marketing approach is understanding peoples’ insight and what is important to them - and then apply this to social good as opposed to economic good which is the traditional territory of marketing.

I noticed a real difference in the words and language used by different speakers. It illustrated for me the gap between the mechanical approach to engagement and the more bottom-up, user focused approach. Some of the speakers presented engagement as a technical process - it felt cold and separate from the real world of peoples’ lives. It was a relief in the afternoon when speakers started talking about personal journeys, trust and appreciating different world views. I also feel ambivalent when engagement is presented as an industrial process that can be replicated, scaled-up and shipped out to communities. Surely engagement needs to be more nuanced and personalised with a real appreciation of the communities and local people where it is happening.

There was an interesting debate around the metrics of engagement and how we can find ways to measure and quantify the value of this work. To argue for more resources and investment in engagement we are going to have to demonstrate it’s benefits and how these represent value for time and money invested. The challenge for me is how we do this in a way that retains the richness and uniqueness of peoples’ lives - I fear that some metric models might simply reduce our work to numbers and statistics that alienate our stakeholders and mask local change. More work is needed in this area - and more creative thinking that can draw on metrics that use non-traditional methods such as art, drama, visual and experiential data.

The conference talked a lot about meaningful engagement. But what does this mean - and meaningful to who? The local people or the organisations doing the engagement. Organisations who often have a set idea of the data and contributions they are looking for. That is not to say that organisation pre-decide the outcomes of engagement. Simply that by having the power to set the approach and boundaries of any engagement activity you are immediately influencing and to some extent controlling the process. What if those who are being engaged have an entirely different vision or agenda to the engagers? What if the topic of engagement actually bears very little relation to the day-to-day lives of local people? And where are the opportunities for local people to be the engagers - with the time, money and authority to take control of the engagement process and start to describe agendas from their own perspective.

It is important that engagement does not get reduced to another tactic or prescription that the powerful offer to the less powerful. I think there needs to be space in conferences like this one for organisations to reflect on their power and their abilities, whatever their intentions, to do harm as well as good. Engagement is not easy - it should be a constant process of dialogue and reflection. Organisations need 'critical friends' in the community who can challenge them on a regular basis. This starts to make engagement meaningful in my view.

Towards the end of the conference I also reflected on the customer experience of attending an event - from how important the first welcome is to how first impressions as a participant can colour the whole day. When we arrive at an event we may all be carrying all kinds of burden. We may have had a difficult journey, we may be stressed or we may have our minds in different places. Good events prepare for their customers and create a positive first experience. The first impression is often the last impression.

Book Review - Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry

I am finally getting round to writing a short review of this excellent book that was sent to me last year by a German based publisher called Peter Lehmann. Peter is a ex-service user and activist who has taken the publishing route as a way of inspiring change through stories and writing. He has also been very active in the European Network of (ex) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (ENUSP).

The book is a series of chapters written by a mix of mental health authors. Some are professionals while others are service users. All share a fundamental perspective that the user voice is essential to the development and delivery of decent services. The book describes a series of different approaches that can support mental health service users towards recovery and challenge discrimination, unemployment and low income. Standout chapters include those by my friends at Bradford University on mental health, culture and ethnicity and a series of chapters on the power and benefits of self-help.

The writing is accessible with a good mix of personal stories and case studies combined with more academic references. It provides some inspirational examples and well as vivid descriptions of the barriers and difficulties people face as they claim their rights. What I particularly like is that the book addresses a full range of diversity issues including gender, culture, sexuality and disability without it feeling like an after thought or tokenism. Given the range of different authors - 61 in total - even if there are certain ones who you do not agree with, there are plenty of others that will resonante and also there are new authors and mental health activists to be introduced to for the first time in the pages. Highly recommended!

To buy a copy of the book you can contact Peter Lehmann publishers at www.peter-lehmann-publishing.com

Full reference: Stastny, Peter & Lehmann, Peter (2007) Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry. Peter Lehmann Publishing: Berlin / Eugene (OR) / Shrewsbury (UK)

What might PCT 2.0 look like?

With all the talk about Web 2.0 and the new functions available to users of the internet I started to wonder what a new generation of Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) might look like. Or maybe what might come next.

PCTs are the health organisations in the NHS that deliver primary health care services (doctors, dentists, opticians, nurses, health visitors etc) and they also commission services from other health care providers such as hospitals and specialist centres.

