We ran a co-dev project with public sector partners to create a brand new version of our Inspire digital inclusion awareness training course designed for the specific challenges of the public sector.
What we did
Inspire was originally co-designed with a corporate partner but we knew there was a huge appetite for something similar for the public sector. And we knew no-one understood the needs of this sector better than the people working in it themselves.
So from July 2024-June 2025, we ran a co-development project with 5 public sector partners to tailor the course to meet their needs.
We looked not just at modifying content, but at how best to engage their audiences, and at different data and reporting models.
Our partners then had 4 months to test out all these elements of the Inspire package.
In summary: what we learnt
- Co-development is a fantastic process and it really works. Together we’ve created a course that challenges assumptions but also genuinely changes behaviour. It’s so much more effective than anything we could have created on our own.
- Relevance matters. Tailoring content to people’s specific situations/ roles makes a big difference to impact.
- Data needs and reporting vary massively from one local authority to another.
- In the current political and financial climate, inclusion per se is often not enough of a driver. We need clear benefits around economics, employability etc.
- Engagement is the hardest part: “there’s always another campaign in the calendar." Having a designated DI lead who can persuade, cajole and gain key stakeholder engagement is crucial. Anything we can do to nudge, is helpful (eg: getting our corporate clients to deliver training workshops).
- Co-development has unintended benefits: we’ve all made strong connections and the group still meets and shares ideas.
- There’s a strong appetite for further iteration. As a group, we’ve already got our co-dev-to-do list for a possible Stage 2....
Changing behaviours
The feedback from the end of the co-dev process has been really encouraging. It's great that people enjoy the course and learn new things, but even better and more important, it's making people think about action and prompting them to change their behaviour. Because in the end, behavioural change at scale is what it's all about.
The chart below is particularly enthusing. At the end of the course, people are asked what actions they're likely to take following on from it. Most people are choosing 2+ actions.
We think it's also a testament to the how well the co-dev has worked. Because our partners have helped us understand exactly what they want their colleagues to do, and we've worked to tailoring course content to prompt them to it, and measurement tools to make sure we can follow it. So thanks as ever to the lovely digital leads & teams from Essex, Barnet, Cambridgeshire, Newham and the University of Keele for all their hardworking, knowledge and commitment. We look forward to seeing what happens next....
As a result of doing this course, I am more likely to.....
(participants chose an average of 2.59 actions)
Next Steps
We've published a full report on what we've done to date. And as a group, we are already thinking about how and where we can take Inspire next. If you're interested and would like to be involved - or just want to know more about it, please contact Emma Weston.
Read the full report
All the details of what we did, how, when and what happened in the Inspire for the Public Sector co-dev process.
I think the work that has been put into this project so far is fantastic, and there was lots of great feedback from other colleagues in the cohort.
Will Plant
Cambridgeshire County Council
