The Public Services Burning Platform: Using Existing Transactional Data to Make a Case for Relational Public Service Approaches

Abstract There are believed to be 363,000 people across England experiencing multiple disadvantages. The ecosystem of services and organizations need reform to support people with multiple complex needs (MCN) as it is failing people and not providing the holistic support desperately needed, failing to understand context and concentrating on efficiency instead of efficacy and resulting in repeated failure demand with no discernible impact on outcomes. The aim of the ‘Burning Platform’ (BP) is to use existing transactional data to make a case for relational public services. It provides a comprehensive picture of people’s journey through the system and the cost across services. Additionally, to evidence what happens when using a relational model of public service based on person-centred case work and contextualized inter-agency working, with people that are high demand, high cost and who are having a rough time. The BP allows us to demonstrate the change in trajectory of costs and stability of service interactions historically when compared to this approach. Without this approach, government ministers will not have a basis for comparison and will default to their perception of the current system, stifling change. The BP method not only looks through a service lens but also through the experience of clients, obtaining detailed narratives. It then combines the quantitative and qualitative data in equally measure and then presents the information in an innovative and visually impactful way.