Whilst many local people are not that aware of what a PCT is and the role it plays, they are important behind the scenes players in the first points of contact people have with medical professionals in the community.

My view is that PCTs should be crucial conduits to local peoples’ engagement with all their local health services. They should work together to understand what local people need and want from their health system and then go out to make this a reality. PCTs should therefore have direct and deep relationships with their communities. 

They should be able to involve local people in all parts of the commissioning of services - including deciding on local need, procuring or purchasing services, monitoring how those services are being delivered and provided, and evaluating the outcomes of services which of course then feeds back into a new appreciation of local need.

PCTs should be organisations that do things with local people - not to them. Let us not forget that PCTs have big budgets of local peoples’ money and have to be accountable for this.

The question is, how can PCTs do this?

Traditionally PCTs have focused on delivering blocks of service and mass purchasing. They are part of the historical legacy of the NHS - coming with all the strengths and idiosyncrasies  that this unique and wonderful organisation has. And PCTs do a pretty good job for much of the time. 

I think there are at least six areas where PCT 2.0 could make a major shift in focus:

1. Building new and complex connections between patients, local people, health service planners and professionals - both in terms of vertical and horizontal relationships and in terms of more multi-layered non-hierarchical relationships. 

2. Finding new ways for people to come together to discuss health and be creative. PCTs unique position might give them the opportunity to facilitate and broker these new connections adding great new value to the local health economy. In doing so the PCT also becomes more valuable and useful to local people. One clear message from research into Web 2.0 is that people value the expertise of their peers and enjoying asking questions of people like themselves as well as to more traditional experts.

3. Increasing the availability and openness of information to the community about health services and choices - and making this information available in a variety of user friendly formats and in real time.

4. Capturing and sharing the experiences, views and local expertise of the community as both consumers of health services and as active partners in the commissioning of better services. This pool of knowledge and expertise could then be used for greater improvement and individuality of services

5. Offering new opportunities for voice, participation and involvement - especially from diverse groups such as young people, BME communities, disabled people and those who are terminally ill. Crossing the traditional boundaries of health and social care services and their respective silos to follow the real life journeys of people (whose lives are more rich and complex than our organisational structures can hope to recognise)

6. Looking at health services as a series of experiences that should please, satisfy and delight the user rather than as purely transactional relationships. 

PCT 2.0 will have to be very outcomes focused. Outcomes that include better accountability, transparency, participation and effectiveness. Of course this is probably also going to involve a major rethink of the power relationships between the users and providers of health care. This might be scary for organisations but who said change was easy. It might also mean that new skills are required.

Like the new internet, technology has a part to play in this shift. As data and information systems get better and less linear there will be opportunities to connect with different people in many different ways. It will also be possible to appreciate the resources that exist within the health sector and deploy these in different ways.

An added advantage of this direction could be that the greater empowerment of local people might reinforce the need for people to better self-manage their health and take control of their lifestyles. It is already becoming clear that whatever resources we allocate to health will not be enough for the increase in need and demand. But by supporting people to reclaim their health (recognising their own self-knowledge and expertise) it may be possible to use scarce resources more effectively.

It is fun to speculate and look to the future. In writing this article I am also painfully aware of how much jargon I have used - it just seems to flow out of my finger-tips as I type. One thing I like about Web 2.0 is that the conversation never ends - I am just waiting for other posters to challenge the jargon. Go for it. But also, in terms of PCT 2.0  the conversation should never end with our local communities. Engagement ceases to be a task and becomes a continuing process leading to growth and change. 

Perhaps in future PCT annual reports we should ask that they demonstrate the relationships they have built and the conversations they have sustained - if we could get a metric that gives a value to this on the balance sheet we might even begin to capture the value that this brings to local people!

The Last Motel....

I have been spoilt recently but the number of good hotels I have been lucky enough to stay in for my work. But I came down to earth with a bit of a bang today in Basildon.

I can only describe the 'motel' I stayed in as like something from the film Psycho. Very seedy and not very condusive to a relaxing nights sleep. The little prefabricated cubicles felt like prison cells. The big window faced onto the car park which was lit all night. The curtain did not cover the whole size of the window. The door did not feel locked even when it was closed.

