SILK is a small team based within Kent County Council that was set up in 2007 to ‘do policy differently’. Over the past 4 years we have been doing projects which have demonstrated the benefits of working in a different way and have developed a Methodology and Toolkit which provide a structure for the way we work.
We believe that the best solutions come from the people who are closest to the issue; this could be service users, residents or frontline staff. We go much further than community consultation and we believe that people should be actively involved in the design of services that they are going to use or deliver. The SILK Methodology provides creative and innovative ways to engage with people and approach projects, and enables a collective ownership and responsibility for project design, delivery and outcomes.
Each project will fall into one of three diamonds: Strategic / Policy, Service Re-design, or Creating Sustainable Communities:
Once the type of project has been identified it will follow four phases: Initiate | Create | Test | Define as shown in our Project Planner:
The Method Deck can then be used to choose which methods should be used during each phase of the project:
The Method Deck and Project Planner allow for the project to be planned collectively in groups, with everyone having ownership over the decisions and course the project will take. It is a flexible project methodology and can be adapted as the project progresses; you may get the the Test phase but then jump back to the Create phase. The methods you thought you might use in the Define phase could actually turn out to be different from what you planned because no-one can predict how a project might develop.
If you have any questions about our Methodology or Toolkit please get in touch.
Further information on how SILK can support you
Please remember to attribute: SILK
