A new behavioural insights podcast aimed at council leaders, chief executives and officers will be launched at the Local Government Association’s annual behavioural insights conference today.
A new behavioural insights podcast aimed at council leaders, councillors, chief executives and officers will be launched at the Local Government Association’s annual behavioural insights conference today.
The LGA, which represents councils in England and Wales, is launching the ‘Nudges for Social Good’ podcast to provide practical tips for councils wanting to run their own behavioural insights projects.
During the conference, councils across the country, behavioural scientists from UK universities and specialist organisations will run sessions, share best practice and provide advice to other authorities.
The LGA has worked with 26 councils since 2015 to run behavioural insights projects which cover a wide variety of council service areas, including public health, adult social care, tackling domestic violence, housing and recycling.
Behavioural insights are based on the idea that interventions aimed at encouraging people to make better choices for themselves and society will be more successful if they are based on improved understanding of how people actually behave.
Despite facing an unprecedented period of funding and demand pressures on their legal duties, such as caring for older and disabled people, protecting children and reducing homelessness, councils have innovated and improved service outcomes through adopting the ‘nudge’ theory.
For example, the LGA worked with Liverpool City Council to reduce sugar consumption in the hospital retail environment. The project reduced sales of high sugar content drinks by 7.4 per cent by displaying red ‘STOP’ signs on hospital café fridges.
In its latest phase of the programme, the LGA has provided eight councils with a £20,000 grant each to develop programmes.
Cllr Peter Fleming, Chairman of the LGA’s Improvement and Innovation Board, said:
“The LGA’s Behavioural Insights programme is a local government success story.
“Councils are increasingly looking to apply behavioural insights to improve service delivery.
“As part of the LGA’s wider sector-led improvement offer, the Behavioural Insights podcast will help organisations across the country to learn from other local authorities who have successfully used behavioural insights techniques.
“We encourage all councils to pick up and use the tried and tested behavioural insights interventions, which are free to access from our website, to help try and solve some of their biggest service challenges.”
Tony Reeves, Chief Executive of Liverpool City Council, said:
“Despite facing unprecedented pressures, Liverpool City Council is committed to discovering innovative ways to build citizen resilience and enable people to find their own solutions by adapting their behaviour.
“By understanding the psychology of behaviour, we have been able to unconsciously change the way people behave, from reducing the sales of sugary drinks in retailers to increasing attendance in secondary schools.
“The application of ‘nudge’ is limitless and we are currently looking at using ‘nudge’ for debt management in adult social care. We have found that once a ‘nudge’ has been successfully evaluated it is very easy to upscale or copy with little or no cost.
“I would encourage all councils to take up the nudges that have been proven to work in other local authorities.”
The first episode of the podcast features Tim Pearse from London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, formerly of the Behavioural Insights Team, sharing how the council is using behavioural insights to increase the financial resilience of local residents. Guests on other episodes of the podcast will include Professor Jim McManus, Director of Public Health at Hertfordshire County Council and Sue Cummings, the behaviour change lead at Liverpool City Council.
Case studies
Worcestershire County Council conducted a randomised controlled trial (RCT) with 705 domiciliary care users to reduce the number of unpaid service invoices and increase the number of people who sign-up to direct debit. The test letters significantly increased direct debit sign ups by 61 per cent. There was also a 33 per cent increase in people paying via the website and automated telephone line. The council has seen a total benefit of approximately £70,000 (reduced invoicing costs and increased debt repayment). This assumes 100 new service users per month: a higher amount could be achieved if this intervention were rolled out across other direct debit services.
East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service wanted to develop a new approach to tackling fires in the home (Accidental Dwelling Fires, or ADFs) using behavioural insights. A randomised controlled trial tested an intervention based on novel messaging to 18-34 year olds living in private rented flats and shared houses in Brighton and Hove. Though the trial sample size was not sufficiently large to reliably determine the effectiveness of the intervention, the study provided evidence that participants in the intervention group within the 18-34 target age range did report higher awareness of fire safety than was reported in the control group. While 38 per cent of respondents aged 18-34 in the intervention group said they felt their awareness of fire safety had improved, only 22 per cent of those in the control groups felt their awareness had increased.
North East Lincolnshire ran a randomised control trial with the aim of increasing bowel cancer screening. A behaviourally informed letter was written in simple language, with clear next actionable steps, highlighting potential risks of not completing a screening. This prompted people to think about the regret they might feel about having lost the opportunity to avoid a negative outcome (e.g ‘If you were diagnosed late, would you regret not having been screened?’). Two patients (0.2 per cent) from the sample returned their kits before the intervention was implemented, compared to 54 (4.4 per cent) after the letter was sent out. This was statistically significant which, combined with the timing of the increase, suggests the change was due to our intervention rather than chance or other factors.
Notes to editors
The LGA’s Behavioural Insights podcast
Sector-led improvement (SLI) is the approach to put improvements in place by local authorities and the LGA alongside the abolition of the previous national framework.
The LGA has learnt a huge amount about how local authorities can use ‘nudge’ theory to change outcomes for local residents and to make efficiency savings. Find out more about the LGA Behavioural Insights Programme.
The LGA published its Nudges for social good: Practical tips and learning from the LGA’s behavioural insights programme.
Read more about Liverpool City Council’s ‘STOP’ campaign.