Service Overview
We support organisations to design, co-develop and refine services and systems that work in practice, not just in theory. Our approach recognises that service challenges are rarely isolated. They are shaped by wider structures, incentives and power dynamics that influence how people experience support.
By combining co-design, co-development, systems thinking and evidence, we help partners move beyond surface-level adjustments towards meaningful and sustainable change. We work collaboratively with communities, practitioners and decision-makers across all phases of the process, from problem framing and concept development to testing, refinement and implementation.
We are particularly effective where existing approaches have stalled, where inclusion has been treated as an add-on rather than embedded from the outset, or where organisations need support translating insight into practical change.
Key elements may include
- co-design and co-development with communities and stakeholders
- service and programme design
- systems mapping and problem framing
- identifying structural barriers, gaps and opportunities
- prototyping and testing approaches
- inclusive design methods and facilitation
- translating insight into practical and implementable design recommendations
- supporting implementation and iterative refinement
Our work focuses not only on what should change, but how change can be developed, implemented and sustained within real organisational environments.
Why Choose Us?
Unique Approach
Our approach to systems and service design goes beyond workshops and prototypes. We integrate lived experience, mixed evidence and systems thinking from the outset, ensuring that design is grounded in how services are actually experienced and shaped by wider structural conditions. By examining power, incentives and organisational constraints alongside user insight, we support co-design and co-development processes that are both inclusive and implementable. This enables change that is not only well-intentioned, but realistic, accountable and capable of being sustained over time.
Systems-Informed & Power-Aware
We recognise that services are shaped not only by user need, but by policy frameworks, funding models, organisational culture and decision-making authority. Our design work therefore considers the wider system within which services operate, including where power sits, who influences priorities and what constraints shape implementation. By mapping these conditions alongside lived experience, we help partners identify realistic leverage points for change. This ensures that inclusive design is not confined to engagement activity, but embedded within the structures that determine how services are developed, resourced and sustained.
Grounded & Accountable
Design justice is our baseline, not a post-script. Community co-designers are paid industry rates, intellectual property is shared, and accessibility—linguistic, cultural, digital—is baked into every artefact from wireframes to user manuals. Consent checkpoints safeguard lived-experience content, while capacity-building sessions leave residents with transferable skills in prototyping, facilitation and user-testing. The outcome is a solution that redistributes power, not just services; a process that dignifies contributors, not extracts from them; and an equity dividend that keeps compounding long after launch.
Who We Work With
Public Sector & Government
We work with public sector organisations and government bodies to design and refine services that respond more effectively to complex social realities. By integrating lived experience, mixed evidence and systems analysis, we support partners to move beyond incremental adjustments towards more meaningful and sustainable change. Our approach considers policy frameworks, commissioning structures and organisational constraints alongside community insight, ensuring that new or improved services are inclusive, implementable and aligned with strategic priorities. We are particularly effective where challenges span departments or agencies and require coordinated, system-level responses.
Health & Care Systems
We work with health and care organisations to co-design and co-develop services that are responsive to lived realities and embedded within complex care systems. By integrating community insight with qualitative and quantitative evidence, we help partners understand how care pathways, referral processes and commissioning decisions are experienced in practice. Our systems-informed approach considers inequalities, access barriers and structural constraints alongside clinical and operational priorities. This enables health and care systems to design, test and refine services that are more equitable, integrated and sustainable over time.
Funders & Foundations
We work with funders and foundations to strengthen how services and programmes are designed, supported and sustained across funding portfolios. By combining lived experience, mixed evidence and systems analysis, we help partners understand how funding criteria, reporting requirements and investment models influence service design and delivery in practice. Our approach supports funders to move beyond isolated project design towards more coherent, inclusive and strategically aligned service ecosystems. This enables funding decisions that not only support innovation, but strengthen long-term effectiveness and equity across the systems they invest in.
Universities & Research Institutions
We work with universities and research institutions to translate research into inclusive, practical service and systems design. By integrating participatory practice with qualitative and quantitative evidence, we support academic partners to co-design and co-develop approaches that are grounded in lived experience and responsive to real-world constraints. Our systems-informed lens helps situate research within the wider policy, funding and institutional contexts that shape implementation. This enables research to move beyond publication and into meaningful application, strengthening both impact and community relationships.
VCSE Organisations
We work with VCSE organisations to co-design and co-develop services that reflect the realities, strengths and needs of the communities they serve. By combining lived experience with qualitative and quantitative insight, we help organisations refine programmes, identify gaps and respond to emerging challenges within complex funding and policy environments. Our systems-informed approach supports VCSE partners to navigate structural constraints while strengthening inclusion, clarity and long-term sustainability. We build on existing expertise and relationships, working collaboratively to translate insight into practical design and implementation.
Our Approach
Discover
We begin by understanding how the system is experienced in practice. This includes lived experience insight, qualitative and quantitative evidence, and analysis of the wider structural conditions shaping outcomes. We explore policy context, incentives, organisational constraints and power dynamics to surface what is really driving the challenge.
Define
We work collaboratively to clarify the core problem that needs addressing. Through structured facilitation and systems mapping, we test assumptions, identify root causes and align stakeholders around a shared and evidence-informed understanding. This stage ensures we are not designing solutions for symptoms, but addressing underlying conditions.
Develop
We co-design and co-develop services, programmes or system interventions that are inclusive, practical and grounded in context. This includes prototyping, testing and refining approaches with communities and practitioners to ensure they are both effective and implementable.
Deliver
We support implementation, embedding and ongoing refinement. This includes clarifying governance, accountability and learning processes so that change is sustained within existing systems rather than dependent on a single initiative.
Get in Touch!
If you are rethinking how a service or system is designed, developed or delivered, we would welcome a conversation. Whether you are at the stage of clarifying the problem, testing new approaches or embedding change across a complex system, we can support you to move forward with clarity, inclusion and confidence.