Last week was Services Week 2022, 7–11 March. It was the fourth time our annual cross-organisational public sector event series took place. Once more, it helped increase service literacy, evolve our discourse around services, and connect service makers.
This year 24 different government organisations ran 50 events, including local government, central government, devolved government, arm’s length bodies and various parts of the NHS. The sessions saw more than 2,500 attendees in total. More than half of the sessions have been recorded, made available internally to civil servants and public servants and received already a few hundred views.
Some sessions were ‘sold out’ as there was more demand than capacity. A few of these sessions were interactive and smaller by design. The Department for Education ran a popular session on content strategy, which will be offered again next week. The high-in-demand ‘Introduction to Service Design’ training will return in 2 months. You can find more information in the #ServicesWeek channel on the cross-government Slack.
One of this year’s Services Week goals was to connect people beyond digital professions and backgrounds. Promotion across Cabinet Office channels pulled in lots of civil servants working in non-digital professions. For example, we saw policy professionals on service design training, and operations colleagues attending a show and tell.
Another goal was to engage with more senior people. In the opening session on Monday morning, we heard from Alex Chisholm, Chief Operating Officer for the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary for the Cabinet Office; Myra Hunt, Chief Executive Officer of the Welsh Government’s Centre for Digital Public Services (CDPDS); and Tom Read, Chief Executive Officer of the Government Digital Service (GDS). They stayed engaged throughout the week.
Here’s a recap of the week, as told through social media.
Monday
“My out-of-office is on and there’s a post-it on my monitor which says: ‘It’s Services Week - emails can wait’. Really looking forward to this #ServicesWeek #GovDesign”“@NHSBSA 's first session for Services Week is about to start!”“Loved talking about our UCD maturity model work to such an engaged #servicesweek audience! Although I couldn't quite manage screen sharing, talking, chat questions and sli.do 😵💫 Definitely time for a cuppa now ☕”“‘Service design is a quiet revolution driving government transformation.’ – @MyraHunt – Chief Executive Officer at the Welsh Government’s @cdps_cymru in this morning’s #ServicesWeek opening session”
Tuesday
“Working inside the public sector? Don’t miss this… #ServicesWeek; Note to self: don’t stop making time for THIS kind of learning! #servicedesign #userresearch #researchops #accessibility”“Big up to all those taking part in the UK public sector #ServicesWeek 🙌 and looking forward to discussing GOV.UK Forms in 'Where do we go Form here?' with my partner in #servicedesign @bettyMwema”“As part of #ServicesWeek GDS is hosting an open Show & Tell this Friday from 2pm - 4pm. Register here!”“How to build a team and effect culture change; We have learnt you need to ‘do’ service design rather than ‘tell’ people about service design; Love this #ServicesWeek blog post by @TrickeyLisa @digitaldorset⚡️”
Wednesday
“Tomorrow, 4pm as part of #servicesweek #govdesign @fiabc and I are hosting a discussion and workshop on what user centred design and it's leadership could/should look like in the Scottish Government. A few spaces left!”“Today for #ServicesWeek2022, I did a talk on the importance of supported journeys. It included my research in this area as well as a summary of the framework that I've been working on. It was a 30min talk & if you like, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/5JmM9ZOkMW8 #design”“Joining another session this afternoon as part of #servicesweek 🙌🏻 #contentdesign”“It's #ServicesWeek 2022. I am excited to be giving a talk tomorrow with @PlainNumbers about how you can present numbers clearly in your service. If you work in public services or Government then take a look https://lnkd.in/eXkX5Nv5 #contentdesign #uxdesign”
Thursday
“Our #Accessibility Q&A as part of #ServicesWeek is starting... now! ✅Submit your question by mentioning us and @abbott567 ✅Don't forget to use the hashtag #DWPa11y. Craig is here for the next 60 mins to answer them, get sending your questions over now!”“It's been an absolute pleasure co-running the 'Intro to Service Design' course for the first time with @lisajjeffery @MarcOConnor21. We had a brill cohort as part of #servicesweek. Thanks to everyone involved 🙌““This event is happening now - provides a great opportunity for anyone looking to find out more about working within @GDSTeam to ask any questions they have. ⤵️ (Part of #ServicesWeek 2022)”“Chatting about "designing with and for data tomorrow" for #ServicesWeek (h/t @richrrd for the title and thanks to @danhowarth for herding the data cats @AleksBobrowska @triweasel @zwDan) Last couple of slides going in. Consider yourself warned.”
Friday
“Trees and psychological safety! Takes me back to #servicesweek. We are starting with services, but as we follow that logically, via UCD, ultimately we will 'bump into' transforming organisational boundaries. Thanks @helivans @Dyn_Drwg”“Very excited to catch the final event of #ServicesWeek where we get to see the latest and greatest service design work from @GOVUK ✨🙏🏼”“Starting now! @GDSTeam #ServicesWeek show and tell. #UserExperience”“What is user-centred design anyway? @claragt and I defined what we mean by user-centricity for teams and organisations in government. #ServicesWeek”“Happy Friday all. indefatigable / diflino - what we all are in this game. Managed to tune into some #servicesweek. So amazing people doing and sharing great things - despite how hard it is. One day at a time, trying to make services better for the people that need them. 💛”
Services Week 2022 finished with an open Show and Tell from GDS. 7 different teams presented their latest work and responded to questions from the participants that included members of the public. You can watch it below.
What’s next
Let us know if you missed a very busy session and want it to run again. A couple of people already announced a repetition of their session due to popular demand in the coming weeks.
In case you ran and recorded a session that hasn’t been added to the playlist, write us an email. We are happy to add your video to YouTube.
Hi Mar! If you’re working for any part of the UK government, you can sign up with your .gov.uk email address. Most government domains should be pre-approved so that you can join immediately.
This blog is for people who are transforming services all across the public sector, from local to central government and from all professions. We want to provide a platform to highlight the significant work that has been done and is taking place.
2 comments
Comment by Mar Llines-Montserrat posted on
Hello, how can I join the slack community?
Comment by Martin Jordan – Head of Service Design, CDDO posted on
Hi Mar! If you’re working for any part of the UK government, you can sign up with your .gov.uk email address. Most government domains should be pre-approved so that you can join immediately.