Making the most of collaboration an international survey of public service co-design

Abstract

At its heart collaborative design seeks to make public services match the wants and needs of their beneficiaries. Policy makers and practitioners have increasingly embraced closer collaborations between users and designers, hoping to reinvigorate public services under pressure from a more demanding public, increasing social complexity and overstretched resources. The returns from this engagement are more responsive, fit-for-purpose, e-ciient public services. More broadly, co-design provides an avenue for addressing a disengagement from politics and democracy, and building social capital