Taking a systems approach to create place-based change: Seven learnings from the Shaping Places for Healthier Lives programme

The challenges that we face as a society are incredibly complex and deeply interwoven. Any issue tends to have multiple interrelated causes, and tackling these in isolation will not create lasting change. Instead, an approach that takes account of the whole system is needed. This is often referred to as a ‘systems’ or ‘systems change’ approach.

A system is anything that is made up of different parts that are related to one another. For example, a forest – otherwise known as an eco-system – is made up of trees, soil, animals and other organisms, which are dependent on one another for survival. A change in one part of the system influences what happens elsewhere.

Taking a ‘systems approach’ means considering all parts of a system when addressing a challenge, rather than looking at them in isolation. A ‘systems approach’ accepts complexity and looks for the (at times unpredictable) ways in which the system is connected.

Shaping Places for Healthier Lives (SPHL) – a grant programme launched by the Health Foundation and the Local Government Association – set out to learn about the implementation of systems approaches to reducing local health inequalities. Between 2021- 2024, five council-led projects received funding and support:

• Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Councils (BNSSG), ‘Shaping Places for Healthier Lives BNSSG’
• City of Doncaster Council, ‘Shaping Stainforth’
• London Borough of Newham Council in partnership with the Association for Young People’s Health, ‘We Are Food Secure 11-19'
• Northumberland County Council, ‘Heart of Blyth’
• Shropshire Council in partnership with Citizens Advice Shropshire, ‘Shaping Places Shropshire’

With huge thanks to the five SPHL teams for their hard work, tenacity and systems leadership.

Understanding your system is the first step in adopting a systems approach, before then homing in on the part, or parts, of the system where you can have the most impact.

How to understand your system

• Build an overview of your system by creating a systems map. A systems map reveals the components (in other words, people, organisations, infrastructure, issues) of a given system and how they relate to one another. Mapping your system will help you visualise the bigger picture and spot connections that you might not have appreciated before.
• The benefit of a systems map is not simply the map itself, but the actual process of creating it. By engaging local voices in the development of your map, you will benefit from different perspectives and ensure that the community feels involved.
• Once you have developed a broad understanding of your system, it is important to focus your energy on a specific geographical or topic area where you can have the most influence. Taking on too much at the outset could lead to feeling overwhelmed and slow down initial progress. It may be helpful to create a more detailed sub-map, or to use an impact versus effort grid to determine priorities (see resources below).
• While systems mapping provides a baseline understanding of your system, nothing can replace getting to know the people, organisations, structures and beliefs of your system on the ground (see section entitled 'Treat relationship-building as real work' for more detail).

Early on in the project our team drilled down into two areas: secondary schools and youth zones. Through systems mapping we realised that the problem of food insecurity was much too big to solve in its entirety, so we decided to target two areas where we felt we could have a big impact. We then created sub-systems maps of these areas. Part of the reason we decided to focus on these areas was because the borough is already doing a lot of fantastic work with primary school children, and we wanted to plug gaps rather than duplicate." 
– Ann Hagell, We Are Food Secure 11-19

The map is not the territory. It will differ on a different day, with different participants, but it is a helpful tool to make sense of a messy situation."
– Liz Robinson, Heart of Blyth

Resources to help you understand and navigate your system

• Systems maps, Open Learn introduction to systems maps and how to create them
• Tools for Systems Thinkers: Systems Mapping, Leyla Acaroglu overview of different types of systems maps
• Action Scales Model: A conceptual tool to identify key points for action within complex adaptive systems, James D Nobles, Duncan Radley, Oliver T Mytton and the Whole Systems Obesity programme team
• Episode 1: How to be a Systems Thinker, Characteristics of Changemakers series, Design Council
• Systems Practice course, Acumen Academy, a free eight-week course on how to adopt a systems thinking approach
• Impact/ Effort Matrix Template, Miro

A vision is a guiding beacon for your work. Developing one with a range of local stakeholders is an important way of imagining a hopeful future that you can begin to move towards together.

How to co-develop a clear and ambitious vision 

• Like systems mapping, developing a vision is an early opportunity to involve wider stakeholders and generate a shared purpose. This does not mean creating a vision and then sharing it with local partners for feedback, but actively co-developing it. By being involved in creating a vision, local partners are more likely to contribute to achieving it.
• When creating a vision, it is important to think far enough into the future (in other words, ten years’ time), to allow yourselves to dream big. Once you have imagined this hopeful future, you can then work backwards and think practically about how to achieve it.
• While a vision statement can be enough, it is even more powerful to create a visual vision. By doing this, an ambitious future begins to feel more tangible. A visual can then be used in presentations or team meetings, as a helpful tool to communicate your vision.
• Share and talk about the shared vision regularly to keep it front of mind. It can act as a useful reminder to those involved in your work, and wider stakeholders, to continue taking small steps towards the end goal.

