Mark Smith #Bespoke-by-Default-[Revisited]
Mark is the Director for Public Service Reform at Gateshead Council in the North East of England (UK). This is Mark's second podcast with Next Stage Radicals, revisiting the theme of bespoke-by-default public services and the ways in which these are radically different and cheaper than the conventional 'one size fits few' approach. Mark read physics and geography at university before training as a meteorologist, latterly realising that wasn’t for him. He used his research and statistical skills as a researcher at Cheshire County Council to get a sense of the scale of inequality of opportunity and has been working ever since in a number of councils to design public services and partnerships that manifestly address this. He spent a few years as a management consultant working to explore approaches to systems thinking before coming back into the public sector to continue his work on services that understand and can help people each and every time. His work on holistically supporting those with debt, who are homeless or who are generally going through tough times goes hand in hand with developing a more flexible and purpose driven workforce. He has previously worked in policing, health and the charity sector to develop his approach to saving money by doing the right thing. His focus more recently has been on the mindset and values that are responsible for many of the obstacles to bespoke working. This means working with government in England and Scotland to take a Human Learning Systems approach to exploring the cultural and systemic issues that bar progress and create waste and suffering. He is currently the Senior Responsible Officer for Changing Futures Northumbria, a regional partnership focussing on adults who are having a hard time in life and for whom services do not work and have never worked. You can find out more about Mark by: - Reading his blogs on nextstageradicals.net. - Getting hold of him on Twitter via @MarkAdamSmith.