Devon Learning Partnership

We worked alongside 4 prototype projects and commissioners in Devon as Learning Partner, testing new ways of working to improve outcomes for victims and survivors of domestic abuse in the community and in the context of safe accommodation and substance misuse.

The Backdrop

Devon County Council’s Safer Lives & Communities Team, under their Interpersonal and Gender-Based Violence and Abuse Agenda, has been leading on a programme of prototype projects which evolve their offer for victims and survivors of domestic abuse in the community and in the context of safe accommodation and substance misuse. Working with their providers, the team at Devon County Council had a bold ambition to move away from traditional commissioning and service delivery approaches which centre KPIs and control, to instead create and nurture a culture which responds to the complexity of people’s lives by centring relational approaches, innovation and learning. 

Collaborate CIC joined this work as Learning Partner, supporting the prototypes to identify and capture learning, outcomes and impact so it could be shared with wider Devon stakeholders in the pursuit of systems change. Drawing on Human Learning Systems as a foundation for our work, we sought to work collaboratively with those involved in the Partnership to facilitate peer learning; develop and embed a learning culture, capabilities and practices; and co-design new learning tools and frameworks which can be applied to the prototype projects but also across the Devon system more widely.

What we did

During the first phase of our work, we worked closely with the projects to gain an understanding of their prototypes and to collaboratively identify the principles which underpin their approaches. Using the insights generated from this, we worked together to shape our learning framework based on the hypothesis that these principles were applicable more widely, serving as indicators of a healthy system in Devon which supports people to live safe and fulfilling lives. In this way, the framework was developed in an effort to help stakeholders in Devon (1) take a holistic lens of the system and (2) identify different ways in which they might intervene for systems change.

The recommendations from this phase of work looked at how wider stakeholders might be able to better embed the indicators, including: 

• Finding ways to give more choice and control to individuals over what support they receive. 
• Doing more to develop a shared understanding of working in trauma-informed ways. 
• Creating safe, supported and structured guidelines for staff which give them space to flex, adapt and innovate in response to the needs of people accessing services. 

In the second phase of our work, we used the indicators as a lens to dig deeper into thematic areas of learning emerging from each of the projects. Through a series of learning sessions, we were able to identify the following takeaways which were then considered by wider stakeholders at our first system-wide learning event:

• Needing to nurture and create fertile ground for systems change around you, no matter how limited. 
• Identifying and challenging the ways in which bias is present at individual, service and institutional levels across the system, and embedding supportive, reflective learning cultures so that people can reflect on their approaches and centre the needs of people experiencing marginalisation. 
• Reframing accountability around information sharing so that it centres the needs of people while still adhering to legislative framework. 
• Exploring new ways to measure and understand impact, which reflects the lived experience of people accessing services. 

In the third and final phase of our work, we undertook a deep dive into commissioning. This focus emerged as a result of reflections shared in previous phases, which highlighted commissioning as both an enabler and barrier to systems change across Devon.  

The recommendations emerging from this phase and shared with stakeholders were: 

• Continue to prioritise flexible and collaborative commissioning which centres learning and creates opportunities for collaboration across the system.
• Create spaces for developing a shared vision for commissioning across Devon. 
• Invest in relationships across the system.
• Work with procurement colleagues to explore opportunities for creative and more flexible approaches.
• Explore opportunities to build skills and capabilities across the local market, including with VCSE organisations, to enable providers to effectively engage with procurement processes.

Impact and Learning

It’s hard to believe we’ve come to the end of the Devon Learning Partnership, after having the privilege of working closely with the prototype projects for over 18 months. 

Looking back at the Partnership, one of the things which stands out the most is the work we did to support the projects to identify what has and hasn’t worked about their new approaches. By facilitating difficult conversations which explore not just the successes but also the challenges of working in new ways, especially across organisational boundaries, we have enabled people to identify what they would like to hold on to and let go of as they move into the next phase of their delivery. Whilst not always easy, these reflective conversations are critical to supporting people to embed and continue to develop new practice.

One of the highlights of this work has been supporting stakeholders across Devon to recognise how innovative their work is and finding ways to celebrate and share this. Through our work we observed how much of a difference these experimental approaches were making to people accessing services and those working to deliver them, highlighting the need for them to be talked about both inside and outside of the Devon system.

Finally, we’re taking away a renewed awareness for the importance of building relationships by regularly coming together in-person to reflect, make sense of insights and decide how to apply them. It’s not often we get to spend 18 months on a project, but we found in Devon it enabled us to develop strong relationships across the system which translated into honest discussions about what was and was not working, and the opportunity for us as Learning Partner to work collaboratively to create the conditions which enabled people to take those insights and translate them into action. 

We’re leaving the Devon Learning Partnership with a sense that this is just the beginning. Although no longer directly involved, we’ll continue to cheer from the sidelines, celebrating all the great work going on in Devon.