Intelligent Health is proud to be one of 26 organisations calling for a radical shift in how public services work with people and communities. As part of the #DoWith movement, we believe in the power of collaboration to create healthier, more resilient communities.
For too long, public services have been designed for people rather than with them. We are joining forces with others to challenge this outdated approach and push for real, meaningful change—where communities have a voice, power is shared, and services are built around the needs and strengths of the people they serve.
Radical and hopeful change in how public services work with people and communities is urgently needed. #DoWith is a network of people and organisations calling for a radical shift in the public sector from ‘doing to’ to ‘doing with’.
We have come together to ask others to join us in making this change starting with an online event on 26 March.
Sign up to our event or contact the #DoWith team to find out more about becoming part of the movement.
There are already great examples of this positive change happening across the country. Change that:
- enables individuals, families and communities from many backgrounds to work as equals alongside frontline workers in the health and care sector, councils, schools, the police and other services
- shares power and resource, opens up decision-making, and improves the places where we live
- taps into the power of our communities and human relationships to prevent illness, crisis and poverty rather than just respond to it
- directly addresses, through collaboration, the growing pressures being placed on the public and voluntary sectors that are driving up waiting times, reducing service quality and pushing public finances to breaking point
- most fundamentally, does things with rather than to people and communities while also freeing and resourcing them to do more for themselves on their own terms.
But we also know that there is huge resistance to these ways of working across the public sector. A resistance that:
- leaves those who work in or with public services feeling powerless and frustrated
- deepens the excessive hierarchy and the discrimination that silences the voices of frontline workers and the people and communities they work with
- maintains the overwhelming focus on top–down performance targets and financial ‘efficiencies’ rather than actual improvements in people’s health and well-being
- keeps public services siloed and often in competition with one another rather than providing holistic, seamless care and support through collaboration
- and, most importantly, sustains a culture that strongly favours doing things to rather than with people.
We know our hopes, as well as our frustrations, are shared very widely. That is why we call on those working in or with the public sector to take inspiration from the positive change already happening and actively explore how we can all make it happen in our own work.
Join us on 26 March to mobilise our collective voice to effect a radical and urgent shift in the way public services work.
We want to hear from people working in or with the public sector. The event will provide a space for those attending to share ideas on how to deliver change and to connect people together who want to work on specific ideas.
We are also asking those inspired by #DoWith ways of working to share their views on how change can be brought about and their experience of trying to work differently. You will have an opportunity to share your views when you register for the event, or you can email: dowith@kingsfund.org.uk.
We look forward to working with you and the many others who know that a better public sector and a happier, healthier population is within our grasp. If you’d like to join the network as organisation or individual contact: dowith@kingsfund.org.uk