I arrived late at night in the dark and managed to step right in a deep puddle just outside reception. The reception by the way is in a seperate 'shack' from the main motel. You are given a key and pointed to your cubicle and off you go outside again to find your room (and yes I managed to miss the puddle the second time around as I left).

But I survived the night and when the sun rose the next morning it did not look or feel quite so bad.

Infact, though the breakfast coffee I had was from a machine it was one of the best cups I have had in a while. 

The experience made me think - there is a big gap between services that are 'cheap and cheerful' (which I am usually happy with) and those that are 'cheap and nasty'. Which ones do we actually provide in our day jobs to our own customers, service users and the public?

Could LINks use Twitter?

I am down in Dorset working in Bournemouth and Poole this week running a series of workshops and planning sessions for LINks (Local Involvement Networks). Today I was based at AFC Bournemouth, the local football club.

LINks is about networks and mobilizing local voices. Twitter, the micro-blogging service, provides many possibilities for putting together real time virtual networks. Twitter uses SMS messaging on mobile phones to coordinate information sharing and action. 

Could LINks use Twitter - I think they could. It may be that members will need training and support to do this but I think the possibilities are very exciting.

Is the Google Foundation asking the right questions?

Google has recently made the committment to spend $2 billion on good causes through it's Foundation. Given the success of Google it is good to see them using some of their huge resources on social and economic development for poor people. 

Larry Brilliant, the new head of the Google Foundation, gave a very interesting interview about his aspirations for the Foundation and how they plan to spend the money. A strong focus will be on sub-saharan Africa which I welcome.

Being an innovative and successful technology company, it is little surprise that Google hope to deploy their expertise to try to solve some of the world's intractable problems - poverty, disease and environmental issues. They want to use their software tools and data analysis to predict and change the way development problems emerge. An example would be using software to understand and predict disease epidemics. Presumably once Google has the ability to predict these things it will be easier to intervene and prevent.

But is the Google Foundation asking the right questions? Does the world work in this way and can deeper analysis of data reveal new ways of making change happen?

Certainly it is appealing. But does it risk being too simplistic? The history of failed development approaches over the last 60 years has been littered with technocratic approaches to problems that just have not worked. Silver bullets offer the promise of a quick fix but they rarely work in the real world.

Robert Chamber's great 1997 book Putting the First Last provides an in-depth look at how technology has failed to deliver it's promises for poor people. Part of his analysis is that those who design and invest in technology are remote and removed from the poor and the real world and real lives that they lead.

There are many other factors than just technology to consider - power relations and dynamics; corruption and lack of transparency; trust; relationships; local knowledge and expertise. If technology is going to offer something then it needs to be used in a wider framework of grassroots development. 

I admire several things about the Google Foundation - their passion, their enthusiasm, their self-belief and their money! I just hope they ask the right questions (and ask the right people - those who live in the areas where they are trying to have an impact) before they spend.

The Best Public Toilet in the UK?

OK - I know this probably sounds a bit strange. But stay with me, I am going somewhere with this.

I was in Portsmouth on Friday providing some consultancy for a children's centre that delivers services for children with special needs.

When I arrive at Portsmouth Harbour railway station I needed to find a toilet. I managed to make my way across the fairly rundown station area and into the recently redeveloped Gunwharf Quay with it's iconic Spinnaker Tower.

In the shopping centre I found what I was looking for - a public toilet. However, this was not an average (which in the UK is usually fairly dire) connveniene. It was clean and warm. Rather than paper towls or fans to dry your hands it had those new Dyson hand dryers that work so fast you still think your hands are wet when they are actually bone dry.

It also had a basket of cotton towels. You were invited to use one and then place it in a wahing basket. It was really trusting people not to exploit this. Looking at the pile of clean towels it seemed to be working. Also, there were two options for handwash - both highly frangranced and expensive looking.

Having finished my 'abolutions' I was walking out of the toilets when my eye caught the paper cups and mouth wash supplied on the wall by the exit. Wow, mouth wash in a public lavatory!

Since leaving Portsmouth I have remebered this experience. It has stayed in my mind. I have told other people about it. I am writing about it now. And it simply was a public toilet - something that often does not register in our day-to-day life.

