Presentation to Keep Britain Tidy Annual Conference, March 2011

BEHAVIOUR CHANGE, BIG SOCIETY & SMARTER SERVICES

Sutton’s approach to transformation

Keep Britain Tidy

March 2011Daniel Ratchford - Strategic Director, Environment & Leisure

Take part, take pride

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: policy context

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

SOME CONCLUSIONS

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

[email protected]

www.twitter.com/danielratchford #behaviourchange

www.sutton.gov.uk