If a vision is created and then never mentioned again it is not particularly helpful. Not only do we bring our vision into meetings and presentations, but we also talk about it at every opportunity, living and breathing ‘Heart of Blyth’. There are few people in Blyth, and even further afield, who have not received one of our leaflets! We even got invited to the Royal Garden Party thanks to speaking about it so much."
Adeline Keogh, Heart of Blyth

Your visual should be geographically relevant to create a sense of belonging. Ours is of the South Shropshire hills"
Emily Fay, Shaping Places Shropshire

We have been willing to listen carefully to the community, which has helped us build trust and authentic, positive relationships."
Liz Robinson, Heart of Blyth

Resources to help co-develop a clear and ambitious vision

• Future Vision tool, Systemic Design Toolkit, Design Council (this tool includes a visualisation to help you imagine the future, as well as a template for thinking through your vision in practice)

Systems are made up of people, and the relationships between them determines how a system operates. Building and investing in relationships is foundational to any systems change work.

How to build relationships

• Meet people where they are at, especially when engaging the local community. This means physically meeting community members on their terms, in an environment where they feel comfortable, but it also means avoiding language that may be off-putting. For example, some stakeholders may not be comfortable with talk of ‘systems change’ and prefer simpler language.
• When meeting people for the first time, ask questions to help you understand the relationships, resources and tools that they already have at their disposal. That way you can ensure that your work builds on existing local assets, rather than duplicating effort.
• Remember that your system is a shared ecosystem and the relationships you build should be mutually beneficial. Offer something back to the people that you involve in your work and build trust by following through on the actions that you commit to.
• Once you have built relationships, continue to invest in them by keeping people involved throughout. You can do this by communicating progress, as well as continuing to listen to their needs and work together. Equally, be open to welcoming new people into the work too, acknowledging that the stakeholder ecosystem is ever-changing.
• As well as developing your own relationships within the system, it can be equally effective to broker relationships between other organisations, partners or community groups. For instance, you might deliberately plan workshops or training sessions that invite a wide range of stakeholders, to help foster connections between them.

‘When working with people from local organisations or the community, we avoid using language about systems change as we have found that this immediately creates a barrier to engagement. To build trust it’s important to meet people where they are at, not just physically but also in terms of how you present yourselves to others: the words you use, how you recognise and appreciate what they’re currently doing, and how you support them to feel empowered about making a positive impact on complex issues, such as food insecurity" 
Shaping Places for Healthier Lives BNSSG

From the start, we supported communities to bring about the change they wanted, building on existing work and adding value, resources and wider links."
Clare Daley, Shaping Places for Healthier Lives BNSSG

Systems are made up of people. It's all relational at the end of the day."
Andy Gold, We Are Food Secure 11-19
 

Resources to help with relationship building

• Stakeholder ecosystem map tool, Systemic Design Toolkit, Design Council (a tool to help you map existing and potential stakeholders, thinking wider than just people)
• Episode 2: How to be a Connector & Convener, Characteristics of Changemakers series, Design Council

Systems change takes time. Whether you are working on a project with a fixed end date or not, to ensure that all of your efforts leave a lasting legacy, you must think consistently about how to sustain long-term impact.

How to have a long-term impact

• Co-creating a systems-informed theory of change will help you to consider sustainability. Your theory of change is the method that explains how your intervention, or set of interventions, is expected to lead to specific changes.
• Formalise relationships by developing partnerships, so that the ability to continue making positive changes to the system doesn’t end when one key person leaves.
• Proactively hand over responsibility for certain tasks to people in different parts of the system. Initially they may need your support, but eventually they will be able to play a lead role and can continue to step up if you or your team need to step back.
• Integrate your work into the structures, policy and long-term strategy within your system. You could even try to illustrate the value of a new job post, or apply for funding, which would help sustain impact longer-term.
• Do not shy away from the realities of a project or funding coming to an end. The more that you can be open about this with local stakeholders, the more everyone will be prepared for the next steps and rally together to make change happen now.
• Leave behind comprehensive resources that are easy to find, whether that is online resources or a publication.  

Our community is working to support generations to come, by adopting a longtimism approach that fosters compassion for the future. This has enabled us to shift our aims from shorter-term, unsustainable ‘quick fixes’, to a vision that can be achieved over generations. Local residents are now focused on supporting families and future families to be able to afford and access what they need for a good, happy life."
Karen Seaman, Shaping Stainforth

Constantly ask "without our team, do things carry on?"
Andy Gold, We Are Food Secure 11-19

Shift mindsets from ‘crisis response’ to longer-term solutions, changing beliefs to help create lasting impact."Clare Daley, Shaping Places for Healthier Lives BNSSG  

Resources to ensure long-term impact

• Designing for Legacy series, Design Council (three-part series on how to connect, shift and inspire your system for long-term impact)
• The Long Time Tools, The Long Time Project (a set of tools to cultivate long-termism in institutions)
• Stewarding Loss Canvases, Stewarding Loss (a set of templates to help organisations design better endings – equally relevant to project endings or changes too)

Embedded within a systems approach is the knowledge that the current system is not working. Instead of adopting the same behaviours and power dynamics that created the current system, taking a systems approach must encourage the ability to test, and learn from, new ways of doing things.

