The latest round of the Local Government Association’s Behavioural Insights Programme has seen grant funding awarded to seven organisations.
The programme encourages innovation in local public services by giving support and funding to councils to help them to deal with their biggest service challenges.
Behavioural insights is an approach 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 insights from behavioural science, also known as “nudge theory”.
In what is phase three of the programme, the LGA will be awarding funding to the following organisations, who will each match a £25,000 grant:
- East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service - Being the sole fire and rescue service which the LGA has funded in the programme, it will be changing behaviour with the aim of reducing accidental dwelling fires
- Hartlepool Borough Council - Hartlepool will be reducing the number of children and young people who require support for drug and alcohol misuse
- Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council - With technology playing a more active role in care, Knowsley will be increasing the uptake of assistive technology in adult social care
- London Borough of Croydon - Croydon will be reducing demand in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities transport services
- North East Lincolnshire Council - North East Lincolnshire is increasing the uptake of cancer screening programmes in some of its most deprived areas to prevent escalation of the illness
- Warrington Borough Council - Warrington is aiming to manage the demand for the number of children and young people with Education, Health and Care Plans
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Worcestershire will be increasing the payment of their Adult Social Care service invoices, using nudge theory
The LGA and the organisations undertaking the work will be sharing learning and results as and when they come in for others to benefit from.
Cllr Paul Bettison, Chairman of the LGA’s Improvement and Innovation Board, said:
“We’d like to thank everyone who applied for the most recent funding round of the LGA’s Behavioural Insights Programme. We were hugely oversubscribed which demonstrates the popularity and interest in this innovative area of work.
“Councils are experiencing both a fall in resources but at the same time an increase in demand, and are under more pressure than ever before.
“As a result they are increasingly turning to behavioural insight techniques as really effective ways of managing demand for local services.
“To help support this work, the LGA is funding a series of behavioural insight projects in a bid to encourage innovation, which can then be shared across the country for other organisations to benefit from.
“We look forward to seeing this latest phase build on the success of the previous rounds.”
Find out more about the LGA’s Behavioural Insights Programme