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Challenges within the system

Capacity to act

The funding landscape and power dynamics

Rising economic deprivation

“There is a new layer of people coming into an already stretched system."

“Funding being linked to specific outcomes that don’t necessarily tie in with community needs and push us further from our purpose. And specific funding pots have led to duplication of services and activities, we have had to transition their aims to go where the money is.”

“Economic deprivation, influences the lives of so many young peoples including their access to employment opportunities and extracurricular activities.”

“We live in a world where competition is far easier than collaboration. And where resources are finite, and we seek to preserve what we have, rather than, sit alongside one another and work out how best we could do things together.”

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Defining place-based and systems change as long-term-solutions to complex problems

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We use place and systems to help us put tangible boundaries around complex problems, such as homelessness, poverty, education, violence etc.

This helps us to identify

the root causes specific to that problem, in that place or system
other relevant people and organisations in the place or system that can help to solve the problem

To help positively change the way people (in a place or system) experience a particular problem.

Boundaries around place and system can operate individually or in unison

Systemic change

Place-based change

Systemic change requires:

Change to the embedded structures, values and systems which drive outcomes
Changes to the conditions which hold issues in place
Changes which span issues and organisations

Place-based change includes:

Improved collaboration in a place
Efforts to work across multiple sectors to collective contribute to long-term change
Changing how the place feels for those who live there

The complex problem

Defining place-based and systems change

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Exploring the conditions for place-based or systemic change

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Conditions for success

What does it take to change a system?

Deep and active collaboration

Learning about the system and your role in it

Changing what’s valued and accepted

Bring the whole system together around a shared goal

Shared processes for listening, learning, holding information & �iterating

Empathetic, meaningful and intentional relationships

Understand �the results and patterns the system is producing� & why

Actively interrogate your role within�the system

Learn about� what’s driving systemic issues

Understand & intentionally shift power structures

Change whose voices are heard & the stories we tell

Reimagine �what we value�& prioritise

Change what �we accept as ‘normal’

Invest in systemic change, not just traditional delivery

Explore who is in the system

Changing incentives, perceptions of risk and flows of resource

Willingness to collectively change embedded values, structures and processes

Deep and active collaboration – Connected Futures – Kezia

Bring people in a system together
Map a system to understand how it’s working
Develop collaborative strategies for change
Develop tools for collaborative learning
Develop and implement learning frameworks

Learning about your role within the system – Smallwood – Kezia / or No wrong door

With training & coaching in systems thinking
Root cause mapping &analysis
Power mapping & analysis
Analyse the existing work in your system
Causal loop mapping and understanding system incentives
Work with power & injustice �specialists to understand embedded causes of�systemic issues

Changing whats valued and accepted – YEF Cardiff – Lily

Reflect on whose voices are heard in a system
Create safe spaces to bring the system together and enable different voices to be heard
Understand & analyse the narratives currently held – and intentionally shift these
Plan new models for power & governance
Codify the changes

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The model that will help us test and understand dynamic change

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Foundations

Place-based / systems working

Changes within a place

Systems change

Population change

Impact experienced by individuals

Conditions for change

Learning

Context

Inspired by Clear Horizon’s Place-Based Measurement cube

Year zero

Early years 1–3

Middle years 3-5

Later years 5-9

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Type of change	Change	Measurement
Population change	Sustained changes across whole community and positive outcomes for people who live there	Endline data Contribution analysis
Systems change	Changes to mental models/ narrative shifts Policy change - Influencing and influenced by practice change Changes to underlying issues that are holding problems in place and power structures shifted	Systems/stakeholder/asset/power mapping Qual research (interviews/surveys/focus groups) Literature/ practice review Quant measures (publicly available data sets) Contribution analysis
Change within a place	Changes to the balance of power across the place (between individuals, assets, processes) Increased community engagement and changes to whose voices are heard Changes for how the place feels for people who live there
Place-based / systems working	Stakeholders playing defined roles within the system Changes to resource flows - investment in systemic change / improving local infrastructure Multi agency working practices including: shared intentions/joint visions, shared data, higher appetite for risk, stronger relationships, shared processes for listening and iterating	Collaborative theory of change Participatory learning sessions Observations Qual research (interviews/surveys/focus groups)
Conditions for change	For example: Increased capacity, increased resources, new relationships, trust, empowerment, motivation, shared principles and values, changes to mindsets	Qual research (interviews/surveys/focus groups/case studies/community researchers)
Impact experienced by individuals	For example: Confidence, ownership, changes to people’s circumstances
Learning	Understanding emergent change Understanding what is working in which context and why	Lines of inquiry explored through qual research and observations
Understanding context	History, relationships, system behaviours power dynamics, narratives, assets, issues, root causes	Systems/stakeholder/asset/power mapping Baseline publicly available data sets

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