Sheffield City Council: Raising Referral Rates
Overview
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At Sheffield City Council, we served families from all different backgrounds, including those at risk of child removal. We noticed that some families were flying under our radar, and weren’t accessing support. Our challenge was to find out how to reach these families to give them the opportunity to grow.
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My RolE
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I worked as a UX researcher on this project. Some of my responsibilities included :
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Planning, defining scope and strategy
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Conducting user interviews and observations
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Setting up diary studies
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Analyzing data
Process
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Planning
I got my team together and we worked on our research plan. We decided to have weekly progress meetings to ensure we were on track, and a work log, where all tasks were assigned and progress monitored.
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Target Audience - Personas and Journey Maps
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My team and I created journey maps and personas based on the individuals who use our services. . This journey map follows the route of the parent when they are initially searching for support. The personas represent a large proportion of our client base.
Interviews
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I decided to interview users to gain some detailed insight into the habits and pain points of families when accessing support from Sheffield City Council. This would help to inform our next steps.
Participants:
50 families - a mix of parents/carers, children and young people. 60 hours of interviews.
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Recruitment
Recruited via referrals, ad hoc interviews at schools, children's centers and events.
Observations
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We observed families to see how they actually access support in particular environments, such as Family Centres, Schools, Helpdesks.
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We wanted to find out:
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How families find out about services.
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The questions that were asked regarding location of services and types of support available.
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Advice provided by the organization
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Participants:
150 participants - all parents and carers
30 hours of observations.​
Diary Studies
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We wanted learn about the daily behaviours in the home and how situations are managed. We could then see the type of support required for each problem. We also wanted to use a method that would help us to reduce any confirmation and social desirability biases. This was achieved through diary studies since our service users could complete the study without being directly affected by a facilitator. .
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Participants:
50 participants - all parents/carers of children and young people.
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Recruitment:
Recruited via families that had been referred to us.
Surveys
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We used several different surveys to learn more about families in Sheffield, and listen to their preferences, pain points and suggestions.
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Participants:
200 families - a mix of parents/carers, children and young people.
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Recruitment:
Recruited via families already using our services, ad hoc at schools, children's centers and events.
carers of children and young people.
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Ideation
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I co-facilitated a day-long Team ideation workshop that included members of the Parenting Team, managers, developers, designers and researchers.
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We split the Team up into three groups of mixed professionals. Each group looked through the findings of a method together and share feedback on our affinity wall. This involved analyzing transcripts, identifying themes and solutions, and prioritizing them.
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We ended our day with a whole group ‘What went well/ Even better if ’ Exercise to celebrate our good work and to build our skills for future projects.
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Findings
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Key Insights
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Parents felt that attending parenting support groups meant that they were bad parents
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Some parents found it hard to attend a whole course over a number of weeks due to work or mental health issues
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We were not reaching some of the most in-need families as most had little or no knowledge of our services and programs
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Opportunities
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Aim to normalize accessing support with branding and promotional material
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As well as 12+ week programs, offer parents more accessible one-off 2 hour sessions to discuss particular topics they are struggling with
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Promote our services via a citywide advertising campaign. Fliers, billboards, banners on social media and an improved online presence.
Outcomes
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Following the launch of our advertising campaign, referrals began to rapidly increase. There was a 45% rise in referrals in the first 3 months
Additional Outcomes
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The increase of referrals was so successful, our service was more in-demand, which secured further government funding
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The training and publicity also had an effect on our partnership working, as more referrals were received from different organizations in the city
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The work of our Team was considered so impactful that it was prioritized as part of quarterly service planning
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Referral rates continued to increase. After 6 months, there had been a steady 25% increase in referrals
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Regular monthly analyses were conducted on our referrals for monitoring, to ensure any issues were addressed immediately
Reflection and Learning
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Working on this project gave us a very important experience. We learned that to make the design process a success it is essential to understand the user goals, and to use that understanding in the creation of a design solution. Asking real users about our services helped us in improving the whole project. In the end we were able to find solutions that are accessible, user-focused, and supportive.