I think experiences are key. They are the things that make a difference to the service we deliver. People who use services want to feel valued, individual and respect. But many of our health and social care services do not offer memorable experiences. They may get the basics right but they are exactly that - a no frills bargain basic. If you listen to the consistent messages of service users across the spectrum of issues then a repeated complaint is the failure of services to be a good experience. Is it not then surprising people do not want to use them (getting labelled as 'hard to reach' into the bargain) and that stigma develops. Or that they resent the fact that services make them wait, wasting their time, at the doctors or the job centre or at social services office.

We need to raise the standard of the experience we offer when people use our services. We need to make them memorable so that people talk about them and recommend them to others. We need to learn from the private sector who are often far better at offering their customers an positive experience. They have a bottom-line that means their customers will take their business elsewhere if they are not satisfied. What a shame that our service users do not have so much choice to go somewhere different and better.

Some of the things that can turn an experience into something memorable are not that costly. Welcoming people, listening to them, designing your waiting areas with people in mind and supplying simple refreshments. Some of the things can be symbolic - giving the message that peoples' experience matters. For example, comfortable seats and decent light.

Surely if Portsmouth can get the experience right with their toilets then surely we can do better with our services.

When does a grassroots movement become a branding exercise?

The US Presidential primaries are getting very exciting - it is great to see them getting so much coverage on our media in the UK. I find that many people I meet, who do not usually talk about politics, have something to say on this process. That has got to be good. 

Perhaps this is a recognition of how dull UK politics seems by comparison. And perhaps it is also because whoever becomes the next US President will be in a uniquely powerful position to steer the world through the aftermath of Iraq, economic downturn and the fall out from the 'war on terror'. The fact that this may well be the first black or woman President simply adds to the anticipation 

A lot has been said and written about how Barack Obama's campaign is a grassroots movement. There are claims that it involves local people across the US (many of whom are traditionally disenfranchised from the democratic system) who are speaking with one voice for change. But how real is it? There appear to be five areas where Obama is strong and it is here that his claims to a grassroots agenda must be scrutinised. He is using new media and social networking sites very effectively - particularly Facebook. He is having significant success in fundraising for his campaign and collecting lots of modest donations that together make a big total. And he has mobilised many local people from the Democratic Party to walk the streets and do the face-to-face campaigning - hence his successes in states that have the caucus voting system. He appears to be popular with young people and with the black community - two groups that have been on the fringes on more traditional party politics. 

Obama speaks about the need for change and uses very emotive language. But it seems quite difficult to pin him down to specifics. What does he really stand for? How liberal is he? I am not sure but my intuition tells me that I don't feel comfortable with this lack of substance. I hope I am wrong .

My concern is that when the focus groups and the polling tells politicians that the key message should be one of change, then packing this as a grassroots movements can make good social marketing sense. A change agenda has been closely linked to new social movements since the 1980s. It is an easy way of showing how different you are as a politician. Given the weariness that many voters have with the current administration of George W. Bush - from all parts of the political spectrum - there is a logic to running with a change agenda.

But how long will a politician like Obama retain his grassroots instincts once in power or once a change agenda loses it's appeal. One thing is for sure, most people are instinctively conservative in the long run - they like what they know regardless of how much better an alternative might be. Change can very quickly start to feel threatening.

Any real grassroots movement needs to think in terms of devolved power and the distribution of decision making and local voices. Obama appears to me more of the demagogue - speaking with power and passion to stir the crowd.

If Obama betrays the grassroots as his campaign progress to it's ultimate end then we will all suffer. It will be very difficult for future grassroots and bottom-up movements to be credible in the political arena.

What I would like to see is real local leaders giving some evidence of why this is a grassroots movement and how it will change the lives of local people by giving them a voice and power. Currently the people speaking up for Obama's credentials seem to be big player - such as Oprah Winfrey and Ted Kennedy - and not the service user groups, the local voluntary organisations and local activists.

And why should I care, living as I do in the UK? Well, the journey Obama is demonstrating is also resonating with some new directions in UK politics. For example, David Cameron's YouTube experiment and local campaigning groups in healthcare. The US often sets the example and tone for what happens elsewhere. 

So, I will reserve judgement on Obama but I will retain a very critical perspective. Summoning grassroots credibility is a serious agenda and not, in my view, something to be done lightly or simply for the marketing potential.

My favourite site for following the US debates is Politico

View over the Tyne

The NCB Peal (Parents, Early Years and Learning) workshop on Thursday was based in the Gateshead Hilton with the most spectacular views over the river Tyne. After a long train journey I was please to get there and gaze from the balcony at the vista.