How to experiment with ways of working 

• Consider how you might give local people a voice in decisions that affect them, instead of defaulting to top-down power structures. For example, if you are looking to make changes to the school system, invite young people to share their views.
• Consider providing grants directly to community organisations and let them decide how to spend it. That way, the local community is given greater power to influence change. Sharing these resources is an opportunity to alter the system and to build trust.
• One of the benefits of building relationships and connecting parts of your system is that information flows more freely. Where possible, share updates, progress and changes so that everyone is up to speed. Facilitate others to do the same, so that it becomes the norm to collaborate, not compete.
• Working in new ways may face some resistance. It will be easier if you are able to identify champions who can vouch for your experimentation, as well as if you can share evidence of success from comparable initiatives. Alleviate fears of the unknown by being open about the approaches being tested, as well as sharing the learnings.

We brought two apprentices into our team, both of whom were local residents and had a relationship with young people in the area. Both apprentices have supported young people to have a voice in the community, co-producing action plans and taking an asset-based community development approach to engagement. They worked tirelessly to ensure greater diverse representation of communities at strategic youth meetings. Both apprentices took every learning opportunity that came their way and truly altered the way decisions were made throughout the project.
Karen Seaman, Shaping Stainforth

Find people who are already on the same page and band together to create a stronger, collective voice."
Kate Slater, Shaping Places Shropshire

Don’t impose ideas on others. Listen."
Liz Robinson, Heart of Blyth

Resources for experimenting with ways of working

• Power Mapping Guide, The Commons Social Change Library
• Root Cause Analysis tool, Systemic Design Toolkit, Design Council

Systems change requires the ability to zoom out and retain sight of the bigger picture. Regular reflection touchpoints with key stakeholders help ensure that you are able to adapt to emerging opportunities, understand what has worked well and what hasn’t and take stock of wider system changes.

How to regularly take time to reflect

• Build in time for reflection. One way of doing this is to carve out time in a regular meeting, so that reflection becomes a natural part of your work. Equally, be sure to capture your reflections and learnings in writing, so that it is easier to share progress.
• One way of reflecting is by returning to your systems map, vision and other assets that you created at the outset of your work. Use these as a helpful reminder of your ambition and intention, as well as a way of measuring your progress.
• The following questions may be a helpful starting point for reflection:
  • What has worked well?
  • What has been challenging?
  • How can we apply these learnings elsewhere?
  • What should we be worried about?
  • What are the emerging opportunities?
• Re-visit your systems map and ask ‘what has changed?
• Although it is important to reflect yourselves, it is easy to get tunnel vision when you are delivering the work day-to-day. To help you see things from a different perspective, ask people who are not directly involved in delivery for their opinions.

We created a Miro board (virtual whiteboard) and had a space on there for monthly reflections. So many things change month by month and it’s easy to forget. Using the board helps us see how much we have achieved and allows us to discuss our reflections. We also then assign follow-up actions."
Emily Fay, Shaping Places Shropshire

With this project it’s that opportunity to constantly be thinking about do we need to take a step back a little bit and think about this in the broadest sense again."
Laura Flanagan, Shaping Places for Healthier Lives BNSSG

Resources on reflection

• Deep Reflection tool, Systemic Design Toolkit, Design Council (this tool provides you with reflection questions at the level of self, project and system)
• Miro, a virtual whiteboard tool that you can use for virtual collaboration

It can be tempting to try and inspire action by making people aware of how dire a situation is, but the SPHL teams found the opposite approach to be more effective: messages of hope, positive stories and tailored communication are more likely to motivate action.

How to communicate in a way that inspires action

• Keep a record of your achievements, including your learnings, small wins and unintended positive outcomes. Demonstrating progress and showing others that change is possible is one of the best ways of inspiring them to join the mission.
• Tailor your storytelling approach to the audience that you would like to influence. First, consider who you would like to influence, then think about what you want to tell them and how you can tell them in a way that will make them listen. This may be as simple as producing a set of slides, but it could also be a film, an experience or a report.
• Sometimes, showing can be more powerful than telling. For example, take a senior stakeholder to view a resident group or part of the community and let them witness your positive impact first-hand.
• Think about the strong relationships that you have built across all parts of the system. Who are your trusted messengers? Is there anyone who may be better placed to deliver your message to a given audience? Not all communication needs to come from you.

We have realised that it is vital to be positive when communicating with stakeholders. So much of the data and stories around food insecurity are really hard hitting. Initially, we felt that sharing this data would communicate the depth of the problem and initiate action. Over time we have found the reverse to be true. Focusing on hope and a simple hopeful call to action gives stakeholders a sense that their actions will make a difference."
Emily Fay, Shaping Places Shropshire

People have to come to the conclusion themselves, through regular communication. If you simply say “this is a better way to do it”, the barriers go up."
Liz Robinson, Heart of Blyth

It is a lot easier to influence the wider system by showing a concrete achievement, as opposed to an idea."
Karen Seaman, Shaping Stainforth

Resources for inspiring communication

• Episode 4: How to be a Leader and Storyteller, Characteristics of Changemakers series, Design Council
• Introduction to Ripple Effects Mapping, National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) (Ripple Effects Mapping is a type of participatory mapping that can help you capture the wider impact of a project)