We are not your usual consultancy. We have our roots in local government and will always care passionately about doing what's right for the sector, committed to improving and innovating local public services.
Instead, we specialise in co-producing something new. New ideas, new structures, new ways of working that involve people in the creative process, rather than "doing it to them". We use our 10 year experience of local government to recognise that change can, and must, happen both inside the organisation as well as outside, which is why we work at all levels from community and social innovation outside of government, through to internal organisational change.
We have three main areas of expertise:
1. Design
From experience, we understand that the best way to support change is to invite people into the process, as participants, in such a way that goes beyond consultation, whether that be service users, partners or staff.
All these factors bring their own challenges and we use a design-led approach to work through them. We passionately believe that design has an important role to play in rethinking how public services work, as well as providing practical ways to deliver on this thinking.
2. Technology
We are passionate about the transformative power of the web and its ability to bring new opportunities to solve some of the most intractable problems.
In their daily lives, people working with and in local public services are using technology that is far more user friendly and effective than what is on offer from the public sector. These services and products shape peoples attitudes and expectations of technology. Therefore they become more frustrated with poorly performing, poorly designed, inflexible and unfocused systems.
Our approach focuses on an agile methodology to remain flexible to change and accommodate the unforeseen. it is this approach that allows our technology team to translate the concepts developed in the design stage into creative and tailored solutions.
We have a wide understanding of technologies in use across local government - our team has experience in implementing many from their past experience on the inside of local government. This allows our team to design and implement the best possible technology to meet the needs of the organisation and its users.
We build future-proof technology in a way that is low cost, outcome focused and most importantly open to people changing their minds as we go. It is smart, simple and easy for all to use.
3. Change
We love great design and neat technology but we're realistic about what it takes to make change happen, and make it stick.
We spend time working with people inside and outside organisations communicating, listening, and sharing in fun and delightful ways. We find people who are innovating and give them a leg-up if they need it, and we create a sense of a movement for change.
We hate the public sector dependency on consultancies, so we make sure we share and pass on skills and methods to those in organisations and communities so they can carry on innovating after we've gone. We also know that it takes hard work to make an idea happen, which is why we have a pragmatic project management approach that gets things done without drowning in documents. We work well at all levels of organisations and communities, mixing up our style to make sure we're reaching the right people in the right way.
Team
FutureGovers are a diverse and creative bunch, each one of us sharing a passion for change in local public services working in collaboration to deliver varied and innovative projects.
The team can be broadly divided into three closely working teams, based on the main functions of Design, Technology and Change, working together to deliver the most creative and most impactful projects we can muster.