Newcastle is a very vibrant city with a great mix of old and modern buildings. You really feel that this is a city on the rise.

Looking over the river I was struck by the number of bridges, all of different styles and shapes, that connect the two sides of the city. These structures are the networks that link people and they are always busy - day and night. This seems to me to be a visual metaphor for the social and community networks we create both in the real world and in cyberspace. 

Sometimes our bridges in these networks are our relationships - other times I think that certain people can act as bridges. It is an essential role but one that is often not recognised or valued. Certain people make things happen for others - they keep the flow of information and trust moving. We need more bridges.

What is nice about the Tyne bridges is that they are lit up at night - they shimmer and shine and reflect on the slow moving water of the river. 

Mini beasts and other strange terms

Over the weekend I had a few days to relax with my family at the Grand Hotel in Swanage in Dorset. The hotel has a pool and it was nice to spend some time with my young daughter as she learns to paddle and swim. 

I often find that when I get away my mind has the space to drift and revisit conversations and activities from the working week. This time was no exception.

I have been struck by two new phrases that I had not really heard before this week. 

Apparently in children's centres they do not use the term 'creepy crawlies' anymore for the insects and bugs you might find under a stone or living in a wall. Now the trendy term is 'mini beasts'! I quite like this - it is exciting and taps into a child's love/hate relationship with monsters and big beasts. I also started to wonder what in my world might count as a mini beast - maybe certain journalists or minor bureaucrats! 

The other term which I must admit I found a bit more problematic was the 'mummy mafia'. I am told this is a term for mum's who gang together to dominate a child care setting or a school. Not sure I will be using this one.

But these experiences did get me thinking about how words and terms change. And how hard it is sometimes to keep up with the changes. Our language is constantly evolving. I notice this in myself. I am using terms now that little over 6 months ago were not in my vocabulary.

One example of this is how many organisations have stopped using the term 'hard to reach'. Until recently this was a very popular idea and many of my workshops would start with at least one participant saying 'I want to learn to work with hard-to-reach groups'. I think we have all become more aware now and recognise that people tend not to be hard-to-reach. They are living their lives as they see fit. It is often services and organisations that are hard-to-access.

One promise I made myself a while ago was to simplify my language. I believe that it is possible to express complex ideas in clear and simple words. I don't think I am that good at it yet. But I know with writing that practice makes a difference. The golfer Arnold Palmer once staid, 'the more I practice the luckier I get'. I hope that I more often I write the clearer I will become. Unless of course of vanish under a pile of words.

Local Involvement Networks - LINks and their Hosts

As I travel back on the train from a days work in Bournemouth I am thinking about the 2007 Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act. It is an exciting new piece of legislation that will support the voice of local people in the areas of health and social care.

LINks (Local Involvement Networks) will be established in every council area that delivers social care services. They will enable local people to come together on a regular basis to highlight local issues and scrutinise services. Last year I blogged about the challenges of making what was then a Bill into practical reality - suddenly we are at that point.

I am picking up from local people that sometimes it is not clear what the difference is between the LINks itself (and independent entity) and the Host organisation that will support the functions of the LINks (and be accountable both to the LINks itself and the local authority that procures it's services and performance manages the contract). 

Part of the challenge is that the Act has not been prescriptive as to the specific nature of each LINks - it is up to local people to make decisions on structures, action plans and models. This is good as it encourages a bottom-up approach but can also mean that people lack a frame of reference for how to develop the LINks. 

For me the key to negotiating the many practical and strategic issues that LINks present is in the development of strong and honest relationships between all the key stakeholders - local people, local authorities, Overview and Scrutiny Committees, Primary Care Trusts and other commissioners, service providers and the voluntary sector. It is important to find the space for these different groups to think through their own positions and understandings and build on these to create the relationships in which future action can take place.

The Act also emphasises that a key focus of LINks should be on improvement. It is worth hanging on to this aspiration in the coming months as LINks emerge. The key question for me is how are LINks going to make a real difference to peoples' lives and to the development and improvement of services.

Haringey - Borough of Parks

I was working yesterday in the north London borough of Haringey. This is a really interesting part of London with a great diversity of population. Anecdotally people say that there are over 100 languages in the the local community.

One thing that I did not realise before is that Haringey has some excellent public spaces and parks. Infact they are promoting them after a bit of a revamp. It is so good to see parks valued and looked after. They are our collective spaces. In a busy urban city they are our connection to the wider world of plants and nature.

To find out more about Haringey click here to visit the Council's website

Public Life and Private Mess - What is the cost to the local community?

Public life often gets devalued through cynicism and distrust. Reluctant as I am to quote the Daily Mail from the other day, they expressed a commonly held sentiment that it is all about 'snouts in the trough'. Without getting in to a defense of pigs as a species (of whom I am very fond) this sort of headline will resonate with many. 

At the same time people who are excluded or uninvolved in all types of public life (political and non-political) feel remote from this other world too. We need to build bridges and involve more people from local communities in public life and public decision making. So when things go wrong and people in public life let us down we have a problem.

My local M.P. (Member of Parliament) has just been investigated by the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee  following allegations of over payment of public funds to family members. As a consequence he has been suspended from the Tory parliamentary party. See the  BBC report of the full story here. 

I don't know what should happen next with this particular situation - this is for others in Parliament to work out and decide. But what I do know is that if a person on the fringes of our society had been caught doing something financially dubious - for example, allegations of benefit fraud - then they would be in serious trouble. And this is often on a far smaller scale in terms of the monies involved. Indeed we spend millions of pounds each year producing adverts and TV commercials to highlight a campaign against those on benefits who may exploit the system. There is a contrast here and it reinforces peoples' perceptions that there is a 'them and us' situation.

Public life is precious and we need to value and protect it's integrity. We need to attract honest people who are rooted in their communities. We need to draw from a wide range of voices. 

Let's hope we learn something from this sad situation. I hope it will not put off good people from coming froward to serve their communities. Because this would be the true cost of a breakdown of trust in public life.

Technology and Inclusion: The Blogger's Anxiety

Technology is great - it provides powerful tools to reach and communicate with people. I am trying to use new technologies more and learn to adapt the way I work to things like YouTube, podcasts and of course blogs. My anxiety is how do I retain my roots in the older forms of communication and how do I ensure that I do not exclude groups of people as I increasingly adopt new media?

More and more I see participatory projects start to engage and use new technologies. For example public consultations using online questionnaires, action research through tools such as SurveyMonkey, and forums. The opportunities to reach more people and provide 24 hour accessibility are very appealing.

The exciting thing is that you have the ability to have relationships and converse with lots of people. When putting a project together you can involve many people in the planning and capture their inputs. The problem is that many of the people I most want to interact with are not finding it easy to access the technology in the first place.

So where does that leave people who do not have easy access to computers and new technology? When we discuss this group we are often also referring to the most excluded and disadvantaged members of society. And how much of the basis of using new technology assumes a level of literacy that many people just do not have. What we must not do is create an underclass of people who are separated or cut off from what is going on in the virtual world.

This week I went to visit a local authority and spent some time in their general waiting area. They provide free access to their website and a range of other online material on housing, childcare and rights. The access points use touch screens and have large bright text and graphics. The resource was good but I wonder how much they are used and how much benefit they provide people. 

I also need to resolve the dilemma that my instinct is that people communicate best directly to other people. Written and electronic communication struggle to reproduce the human qualities inherent in direct interactions.  And we are all aware of the frustrations of dealing with recorded answer machines and automated call centres.

Sometimes it is important to be remind of the power of older technologies. These are the ones we often ignore or take for granted. One of the most innovative projects I have ever seen was in the Kyrgyz Republic, working with people trapped in the grim psychiatric hospitals. There communication with the outside world was a rare and often forbidden privilege. A local organisation (most of ex-service users) supplied pencils and stamped postcards to the patients to allow them to get messages out. Some wrote to family for the first time in years. Others wrote to make complaints. Many wrote to share poetry and their inner thoughts and feelings. All in their own way wrote to challenge the system

For the last year I have kept a monthly blog on the my website at www.stronger-and-more-effective.co.uk . It has been a learning experience and at times I have struggled to keep up with the demands of operating a blog and my busy working and home life (including my 18 month daughter).

So okay, I am deciding to raise my blogging presence by moving the blog to this new location and learning to use a new range of blogging tools. Ones that I hope will make it easier to regularly update the blog and keep this fresh. Let's see how it goes. I will have to remain vigilant about sharing the journey with my friends who use different communication routes.